write good essays

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How to Write the Perfect Essay

06 Feb, 2024 | Blog Articles , English Language Articles , Get the Edge , Humanities Articles , Writing Articles

You can keep adding to this plan, crossing bits out and linking the different bubbles when you spot connections between them. Even though you won’t have time to make a detailed plan under exam conditions, it can be helpful to draft a brief one, including a few key words, so that you don’t panic and go off topic when writing your essay.

If you don’t like the mind map format, there are plenty of others to choose from: you could make a table, a flowchart, or simply a list of bullet points.

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Thanks for signing up, step 2: have a clear structure.

Think about this while you’re planning: your essay is like an argument or a speech. It needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question.

Start with the basics! It’s best to choose a few major points which will become your main paragraphs. Three main paragraphs is a good number for an exam essay, since you’ll be under time pressure. 

If you agree with the question overall, it can be helpful to organise your points in the following pattern:

• YES (agreement with the question)
• AND (another YES point)
• BUT (disagreement or complication)

If you disagree with the question overall, try:

• AND (another BUT point)

For example, you could structure the Of Mice and Men sample question, “To what extent is Curley’s wife portrayed as a victim in Of Mice and Men ?”, as follows:

• YES (descriptions of her appearance)
• AND (other people’s attitudes towards her)
• BUT (her position as the only woman on the ranch gives her power as she uses her femininity to her advantage)

If you wanted to write a longer essay, you could include additional paragraphs under the YES/AND categories, perhaps discussing the ways in which Curley’s wife reveals her vulnerability and insecurities, and shares her dreams with the other characters. Alternatively, you could also lengthen your essay by including another BUT paragraph about her cruel and manipulative streak.

Of course, this is not necessarily the only right way to answer this essay question – as long as you back up your points with evidence from the text, you can take any standpoint that makes sense.

Step 3: Back up your points with well-analysed quotations

You wouldn’t write a scientific report without including evidence to support your findings, so why should it be any different with an essay? Even though you aren’t strictly required to substantiate every single point you make with a quotation, there’s no harm in trying.

A close reading of your quotations can enrich your appreciation of the question and will be sure to impress examiners. When selecting the best quotations to use in your essay, keep an eye out for specific literary techniques. For example, you could highlight Curley’s wife’s use of a rhetorical question when she says, a”n’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs.” This might look like:

The rhetorical question “an’ what am I doin’?” signifies that Curley’s wife is very insecure; she seems to be questioning her own life choices. Moreover, she does not expect anyone to respond to her question, highlighting her loneliness and isolation on the ranch.

Other literary techniques to look out for include:

• Tricolon – a group of three words or phrases placed close together for emphasis
• Tautology – using different words that mean the same thing: e.g. “frightening” and “terrifying”
• Parallelism – ABAB structure, often signifying movement from one concept to another
• Chiasmus – ABBA structure, drawing attention to a phrase
• Polysyndeton – many conjunctions in a sentence
• Asyndeton – lack of conjunctions, which can speed up the pace of a sentence
• Polyptoton – using the same word in different forms for emphasis: e.g. “done” and “doing”
• Alliteration – repetition of the same sound, including assonance (similar vowel sounds), plosive alliteration (“b”, “d” and “p” sounds) and sibilance (“s” sounds)
• Anaphora – repetition of words, often used to emphasise a particular point

Don’t worry if you can’t locate all of these literary devices in the work you’re analysing. You can also discuss more obvious techniques, like metaphor, simile and onomatopoeia. It’s not a problem if you can’t remember all the long names; it’s far more important to be able to confidently explain the effects of each technique and highlight its relevance to the question.

Step 4: Be creative and original throughout

Anyone can write an essay using the tips above, but the thing that really makes it “perfect” is your own unique take on the topic. If you’ve noticed something intriguing or unusual in your reading, point it out – if you find it interesting, chances are the examiner will too!

Creative writing and essay writing are more closely linked than you might imagine. Keep the idea that you’re writing a speech or argument in mind, and you’re guaranteed to grab your reader’s attention.

It’s important to set out your line of argument in your introduction, introducing your main points and the general direction your essay will take, but don’t forget to keep something back for the conclusion, too. Yes, you need to summarise your main points, but if you’re just repeating the things you said in your introduction, the body of the essay is rendered pointless.

