Essays are a necessary evil for every college student, but they don’t need to be a nightmare. Follow this guide and set yourself up for success!
Standard essays are an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. This guide follows that format, if you need more paragraphs, make a longer thesis in step 3.
1. Find your topic – or maybe your professor has already picked it for you. Your topic should either be arguing something to prove a point or be informational (informing your reader about a specific topic, person or event). For both styles of paper, assume your reader knows nothing about the topic, even if your reader is your professor. Example, if you were writing an essay on the movie Remember the Titans, your argument could be that the Titans had a profound effect on the way their community viewed African Americans in the 1960s.
2. Research, research, research! – No academic paper is complete without research. Find at least three scholarly sources that support your argument. They don’t need to be directly related, as long as they apply. For example, if you’re writing the Remember the Titans paper, you could find articles on racial segregation in the 1960s, or articles that discuss the work of Dr. Martin Luther King. As a rule of thumb, include at least one source per paragraph of your essay.
3. Write a thesis – Having a thesis can make or break a paper. A paper with no thesis is like trying to cook without a stove. A thesis will tell your reader what your paper is going to tell them, it will also guide the direction and order of the paper. To write a thesis, it’s usually best to start with “This essay will discuss” or “The goal of this paper is to”. Then state your main argument and break it down into three smaller arguments. For example: “This essay will discuss how in the movie Remember the Titans, the Titans changed the way the community viewed African Americans. First, it will discuss the racial turbulence of the 1960s and how it applied to the Titans, it will then discuss how the actions of the coaches united the team and finally how the actions of the team and the game of football united the community regardless of race.”
4. Write an introduction – This part is mostly fluff. It’s always impressive to start out with a quote. For this paper, the Martin Luther King “I have a Dream” speech might have some good quotes. Never run your quote over two lines! Talk a little bit about your topic, and then paste your thesis at the end. Your thesis ALWAYS goes at the end of your introduction.
5. Follow your thesis! – Talk about your arguments in the order you stated them in your thesis. So for the example paper, your first paragraph would be about the racial turbulence of the 1960s and how it applied to the Titans, your second paragraph would be about how the actions of the coaches united the team, and your third paragraph would be about how the actions of the team and the game of football united the community regardless of race. Don’t forget to include at least one of your research sources in each paragraph of the body!
6. Write a conclusion – A conclusion is essentially summarizing your paper. Restate the thesis in different words, telling the reader what you told them in each section of the paper. Usually conclusions start with, “In conclusion”.
Ta da! You’ve just written a college level essay! Below are some general tips on writing that will help you in the editing process.
Never use contractions (don’t, it’s, can’t, didn’t, etc.), change your contractions to the words it represents (do not, it is, cannot, did not, etc).
Use full sentences, not fragments. (Instead of “The movie was good. It was long.” write “The movie was good, however, it was a long movie.”)
Choose bigger words over everyday language. (Instead of “this paper will talk about” use “this paper will discuss”. Instead of using “but” use “however”)
Don’t use words you don’t know the meaning of!!!!!!
Avoid words like “really” “very” and “so” when describing things. Instead use “extremely” “exceptionally” and “immensely”.
Do not try to write your paper as if you are having a conversation with someone. Essays need to be written in formal language.
Never ever ever EVER write in the first person unless your professor has given you permission to do so. Basically don’t use the words I, me, us, our, we, etc.
When using quotes, always put them in quotation marks, and immediately cite the source after the sentence is finished. You will need to look up how to do in text citations based on the style you are writing in (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).
Run spell check
Proofread your paper and/or have a friend look over it. Spellcheck won’t catch if you use the wrong word as long as it’s spelled right (for example their and there), also since you wrote the paper, you may not catch all of your own mistakes, it’s always better to have a friend look over it.
Never drift between writing styles in the same paper (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc).
