Brief Overview of the Essay Writing Steps

Below are brief summaries of each of the steps to writing an essay.

1. Research: Begin the essay writing process by researching your topic, making yourself an expert.
Utilize the internet, the academic databases, and the library.
2. Analysis: have a good knowledge base, start analyzing the arguments of the essays you're reading.
Clearly define the claims, write out the reasons, the evidence. Look for weaknesses of logic,
Learning how to write an essay begins by learning how to analyze essays written by others.
3. Brainstorming: Your essay will require insight of your own, genuine essay-writing brilliance. Ask
yourself a dozen questions and answer them. Meditate with a pen in your hand. Take walks and
think and think until you come up with original insights to write about.
4. Thesis: Pick your best idea and pin it down in a clear assertion that you can write your entire essay
around. Your thesis is your main point, summed up in a concise sentence that lets the reader know
where you're going, and why. It's practically impossible to write a good essay without a clear thesis.
5. Outline: Sketch out your essay before straightway writing it out. Use one-line sentences to
describe paragraphs, and bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain. Play with the
essay's order. Map out the structure of your argument, and make sure each paragraph is unified.
6. Introduction: Now sit down and write the essay. The introduction should grab the reader's
attention, set up the issue, and lead in to your thesis. Your intro is merely a buildup of the issue, a
stage of bringing your reader into the essay's argument.
7. Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused on a single idea that supports your
thesis. Begin paragraphs with topic sentences, support assertions with evidence, and expound your
ideas in the clearest, most sensible way you can. Speak to your reader as if he or she were sitting in
front of you. In other words, instead of writing the essay, try talking the essay.
8. Conclusion: Gracefully exit your essay by making a quick wrap-up sentence, and then end on
some memorable thought, perhaps a quotation, or an interesting twist of logic, or some call to
action. Is there something you want the reader to walk away and do?
9. Language: You're not done writing your essay until you've polished your language by correcting
the grammar, making sentences flow, incoporating rhythm, emphasis, adjusting the formality, and
making edits. Proofread until it reads just how you want it to sound. Writing an essay can be tedious,
but you don't want to bungle the hours of conceptual work you've put into writing your essay by
leaving a few slippy misppallings and pourly wordedd phrazies..
Types of essays
Narrative: Narration is telling a story from a certain viewpoint, and there is usually a reason for the
telling. All narrative essays will have characters, setting, climax, and most importantly, a plot. The
plot is the focus of the story and is usually revealed chronologically, but there are sometimes flash
forwards and flash backs.
In writing a narrative essay, remember to:
 Include sensory and emotional details, so the reader will experience the story, not just read about it
 Have the story support the point you are making, make reference to the point in the first sentence.
 Write in the first or third person
Example: 1.Looking back on a childhood filled with events and memories, I find it rather difficult to
pick on that leaves me with the fabled "warm and fuzzy feelings." As the daughter of an Air Force
Major, I had the pleasure of traveling across America in many moving trips. I have visited the
monstrous trees
2.The day I picked my dog up from the pound was one of the happiest days of both of our lives. I had
gone to the pound just a week earlier with the idea that I would just "look" at a puppy.
 Descriptive:Descriptive essays have text which describes traits and characteristics of people,
objects, events, feelings, etc in intricate detail. Whatever is being described will be thoroughly
examined. For example, if you were describing roses, you would explain:
 Where they come from
 What they look like
 What colors they are
 How they grow and smell
When you write a descriptive essay, you want to involve the reader’s senses and emotions. For
example, you could say, “I got sleepy” or describe it like this, "As I was waiting for Santa, my eyelids
began to get heavy, the lights on the tree began to blur with the green branches, and my head
started to drop." The second sentence gives vivid details to make the reader feel like he is there.
Examples:
1.When entering the door at Lou’s, two things are immediately noticeable: the place is rarely empty
and seems to consist of a maze of rooms. The first room, through the door, is the main part of the
restaurant. There is another, rarely used, dining room off to the right. It was added during the oil
well boom of the seventies.
Exposition :Expository essays can compare, explore and discuss problems, or tell a story. An
exposition essay gives information about various topics to the reader. It:
 Informs  Give different views on a subject or report on
 Describes a situation or event
 Explains  Explain something that may be difficult to
In writing an exposition, the text needs to: understand as you write your essay.
 Be concise and easy to understand
Remember that your purpose is to explain.
"Did you know that 7 out of 10 students have cheated at least once in the past year? Did you know
that 50 percent of those students have cheated more than twice?
"Throughout history and through a cross-section of cultures, women have transformed their
appearance to conform to a beauty ideal. Ancient Chinese aristocrats bound their feet as a show of
femininity;
Argumentative:In an argumentative essay the writer is trying to convince the reader by
demonstrating the truth or falsity of a topic. The writer’s position will be backed up with certain
kinds of evidence, like statistics or opinions of experts.
Togive an opinion,make an argument for or against something and support that argument with data.
Example:Gun control has been a controversial issue for years. A vast majority of citizens believe that
if gun control is strictly enforced it would quickly reduce the threat of crime. Many innocent people
feel they have the right to bear arms for protection, or even for the pleasure of hunting. These people
are penalized for protecting their lives, or even for enjoying a common, innocent sport.
 Essay Template
TITLE
Introduction Paragraph:
 Hook
 Thesis
 Transition
Body Paragraph 1:
 Strongest point
 Introduction
 Examples
 Explanation
 Conclusion that ties to thesis
 Transition
Body Paragraph 2:
 Weakest point
 Introduction
 Examples
 Explanation
 Conclusion that ties to thesis
 Transition
Body Paragraph 3:
 Second-strongest point
 Introduction
 Examples
 Explanation
 Conclusion that ties to thesis
 Transition
Conclusion Paragraph:
 Restated thesis
 Concise summary of the body and how it ties to thesis
 Signal for the end of essay
Various essay topics
 Your concept of an ideal beaurocrate.
 Women place in home and society. Joint family system.
 The power and responsiblity of the press.
 Falling standard of education......causes and remedies
 The need and importance of tolerance and moderation in politics
 Importance of independence of media
 . Man was born free and every where he is in chains
 Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes
 None but the brave deserve the fair
 Self-conceit may lead to self destruction
 Who eats the fruit should atleast plant the seed
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