Think of your conclusion as the climax of your speech, the bit everything else has been leading up to, rather than the boring plenary at the end of the interesting stuff.

To return to Of Mice and Men once more, here’s an example of the ideal difference between an introduction and a conclusion:

Introduction

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men , Curley’s wife is portrayed as an ambiguous character. She could be viewed either as a cruel, seductive temptress or a lonely woman who is a victim of her society’s attitudes. Though she does seem to wield a form of sexual power, it is clear that Curley’s wife is largely a victim. This interpretation is supported by Steinbeck’s description of her appearance, other people’s attitudes, her dreams, and her evident loneliness and insecurity.

Overall, it is clear that Curley’s wife is a victim and is portrayed as such throughout the novel in the descriptions of her appearance, her dreams, other people’s judgemental attitudes, and her loneliness and insecurities. However, a character who was a victim and nothing else would be one-dimensional and Curley’s wife is not. Although she suffers in many ways, she is shown to assert herself through the manipulation of her femininity – a small rebellion against the victimisation she experiences.

Both refer back consistently to the question and summarise the essay’s main points. However, the conclusion adds something new which has been established in the main body of the essay and complicates the simple summary which is found in the introduction.

Hannah is an undergraduate English student at Somerville College, University of Oxford, and has a particular interest in postcolonial literature and the Gothic. She thinks literature is a crucial way of developing empathy and learning about the wider world. When she isn’t writing about 17th-century court masques, she enjoys acting, travelling and creative writing. 

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How to Write a Good Essay: 7-step full Guide with examples

• by Joshua Beshy
• October 11, 2022 October 11, 2022

Have you been struggling with how to write good essays and boost your school performance? Many people have branded essay writing as an easy task but truth be told it is never a walk in the park.

To earn better marks in an essay it has to be polished to impress your instructor or professor. The secret is following seven simple steps to take your essays from poor or average to perfect. Below are the seven steps that can transform you into an essay pro and have them as a piece of cake.

How to Write a Good Essay

Writing a good essay is not magic. It is all by design and taking conscious steps towards making the structure and contents of the essay tick. Yes, it is that simple.

This is a detailed beginner’s guide to writing a good essay in just 7 steps. To write a good essay, you need a good topic, craft a thesis, write an outline, meaningful paragraphs, and a good conclusion.

To achieve that, we have created a simple guide for you to learn the skill and write an essay that rocks. Below we will discuss each of these steps in detail, with good examples.

1. Select a good Topic for the essay

If your instructor provides an essay question that you should center your essay ideas around make sure that you come up with an essay topic that is a true reflection of that question.

If you have been given an essay type with no instructions always make sure that the topic you choose has enough content to match the length required.

If you have been provided with the topic always read it clearly and understand what it requires you to write about.

This helps avoid confusion and writing essays that are out of topic and that can easily lead to a low grade

2. Research the topic

An essay can only be good if the ideas it represents are well-researched and rich in information.

Go to the library or use the internet to collect all the available information out there about the topic.

When researching online, make sure that the articles you are extracting ideas from are peer-reviewed. Always take notes during the research to make referencing the sources easy.

After gathering all the information make an outline. This helps you arrange your thoughts and form the flow of your essay even without writing it. 

3. Craft a good Thesis Statement

After having researched and determined the main points of your essay it is now time to come up with the main thought that your essay generates.

This is basically summing up your whole essay into one statement. The thesis statement must include the limited subject that your essay is focusing on, a precise opinion that will be backed by evidence, and a blueprint of reasons.

Once the reader reads the thesis statement he or she must be able to grasp everything your essay is all about and get ready for supporting arguments in the body paragraphs. 

4. Write the Introduction

Once you have researched, formulated an outline, and constructed a thesis statement, it is now time to get into the writing. Start your essay with a sentence that will immediately grasp the attention of the reader.

This usually depends on the topic because you can pose a question, use a statistic or surprising fact, and get personal with your view to draw the attention of the reader.

Also, the introduction should provide background information about the essay topic. Always limit the discussion in the introduction because it should not be a very long paragraph The introduction should always end with the thesis statement that will help the reader get the main idea of the essay. 

5. Write the body paragraphs

This is where you write paragraphs in support of your thesis statement. Complex topics should be properly broken down in the body paragraphs to let the reader understand them fully.

The number of body paragraphs should always depend on the required length of the essay. Every body paragraph should have a topic sentence. This sentence introduces the main point that will be explored in the paragraph.

