ESSAY WRITING

Writing has come to be considered as an important part of the English language
curriculum at university. Writing tasks (short or long ones) can be a significant
challenge for many English Language Students (ELSs). However, (Silva, T. and K.
Matsuda, 2001) stated that ‘writing still remains as one of the least understood, if not
misunderstood, subjects in applied linguistics in general. Consequently, the training
attempts to establish writing as one of the most relevant language skills in university
contexts because, on the whole, most students are generally evaluated through written
assignments. In fact, they have to submit research papers, reports, articles, opinions,
and even written exams; some of these tasks may take weeks, months or years to write
and others often have to be written in one or two hour(s). What interested us is writing
task like essay during assignments or exams done in a very short time. That is why
essay writing particularly argumentative essay is discussed to improve students’ essay
writing skills. The following lines will give us a clear definition of the essay, the
argumentative one and its structure. Then, we will focus on how to understand the
essay’s instruction and the process of writing. The characteristics of a good paragraph
and strategies used to become successful at essay writing are developed at the last part
of the work.
I. DEFINITION

An essay is a piece of writing, usually from an author's personal point of view. Essays
are non-fictional but often subjective; while expository, they can also include narrative.
Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learnt arguments, observations of
daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition of an essay is vague,
overlapping with those of an article and a short story.

 Essay as a literary genre
The word essay derives from the Middle French infinitive essayer, (in English 'to try' or
'to attempt'), which in its turn comes from Latin exigere meaning “to test,” “examine,”
and “drive out.” The first author to describe his works as essays was the Frenchman
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Also, Francis Bacon's essays, published in book form
in 1597, 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as
essays.
 Essay as a pedagogical tool 

Nowadays, essays have become a major part of formal education. Students at secondary
schools are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills. Essays are
often used by universities for several purposes. For instance, English language learners
are assessed through writing tasks (short or long essays, dissertations). Applicants’
selection or admission in some schools is based on essay writing. In both secondary and
tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material.
Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an
essay. Academic essays are usually more formal than literary ones. They may still allow
the presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual
manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged.

There are alternative definitions of “essay.” According to Frederick Crews, a professor of

English at the University of California at Berkeley, an essay is “a fairly brief piece of
nonfiction that tries to make a point in an interesting way.”
For Aldous Huxley, a famous essayist, notes that “the essay is a literary device for
saying almost everything about almost anything” and divides essays into personal
biographical, objectively factual, and abstract universal.
The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a short piece of writing on a particular subject.”

Among all these definitions we will deal with the meaning of this word that’s become a
significant element of education in countries like the United States, Canada, the United
Kingdom we will focus on the meaning of this word that’s become a significant element of
education in countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia,
Burkina, Ghana, and Senegal etc., Australia, Burkina, Ghana, and Senegal etc.

If summarized within the academic context, an essay is a short nonfictional piece of

formal writing assigned to students to improve their writing skills or assess their
knowledge of a given subject. The topic may aim at convincing the reader of something,
describing, narrating or simply informing the reader about something. The focus will be
laid on argumentative essay.

I.1 Argumentative essay

It takes a position on a controversial issue and presents evidence in favor of the writer’s
position. In fact, the job of the writer in an argumentative essay is to make the reader
agree with his opinion about a topic. He has to state his opinion, give reasons to support
his opinion, and argue against the opposite opinion.
Overall, he must convince the reader or the lecturer that his side of the argument is
correct. To convince the readers, the writer’s essay must be balanced; it must include his
viewpoint and the opposing viewpoint, or counterargument. Even though the writer is
arguing only one side of an issue, he must think about what the other side would say
about his opinion. After he gives the counterargument, he must refute it by showing that
it is wrong. If the essay is balanced, a reader is more likely to agree with.
Like any type of essay, we distinguish two aspects within the essay that are:
1. Cognitive component. It is the knowledge required.
2. Linguistic component. It is the layout and format of the essay

II. THE ESSAY STRUCTURE

To make it flow in a logical way, a good essay must present three main sections are the
introduction, the body, and the conclusion.
  General statement or
INTRODUCTION  Orientation to topic
Roughly5‐10% of total   Thesis or Issue statement or
 
purpose statement or controlling
essay Length 
idea
     Outline
 Scope of the study

Paragraph1
1. Topic sentence
2. Supporting details/ideas
80% of total essay length 

(Evidence if there is any)

Examples, reasons, transitional sentence
3. Concluding sentence
BODY 

Paragraph2
1. Topic sentence
2. Supporting details/ideas
(Evidence if there is any)
Examples, reasons, transitional sentence
3. Concluding sentence

Paragraph3
1. Topic Sentence
2. Supporting Details
Evidence, Examples,reasons
Transitional sentence
3. Concluding sentence

Restatement of the controlling idea 

CONCLUSION  General conding remarks 
Roughly 5–10% of 
total essay length  Final statement 

II.1 INTRODUCTION
The introduction:
 Is a road map of the essay in a logical order
 tells the reader what the essay is going to be about
 Explain the importance of the issue
 Summarize the opposing side’s arguments very briefly
 Provide a thesis statement which recognizes your disagreement with the other
side’s argument
 States your position clearly.
The introduction is a very important part in an essay because it is here that the
reader expects to find out what the essay is about. It has three parts
 Possible stages
General statement /
Orientation to topic
function
A general statement is about opening statement or
sentences containing some general comments about the
subject, or a direct announcement, a quotation, a
definition. The introduction should move from the general
to the specific in regards to the topic supporting
statements explaining the focus or perspective can also be
used. To give a general background to the essay topic.

