An Ultimate Essay Writing Guide For Students
Generally, many students face troubles with their writing assignments that frequently lead to stress and frustration. From time to time, the only reason for getting into such a sad situation is the lack of an ultimate practical guide to essay writing. Below you will find the best plan for essay writing that will help you on your educational path.
Define the Type of Essay
We are starting our essay writing guide from the initial point by clarifying what type of essay you are assigned to write. Five main categories of academic essays are below:
- Narrative essay
Such essays are about storytelling more than about comparing issues or subjects. Narrative essays must include undiscovered facts from the whole story.
- Argumentative essay
Such essays have a core goal to persuade the reader’s opinion, making the audience join the same side as the author. The readers must have the same point of view as the author after reading an argumentative essay.
- Expository essay
This type of essay is dedicated to making a particular process or event clear. It is usually written in the style of a guide or an instruction.
- Descriptive essay
Such essays define a character, event, or subject’s qualities, and expose them to describe the topic from various angles.
- Admission essay
This is a separate category of essay that is also often called a personal statement. Students create admission essays when they enter university or college describing their goals and personal achievements.
Make the Topic Clear
After you decided on the type of essay, the second step is brainstorming and researching the topic. Sometimes you get one or several topics from your teacher and must select the best from them, but some situations require stating the topic yourself.
To make this essay writing guide effective, we will look over the situation where you are required to state your essay topic. The process will start from thinking over the ideas on what to write the paper about. We recommend you to take a sheet of paper or open the text document on your laptop or gadget and note everything that comes to mind. Then read it all and edit it, defining the most effective ideas. Create a list of possible topics that fit your essay type and choose the best one from them. The criteria for choosing will be the following: the topic must not be too broad or too narrow; it must correlate with the volume of your essay and the type of essay.
After you have the perfect topic, the following step will be researching the subject. Find all the sources that relate to your discipline and dig deep into books, magazines, thesis papers, science materials, interviews, blogs, podcasts, and other possible sources of information.
Find the Essay Format
Instructions from a teacher usually contain details on formatting that are required for the particular essay. Here are the main formats for essays:
- Chicago (Turabian) – this is a format that can be used by college and university students in two forms: author-date and notes-bibliography. It is used for science-related papers and other documents.
- MLA – this format is applicable for language, culture and art, and other humanity-related disciplines. The citation style for this format is “author-page number.”
- APA – this format is used mainly for psychology papers as well as for other social-related disciplines, for example, sociology. The style of citation is “author-date.”
Generate a Thesis Statement
Before you proceed with outlining your paper, you should create a working thesis statement. This will consist of some words that will give your readership a precise point on what your paper is about in simple terms. Note that the thesis statement must be included in the introductory part of the essay. Make sure your thesis statement is not too narrow to make it possible to write about the subject using various facts and points of view.
Structure the Essay
It is time to create an effective outline that will make it much faster for you to write an essay. This step helps your paper to be more structured, so you should avoid skipping this step. Moreover, an effective and broad outline added with your thoughts and quotations can become the first draft of an essay. An effective first draft, in turn, will require only editing and polishing. Here are a few recommendations on creating an outline for an essay:
- Write a thesis statement at the top of the paper to have it easily visible. In the following stages, you will require widening it to make it an introduction to your essay.
- Proceed with the main body outline. Write 1-2 sentences for each paragraph below. Ensure the inclusion of logical transitions between each section. Include several facts to support the ideas of each paragraph.
- Leave a place in the outline to create a conclusion that restates the main thesis.
Write an Essay
If you dedicated enough time to create an outline, you would effectively proceed with writing an essay. It is time to clear the thoughts you have in each section and each paragraph to make the text cohesive and readable. Here are some hints on writing a good essay:
- An introduction must give a clear understanding of the thesis statement and how it relates to an essay’s chosen topic. Include a hook in the introduction. It can be a joke, a quotation, an open question, etc. The main goal is to encourage the audience to proceed with reading.
- Try to include in each paragraph of the main body only one central thought or statement. If you overload paragraphs with too many facts, it will be difficult for readers to understand your point. Each section of an essay must flow into another. Do not forget that it is vital to use transition words.
- Conclude briefly by not simply restating your thoughts but also leaving readers some space to think and form their own opinion on the topic.
Edit and Polish Your Paper
Now you will require dedicating time to check your essay by reading it correctly. First, you will need to check whether there are enough information and facts included in each section. Check the styling and format. Revise your essay carefully to exclude possible technical errors. Read the text several times to avoid typos and spelling errors. Make sure that the text is clear and precise.
An Essay Template To Make Its Features Clear
“How Can It Be Said That Memories About Ourselves May Not Be Correct?”
Do you believe that our memories are real manifestations of our experiences? Do these accurately reflect our past events or ordeals? Our memories, or at least how we perceive them, are influenced by our physiological and psychological make-up. Mental, emotional, intellectual, and other factors affecting our personalities may as well modify, alter, or change the ways we perceive our recollections. Our memories about ourselves and our experiences may not be correct after all.
It is said that our brain’s capacity to restore memories is not yet fully developed until the age of three. In the physiological perspective, the brain of a baby younger than three years is not yet fully formed to acquire and retain episodic events. Our minds are susceptible to mistakes and gaps. As such, the questions on whether an adult accurately remembers childhood can be inferred by not having enough evidence about the experiences, details, and important events that took place during those times. Our minds attend to many stimuli at one time and might interpret and process stimuli in an unorganized or confusing manner, which can lead us to inaccurate perceptions and, eventually, inaccurate memories.
Some people choose their own versions of their recollections and believe what they want to believe. This is governed by our own personalities, characteristics, values, and even culture. The hippocampus, the brain’s center for learning and memory, is also responsible for false memories that are similar to the real ones. Such memories perceived from the individual may actually be reconstructed impressions (Griffiths, 2018).
Interference between old recollections and new memories can also affect the accuracy of the old ones. Our perception of the newer information may intervene in the process of the mind’s contemplation and interpretation of much older memories. The gaps of the past might be filled up by the person’s current circumstances, beliefs, and even expectations (Cherry, 2020). As such, the person’s memories may be an influence of his or her perception based on current experiences, mindset, characteristics, and even personality.
An individual’s mind is an instrument to adapt and thrive. It allows us to make memories that bring joy and lessons as we go along. However, the mind’s work in retaining and processing memories can also trick us. Recalled memories may truthfully resonate with someone’s previous experiences, or the recollections might be a result of the interference from the person’s current experiences.
References
Cherry, K. (2020, February 28). False memories and how they form. Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/how-do-false-memories-form-2795349
Griffiths, S. (2018, September 7). Your childhood memories are probably fake. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://elemental.medium.com/your-childhood-memories-are-probably-fake-b04741f39b1b
What Else We Can Do for You Besides Providing an Essay Writing Guide
We hope our ultimate guide to writing your PA school essay was useful and effective. However, we do more than simply give information on writing essentials. Our team of skilled authors can provide you with effective assistance by creating for you academic papers, including narrative, argumentative, descriptive, expository, and admission essays on any topic. Our writers are aware of effective outlining and can guarantee the essay will be written in the correct style and formatted according to your teacher’s instructions. Here is a sample of an essay written by the EssayBulls team to give you a hint on how it looks.
EssayBulls is more than a writing service – we are a team of professionals who can help any student who requires assistance when overloaded with numerous assignments. We will do our best to guarantee you adequate support and be people you can rely on. Buy essay for cheap right now!
Photo by JessBaileyDesign from Pixabay
