Q&A for How to Write an Essay

Begin your essay by narrowing your topic, researching your topic, taking notes, and brainstorming your ideas.

Different essay genres can have different formats. Make sure to check the specific conventions of your essay genre with your professor.

A college essay is a formal writing assignment that can take many forms. Persuasive, descriptive, analytical, expository, and personal are examples of types of college essays.

Start by defining the main argument you'd like to make in a few sentences. This will be your thesis statement. From there, you'll need to present a few different arguments that support your thesis. Support each of them with specific evidence and examples. Make sure to address any major counterarguments or evidence against your thesis.

Start by jotting down any ideas you have. You might find it helpful to do some reading on your topic and make notes about anything you find interesting or any questions you have. Try doing some free-writing and putting down any thought that jumps into your head.

There are numerous example essays online. Do a search for the type of essay you’re looking for, e.g., “example expository essays.” You can also find examples in many English composition textbooks.

There are many kinds of essays, but some of the common major categories are narrative, descriptive, expository, compare and contrast, and persuasive. Typically, your assignment instructions will either clearly state what kind of essay you need to write or use words that clue you in (e.g., an assignment for a persuasive essay might include phrases like “Use examples to support your argument”).

Start with a great fact, story, or compelling idea, then grow from there. If you're stuck, many writers save their intro until the end, once they know the actual direction and evidence in the rest of the essay.

5 - 7 sentences is an appropriate length for paragraphs in the body.

Try to start with something intriguing and promising. Questions can be really effective for an introduction. Aim for an introduction that has an explicit relation to the topic/title of your essay, and avoid analyzing the topic in your first paragraph.

It depends on what the topic is about. Normally all essays have an Introduction, paragraphs explaining the most important things about the theme (about 2 or 3), and a conclusion.

You don't have to conclude the body paragraph in any particular way. That's what the conclusion paragraph is for.

Research several sides of the topic and form an opinion. Introduce the various arguments about it, both for and against your view. Use some evidence in the body of your essay to support your own view, and/or explain the views submitted. Summarize the concepts, and statenwhy you believe what you believe.

Know the topic well before hand. Though the essay question could vary widely, know the historical context of events related to the class. You will likely be given a document, or several, to respond to, so you will have some resources available. However it is necessary to know the historical context of the event the documents talk about, so you can interpret them correctly and provide contextualization in your essay. Contextualization is telling what led up to an event, and is often helpful to explain why things happened and understand the mindset of the time period.

Unless your teacher says otherwise, use 12pt Times New Roman font and remember to double-space your essay. Some teachers will prefer 10pt font, but still request double-spacing.

You can either tell a story about a moment in your life when you learned something valuable about yourself or just tell the story of your life from beginning to end.

Read the proverb several times, looking at the tone, voice and intended audience. Dissect the proverb, thinking about the intended meaning, and historical context. Why was it important then and is it still important/applicable now? Write everything down and arrange it inside the structure of the essay in a way that flows and makes sense to you.

Unless you're writing an essay that is so short only one paragraph is required, yes, you do.

You've written enough if you have a well-rounded argument, have an introduction, conclusion, body paragraphs and have met the length requirements.

You can put your name on the essay if you're writing it for school, and you can include your name in the introduction for your essay if you're writing a personal essay about yourself, but otherwise, it's not necessary to include your name.

Ask your teacher if he/she has a page limit. Essays can be any length.

It depends on the grade level and subject. You should ask your teacher or professor how long your essay should be for that specific assignment.

Make yourself an outline to help you organize and plan your essay, then get to writing.

An introduction generally ends with your thesis statement. The content of a thesis statement changes depending on what kind of paper you're writing; for example, if you're writing an argumentative paper, your thesis statement should include the claim you're making, which is followed by the supporting evidence in your body paragraphs. If you're writing an analytical paper, your thesis statement should contain the conclusion you came to based on your analysis.

Creative writing can be generally any type of writing, while essays have a certain structure to follow.

Read the novel and find implicit and explicit examples of the specific theme. Do some research online to see if you're on the right track. Then, make a thesis and start writing your essay using the examples that you found.

Refer back to your topic sentence and highlight key words, and think about how you can elaborate on these words and what they represent. Imagine what kinds of questions you might ask if you read your topic sentence in someone else's essays, and then answer those questions. You can also ask someone else to read what you have already and see if they have any ideas about where you should go next.

Usually, students will have some general idea of what the essay will be about (like a particular book), even if they don't have specifics, so you can make sure to cover some of the major themes, characters, or other topics that the essay could cover. Surprise essay tests are often given to test your imagination, presentation, and vocabulary, and they rarely involve topics you haven't covered in some capacity.

You could start by reading other people's essays as "sample essays." This will give you an idea of the general concept of writing.

Any kind of full-length work or newspapers should be italicized, while shorter poems and such should be in quotations. Only underline titles if the essay is handwritten.