How to Write an Essay- The Best Step by Step Guide

Essays are common assignments in colleges and schools. Even people in business have to write essays. However, such essays are called reports. Therefore, “how to write an essay” is a common query amongst students and professionals.

Thus, in the article below, you will learn how to write an essay step by step. Besides, there are answers to some of the most common questions students ask while writing an essay.

Furthermore, if you need help in writing your essays and doing your homework, you can check out 10 best essay writing services that college students love. Else if you want to save some money on textbooks in college, you can read more about The 10 Best Textbook Rentals for Students.

Is Grammar Important for Learning How to Write an Essay?

Is grammar vital for Writing a powerful Essay from scratch? This is a common question amongst not only students who are learning English as their second language but also native speakers.

Whether you’re writing an essay, a report or no matter what, grammar is extremely vital. Because if you understand grammar and its rules to an adequate degree, you can interact with your reader easily. Otherwise, it is hard to make your reader perceive what you are trying to convey.

Besides, one of the most practical answers to whether or not grammar is important is published by NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). And here it goes:

“Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about language. Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make up sentences not only in English but in any language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children—we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words and word groups that make up sentences—that is knowing about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.”

Furthermore, many of us associate grammar with spellings errors and correctness. However, grammar is much more than that. Knowing about grammar helps the writer understand what makes paragraphs and sentences interesting, precise and clear.

Best Resources to Learn and Improve Grammar

Thus, the first step to learning how to write an essay is learning grammar. Where do you learn grammar?

There are a variety of resources you can use to learn and practice grammar. You can use physical books such as Practical English Usage or English Grammar is Use.

If reading a book is not your thing, you can start with 100 Key Terms Used in the Study of Grammar and Using English online.

How to Write Effective Sentences?

Writing beautiful and powerful sentences isn’t a science. However, it’s an excellent way of facilitating writers to express themselves.

Well, grammatically, a sentence has a subject and a predicate. However, stylistically, it needs rather more than simply a subject and predicate. the subsequent factors are some of the key elements for building effective sentences.

1. Clarity: Clarity implies that your sentences ought to be clear to the reader.
2. Strong Verbs: For writing strong sentences, you should avoid weak verbs and passive whenever possible. Because passive voice and weak verbs make your writing dull.
3. Vocabulary or Word Choice: Using correct and powerful vocabularies to build powerful and clear sentences.
4. Correct Tense: Tense is a powerful tool. Therefore, its proper use is crucial. Because it helps your reader perceive when what happened.
5. Proper Length: you ought to be clear concerning the length of your sentences. As an example, if you are talking about a simple idea, you ought to use shorter sentences. However, if you have to discuss complicated concepts, longer sentences are often useful for elaboration.
6. Subject-Verb Agreement: This means that the subject of your sentence agrees with your verb.

For example:

• Kids are playing in the playground.
• The kid is playing in the playground.

The subject of the first sentence is plural and so is the verb. Whereas the subject of the second sentence is singular, therefore, a singular verb is used.

These factors may seem very ordinary and basic. However, they play a crucial role in making effective sentences.

Getting Started with How to Write an Essay

Once you’ve got learned the correct use of descriptive linguistics aka grammar and creating effective sentences, you’re smart, to begin with how to write an essay. An essay is a combination of paragraphs. Beforehand, it would, therefore, be wise to jog your mind with what a paragraph is.

What is a Paragraph?

Paragraphs are primarily the building blocks of an essay. The word paragraph comes from “Paragraphos” (Greek word) which implies “to write beside” and “written beside”.

Traditionally, a paragraph is used to elaborate on a single idea. And it is made up of one or more that one sentence. It typically includes a subject sentence, supporting sentences and a concluding sentence.

Parts of a Paragraph

As I mentioned above, a paragraph has the following parts.

