Essay writing is not as simple as you may think. Unlike a straightforward piece of writing, essay has various parts and a specific structure. Some essays, like narrative or reflective essays, are even personal and literary and require great amount of expertise and practice.
In this article, we will strive to understand and master essay writing by examining its individual components; At the same time, we will look into its structure and some useful techniques that can make essay writing easy for us.
What is an Essay?
An essay is a short piece of writing that can be technical, literary, or both, depending on the topic and type of essay.
Types of Essays:
There are four types of essays: descriptive essay, expository essay, argumentative essay, and narrative essay.
Descriptive essay: As the name suggests, a descriptive essay portrays the appearances of people, objects, and scenes. It adds vividness to writing and creates a clear picture of the subject being described.
For example, if we try to describe a room: the room was painted white and it felt spacious. A set of white sofas was lying right near its door. Beautiful white curtains adorned with beautiful flowers hung over the windows.
We can see that this description of the room’s appearance creates a clear image in mind.
Narrative Essay: A narrative essay presents an account of events in an orderly sequence. It focuses on story telling. The story can be factual or fictional.
For example, Lilly was born to a middle-class family in 2005. In 2010, she started school and excelled in her studies, reaching grade 5 by 2015. However, in 2016, she became so severely ill that she couldn’t attend school.
These lines narrate the story of a girl named Lilly in chronological order.
Expository Essay: In this type of essay, the student is expected to describe or explain the topic academically and objectively. Expository essays present facts, evidence, and details to support the topic.
For example: Most of the newspaper articles are expository.
Argumentative essay: In an argumentative essay, we take a stance on the topic and then try to convince the reader of our stance using facts, evidence, and references.
For example: Should the US ban immigration? The student may choose to support or oppose the topic, but in either case, his goal is to persuade the reader of his viewpoint.
Writing Timed Essay : High school, College and Other Exam Related Essays
Imagine a student sitting in an exam hall with his essay paper in hand. After carefully looking at the question paper, he selects one of the topics he would like to attempt. However, since he is not a professional writer with several awards, he is feeling like he’s in over his head at that moment and wondering where to begin!
Brainstorming
This is where an excellent pre-writing technique called ‘brainstorming’ comes into play. So, in an essay exam, the first step should be brainstorming to generate ideas about the topic. A student should spend the first few minutes of the timed essay on this technique. Brainstorming is simple: hink about the topic and jot down all the topic-related phrases and words on a separate sheet as rough work. This is also called listing.
For example, if the topic given in essay paper is ‘Favorite Athlete’, one starts thinking about one’s favorite athlete for few minutes and put down phrases and words such as ‘athlete’s name, country, their sport, achievements, personal life, so on and so forth. Once all the relevant information is listed, the next step will be organization of that information.
Organization: Outline of an Essay
The most common method of organization is outlining. After brainstorming, one often has a large, scattered collection of information. To create an outline, group related ideas and categorize them as major (headings) and minor (subheadings). A good essay outline should provide an overview of the essay, ensuring ideas follow a logical order. For example, the most important points should be listed at the top, with supporting points placed below as subheadings.
Example: Use Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, and uppercase and lowercase letters to create an outline.
The Benefit of an Outline: It prevents repetition and digression the in essay.
Introduction of an Essay:
hook and thesis statement Hook: The introduction of an essay begins with a hook, which can be a question, key facts, or a unique statement that captures the reader’s attention.
For example, if the essay topic is “Favorite Athlete,” we can create a hook by highlighting some of their record-breaking achievements.
Usually, the first paragraph of an essay is the introductory paragraph. As the name suggests, it introduces the topic, often including background information, an overview of the essay, or explanations of key terms. The introduction should be carefully crafted, as it sets the tone for the entire essay. Any errors or clichéd language may leave a negative impression on the examiner, potentially prejudicing them against the essay as a whole. The most important part of an essay introduction is a clear thesis statement.
Thesis statement
A thesis statement is a clear, concise, and arguable sentence (or sentences) that reveals the writer’s stance on the subject.
Note: Every essay topic does not require a thesis statement. Essay types that don’t need a thesis statement are narrative and descriptive essays. For example, the topic ‘Favorite Athlete’ does not need a thesis statement.
On the other hand, types of essays, such as argumentative, persuasive, require a thesis statement.
For example: Should plastic be banned? Is an argumentative topic.
Body of An Essay:
After introduction comes the body of the essay. Body can range from two to seven paragraphs. It contains details, examples and illustrations. It should be easy to write comparatively.
Tips for writing the body of the essay
- Avoid repetition and do not write things that are irrelevant to the main topic
- Use transition words and phrases to ensure coherence
- Steer clear of grammatical mistakes and cliched language.
Conclusion of an essay
An essay should end well, as it should begin well. The conclusion should simply restate what has already been discussed in the essay.