How to Write an Essay - Introduction

The basis of most academic work is the ability to construct a good essay. Although this
sounds obvious, it is a skill which most students need to develop as none of us is born
with the natural ability to write an essay, never mind one which will both address a given
topic effectively and adequately support an argument with evidence.
It is possible to learn how to do this, however, and this guide sets out to define the major
skills which need to be acquired in order to see the writing of an essay through from the
moment you are given or select your topic to its conclusion.
Clearly, the type of essay you are required to write will be determined to some extent by
the particular field in which you are engaged but the general points of construction will
hold good for all subjects.
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The first and most important aspect of writing a good essay is to examine the question.
The importance of close analysis of the question as the basis of a good essay cannot be
overestimated. Despite this, it is surprising how many students simply write down
everything they know about a subject without reference to what the question is actually
asking you to do.
Whether you have chosen the topic yourself or it has been assigned to you, look carefully
at the key words which the question contains, as these will give you the pointers you need
to begin to think carefully about how to proceed with your essay. Examples of key words
might be: examine, develop, analyse, influence, compare. All these words offer a
way into discussion of the topic in hand and give you a good idea of the way your essay
should be written.
For example, if you were asked to compare how two poets address a similar theme, you
would know that the reader was expecting to see close analysis of the words used and
how theme and structure differ in each. However, if you were asked to examine the
causes of the outbreak of a war, you would adopt quite a different approach, balancing
fact and opinion.
Add to this an awareness of whether the question is asking you to give your own opinion
in isolation or whether it requires you to assess the previous and current thinking on a
subject and follow this up with a conclusion summarising your own thoughts (the latter of
these is more usual).
As you develop your argument, ensure that you continue to check back to see that you are
answering the question and not just reeling of everything you know about a given topic.

If you have been assigned a topic, then things such as choice of texts, word count and
style will have been outlined for you but if you are starting from scratch then you will
need to make these decisions for yourself and this is when you should make your choices,
only altering them later if your research suggests that other areas than what you originally
planned need to be covered. Whether you have selected the topic or not, you will need to
research critical opinion on it before you begin to write.
Researching your topic
Having thought carefully about what you are being asked to do, the next stage is to gather
your evidence. It is worth saying straight away that you should jot down the details of all
and any resources to which you refer either directly or indirectly because plagiarism
is a major concern and it is easy to plagiarise without meaning to. Its simple to forget
where your ideas start, and someone elses end.
It is a good idea to begin to compile an alphabetical list of all books used at this stage as
this will save you time with your referencing and bibliography later, as well as helping
you to keep track of where you sourced your evidence. Remember to present this in the
academic style required, as there is considerable difference between the requirements of
say, Harvard referencing and MLA - seek advice on the referencing style required before
beginning. (Most referencing styles will allow for the use of abbreviations but the first
time a book is quoted the full details should be given.)
Try to strike a balance between the evidence that supports your own ideas and those
which appear to contradict you. Remember, a good essay presents a balanced case and
displays an awareness of all points of view (within reason), not just those that agree with
your own!
Planning
It is very tempting to omit this stage dont! Thorough planning saves time although it
might seem to be wasting it at this point when you just want to start writing. However,
even in an examination essay, a plan is essential to complete a structured, reasoned and
researched response on any given topic.
Begin by looking back over the question and those key words that you selected. Next,
consider the evidence you have collected and consider how the two complement each
other: if you have followed the instructions above carefully, this should be easy, as you
will have been keeping the question in mind all the time you were conducting your
research.
Nevertheless, it can be difficult to know which pieces of evidence best support your topic
points as you cant include everything. Make decisions now as to what you will use and
what you will discard. This is harder than you might think because often interesting
evidence you have unearthed has to be omitted simply because it isnt relevant.
Increasingly, students are penalized for exceeding the specified word count so ensure that
all your evidence is really related to the points you are making and to the topic
concerned.

It is useful to make a rough plan or diagram of your essay at this stage where you write
down paragraph headings and which evidence you will use where. Later, when you are
actually writing your essay, you will be able to look back at this to remind you of how
your thoughts actually progressed and why you made the choices that you did.
Structuring your essay in this way will also help with coherence as your argument will be
more clearly developed and concise, with paragraphs flowing naturally to your
conclusion. Doing this will also reveal any gaps in your evidence or linking which you
can sort out before beginning to write.
Writing your essay
At last, the moment has arrived when you begin to write. If you have followed through
carefully all the stages above, then this should be the easy part but if the notes are your
evidence then the essay is your case and you should present this with as much attention to
detail as you paid to your research.
It should go without saying that your spelling, grammar and punctuation should be
perfect. Nothing makes a worse impression on examiners than bad spelling and
punctuation, especially if you misspell an authors name or the title of a book. You are
simply throwing marks away by making mistakes in presentation and with all the
assistance that is available today via modern technology there is really no excuse for it.
Having said that, dont rely on your computers spell and grammar check as it is not by
any means infallible. If you are unsure, check with other resources and, at the end, go
back and carefully proof-read your work better still, get someone else to do this as
another pair of eyes will often spot mistakes you may have overlooked.
Now you have a choice to make: either write the main body of your essay first then go
back to construct your introduction or write the introduction first, followed by the main
body of your essay. Both have advantages and disadvantages, primarily based on how
well you can stick closely to your stated thesis.
If you feel confident that the argument can be stated simply in your introduction and
developed coherently then write the introduction first; if you feel you might deviate from
the introduction then it might be best to write the introduction later because then you can
adapt your thesis accordingly.
Structure: Introduction
Whichever approach you choose, remember that your introduction is the first statement
your examiner will read. Again, this sounds obvious but many students are careless about
introductions, saying either too much or too little. A good introduction sets out clearly
your response to the topic and how you are going to present that response. Its as simple
as that. It is commonly agreed that quotation should be omitted from your introduction as
this is where you are going to say what your response is not that of others. Remember to
keep your introduction short and to the point ending with a feed into the opening
paragraph of the main body of your essay.

