How to Write an Essay

skylark

May 20, 2008

School

Do you dread writing an essay, or fear the thought of writing an essay? Many studends do, but essays are not difficult to write, they just take a little practice. All essays have the same basic format which includes a title, introduction, body and conclusion. Essays are opinions or issues, and wrting an essay is just basically making a statement, putting it on paper and then providing proof of your statement. By using these few simple steps, you will soon be on your way to writing an effective essay for any class assignment.

1. TOPIC:

Choose a topic or opinion that you feel strongly about.

2. TITLE:

The title of your essay should not only be the topic of your essay, the title should capture the reader's attention. As an example, if you wanted to write an essay claiming that high blood pressure is associated with city living, the title of your essay might be, "City Life Causes High Blood Pressure"

3. INTRODUCTION:

An essay alway begins with an introduction. The introduction is a paragraph that introduces the reader to the topic of the essay, and provides the reader with a general description of what your essay is about.

4. THESIS:

The introduction must have a thesis statement. The thesis statement should be near the end of the introduction. A thesis is the main idea, or point that you wish to get across to the reader. A good thesis should be arguable.

a) A non-arguable thesis would be;

Cities are full of crime, and many people have high blood pressure, but most people find city living to be convenient.

This statement is not arguable because there are no connections in the statement and it would not give the reader much to argue about.

b). An arguable thesis might be;

Living in a city is convienent for many people, but high crime rates and the cost of living elevate stress levels which causes high blood pressure.

This statement is arguable because it claims that cities have high crime rates, are costly, and these factors cause high blood pressure.

5. BODY:

After the introduction, begin with a new paragraph to start the body of the essay. The body of an essay consists of paragraphs that back up the thesis statement. Each paragraph should focus on specific points in the thesis. For example, if you were to use the above thesis statement;

The first paragraph in the body of the essay should list some of the conveniences of city life.

In the second paragraph, you could discuss the different types of crime and the affects it has on people.

For the third paragraph, you would want to provide evidence to prove that city life is expensive.

And in the fourth paragraph, you would want to provide strong supporting evidence to support your claim that high crime rates and the cost of living cause high blood pressure in people who live in the city.

6. CONCLUSION:

The last part of the essay is the conclusion. The conclusion should be short and kept to a few sentences to wrap up the main ideas in the body of the essay, and then end with a final statement. For example, the above topic might conclude with a brief statement to expain why people would choose to jeopardize their health for the convenience of city living, and then end with a final statement such as; cities may be full of crime, costly and the cause of hgh blood pressure, but for the majority, they would rather live in the city than anywhere else.

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