As a student, we all know the importance of writing essays and how much time-consuming this task is. But with proper guidelines and instructions, you can easily draft a complete essay in a short interval of time.
So, here in this article, we are going to give you an ultimate guide to essay writing. This guide will provide you with all the important knowledge which you require to draft a unique essay that stands out.
Without any further ado, let us start!
What is Essay and its Types?
An essay is a piece of academic writing that persuades readers or informs them about a specific topic. There are distinct types of essays, but we have listed below the most common and usable ones.
- Narrative Essays: This is the type of essay that tells the story. But in most cases, the story depends on the author’s real-life experience.
- Descriptive Essays: It is also another type of essay that particularly use to describe something, like hobbies, interests, or product descriptions.
- Expository Essays: It is some kind of investigation essay in which students must investigate something and give a report.
- Persuasive Essays: This type is extremely specific because, in this essay, you need to convince readers about your point of view.
- Argumentative Essays: This is also the same as Expository Essay. The main difference between them is that one Argumentative essay has statistics, facts, and figures., but an Expository essay has only information.
- Comparative Essays: In this type of essay, students must compare at least two products or items, and give a review about them.
Each type of essay you write will depend on your purpose, audience, and the requirements of your assignment.
Now, let us talk about the steps that you need to take or follow to write a perfect essay.
Step-by-Step Guide to Write a Perfect Essay
Writing an essay requires four stages, and each one is essential for making it unique, clear, and engaging. Here are the phases and their steps.
Research Phase
In every aspect of writing, there is always a need to do research (before starting writing) on your topic so that you can get an idea about the topic.
Research is still the most important part because if someone does not have proper knowledge of a specific topic, then research will give them an idea. Along with this, research can also help in gathering information, supporting evidence, and other key facts, which can make your essay more unique and engaging.
But in research, there are further steps that can help you write a proper essay.
Brainstorm and Choosing the Topic
Sometimes, institutes provide a topic, which can save time for brainstorming. But mostly, teachers will ask you to write an essay on your favorite topic.
So, if you have already decided on a topic for your essay, then it is good, but if not, then do not worry. We will show you a straightforward way to find out the best and most interesting topic for you.
In choosing a topic, always keep your interest or hobbies in your mind because they will help you find a perfect topic for your essay. For instance, if you love to play football, then it will be easy for you to write on a football-related topic because you will already know about it, and it will also save you time in research.
Gather Information from Various Sources
In doing research, sometimes students use a sole source to gather all the information, which then can lead to plagiarism or any other instances. So, if you are also facing this issue or gathering data from one or two sources, then we would advise you to expand your research and use multiple sources.
This will not only help you avoid plagiarism, but also it will improve your writing skills. You will be able to learn new things and new ways to express your thoughts in your writing.
There are authoritative websites available that can help you in gathering information for your essay. We have listed below six such websites:
- Google Scholar
- ResearchGate
- Google Books
- WorldwideScience
- Microsoft Academic
- Science.gov
All these sources are accessible for free on Google and Bing. You can use any of them to gather useful information for your essay.
Writing Phase
After gathering all the essential information now, it is time to move toward the writing phase. In this phase, there are also further steps that you need to follow to make your essay perfect.
In writing, you must:
Create an Outline
The outline is the most important part of any type of writing. You cannot write an engaging essay or any other type of content without having a proper outline. It gives a clear perspective about what all your essay is about.
So, it is necessary to create an outline first before you start writing. To create an engaging outline for your essay, here are steps that you can follow:
- Choose Your Topic and Establish Your Purpose
- Create A List of Main Ideas
- Organize Your Main Ideas
- Flush Out Your Main Points
- Review and Make Changes
Following the above-mentioned steps will help you create a unique outline for your essay.
Draft your Essay in a Proper Format
Now is the time to start drafting your essay. In writing an essay, follow a proper format because it gives your essay a unique look. If you do not draft your essay in a proper format, then there might be chances that the reader will not like it.
There are a set of steps that you can follow to draft your essay in a proper format.
Start with Writing Introduction: The first step that you need to follow is to start writing an introduction to your essay. In the introduction section, you must give an idea about what this essay is all about and what we are going to talk about in it. It helps to engage readers and gives them a clear perspective on your essay.
You can start writing your introduction with some kind of stats or facts related to your topic.
To write a perfect introduction, you can also take help from the outline you created because, in the outline, you have already mentioned all your main points.
Write the Body of Your Essay: The body of your essay is the essential part of your essay, where you explain each and everything related to your topic with supporting evidence and facts. Always keep one thing in mind, when drafting an essay, try to complete your one argument in one paragraph, relevant facts, information, or data to bolster your claims.
Do not mix all arguments in one single paragraph. It can confuse the reader or make it difficult for them to understand.
If you are unsure whether a particular point or detail should be there in your essay or not, take a moment to think. Does the detail help support your argument? If so, include it. If not, it is best to leave it out.
