An Essay on Writing Essays

This essay is an essay about writing essays, in particular the school essay. Our civilisation did not get where it is today without people communicating their ideas and experiences to each other, and schools teach this valuable skill. In school an essay enables a teacher to see how much you know, and he/she will usually grade you accordingly. This essay is also an essay about the 5 paragraph essay, a type of essay that has an introduction, 3 main paragraphs and a conclusion. The opening paragraph of the 5 paragraph essay introduces the essay to the reader, telling the reader what the subject of the essay is (essentially the essay question, the goal of the essay), and what is in the essay (an overview of the 3 middle paragraphs of the essay, which between them answer the essay question, and kick the ball into the goal!). So without further ado, the goal of this essay is to show the steps needed to get started writing an essay, and in particular writing a type of essay that can be used to answer most school essay questions, namely the 5 paragraph essay. This is by no means the only way to write an essay. You might for instance if writing a story want to use a lot more paragraphs. However, quoting from Sweet Briar College's website: "People tend to be able to grasp ideas best if they are divided into three parts." In this essay I first of all look at the clues as to what to write that can be gleaned from the essay question. Having decided what the teacher wants you to do, I then (in the next paragraph) look at how to go about actually writing the essay. In the third and final paragraph of the main body of the essay, before the concluding paragraph, I write a paragraph on the important consideration of how much time you have to write the essay in.



In this opening paragraph of the main body of this essay I look at clues as to what to write in each of the 3 middle paragraphs of the main part of the essay that can be gleaned from asking what type of essay it is that you have been asked to write, and from the meaning of certain words used by teachers in essay questions. Four types of essay are listed below, study your essay question, is the essay one of these types?:

1. Explaining how to do something. To organise your paragraphs for the main body of the essay list the steps to be followed grouping them together into 3 paragraphs (e.g., beginning, middle and end).

2. Providing information. To organise your paragraphs for the main body of the essay: write the main categories into which your information can be divided.

3. Offering an opinion or trying to persuade a point of view. To organise your paragraphs for the main body of the essay: write down your best arguments. When writing your essay allow other sides to have their say.

4. Writing about an experience you have had during your life. There may be a point to the story in which case this will be the subject of the essay, and included in the introductory paragraph.

(Can you think of examples of each of the above? Study them! What do you think?) There are other types of essay as well, so if in doubt ask your teacher what is required. 'Google' essay writing and read books on essay writing in your library for more ideas on types of essay. The second idea introduced in this paragraph for ideas as to what to write comes from looking at the words that teachers use in the essay questions, some examples include: 'compare'; (point out similarities, you can include differences also); 'contrast' (differences, unlikeness); 'describe' (a descriptive answer; you could also exercise some judgement and discuss merit and good points); 'discuss' (this question requires a detailed answer, so examine closely - see 'analyse' below; consider the pros and cons or arguments for and against); 'explain' (explain how something has arisen, the how and why, the cause); 'analyse' (break whatever you are examining into component parts, explain how it works as a whole). As before, for the meanings of more words used in essay questions, 'Google', read library books, and ask! Having looked at understanding the essay question let's now look at going about writing the essay itself.



Having looked at the essay question, in this paragraph I outline a series of simple steps to go about writing a 5 paragraph essay:

1) Make notes: Note down any initial ideas you have. If writing about an experience of your own it might be useful to explore the subject using the six questions traditionally asked by journalists: who? what? when? where? how? and why? If a factual essay is called for then it may be useful to do some more formal research, at the library, on the web, out and about seeing people who have the knowledge you need. Write down and note anything that moves you towards the goal of the essay.

2) Sketch out an outline: Put your creative hat on, this bit is very much up to you! Read all of your notes. Identify topics. Look for the major categories into which the ideas/information in your notes can be divided. You are aiming for 3 main ideas to group your notes into, which will in turn become the 3 main paragraphs of the body of your 5 paragraph essay; these will be 3 ideas also that follow in some sort of order, giving the essay a structure. Together these paragraphs will answer the essay question and kick the ball into the net! Once you have decided on these, jot down a simple plan: write out 'Paragraph 1', 'Paragraph 2' and 'Paragraph 3', and under these headings write out the topics from your notes that you intend to include in each of the paragraphs.