Structure: Main Body

In the main body of your essay, each paragraph should be based on a separate but related
aspect of the main topic of the essay. Following the plan you made earlier, write each
paragraph almost as though it were under a sub-heading to the main title and supplement
each of your points with the evidence you have collected. Students are often unsure about
the length of paragraphs but though there is no hard and fast rule, it is a good idea to keep
them to four or five sentences.
Supporting your statements is vital and, in the case of a literary essay, this evidence
should also be analysed. This means that you should comment on individual words and/or
phrases that seem to you to be of particular interest or importance. Analysis of this kind
will not only get you extra marks but will also sometimes suggest additional lines of
thought which may be helpful, if relevant to the main argument.
Quotations should not be too long, never more than a few lines at most, except in
exceptional circumstances, and should adhere to the referencing style you have been
requested to use. It is usual to indent longer quotations and set them out on a separate
line, single-spaced, following a colon. Shorter quotations (i.e. a line or less) should be
incorporated within the text and enclosed within quotation marks.
Try to end each paragraph in the main body of the essay with a hook to the next i.e. an
idea that introduces the topic of the subsequent paragraph; follow this up by opening the
next paragraph with reference to the link. This will help your essay to flow better and
seem to be establishing a pattern which will ultimately lead to your conclusion.
Paragraphs should move on using the basis of furthering the argument. This can be
achieved in several ways:
Sequential writing, where one event follows naturally from another
Elaborative writing, where you develop a point made previously
Contrasting/comparing, where an idea contradicts or questions a point in a preceding
paragraph
These are just a few ideas, there are many more and your choice may be determined by
the type of essay/argument you are constructing.
Structure: Conclusion
The conclusion should be a summation of your argument. Students often lose marks for
presenting an abrupt conclusion which overlooks the implications of the overall
argument, its future development and unavoidable contractions/omissions due to shortage
of space. It is acceptable to use quotations in conclusions but not to introduce new ideas
at this stage. By now, your reader should have been given such a strong sense of your
central argument that no further information is necessary anyway. In your conclusion,

you are just giving a more generic context to your specific thesis and tying up any loose
ends which you feel have occurred during the writing of the essay.
General points: Style
The importance of following the required referencing style has already been stated.
However, there are other stylistic features which should be adhered to and these will
normally be set out in the instructions you are given when an essay is set. As a general
rule, do not write in the first person unless specifically asked to do so i.e. avoid the use of
phrases such as I think or in this essay I am going to. Rather, allow your essay to
reflect a personal perception whilst being presented in an objective manner. It is useful to
look at how professional writers construct essays to gain style tips (though remember, do
not plagiarise under any circumstances as this is sure to be detected, is unfair on the
writer whose ideas you are stealing and ultimately self-defeating). Most essays are
required to be typed and double-spaced using size 12 font in Times New Roman but it is
advisable to check on this as requirements vary. Do not use colloquial expressions, stick
to Standard English throughout. Lists are not a good idea unless the essay specifically
requires them, as they can appear to be rushed, a truncated way of presenting a lot of
information without sufficient explanation.
General points: Final checks
When your essay is completed, read it through to check for errors. As mentioned above, it
can be useful to ask someone who has not seen your work to proof-read it for you, maybe
even reading it aloud, as we tend to see what we expect to see and typographical errors
can easily be overlooked. Correct any errors before handing in your work otherwise you
are throwing marks away.
Ensure that you have correctly referenced all quotations and completed a bibliography
according to the stylistic requirements to which you have been asked to adhere. Your
bibliography is very important, as evidence of your research and wider reading and to
demonstrate that you recognise the importance of acknowledging sources. A bibliography
should never be a rushed, last-minute task but rather should evolve naturally, as your
research does. As previously stated, noting full publication details of every book you
consult at the time will help enormously with this.
And finally...
Remember that your essay is essentially a response to a suggested idea. Different
academic disciplines will, of course, require different content but no matter what you are
writing about your argument should be clear, coherent, well-referenced and appropriately
structured. You need to follow any instructions carefully, especially those relating to style
and word count.
Bear in mind that although you are answering a question, you are also writing to engage
your readers interest so try to combine thorough, factual research with an engaging,
interesting style; it is your aim to compile an essay that will both inform and entertain.
Think of the engagement of your readers interest as a challenge which your essay will
meet; remember, your essay will be one of many to be read by your

tutor/teacher/examiner and making your work stand out as impressive is quite an obstacle
to overcome!
The ability to write a good essay is a skill that is difficult to acquire but not impossible
and, once acquired, can even be enjoyable: good luck!