If the reader reads the first sentences of your essay’s body paragraphs he should then have all the evidence supporting the thesis statement.

Body paragraphs can also include your analysis of the information. When writing body paragraphs there should be a transition from one paragraph to another.

This requires the use of words such as “to add to that,” “furthermore,” and “despite” among others.  It is also important to make sure that you do not repeat the same information in body paragraphs. This is common in long essays where the writer can recycle an idea without knowing. 

6. Write the conclusion

The aim of the conclusion is always to sum up the thoughts presented in the introduction and body paragraphs. A conclusion should start with a conclusion starter to help the reader know that the essay is coming to an end and that there is no further information after the paragraph.

The conclusion starter can be followed by the thesis statement to remind the reader of the main idea of the essay. This paragraph should contain the summary points of the main idea.

Any new information should be avoided in the conclusion. The paragraph should be well-crafted because it is the last option that you have to impress your readers with the arguments you have made. Weak statements should always be avoided in the conclusion to end the essay on a high note.

7. Polish and Proofread the essay

No one is perfect. You make a lot of mistakes when writing essays some of which you cannot notice easily. Therefore, you must go through the work to check for any errors before submitting it.

This process is mostly overlooked but it is the most important. You may have researched the best content on a topic but if there is no clear understanding due to grammatical errors, then you will not get the grade you wanted.

When proofreading an essay, the most common things to look out for include, the capitalization of letters at the beginning of sentences, the use of commas and apostrophes properly, spelling mistakes, and other grammatical errors such as incorrect prepositions. 

It is usually advisable that you take a break before proofreading a paper to be fresh and easily detect mistakes. Also, you can call a friend to proofread for you if you have attempted and failed to find any errors.

An essay without mistakes will always guarantee good results.  Note that it is not good to rely on online grammar-checking tools because you are the best proofreader. Reading each word slowly and analyzing it as you read the next will always be the best way to proofread your work. 

How Long does it Take to Write a Good Essay?

The time that you will need to write a good essay usually depends on the task you have been given and your level as a writer. For example, an average writer can take up to 3 hours to write an essay. An experienced writer on the other hand can only take an hour to complete an easy two-page essay. 

A five-page complex essay can take an experienced writer up to 4 hours to complete and 6-7 hours for an inexperienced writer to complete. Therefore, the more pages required in an essay, the more time the writer will need to complete the task. 

Examples of Common Types of Essays

There are different kinds of essays that you can be tasked to do as a student. However, the common types of essays include argumentative, descriptive, expository, and narrative essays.

1. Argumentative essays

In these essays, a student is expected to explore a topic and establish a position on it using concrete evidence. This clearly defined stance on the topic should serve as a thesis statement.

These essays usually test your ability as a writer to research and present your own opinions. The introduction should present the thesis, the body paragraphs the supporting arguments, and the conclusion the summary of those arguments.

2. Descriptive essays

These essays provide a detailed description of something. They usually test your ability to creatively use language and appropriate words to paint the picture of something in the reader’s mind.

This essay should begin with a detailed description of the object or event you’re describing and continue providing more information on it to draw an overall picture of it.

3. Narrative essays

These are essays that tell a story. It can be about something you have experienced and seen or something that you have no idea of forcing you to do through research.

Your ability to tell a story in an engaging and well-structured way is what is tested in narrative essay tasks.

Always begin these essays by setting up the narrative and ending them with the point of the story or lessons learned from it. 

This is the type of essay that uses personal narrations. As a result, such personal essays can be written first person-language because they are narratives. Read our detailed guide on how to write personal narrative essays using first-person language to write essays

4. Expository essays

These essays usually provide a detailed and focused explanation of a topic. They test the writer’s ability to organize and well balance views on a particular topic as well as the ability to convey information.

The introduction should state the topic, the body should present the details of the topic, and the conclusion should summarize the information presented.

If you keep the above steps in mind, then writing essays will be easy. Your writing skills will improve day by day. However, to perfect your essay writing skills you need practice.

Know how to write different types of essays and keep on practicing to make yourself perfect. Transferring your thoughts to paper will be easy and enjoyable. 

I am an educator with vast experience in learning and pedagogy. Currently, I write to help people discover creative and insightful ways to make learning simpler. When not working, I love playing soccer.