Any student can tell you that writing essays isn’t their favorite activity. Most students have a somewhat traumatic experience with essays. Why? Because they never gave themselves enough time to write it. They thought: “I just need to finish this, and I can get back to watching cute cat videos on YouTube”. How many times did that work out in your favor?
There are many things to think about when you are writing an essay. You need to decide on the topic, research relevant information, and then systematically write the essay. It is not just about collecting all the ideas together but also presenting them logically. Ask any professional writer at Peachy Essay, and they’ll tell you the same thing!
All these factors make essay writing a time-consuming process. However, there are some steps that you can follow to make it easier for you to write the essay before the deadline. Let’s find out together how you can write essays faster and better.
Choose the Type of Essay
Essay writing is a process. It is helpful to know what kind of essay you are writing and how it will be evaluated. Read the assignment carefully, looking for keywords indicating what kind of essay is required, such as comparing and contrasting, summarizing, explaining, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating. Then, decide how to write this essay:
Explanatory – A type of expository essay in which the writer explains a concept or idea logically.
Narrative – A type of expository essay where the writer tells a story about something (usually an experience) that has happened to them personally.
Argumentative – The writer takes a stand on an issue and develops reasons why others should accept their opinion.
Comparison/Contrast – A type of expository essay in which the writer compares two or more things using practical techniques that appeal to the reader’s sense of logic, memory, or imagination.
Definition/Explanation – A type of expository essay in which the writer defines a concept (a word or phrase) used in an assigned text.
Brainstorm Your Topic
Brainstorming is the process of collecting and organizing your thoughts on a subject. By brainstorming, you can discover what you know about a topic and what you want to say about it. There are many ways to brainstorm, but the most important thing is putting your ideas on paper. Here are some ways to brainstorm:
Make an Outline
Write down all your ideas
Put your ideas into groups
Use a diagram or chart
Think of what questions your readers would want to be answered and include those questions in your essay
Organize your essay according to the teacher’s or client’s guidelines.
Researching the Topic
The foundation of essay writing is based on proper research, which helps you build a compelling argument in your paper. It allows you to develop an interest in the topic and focus on your work. A good essay topic gives you an idea of what you should write.
Before you begin writing, do some research? You don’t want to plagiarize someone else’s work, but use this information as a way to get started on your paper.
Research your topic and outline. A good outline will help keep you focused on your argument and support it with examples and details to create a thorough paper.
Choose a Writing Style
In most cases, the client or the topic of your paper will dictate the writing style that you will use for your essay. In general, there are three writing styles you might come across.
MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. This is one of the major writing styles used in most high schools and colleges.
APA Style-Researchers in the social sciences majorly use the American Psychological Association or APA style.
Chicago manual style, also called AMA style or science writing style, is a reference-based style used by writers in the scientific community.
Develop a Thesis
Your thesis is the main idea of your essay, and it should be clearly stated at the beginning of your paper. Your essay revolves around it; it is the backbone of your entire essay. The thesis statement will determine whether your paper will have a strong foundation or be utterly useless.
The thesis statement is one sentence that encompasses the whole purpose of your paper and thus should be clear, concise, and specific.
Outline Your Essay
An outline is fundamental because it helps structure your essay correctly, making it easier for you to understand the flow of ideas and how they should be presented to the readers. An outline allows you to find any flaws in your essay writing, like the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
There are three crucial elements to outline before writing your essay: the introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion. The introduction should have a hook (something that will grab the reader’s attention) and then a thesis statement (this is the point of their whole essay). The conclusion should restate what your main points were. This way, if a reader was only skimming through your essay and missed one of your points, they will still know what your main ideas were.
Write Your Essay
Now that you are armed with an outline, it’s time to start writing. Write based on the outline and flesh out what you don’t need to create a whole, consistent and precise essay.
Ensure that you edit and reread your essay and check to make sure it sounds the way you want it to. Remember to;
Revise and ensure that your essay has good structure, clear and consistent.
Ensure that each paragraph has its topic. The most crucial sentence in the paragraph tells the reader what to expect. And be sure to support your thesis with sufficient information in your paragraphs.
Be sure that the whole thing flows. You’d want to use transition words to prevent the essay from sounding disconnected and connecting every paragraph.
Check Spelling and Grammar
If you have written your article or report, it’s time to check the content for any spelling or grammar mistakes. You can do this by reading it aloud. If you stumble over a word or sentence, there’s a good chance that your reader will stumble over it too.
Tidy up your document by removing any unnecessary words or sentences. Check the length of your paragraphs; they should be relatively consistent and no longer than four lines.
Conclusion
The time and effort in making an outline and planning your essay beats writing it without a plan. The best approach is to develop a thorough plan and stick with it as you revise. Make sure that your draft has a solid outline and covers all of the main issues; use it to remind yourself what you wrote about so that you can update your introduction to reflect those issues.
