Activities

1. How to write an essay.

Writing an essay can be a difficult process. Usually, an essay requires research on a specific topic. This research will serve as the information bank for the essay.

Actually, the key to writing a good essay is having a well-written outline. An outline will make your essay more structured and will help with organization. Usually, an outline consists of a chronological assessment of ideas that need to be incorporated into the essay.

An essay is divided into three basic parts: the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. First, we will deal with the introduction.

When analyzing how to write an essay, the introduction is basically the most important part of the essay. The introduction serves as the hook; it gets the reader interested, and summarizes the entire essay. A good introduction should tell the reader exactly what the essay is about. In fact, the introduction should attract the reader, and produce interest in whoever is reading the essay. The introduction shouldn’t be too long, and it should contain a thesis statement. When learning how to write a cohesive essay, it is important to remember that the thesis statement is crucial. What is the thesis statement? A thesis statement is what the writer believes and/or intends to prove.

The next section of a comprehensive essay is the body. When analyzing how to write an essay it is also important to understand that the body of an essay is the primary component of a good essay. The body is what English professionals call the “meat” of the essay. Actually, when writing an outline, it is important to consider the information one wants to include in the body of the essay. The body of a good essay usually consists of several (at least two or three) paragraphs. Each paragraph should begin with what English majors call a topic sentence. The topic sentence serves a similar purpose as the thesis statement. The topic sentence is supposed to tell what the paragraph is about. When a writer develops the topic sentence and does not deviate from it, unity is achieved. If you digress, you merely confuse your reader. The topic sentence can help you maintain unity if you keep asking yourself if the example you are citing really is an example of your topic sentence.

The last part of a good essay is the conclusion. The conclusion is very similar to the introduction in that it restates the main idea of the essay. It’s basically a restatement of the thesis. Always include a call to action statement in your conclusion. A call to action statement should try to ask the reader to do something or take action. A call to action statement is a great way to make the reader think right before you throw in your tagline. Finally, try to end your conclusion with a great tagline. What is a tagline? A tagline is just like the first sentence of the introduction paragraph. Some great ideas for tagline are quotes, jokes, or something that will grab the reader’s attention.

It should be noted that preparation is key when learning how to write an essay.