[Niko]

Effective Essay Writing

Essays, in their basic form, are not difficult to write. There are simple steps that need to be followed. Essay writing is also a discipline. This is what most students object to!

Mental discipline is what is required to write a thorough and coherent response to a question.

Your argument, or discussion, must be well structured and should demonstrate a logical development of ideas.

Essays consist of the following parts:

Planning:

Before you start writing you must plan your response. This is essential if you want your response to be logical and coherent. This should always be your aim.

You must crystalise your thoughts on the question and write down the relevant points required to answer the question comprehensively. These points will form the topic sentences of each paragraph in the body of the essay.

Planning a response only takes a few minutes and will result in a more logical and cohesive essay.

Introduction:

The introduction of your essay could consist of a 1 line response that answers the question. Importantly, this sentence should consist of keywords used in the question. This lets the reader know that you are in fact attempting to engage with the question that has been asked.

If you choose, you can outline the relevant points you will cover here. This is optional.

Body:

This takes the same form regardless of the approach you adopt in the introduction to the essay.

Begin a new paragraph with your first topic sentence and develop it into 1 or 2 paragraphs. You then do the same with the remainder of your points.

The reader can easily identify the key points that you have made by scanning for the topic sentences in your essay.

To develop your points you must make close reference to real life examples. Be sure to discuss examples in order to demonstrate their relevance. This also adds depth to your response. When discussing examples, do not fall into the trap of simply retelling the scenario. Discuss only the parts that are relevant to answering the question.

At all times, throughout your discussion, you should attempt to use the wording of the question to keep your discussion focused.

Conclusion:

The conclusion is very important. Many students think the conclusion is a paragraph one tacks on at the end of their discussion. This is a mistake.

You must outline the key points you have raised linking them back to the question. This rounds off your discussion and the impression you make here will affect the way in which the reader will view your response.

A good conclusion that is well expressed and integrated will leave the reader satisfied that you have a comprehensive grasp of the relevant issues.