Thesis or Issue statement or
purpose statement or
controlling idea
The controlling idea is arguably the most important
component of the introduction as it summarizes the whole
purpose of the essay (inform, argue, persuade, describe or
narrate.).It states the aim/purpose of the paper/essay and
may give insight into the author’s examples and evidence.
In other words, this thesis statement or controlling idea
says what the paper is about and how it will be broken
down. To state the position the essay will argue or to state
the issue to be debated.

Outline To state the stages through which the essay will

develop

The scope To state what the limits of the essay will be

Please note:
 Your Thesis statement is important. It is useful for you to think very carefully
about this before you start to plan your essay.
 Put forward a proposition, summarizing the whole point of the essay
 In an academic essay, you are expected to take a point of view and back this point
up with your references. There should always be a specific purpose to your essay.
Task 1
Use the table of possible stages above to identify the stages of this introduction.
Reconciliation, as Reynolds’ (1996) statement illustrates, is a complex issue with a range
of perspectives as to its meaning and terms. There is no doubt that the process has at
least partly addressed these issues and resulted in significant benefits in a number of
areas. This essay will discuss some of the key benefits which the reconciliation process
has brought in the legal, political, social and cultural areas.
Example of a topic:
Many modern children spend too much time sitting in front of a television
screen. This is extremely harmful to their development. Therefore parents
should strictly limit the time that children spend in this way. Do you agree?

You should let your reader know in the introduction whether your answer is yes, I agree,
or no, I disagree. The rest of the essay then provides support for your argument. The
structure of the introduction usually follows a common pattern to introduce the topic and
explain why it is worthwhile talking about, you will normally need a statement
something like this:
Television is so common now that it is hard to imagine life without it.
That is, the first sentence typically makes a general statement about a situation.
 The next statement then narrows the topic down to a specific aspect that the writer will
deal with. For example:
However, as rnany people have pointed out, most children spend too much time in

front of the screen, and this is harmful.

Note that the second statement often contains the word but or however, to show that
the writer has something new or different to say. For example, if the first sentence is:
Many people complain that children spend a great proportion of their lives

watching television.

Then the second statement would be more likely to present the opposite view such as:
This may be true in some cases, but it is certainly not common enough to be a
serious problem.
It is, however, not always the case that the second statement contains but or however.
It may also support and strengthen the first statement. Here is an example:
Television has become so much a part of our lives that many people do not realise
how many hours they actually spend watching it. In fact, it has been pointed out
that most children watch far more television than is good for them.

II.2. The Body

The body of the essay is composed of paragraphs. A paragraph is a group of related
sentences that develop or discuss one (and usually only one) main idea. A paragraph can
be short or long. The number of sentences is unimportant; however, the paragraph can
be long enough to develop the main idea clearly single idea. The essay length depends on
the size and level of the essay. Paragraphs follow in a logical order each paragraph
linking to the next. They have three parts: 
Stages Function
The topic sentence or It states or describes the main idea of the paragraph. The topic sentence briefly
introductory sentence indicates what the paragraph is going to discuss. Sometimes, it does not only
name the topic of the paragraph; but it also limits the topic to one specific area
that can be discussed completely in the space of a single paragraph. The part of
the topic sentence that announces the specific area to be discussed is called the
controlling idea.
Example: Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics.
(topic) (Controlling idea)

Supporting sentences constitute the body of the paragraph

Concluding sentence The concluding sentence signals the end of the paragraph and leaves the reader
with important points to remember It can do this by two ways:
By summarizing the main points of the paragraph or by repeating the topic
sentence in different words.
Example: In conclusion, gold is treasured not only for its beauty but also for its
utility

Remarks
1. A topic sentence is a complete sentence. It contains at least one subject and one
verb.
The following are NOT topic sentences:
 Learning English in Burkina
 How to register for university classes
These sentences below are examples of topic sentence 
 Driving on freeways requires skill and alertness.
 Registering for college classes can be frustrating experience for new students.

2. A paragraph does not always need a concluding sentence.

3. For single paragraphs, especially long ones, a concluding sentence is helpful to
the reader because it is a reminder of the important points.
4. However, a concluding sentence is not needed for every paragraph in a
multiparagraph essay.