End Your Essay with Conclusion: It is the last part of the essay in which you give an overview of what you have discussed in your whole essay.
You can summarize your whole essay here, demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and bring your reader to a new perspective on what you have discussed in your paper.
So, this is how you will be able to write your essay in a proper format.
Write Readable Essay
Only writing cannot make your essay perfect, unique, and different from your other colleagues. There is something more that you must follow to make your essay unique, which is readability.
Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand and read written text. A readable essay is well-structured, free from errors, and uses understandable language that is appropriate for the audience.
Let us suppose you write an essay that contains complicated words, lengthy sentences, and grammatical errors. Then tell us will it engage or disengage your readers? I think the reader will disengage because they cannot understand what you are trying to say. So, it is also important to keep an eye on the essay’s readability.
To make an essay more readable, one can use various techniques such as breaking up long paragraphs, changing complicated words with easy synonyms, using headings and subheadings, varying sentence length, and using active voice.
But if someone doesn’t have proper knowledge about how to do that, then they can also improve readability by paraphrasing their essay. This technique can help to simplify complex language, remove grammatical errors, and make the text more engaging.
| Complicated Word | Easy Synonym |
| Extravagant | Fancy |
| Perplexing | Confusing |
| Formulate | Make |
| Disintegrate | Fall apart |
| Complicated | Hard |
There are also two ways to do paraphrasing. One way is to do it manually on your own, and the other is by using online tools. These tools use advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that rephrase sentences and paragraphs while maintaining the original meaning.
There are hundreds of paraphrasing tools available online, and finding a good one is not that easy. But you do not have to worry about that. We have done this for you and found the three useful paraphrasing tools that can help you make your content readable:
- Paraphraser (helps to paraphrase the text and make it readable)
- Wordtune (works to change sentence structures to improve text quality)
- Paraphrase Online (also works to rephrase the text to better its tone and avoid plagiarism)
Include the Evidence and Supporting Details
Evidence is important in essay writing as it helps students to support their arguments. They can be in the form of facts, statistics, and graphs with proper referencing. Adding evidence in your essay tells your readers that the part of the information is from a specific source, and the reference will take readers to the link if they want to verify.
If a reader finds interest in your essay and wants to explore more about the topic, then this evidence can help them.
Along with this, if there is something that you want to use in your essay because you think it will make your essay more informative. You must cite the source from where you are taking that information; otherwise, it will come under the definition of cheating (plagiarism).
Checking Phase
Checking is the last/final phase in essay writing. In this phase, you need to review your essay and make the necessary revisions and corrections. You can also call this phase the “proofreading phase.” In this phase, you need to find any errors that can disturb the quality of your essay, i.e., grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation, and formatting errors.
Along with this, you also need to make sure that your essays follow the given instructions and meet the requirements (provided by the institute).
The checking phase also has the following steps:
Check for Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation Errors
Whether you are writing your first academic essay or have drafted multiple essays before, there will always be chances of grammar errors in your writing. So, to find and eliminate those errors, you need to proofread your essay. These mistakes or errors may look tiny but have a profound impact on the quality of the essay. Such errors can cause confusion, distract readers, and make text difficult to understand.
By eliminating these errors, students can communicate their ideas clearly and effectively.
Ensure That you Cite the Sources Properly
Sometimes, we forget to cite the source, or the source we provided is not in a proper format, which can also make a harmful impact on readers. So, while proofreading, always check and correct your citations or given references.
There are different formats to cite a source, but the most useful and common ones are:
- APA (American Psychological Association) style is popular in education, psychology, and sciences.
- MLA (Modern Language Association) style is the best choice in humanities.
- Chicago/Turabian style is a common choice in business, history, and fine arts.
Remember, citing the sources properly allows readers to access the sources, verify information, and use them for their research.
Look at the Tone of Your Writing
As a student, if you have already drafted essays or assignments, then you might hear from your professors that the tone of your writing does not match the tone of the topic. The tone in writing is the way your words express your thoughts. Just like the tone of voice, the tone in writing is particularly important to convey a message properly.
To draft a perfect essay that stands out, you also must check the tone of your writing to ensure that it delivers your message to readers properly. It can affect the reader’s emotions and engagement with the text.
If Possible, Get Feedback
This is not the part of proofreading, but it can also help you get an idea about your essay. Getting feedback from other colleagues or professionals can tell you if there is any kind of error present in your essay so that you can correct it and submit it.
Along with this, feedback can also provide new ways and ideas that the writer may not have considered while writing. So, if possible, get feedback on your writing.
Conclusion
So, this blog was the guide on how to write a perfect essay. We have talked about everything that can help to draft an essay that stands out. The first thing that you need to do is choose a suitable topic and gather information from reliable sources. Then create an outline and follow a proper essay format to explain your ideas or arguments effectively.
Do not forget to include evidence that adds credibility to your writing. It is also important to check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors and to properly cite your sources.
In the last, try to get feedback from others. By following these steps, you can write a well-written and engaging essay.
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