3) The draft copy: Start to write out your essay in rough. To start work on a particular paragraph pull out all the notes from the notes made in step 1) relevant to the topic(s) you have decided to include in the paragraph. (If using a wordprocessor, copy and paste the notes over to your draft, and if there is an obvious order that they should go in then cut and paste them into order; if using hand written notes, mark out the individual notes on the page, and order them likewise.) In the introduction paragraph try and attract the reader's attention -- try to entice the reader -- introduce the subject of the essay, set the scene; end the paragraph by saying what the goal of the essay is (essentially the essay assignment, you are demonstrating your knowledge to the teacher and in any particular way the teacher has asked for -- argue, analyse, discuss etc.), then say how the essay is going to get to that goal (essentially this is what you have written the 3 main paragraphs of the body of the essay to do, so introduce each of these 3 paragraphs). In the body paragraphs (the 3 middle paragraphs of the 5 paragraph essay), in the first sentence, you can introduce the paragraph. Say what you intend to write in the paragraph. You can also in the first sentence, using words and phrases like 'On the other hand...', 'Also...';, 'Another...';, connect one paragraph to the next, showing how one paragraph follows to the next and the reasoning behind the order that you have given the 3 paragraphs. These words and phrases are often called transition words and phrases -- for lists of these, as before, 'Google' the web, read books, and ask anyone who might know as well! Connecting paragraphs together like this can also be done in the last sentence of the previous paragraph. The conclusion of the essay is the last paragraph. In the final paragraph are the last thoughts and final perspective that you will want to leave the reader with. In this paragraph restate the goal of the essay (you have written this once already in the introductory paragraph), and say how you have gone about reaching that goal in the essay (summing up the main point of each of the 3 body paragraphs of the essay). A final word of advice on writing the draft, write, read, and rewrite! Having completed the draft, take a break. You have done most of the work needed to write your essay.

4) The final copy. Write the essay out neatly.

5) Proofreading. Check your spelling and for typing errors.

And finally! Take one or two well deserved days off for a job well done.

Immanuel Kant once said: "Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." (So is wisdom knowledge about life!?) In real life you will have a time limit. If writing an essay for an exam you will have to calculate how long you have to answer each question, and apportion the time you have for any essay questions between planning the essay (an outline of the essay), writing out a rough copy out (the draft copy, most of the time will be spent on this), and writing the neat answer, with enough time to read through and check your answer as well. When sketching out an outline, you may only have time to jot down a rough plan of what you intend to include in each of the essay's paragraphs, the rest will be memorised, though it is useful to make notes next to this plan of anything that pops into mind that you don't want to forget. With an assignment essay there will be a date when it has to be handed in. It would be just as wise to plan a number of hours/days for making notes and organising your notes into an essay outline, for writing the draft, and with an hour or two set aside as well for writing out the final copy and proofreading.



To conclude, the goal of this essay is to provide enough information for the reader to be able to get started writing an essay. I kicked the ball into the net by: 1) saying that by looking at the essay question you can glean the type of essay that you have to write, and also if your teacher has used certain words ('terms') in the essay question, you will then know what you have to do in the essay, 2) I then listed a series of steps as how to actually go about writing the essay, and 3) I asked the reader to consider the time they have to write the essay in. I think I have included the main key points in beginning to write an essay. The worth of the above has to be considered in light of research for the essay being carried out from my experience and using the Internet only (the best ideas gleaned from websites offering essay writing advice). Books nor individuals have been consulted in the writing, though having said that I did once read a dictionary definition (not on the web) of the word 'essay' that read: "to venture forth". Enjoy the journey you are about to travel on. I've enjoyed writing an essay on writing essays.