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How to Write Your First Essay

how to write your first essay
Written by CB Community

Most college and high school tests include an essay writings section. The writing section may have a prompt requiring students to write on a specific topic, or the student may be able to choose their own topic. Regardless, essay sections strike fear into the hearts and minds of students because many of them don’t know how to write an essay. Don’t be scared! Once you know the specific requirements along with how to properly write an essay, it’s an easy task.

Some students who dread writing essays in the beginning actually come to love the process after they figure out the basic principles behind it. With a enough time and practice, some students even find online copy writing jobs and make a living from it. With these helpful tips, who knows. You could up being one of them!

Understand the essay prompt

The first step is to understand your teacher or professor wants you to write. Read the essay prompt carefully, looking for important clues such as “explain”, “describe”, “discuss”, or “illustrate”.These will help you determine what the essay’s focus should be.

Create an outline

Outlining an essay helps you to organize your ideas and supporting facts, while giving the essay some structure. In other words, it an outline helps you to present your ideas in a clear, logical manner. Taking the time to outline your essay in the beginning will save you time in the long run because you won’t be left trying to rearrange and restructure ideas once the essay is finished.

Write the introduction

The essay’s introduction should funnel from general information to specific information. Start off the essay by introducing your topic in a relatively broad, general sentence or two. From there, you should build upon that idea, becoming more focused and specific. The introduction is where you introduce your thesis statement, the entire point and focus of your writing. Within the introduction you should also provide a road map or summary of what the reader will find. Remember to keep it brief, but informative.

The body paragraphs

The essay’s body is made up of several paragraph. Each paragraph acts as a building block, constructing your argument. Provide an answer to the prompt by developing a candid discussion within the body. This is your opportunity to show off your knowledge of the course material and support it with various pieces of evidence such as authoritative quotes and relevant examples. If the prompt is a multi-part question, structure your essay into sections and make sure that each section deals with a specific part. Once you have written the body, critique your arguments to ensure that they make sense.

Write the conclusion

The essay’s conclusion should move from specific information to general information; the opposite of the introduction. You can restate your thesis, along with summarizing your main points or arguments. Include a broad, final statement about future directions or suggestions for research or possible implications. However, be sure not to introduce any new ideas or information. Finish by editing your essay to eliminate any errors or mistakes. Don’t forget that even a brilliant essay can be ruined by a small typo.

A great essay is made by using higher cognitive abilities. Don’t just recall or show your understanding of the topic. Instead, synthesize and analyze ideas from varying sources and evaluate them critically. whether at school or writing from home, take the time to practice and learn to write better.

For more great information on all things college, read the other blogs at College Basics.

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CB Community

Passionate members of the College Basics community that include students, essay writers, consultants and beyond. Please note, while community content has passed our editorial guidelines, we do not endorse any product or service contained in these articles which may also include links for which College Basics is compensated.