7 Steps to Writing an Essay

You want to create the perfect essay which will get a high grade. For this, you need to be perfectly well organized. Follow the main steps to writing an essay and you will get the result which you want to achieve.

1. Do research

Find and use all the sources which will give you the information required for writing your essay. The list includes books, databases and past research papers. Depending on the subject, you can use information from the news as well. If the professor has given you a list of resources, this will make things easier for you. Make sure that you store the information which is relevant to your essay. You can make photocopies of book pages, graphs and charts and bookmark and download information which you find online.

2. Perform analysis

Go through the information which you have found and figure out how it can support your argument. If it does not, then you may have to make modifications. It is important that you put your logic and argument to the test using the facts that you have found to ensure that they are strong enough.

3. Write the thesis

This is one of the most important steps for writing an essay so you should be extra careful with it. It is all about defining your best idea based on the research which you have found. The thesis has to be clear and concise. It has to be well synthesized. It has to express your own individual opinion based on your research and analysis. It should correspond to the length of your paper. For a two- or three-page essay, the thesis should be formulated in four or five sentences at the most.

4. Create an outline

This step is all about creating the backbone of your essay. This is the guideline which you will follow when you write. What you need to do is to outline what each paragraph will be about. Then you can write the arguments you will mention in each paragraph in the form of bullet points

5. Write the introduction, body and conclusion

The introduction has to grab the attention of the reader and to present the subject which you will be writing on. You have to use the outline to create the paragraphs. Each one should start with the presentation of an argument. They you have to support it with evidence and expand on it. The conclusion should sum up what you have written and confirm or refute the thesis. You must not start another topic or argument in it.

6. Do the required formatting

The ideas of other authors and quotations have to be cited correctly. Make sure that you follow the guidelines for this. This is not one of the easy steps to write an essay, but it is crucial since errors can lead to accusations of plagiarism, which is a serious offence in the academic world and not only.

7. Proof read the essay

Check the use of language, grammar, sentence structures and punctuation and make the necessary corrections and improvements. Go over your essay as many times as necessary until it is absolutely perfect.
With these essential steps to writing an essay, you have the best chances of getting a high grade.