III CHARACTERISTICS
The argumentative essay as any type of essay must have some
characteristics.
 Structure
The essay should be well structured. All the different parts should be
represented. It normally has an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
 Cohesion
Creating cohesion means ‘tying’ our words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs together,
to create a text where the relationships between these elements is clear and logical to
the reader, giving the text ‘flow’. We create cohesion at all these levels (word, phrase,
sentence and paragraph), in order to direct our readers’ attention to the development of
our argument. Following are some of the cohesive tools you can make use of.
Synonyms:  use  a  word  or  phrase  in  a  later  sentence  which  has  the  same  or  similar  meaning  to  a 
keyword in the first sentence, e.g. The purpose of population genetics is to quantify and explain the 
processes  generating  variation  in  natural  populations  (Vargo  &  Husseneder,  2011).  Sociogenetic 
studies  of  eusocial  insects  are  generally  based  on  the  approach  that  the  colony  functions  as  a 
discrete entity within the population (Thorne et al., 1999).  
Pronouns: use a pronoun to refer back to a phrase already used, e.g. When scientific experiments do 
not  work  out  as  expected,  they  are  often  considered  failures  until  some  other  scientist  tries  them 
again.  Those  that  work  out  better  the  second  time  around  are  the  ones  that  promise  the  most 
rewards.  
Cohesive Words and Phrases  

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1.  Additive  words:  Also,  and,  as  well  as,  at  the  same  time  as,  besides,  equally  important,  further, 
furthermore, in addition, likewise, moreover, too, not only... but also. 
 2. Amplification words: As, for example, for instance, in fact, specifically, such as, that is, to illustrate 
3. Repetitive words: Again, in other words, that is, to repeat  
4. Contrast words: But, conversely, despite, even though, however, in contrast, notwithstanding, on 
the  one  hand  /  on  the  other  hand,  still,  although,  though,  whereas,  yet,  nevertheless,  on  the 
contrary, in spite of this  
5. Cause and effect words: Accordingly, as a result, because, consequently, for this reason, since, as, 
so, then, therefore, thus  
6. Qualifying words: Although, if, even, therefore, unless 
 7. Example:  For example, for instance 
8. Emphasising words: Above all, more/most importantly  
9. Reason words: For this reason, owing to this, therefore  
10. Order words :Afterwards, at the same time, before, firstly/secondly, formerly, lastly, finally, later, 
meanwhile,  next,  now,  presently,  today/yesterday/last  week/next  year,  subsequently,  then,  until, 
ultimately, while, historically, in the end, eventually  
11. Explanation: In other words, that is to say  
12.  Attitude:  Naturally,  of  course,  certainly,  strangely  enough,  surprisingly,  fortunately, 
unfortunately, admittedly, undoubtedly  
13. Summary: Finally, in conclusion, in short, to summarise

 Coherence
From start to finish, the argumentative essay must present an internal coherence
(unity) between the ideas. Coherence mainly deals with logic and appropriate
organization of the sentences to form meaningful and understandable content. That is,
you must respect a logical order when presenting the arguments, so that the reader can
follow the reasoning. All the ideas should be related to the essay’s topic and thesis
statement.
 Formal use of language
An essay is a literary text, and in that sense, the author will use careful language,
respecting the grammatical rules and avoiding colloquialisms as much as possible that
can make understanding difficult. That does not prevent the language from being close.

SUMMARY
Feature What is required to do
1. Use formal vocabulary Use formal language rather than every day common

2. Use formal verbs
3. Use full verbs
4. Use formal grammar structures
5. Use statements
6. Use impersonal language
7. Be precise
8. Use references and evidence
9. Use hedging statements
10. Use transition words
language. Start by checking the Academic Word List.
This is a list of the most frequently used words in
academic writing
Use formal verbs and avoid two-word verbs. For
example, use ‘establish’ instead of ‘set up’, and
‘decrease’ instead of ‘go down’.
Use the full form of verbs and avoid using contractions.
For example, use ‘ can not’ instead of ‘can’t’, and ‘will
not’ instead of ‘won’t’.
Use formal structures/more complicated sentences such
as clauses and noun phrases not just short simple
sentences. For example: “It is important to consider all
shareholders in this matter, they have the final
vote.” and “The internationalisation of the economy has
created growth opportunities.”
Make very clear and definite statements. Avoid using
rhetorical questions because they make the writing
seem weak.
Use language such as ‘there is’ or ‘it is likely that’ rather
than ‘I think’ or ‘I feel’.
Provide concise, clear, and accurate statements, avoid
vague or ambiguous statements. Use data wherever
possible. For example, use “The Coalition was formed in
1923, some 24 years ago, and have a conservative
ideology” rather than “The Coalition has been destroying
the country for about a century”
Support your statements with evidence, and ensure you
reference these clearly.
Use hedging statements or tentative language such as
‘may’, ‘it’s possible that’, ‘appears to’ to qualify
statements. This avoids absolute statements, which may
be in error: “It is possible that the Liberal government is
responsible for increased habitat destruction and
environmental degradation”.
Use transition words at the start of some sentences to
connect ideas together in an explicit and logical way. ‘In
addition’, ‘In contrast’, ‘For this reason’. Do not use ‘but’,
‘and’, ‘so’ at the start of a sentence.