Fail-Safe Instructions On How To Write An Essay

Most students learn the basics of writing an essay as early as middle school, but many struggle to feel comfortable doing this assignment well into high school and sometimes even college. There are a number of different teaching techniques employed by instructors to simply the process of learning how to write effective pieces, but they don’t work for everyone. We’ve come up with some fail-safe instructions on how to write an essay the right way:

Choose an interesting and unique topic

The first step in writing a great essay is choosing an interesting and unique topic. If your instructor has left it up to you to select one, consider looking at some areas in your syllabus you are interested in and would like to learn more about. Get your topic approved by your instructor before moving forward.

Find academic research resources

Next, you should head to your school library and start looking for resource material. If you don’t know where to begin your search, speak with the reference librarian. He or she will direct you to academic resources where you should be able to find plenty of supporting material for whichever topic you have chosen.

Create an outline and draft thesis

Many students jump right into the writing stage without first creating and outline or coming up with a draft thesis, and as a result struggle with crafting a cohesive and logical essay. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and stress if you gather your thoughts beforehand and craft an outline and thesis statement to provide guidance as you start the first draft of your paper.

Write a rough draft of your essay

Now it’s time to get started with the nitty gritty. Set up a clear workspace and start writing your rough draft. The best technique is to do this in as few sittings as possible. The reason behind this approach is that you are more likely to get down all of your ideas as they flow freely from your mind. Use your draft and thesis statement for guidance.

Revise the content of your writing

Set your rough draft aside for a few hours before starting the process of revising. A clear mind will let you think critically about your work and better identify ways to improve upon it by doing any of a number of things, including adding material, removing material, or rearranging material so your argument makes more sense.

Edit and proofread your entire work

The last step is as important as any of the prior ones: thoroughly editing and proofreading your writing. Edit for sentence construction and word choice, opting for the clearer and direct way of express your ideas. As you proofread do so at three levels (the paper, the paragraph, and the sentence) to ensure you catch even the tiniest mistakes.