A. Introduction (10%)

The introduction of your paragraph should:

• arouse the reader’s interest
• Define or explain the key terms if necessary
• establish the scene
• Identify the issue you are going to discuss
• Give a brief framework of how and in which order you are going to deal with the problem

B. Body of the paragraph (80%)

The body of your paragraph is the main part of your paraph. Thus, in order to illustrate the introduction, it should include:

• Relevant examples
• details
• evidence
• quotations
• reference

C. Conclusion (10%)

Conclusion, like the introduction, covers 10% of a paragraph. And it

• Draws everything together
• Summarises
• States writer’s general conclusion
• Clears why the examples and evidence in the body of the paragraph are significant
• Does not introduce anything new
• Sums up your argument briefly

Moreover, a paragraph is designed in such a way that it makes sense to the reader. Every sentence is connected with transition words and logically results in a subsequent one. Besides having a central plan, a paragraph is coherent and elaborates on its main plan.

Coherence

Coherence makes a paragraph intelligible to the reader. You can create coherence in a paragraph by using logical and verbal connections.

In order to develop a logical affiliation in your paragraph, you’ve got to make every sentence in your paragraph relate to your main idea of the paragraph. Moreover, you can also build a connection through the employment of correct words referred to as verbal connection. In order to build coherence in your paragraph, you should use:

• More keywords
• Pronouns to connect sentences
• Synonyms rather than keywords
• Use pronouns to link sentences along

Development

A well-developed paragraph is the one that has a sufficient number of supporting sentences to establish the main idea of the paragraph.

what’s “a sufficient number“? Well, that absolutely depends on the topic of your essay.

Here are some of the best ways to develop a paragraph strongly.

• Use examples and illustrations
• Tell stories
• Quote others
• Examine causes and consequences
• Compare concepts
• Give information ( statistics, data, examples, etc)

Of course, there are more ways too. Can you think of nay? Let us know down below.

Step 1. Choose your Essay Type

The first step to how to write an essay is to understand what sort of essay you are going to writing. Besides, knowing what type of essay you are writing will assist you to choose the subject and structure your essay. So, here are 7 types of essays.

1. Persuasive Essay: Persuasive essay is used to convince the reader about something.
2. Narrative Essay: Through a narrative essay, the writer can either tell a story or share knowledge about the main idea in a storytelling way.
3. Descriptive Essay: Descriptive essay is used to describe an event or something. For instance, if you are going to write a descriptive essay about the last trip you took, you would give details about your experience, the food you eat, the places you went to and more.
4. Argumentative Essay: In an argumentative, the writer argues for or against the main idea.
5. Expository Essay: An expository essay is used to show the process of something step by step.

Step 2. Choosing an Essay Topic for Writing the Most Effective Essay

Now that we have reviewed what a paragraph is, it’s the most appropriate time to decide on the topic for your essay. To be honest, it’s tougher than it seems.

Initially, presume the final draft you’ve got to supply. Should it be an argument, a summary, or an analysis? Once you choose, you’re able to move on to the next step.

But if your professor has already appointed the subject, you can start with the next step.

Step 3. Brainstorm

The most important part of how to write an essay is brainstorming. Brainstorming is, basically, the process of drawing a rough sketch of what you are going to talk about and how.

There are a number of ways you can brainstorm for your essay. However, the one that I use for not only writing my essays but also web articles is given below.

1. Draw a circle, triangle or any other shape. Then, write down the main idea of your essay within it.
2. Next, from the circle or shape, draw 2 or more lines out. And spread them across the page.
3. At the tip of every line, either draw a circle or any other shape. Inside them, write down supporting ideas for your topic. Basically, these ought to be stuff you wish to talk about in your essay. For instance, if you wish to persuade your reader about something, write arguments. Or to clarify a method, write down the steps.
4. Next, draw more lines and shapes at the end of each circle. Then, write down information, stats, and facts to support your ideas.

You can continue this process until you have drawn a thorough sketch of your essay. Once it is done, you’ll begin writing your thesis.

Step 4. Composing a Thesis Statement

The thesis of an essay tells the reader what point the author will be making. Basically, the thesis establishes the subject of an essay. Besides, the thesis should not be more than 2 sentences.

