The Key to Successful Essay Writing: Organization and Planning
Generally, the goal of an essay is to persuade. A persuader has a point of view, and they want you to agree with it.
They want you to think, "Yes, I see what they mean," or "I agree with them." The way an essay persuades is through organization.
The writer must organize their thoughts in an order that makes the reader feel like they can understand the argument.
This means that the essay must start with a clear introduction that gives your reader some background knowledge about the topic and then moves into a body section that presents your arguments and evidence for those arguments.
Then it wraps up with a conclusion that summarizes everything from the introduction and body sections so that your reader will remember key points from each section when they read your conclusion.
The best essays have these three parts:
introduction (to set up your argument), body (to provide evidence for why you think this is true), and
conclusion (where you summarize what was in each section).
The steps below can help you organize an essay:
What’s the Goal of Successful Essay Writing?
An essay, by definition, is a piece of writing that discusses or analyzes a subject.
In order to be successful, the essay must have a clear and concise goal that it will help you achieve.
This can be achieved by evaluating your own personal experience with the topic. The goal should be clear from the prompt. If it isn't, your organization could have a problem.
In other words, the goal of an essay is to write about a topic that you have researched and chosen.
The topic should be one that interests you and one that will help you express your ideas clearly and effectively.
Read the Prompt and Instructions
An important step to writing successful essays is reading through the prompt carefully.
Read each section of the prompt carefully and any instructions given for how you should
structure your essay.
This will help you figure out what information needs to be included in each section so that you don't accidentally skip over important details in order to finish on time.
Create a Brainstorming Web to Write Successful Essays
After reading the prompt and instructions, create a brainstorming web showing all possible topics related to your topic as well as their subtopics.
This will help you determine what you want to talk about in your essay and how much time you'll need to research each topic.
Research is something that can help you create an interesting essay.
Unfortunately, not all students are capable of performing in-depth research about the topic on hand.
However, academic professionals with years of
essay writing experience can assist with the research and writing process.
Create an Introduction
An introduction is the first paragraph while writing a successful essay.
It should introduce and summarize the topic of the essay, and it should be written in a formal tone.
The introduction should not be a rehash of what will be discussed in the body paragraphs, but it should state why you are writing this essay and what you hope to accomplish.
You can also use this section to ensure that your audience understands your points and will understand what you are about to say.
The introduction should include:
- A hook that catches your reader's attention
- A thesis statement that explains what you'll be writing about in more detail
- Exactly what you want to prove or disprove in the body paragraphs
Write the Body Paragraphs
The body paragraphs are where you get into the meat of your argument.
Each paragraph should include at least one idea that develops or expands on what was in your introduction or in previous paragraphs.
Body paragraphs should be organized according to each point you make in your argument (for example, if you want to prove that x is true).
You may want to use bullet points or numbered lists for organization purposes.
Remember, body paragraphs are the backbone of writing a successful essay.
They're the place where you explain why you chose the topic you did and what you learned from it.
Body paragraphs should be short, but they should also be powerful.
They should show that you understand the topic and have evidence to support your ideas, but they shouldn't go so deep in detail that they become unclear.
Your body paragraphs should focus on one or two main ideas, and each should be different from the others.
You should also include transitions between them so that your reader doesn't get bored.
Create a Conclusion
Finally, you need a conclusion to tie everything together and finish up this section of your paper.
This is an opportunity to summarize everything you've said so far and offer some recommendations based on what you've learned.
Proofread and Edit
It's hard to believe that you can make a mistake in your essay without realizing it. But it happens all the time.
The best way to avoid these mistakes is by proofreading - checking over your essay for spelling and grammatical errors before you submit it.
You might also want to take the time to read through your paper yourself once you've revised it according to the suggestions.
You'll be surprised how many mistakes you can catch if you do this one simple step.
If you want to make sure that your essay is ready for publication, you need to proofread and edit as much as possible.
You should also consider using plagiarism checkers to make sure that you don't copy other people's work without giving them credit.
Cite Evidence and Sources
It's easy to overlook citations in an academic essay - but failing to cite evidence or sources can lead to a lower grade and even disqualification from the course.
Citing sources well is not only important for your own grade but also for maintaining
academic integrity.
Citing evidence and sources is also important because they allow others to look at the source material if they want to learn more about it.
Conclusion
As you've probably figured out by now, the key to writing successful essays is good organization.
This can be a difficult task, as essays can stray in so many directions and cover so many different ideas.
But if you can keep your thoughts straight and organize them effectively, your essay will be well-written.
Although challenging, successful essay writing can be a rewarding experience.
The next time you sit down to write an essay, keep the concepts outlined above in mind to help ensure that your essay is clear, concise, and organized.
Hopefully, these tips will make your next essay writing assignment a little easier.
However, if you think that you are having trouble with organization, a
custom essay writing service is always at arm’s length to assist you in the right way.
They have experts to help you understand essay requirements and create an impressive paper according to your teacher’s instructions.