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Step by step tips for how to write a successful essay.

An essay is a piece of writing which represents the ideas, emotions, or arguments of the author. It’s not enough to just write a good essay. One of the most important skills to develop is writing a good essay efficiently. And the foundation of that skill is knowing how to structure an essay. With a template for the basic essay structure in hand, you can focus on what really matters when you’re writing essays: your arguments and the evidence you’re using to support them. Take a look at the basic essay structure below and see how the parts of an essay work together to present a coherent, well-reasoned position, no matter what topic you’re writing about. 

Types of Essay

Definition Essay
As the name suggests, a definition type of essay defines different things, ideas, and perceptions.

Narrative Essay
A narrative essay is a narration like a short story. It is, however, different from a short story in that it is written in an essay format.

Descriptive Essay
A descriptive essay describes something to make readers feel, smell, see, taste, or hear what is described.

Expository Essay
An expository essay exposes things in detail to make readers understand without any complications.

Persuasive Essay
A persuasive essay is meant to convince the target audience to do something or not do something.

Argumentative Essay
An argumentative essay is meant to present arguments in the favor of something. It has an additional fourth body paragraph that is meant to present opposite arguments.

Analytical Essay
An analytical essay analyzes something, such as in literature an analytical essay analyzes a piece of literature from different angles.

Comparison and Contrast Essay
A comparison and contrast essay makes either a comparison, a contrast, or both between two different or similar things.

Cause and Effect Essay
A cause-and-effect essay makes readers understand the cause of things and their effects on other things.

Critical Essay
A critical essay is written on literary pieces to evaluate them on the basis of their merits or demerits.

Process Essay
A process essay outlines a process of making or breaking or doing something that readers understand fully and are able to do it after reading it.

Synthesis Essay
A synthesis essay means to synthesize different ideas to make a judgment about their merit and demerits.

Explicatory Essay
An explicatory essay is meant to explain a piece of literature. It is often written about poems, short stories, and novels.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay
A rhetorical analysis essay evaluates a speech or a piece of rhetoric on the basis of rhetorical strategies and devices used in it.

Review Essay
A review essay discusses the merits and demerits of a book and evaluates it through a review.

Simple Essay
A simple essay is just a four or five-paragraph essay that is written on any topic after it is specified.

Research Essay
A research essay revolves around a research question that is meant to answer some specific question through research of the relevant literature.

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The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.

Writing: Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.

Revision: Check the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

Basic essay structure: the 3 main parts of an essay

Almost every single essay that’s ever been written follows the same basic structure: 

Introduction

Body paragraphs

Conclusion

This structure has stood the test of time for one simple reason: It works. It clearly presents the writer’s position, supports that position with relevant examples, and neatly ties their supporting arguments together in a way that makes their position evident. 

There are many different types of essays you might be asked to write and it is extremely important that you choose the right style to suit the subject that you are writing about. Are you presenting an overview or telling a story about the topic (narrative), giving your opinion about a subject, or are you providing an analysis (expository)? Do you have to convince the reader to adopt a certain point of view or to take a particular action (persuasive)? Are you writing an essay about a book you read (literary)? Determining the type of essay is the first step to writing a targeted essay.

Create an Essay Outline

An essay outline is your road map. It will guide you through to the finished product. When you create an outline, you organize your thoughts about your topic. First, write your topic at the top of the page. Then list all the points or arguments you want to make about the essay topic. Finally, list the facts, examples, and statistics that support those points or arguments.

Develop a Thesis Statement

Your thesis should inform the reader what point you will be making or what question you will be answering about the topic. In other words, it is a prelude to your conclusion. A thesis statement should be as specific as possible and address one main idea. Strong theses also take a stand or illustrate the controversial nature of a topic.

Introduce Your Topic

The first paragraph of your essay will introduce your topic and provide direction for the entire essay. The introduction should discuss your main idea, or what the essay is about, then state your thesis and points or arguments that support your thesis.

The introduction also sets the tone for your essay, and you want to grab the reader’s attention with interest and clarity. To capture the reader’s attention, you can make a challenging claim about the topic or present some surprising (but factual) information.

Write the Body of the Essay

The body of the essay provides details for the points in your introductory paragraph that support your thesis. Take the points you listed in your introduction and discuss each in one body paragraph. First, write a topic sentence that summarizes your point then explain why you feel the topic sentence is true. Finally, support your argument with evidence such as facts, quotes, examples, and statistics.

Present Your Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes the essay and gives the reader closure. In three or four concise sentences, you should reiterate your thesis and review the main points of the body of the essay. Just be sure not to restate your previous words exactly. You can even briefly describe your opinion of the topic. Your final sentence should uphold your main idea in a clear and compelling manner.

Just remember to tackle each step one at a time. Some people do better when they work backward from the conclusion. Write a rough draft of your essay first – don’t try to get it perfect the first time through. After you finish your rough draft, proofread it thoroughly and revise until you have a strong, informative essay.

I hope that you found this article helpful.

Good luck and good teaching/learning.

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