Essay Writing for International Exams.

Essay Writing for International Exams.

Every international English exam, with the exception of just a few, requires an essay as part of the test. In this article, we will look at the most simple form of essay with a structure that fits the requirements of all general exams.

What is an essay?

The word ‘essay’ comes from the Latin word ‘exagium’, meaning the presentation of a case.

When you write an essay you are making a case for a particular point of view, analysis, interpretation, or set of facts or procedures.

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There are many types of essays. Some of the more common types are:

Argumentative
This is the most common type of essay assignment you will write at university. In response to your essay question, you will pose an argument to your reader, and defend it throughout the body of your assignment. 

Descriptive
Descriptive essays focus very specifically on a topic or issue. For example, if your essay was about dogs, you would describe the different breeds, the origins of the species, common traits, and as much other detail as possible. 

Narrative
As indicated by its name, a narrative essay tells a story. In this type of essay you can use emotive, descriptive language, and may choose to write in first or third person.

Compare and contrast
Again evidenced by its name, in this type of essay, you are exploring the similarities (comparing) and differences (contrasting) between two (or more) events, objects or issues. 

Although the types of essays differ, they all have the common objective of presenting and defending a topic or stance to the reader. 

An essay is typically made up of an introduction, body, and conclusion. The number and length of paragraphs within your essay are dictated by the word count allowed for your essay.

 

Follow this structure to write your essay.

The "premise" of each body paragraph is a different main point that supports your overall argument. Each premise needs to be backed up by credible evidence or a suitable argument or point of view, and supported by explanations of what each point means, and how it relates to the broader topic. Making sure these premises relate to each other is vital to ensuring your essay flows logically, and makes sense to your reader. 

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Introduction

Your introduction is one short paragraph, just a sentence or two, that states your thesis (your main idea) and introduces your reader to your topic. After your title, this is your next best chance to hook your reader. Here are some examples:

• Women are the chief buyers in 80 percent of America's households. If you're not marketing to them, you should be.
• Take another look at that spot on your arm. Is the shape irregular? Is it multicolored? You could have melanoma. Know the signs.
• Those tiny wasps flying around the blossoms in your garden can't sting you. Their stingers have evolved into egg-laying devices. The wasps, busy finding a place to lay their eggs, are participating in the balance of nature.
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Body of Information

The body of your essay is where you develop your story or argument. Once you have finished your brainstorming notes, quickly go through them and decide which are the most important ideas, the key points.

Choose the top three ideas and write each one at the top of a clean page. Now go through your notes again and pull out supporting ideas for each key point. You don't need a lot, just two or three for each one.

Write a paragraph about each of these key points, using the information you've pulled from your notes. If you don't have enough for one, you might need a stronger key point. Effective brainstorming helps to give you the ideas that you need in order to support your point of view. It's always better to have too many ideas than too few.

Conclusion

You've almost finished. The last paragraph of your essay is your conclusion. It, too, can be short, and it must tie back to your introduction.

In your introduction, you stated the reason for your paper. In your conclusion, you should summarize how your key points support your thesis. Here's an example:

• By observing the balance of nature in her gardens, listening to lectures, and reading everything she can get her hands on about insects and native plants, Lucinda has grown passionate about natural balance. "It's easy to get passionate if you just take time to look," she says.

Well, I hope that you found this article helpful.

Good luck and good learning.

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