Furthermore, it has 2 parts: a statement about the subject and an argument concerning the subject.

For example:

“The hunting of wolves ought to be prohibited due to the danger of their extinction.”

In the example, “The hunting of wolves” is the main topic whereas the rest of the sentence tells the reader what the author is going to discuss.

What is a Good Thesis?

To check if the thesis of your essay is good enough, as yourself is there any way someone could disagree with your thesis. If there isn’t any, then you have not made a good thesis.

For example:

“The hunting of wolves ought to be prohibited due to the danger of their extinction.”
“The hunting of wolves shouldn’t be prohibited to control their population.” (alternative argument)

Above, the second one is an alternative argument of the first thesis. Therefore, both of them are strong enough for an essay thesis.

Furthermore, the qualities of a good thesis are:

1. has one main idea
2. focused
3. specific
4. open to different interpretations
5. it should not be a fact or something obvious. For example: “By land, Russia is the largest country.” Because there is no way someone could disagree with fact.

Well, if you’ve got developed a strong thesis statement, then you’re smart to continue.

Step 5. Composing the Introduction of Your Essay

So far you may have realized learning how to write an essay isn’t a hard job as long as you know the principles. So, once you have formulated your thesis, you’re smart to begin writing the introduction of your essay.

The introduction of your essay covers 5% of the whole essay’s length. Primarily, the introduction of your essay should:

• Comment on the main idea or topic of your essay.
• Tell the reader which aspect of the topic you plan to cover and why.
• Define and explain any difficult or vague term in the title.

Furthermore, a strong introduction is capable of attracting the reader’s attention immediately. Also, a powerful introduction tells the reader what your essay is about.

There are a number of ways you can grab your reader’s attention. Here are some of the most effective ones.

• Unexpected data: The data should be true that illustrates the purpose/point you want to create. If you employ this technique, you’ll then elaborate it with some 2 or 3 sentences if required.
• Dialogue: You’ll use a dialogue to convey your reader a touch concerning your main topic.
• Anecdote: An anecdote is a short story that demonstrates a thought. Besides, using anecdote as your essay introduction can be catchy and tricky. Therefore, try to use a short and precise story.
• Summary Information: If you are not using any of the above, you can simply elaborate on your purpose of writing the essay with a sentence or 2 that ought to reasonably summarize your main plan.

Thus, you can choose any of the above ways to write a strong introduction. Then, you can write your thesis.

Step 6. Writing the Body of Your Essay

Lastly, all the preparation comes to the fruition in the body of your essay. It covers 80% of the whole essay length. So, in the body of your essay, you’ve got to clarify, illustrate, and give arguments concerning the subject of your essay.

So, every main concept you wrote can become a paragraph establishing your thesis. Then, each supporting paragraph is going to be illustrated by some facts and figures.

Here are some of the best ways to start writing the body of your essay.

Explain and answer the question in a chain of paragraphs that build and present the case. Thus, each paragraph should:

• Contain one big idea
• Introduce
• Define
• Offer argument
• Give evidence and discuss
• Make final point

Furthermore, each paragraph should answer the following questions.

• What is the paragraph about?
• What exactly is that (the main idea)?
• What is your argument or point of view about the topic?
• What is your evidence to support your main idea?
• What is the final/ conclusion?

Step 7. Writing the Conclusion of Your Essay

The conclusion is that the final part of your writing the most effective essay. It’s virtually a mirrored image of your introduction. The conclusion of your essay sums up the point and provides a final thought of your main idea. Moreover, it covers 15% of your essay length.

Besides, the conclusion of your essay should:

• Restate arguments and points
• Present no new evidence or information
• Make recommendations (optional)
• Prove that you have answered all the questions

Step 7. Finally, Review and Edit

Once you’ve completed your essay, it’s time to review and edit. And check for grammar and punctuation mistakes.

Thus, that is it for how to write an essay. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can let us know down below.