To write a full-proof essay first what we need to understand is, what is an essay? What is its purpose?
If we go by the definition of Oxford Royal Academy, an essay is nothing but “a piece of writing that explores the debates and research around a particular subject, and then takes and defends a position on it.” This means an essay is not only a way of manifesting important details of a subject but a medium of advocating one’s profound stand regarding the same. But there is a certain way on how an essay should be framed. Without proper formatting and sequencing and hooks even, a good piece of writing might appear dull and monotonous to the readers. The following ten steps will show you how to frame an essay from scratch and make it look organized and professional.
Essays can be of various kinds but of them all the common traits that exalt the standards of an essay by manifolds and gives an edge over other’s content are:
There must be a central idea of the essay that the writer must not deplete from while framing the essay.
There must be a precise clarity of thought that the essay would reflect.
The essay must be organized logically, flow smoothly, and "stick" together. Simply put, all the segments of the content should be in coherence with each other.
Incorporation of words and expression, and most important the content being free of SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND PUNCTUATION is a must.
Lastly, proper hooks must be placed in every segment of the essay and every piece of information sourced from other’s findings must be cited properly to grab the reader’s attention as well and make the content more credible before them respectively.
Steps
Step1- Reading and appropriating information: Once the topic or the idea is being chosen, the primary step that you should take is to read as much information as you can available on the internet.
Step 2- Jotting down Ideas: Once you have completed step one now it is time for you to move to the next step of jotting down information. Create a document file or take a blank sheet and write down the important information that you wish to incorporate or will be incorporating in your essay in bullet points, and get rid of the unnecessary information. Remember with too much redundant information the persuasiveness of an essay gets subverted and eventually the piece of writing becomes monotonous and dull. Therefore, there should be a good balance between incorporating only the necessary information and organizing them with proper linguistic flair.
Step 3- Jotting down words: This might appear to be an ingenious step, that you never might have thought of, but trust me on this, if followed properly this step will make your content look way more professional before the readers. While appropriating information regarding the topic, you might come across some common keywords that are been used in if not all, in most of the articles or the sources that you have gathered your information from. Now jot down those keywords and do remember to sprinkle those over on your content while framing it. Remember!! You must not overdo it, as this might make your content look impoverish and the whole point of making it look professional might go in vain. Step 4- Making use of citation managers: This is the final step before you start writing your content. Gone are those days, when we on our own had to write the in-text citations and end text references while sourcing some information from somewhere. Now there are millions of free citation managers available on the internet, where you can generate citations merely by doing only a few clicks. Make proper use of them. Sign up to those sites and get them ready to use before you start your writing.
Step 5- Framing the ‘Introduction’: There is a saying that ‘the first impression is the last impression’. The introductory section is the section that creates that first impression on your readers. This is the section that determines whether your reader will be hooked with your content and read further or merely lose their interest in it. Now to frame an appealing introduction use the technique ’H-T-D-H/C’ that I made and dearly follow while framing every single essay, and almost every time it works and yields great marks. H- Hook T- Thesis statement D- Discussion (About all the topics that you are going to cover in the body) H/C- Hook/ Concern First start the introduction with an eye-grabbing introduction, for example, an anecdote, a quotation, or an astonishing finding. Make a thesis statement. Then briefly dwell upon the topics that you are going to cover in your ‘BODY’ section of the paragraph, henceforth anchor a subtle hook or a concern with the immediately following topic that will be discussed in the ‘Body 1’. This would engender a subtle coherence in your writing. Step 6- Framing the ‘Body’: The structure of an ideal five body essay usually looks like Introduction Body 1 Body
Body 3 Conclusion Follow the exact steps to frame all the body paragraphs. First, start with a hook. Remember, each body paragraph should contain one key idea or claim, therefore chose a topic sentence. Elaborate it, establish your argument, back it with details, cite the sources properly, and finally in the end try to place a statement regarding the claim of the following body with a concerning tone. This would build up coherence among each section (especially within the body paragraphs). Moreover, this would maintain the flow of the content as well. Step 7- Framing conclusion: This is the final section that determines for how long the content is going to be with them that they just read? After the introduction, this can be considered the second most important and powerful section. To frame this section first briefly summarize the arguments that you just established. Place a closing sentence that connects it back to the introduction. And finally, finish it up with a futuristic note on how this in the future can contribute to mankind (positively or adversely). And try to finish it up with an optimistic note.
Step 8- Making the paper error-free: Finally, once you are done with the essay, now it is time to give it some final touch. For that first go through the whole text again, trim out some excess fat, and make it more concise. Run it through ‘Grammarly’ (Free version will do) to get rid of some minor typo or grammatical mistakes. Remember, don’t be over-reliant on such ‘writing tools’ as following their suggestions blindfolded, would simply diminish the style and character of your content. Just use them to make some minor technical corrections.
Step 9- Place references: Finally place the references of the in-text citations at the end of the paragraph as per the citation guidelines. And you are good to go.
N.B- Do not forget to sprinkle the keywords that you had noted down, throughout your content. And try keeping it as concise as possible. Writing a world-class essay is nothing less of an art. If you want to excel in this, you have to practice more and more, there are no shortcuts. Therefore, just follow the aforementioned nine steps and keep practicing accordingly. You are not expected to attain all the steps from day 1. This might take a few months. If you keep being at it, without giving up writing at least one essay a week, then mark my words, within no time you will see a huge difference in your writing style and flair.
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