Nowadays, many employers and higher schools want to see an essay from a candidate for a particular position, which includes autobiographical and professional theses. Candidates for a job or higher education institution can also offer in their essays new techniques of performing work or studies, which in the future can be put into practice at work or in education. Because of the high demand in high school or job applications, you need to get your children used to writing essays from school.
An essay is a text on a certain topic, which is usually given to you by your teacher. This is the most common type of assignment for students. The essay helps develop creative thinking and writing skills. Not every student can handle essay writing easily. Fortunately, you can only place an edit my essay request to academic writers to get a good grade. Experienced writers will help you with even the most difficult assignment.
All essays consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. How exactly the essay is structured and what writing style you should use always depends on the essay type.
Table of Contents
Essay writing – preparation
To write a good essay, it is very important to prepare well:
• Assignment: read carefully what is required of you. Find out what kind of essay you should write.
• Materials: Most of the time, you will be given additional materials along with your assignment. This can be a poem, a newspaper article, or an excerpt from a longer text. You should read the materials carefully several times.
• Marking: Then you mark important parts of the text and conspicuous features in color.
• Collecting: You can make notes while reading. Afterward, collect ideas about the topic again.
• Organize: To get an overview of your notes, you should organize them afterward. For example, you can create a list or a mind map.
• Outline: Think about what you want to write in which part of your essay.
• Tip: Take your time when preparing your essay. If you work thoroughly, the writing will go much faster.
Essay writing – structure
Here we will show you a general structure that you can use for all types of essays. However, the details depend on the type of essay and the assignment.
Introduction
When you write an introduction, you want to introduce your reader to the topic. You want him to know what type of essay it is. If you have a text as a basis, you provide all the important information about it:
- Author: Who wrote the text?
- Title: What is the name of the text?
- Date and/or year of publication: When was the text published?
- Place of publication: Where was the text published?
- Content: What is the text about?
Be brief! The introduction should be only about 5-10 percent of your essay. That is, if your essay is five pages long, it would be half a page at most.
The main part
The most important part of your essay is the main body. The exact content depends on the form of the essay. In any case, you will deal intensively with your topic or question.
- Logic: You should put your thoughts in a logical order. For example, you can proceed chronologically – that is, you put them in chronological order. Alternatively, you can arrange the points thematically.
- Transitions: Make sure that you establish a connection between the different points.
- “Red thread”: Never lose sight of the big picture. Use your outline and notes as a guide when writing.
As a student, you have to stick to the volume of each part of your essay. The body is the longest part of your essay. It should make up 80-90 percent of your entire essay.
Conclusion
The conclusion is about briefly summarizing the results of the main body and drawing a conclusion from it. Depending on the type of essay, you may sometimes express your own opinion on the topic. However, you should not introduce any more new results but round off your essay well.
Like the introduction, the conclusion comprises only a small part of your essay. It should not be more than 10 percent of the total length.
Essay Writing – Revision
When you have finished writing your essay, take some time to read through it again. You can use the following points in your revision:
- Errors: pay attention to spelling and grammar mistakes.
- Repetitions: Do not use the same words over and over. Do not start successive sentences with the same phrase, but write in a varied way.
- Sentence length: Your sentences should not be too long. You will easily miss some mistakes in nested sentences. They are also difficult to read.
- Tip: When you write your essay at home, read it aloud to yourself at the end. When you read it aloud, you will quickly notice if something sounds funny.
The most common types of essays
When you write an essay, you should know what type of essay it is. That’s why we’ve put together an overview for you, where you can find the most common types of school essays from 5th grade onwards.
Summary
In a summary, you summarize the main content of a text. Books, book chapters, newspaper articles, or other types of texts are suitable for a summary. The goal is for your reader to know about all the important characters and events, even if they don’t know the text.
Report
In a report, you present an event or action objectively. Objective means that you do not express your own opinion in the report. With a report, you want to inform the reader exactly about the subject by describing the events concisely. An example of this is the accident report.
Discussion
In a discussion, you deal with a text or a topic objectively. You have to answer a given question with arguments. Usually, there is a pro and a con side: one side is for something, the other against. Your arguments always have the same structure: First, you make a claim, then you justify it and round it off with an example.
Characterization
In a characterization, you describe a character from a text. You describe the character’s appearance, inner life, and history. You also describe their current situation, their behavior, and their relationships with other people. For the characterization, you may only use information that you have found in the text.
Interpretation
In an interpretation, you try to understand the meaning and effect of a text. This can be a poem, a short story, a drama, or a book (chapter). First, you try to describe and interpret all the important parts of a text. In addition to the content, you will also pay attention to the linguistic style and other features of the text. If you have difficulties with your paper, we recommend you turn to the best essay writing service to avoid trouble with your studies.
Essay, however, you have more freedom: For example, you can use stylistic devices in your argumentation, because the focus here is more on your own opinion. We’ll explain how to do that in our sample essay video.
Essay writing tips
With these tips, you are sure to succeed in your next essay:
- Time management: before writing, think about how much time you will need for each step. Allow enough time for preparation and revision. Take breaks, if possible, to stay focused.
- Practice: Follow the steps in all homework and exercises. Then you’ll know exactly how to proceed on the next exam.
- Reading: Pay attention to how other people write their texts, for example in the newspaper or books. You can learn a lot from this.
By the way, a certain form of essay is descriptions. For example, you can describe a person or a process in more detail. Sometimes you also have to describe a route.