Essay writing skills Essay writing skills • What is an essay? • An essay is a piece of writing on a single topic. While some essays serve to inform readers about a chosen subject, others aim to persuade readers into believing the author’s viewpoint. Essays typically include an introduction, body and conclusion. Here are some different types of essays: Essay writing skills • Descriptive essay: In a descriptive essay, you provide readers with a description of something such as a place, person or experience. This type of essay aims to provide readers with a detailed description that they can use to create a mental picture of your topic. • Definition essay: A definition essay explains a term or idea. You explain what the topic means to help readers better understand the topic overall. Essay writing skills • Argumentative essay: This type of essay allows you to investigate a particular topic. You collect and evaluate evidence, establish a position on the topic and provide concrete evidence to back up your claims. • Critical essay: With this essay, you analyze and evaluate a body of text. Not only do you state the text's ideas, but you also support the claims it makes with evidence. Essay writing skills • 12 essay writing tips 1. Read the instructions/prompt carefully • When you’re writing an essay for a class assignment, you typically get a prompt that tells you what to write about or gives you a list of possible topics. Reading the prompt carefully can help you decide on an effective approach to your essay and can give you clues about how to structure your argument. When you read the prompt, underline any instructions that tell you how many points to include, what vocabulary to include or how long your essay might be. Essay writing skills • 2. Pick an interesting topic if you can • Some assignments ask you to write an essay but let you choose the topic. If you're not assigned a topic ahead of time, write an essay on a subject you find interesting. Consider the purpose of your essay when you’re choosing your topic. For example, if your assignment is to write a persuasive essay, you might choose a topic you’re passionate about, like environmental preservation. • Caring about your topic can make it easier to find points that support your argument. If you’re trying to decide between two topics, make a list of the points you might use to support each argument and choose the topic that you think is easier to support. Essay writing skills • 3. Use multiple research sources • For some essays, you can use outside sources to support your point or provide additional information. Using multiple sources ensures that your essay has a well-rounded argument and considers more than one perspective. Depending on your topic, you might use books, web databases, online journals, videos and primary sources, like novels and movies. For each source, collect key facts and quotations that support your topic and copy the citation information to include in your bibliography. Essay writing skills • 4. Make an outline, plan or diagram • Before you write an essay, you can organize your points and supporting evidence logically. An outline allows you to organize your main points and place the supporting evidence beneath them, indicating where this information goes in the draft. • When you create a diagram, write your topic down and draw a few lines branching off of this topic. Then, write down your main ideas on each line and draw even more lines and ideas off of these ideas. Both of these methods help you make connections and links between different topics or ideas. Essay writing skills • 5. Improve your grammar, spelling and punctuation skills • Improving your grammatical skills can help you create rough drafts that are closer to the finished product, saving you time in the proofreading stage of your writing process. • If you’re a student, you might ask your English or writing teacher to give you additional help learning about punctuation, active voice, proper pronoun use and other concepts. You might also buy a grammar workbook or take an online course in grammar. Essay writing skills • 6. Use appropriate vocabulary • Using words that fit your essay’s tone and purpose can make your writing compelling and persuasive. When you’re writing, only use words that you understand to ensure that you’re using them correctly. You can use a dictionary or thesaurus to learn new words and diversify your writing but be sure your reader will probably know the words you choose too. Consider your essay’s tone when you’re choosing words. For example, if you’re writing a formal paper for a class, avoid slang and abbreviations to create a professional tone. Essay writing skills • 7. Evaluate evidence critically • When you're making an argument, take the time to look through your evidence. Be both critical and thorough. You might use sources written by authors with credentials, like university membership or press qualifications. Published books and research journals can be reliable sources of evidence. Use strong research to back up your argument and thesis throughout your essay. Essay writing skills • 8. Write a strong conclusion • Ending your essay with a well-written, thoughtful concluding paragraph can improve your reader’s opinion of your point of view and leave them with a good impression of your skills. In your conclusion, you might restate your thesis and major points. You can also show the importance of your topic by explaining the implications of your research and argument. Essay writing skills • 9. Be specific • When writing an essay, use specific details, like historical facts, numerical data and descriptions of places and people, to support your argument and engage with your readers. The types of details you use might depend on the goal of the essay or your topic. For example, if you’re writing about population growth in a specific city, you might use historical census records to show how the city’s population has grown over time, along with descriptions of the neighborhoods that grew from the increase in population. Essay writing skills • 10. Consider the "how" • Providing background information that explains how an event happened can make your essay engaging and teach your readers new facts. For example, if you're writing about the impact of social media on today's society, rather than just explaining its impact and discussing why it's made such an impact, take time to address exactly how it made such an impact. Not only does this give you more to write about, but it also helps you home in on your argument or topic. This information can also show your reader that you’re an expert on your topic, increasing their trust in you. Essay writing skills • 11. Proofread your essay • Before you submit or complete your essay, read it several times and look for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Consider asking a friend or classmate to read your final draft and give you feedback on its readability, clarity and tone. You might also read your essay out loud to yourself, which can show you places to improve your sentences and word choice. Essay writing skills • 12. Practice writing essays • Consider writing sample essays on different topics to help you feel more confident in your writing. Regular practice can help you hone your craft and help you feel more prepared when it's time to write a real essay. • Ask your teacher for sample prompts that resemble the assignments they might give you in class/exams. You can also find sample prompts for a variety of essay topics online.
