When it comes to understanding the skills required for succeeding in high school until graduation from a higher education, essay writing holds crucial significance.
Although many people struggle when crafting an essay, the key is to recognize and apply a specific, structuralized formula to establish the main point and support it. In the same way that architects construct a building by following a set of blueprints, the essence of crafting a great essay begins and ends with assessing a prompt, developing a response, and gathering support to persuade your readers.
Because responding to the essay prompt establishes the perspective you will follow as the essay evolves, developing the thesis is the most crucial portion of the writing process. According to the University of Illinois’s Center for Writing Studies, there are six questions you should ask yourself when formulating your thesis statement: Is it in an appropriate location, specific, definite, clear, professional, and original? The purpose of answering these questions is to ensure that your stance on the subject is clear and concise to the audience, as a clarified statement has a higher chance of convincing the readers of your point than an unstable one because there is no doubt in what that statement actually means. When thinking about your thesis, devise a statement that clearly answers the prompt in a specific and creative manner and present it somewhere in the introduction of your essay, so that the audience understands from the beginning the position you are taking on the subject.
After you have formed your thesis statement, the next step is to gather evidence from outside sources. The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina suggests, when gathering evidence, it is important to consider what types of evidence required to completely answer the prompt. The evidence is provided as support for your thesis, in order to persuade the audience to understand why your idea would be a plausible response to the prompt. But evidence alone will not persuade your readers; after you have implemented your sources, you need to explain why this evidence is relevant to your thesis statement. Carl Hose, the author of Dead Horizon and writer for The Pen and the Pad, claims the best way to write commentary is to keep it professional and avoid including personal opinion; in his own words, “Persuade your readers to look at the original topic from your perspective, but do not force them to do it.” Commentary showcases the support you’ve found and creates connections between the evidence and thesis statement, which makes it an imperative portion of the writing process.
Once you have collected your evidence and implemented it into your essay, it’s time to draft a conclusion. According to Jaclyn M. Wells, a writer for Purdue OWL Engagement, the conclusion of your essay should meet three requirements: restates the main idea, summarizes the subpoints of the essay, and leaves the reader with an allured final impression. She emphasizes that “even though the goal of the conclusion is to restate a lot of the information from the introduction, it should sound different because the conclusion’s purpose is slightly different from the introduction.” The conclusion is meant to finalize your argument and leave the reader with something to think about afterward. When assembling and editing the final product, keep in mind how diction impacts your argument: Oxford Royale Academy encourages students to “build their vocabulary and use it properly” so they can convey the message of their writing as clearly and efficiently as possible. They also encourage a variety of vocabulary in order to “help develop your argument and make the reader feel they are being guided through” your essay. Word choice can transform your writing from a boring lecture into an intriguing essay that will capture and keep your reader throughout the argument.
Many students struggle with essay writing because it requires assembling and organizing ideas into a structured form of writing. There is a formula, however, that if followed precisely, can produce a compelling piece of literature that will not only make you the grade you deserve but will earn you confidence in your abilities as a writer and organizer of information – a skill highly revered in college and beyond.
Psychology and English Literature
Latest posts by Elizabeth Mason (see all)
- Walkthrough The Writing Process - August 24, 2017
