If you are a school or college student, you must write a lot of essays regularly. An essay is a short type of formal writing where a writer elaborates on a given topic. Writing a high-quality piece calls for an excellent language command, a rich vocabulary, and the ability to clearly and concisely express one’s thoughts. Essay writing is a skill that requires knowledge of the structure and certain logic in storytelling.
In case you would like to delegate writing your essay to professionals, you should consider our cheap custom writing service. If you want to learn some useful tricks on how to boost your essay-writing skills, check out our best tips below:
Content in this Article
hide
General Structure
For and against essay. It is all about the structure: in the introduction, you lead the reader to the problem; in the main part, you describe the pros and cons in two paragraphs without expressing your own opinion; in the conclusion, you express your opinion about the problem and conclude.
Each point (whether advantages or disadvantages) should be supported by examples, reasons, cases, and other ways to convince a reader in this position. You can choose an opinion-leader whom you can quote and elaborate on this idea further, developing it into a well-rounded paragraph.
When it comes to an opinion essay, you need to decide on your opinion according to the topic. After that, you should build a structure that supports your statement, providing logical reasoning, bright and numerous examples, and convincing arguments. The flow of your arguments should be seamless, stated in general-to-specific order from broad idea to more detailed reasons why you have such an opinion.
It is important to briefly review an opposing opinion in the paragraph right before the closing one along with a counterargument. It should dwell on why your idea is correct and what is the main weak point of the opposing view.
Your opinion should be stated in the first few introductory sentences and reiterated in the final paragraph.
Problem and solution essay.
Usually, in such essays, you are given some global problem, and your task is to offer the most possible and relevant ways to solve it.
Writing plan: the introduction describes the problem and its causes; in the main part, you need to offer several solutions to address the problem and possible consequences of each of them; in the end, the final solution or recommendations are summed up. You may mention your own opinion briefly in the introduction or the final paragraph.
Quick tips:
- Despite the format of an essay you are writing, you will always stick to the introduction, main body, and conclusion.
- In opinion essays, your opinion should be stated in the thesis sentence and be supported by arguments later on in the text.
- Every new idea or point should be introduced in the new paragraph. It is important to enclose your main idea of each paragraph in the first or maximum second sentence of the paragraph. This is your thesis or topic sentence.
- Always write a plan. By writing an introduction, main ideas and topic sentences, and summary, you will be able to build a structure of your essay and follow on with storytelling and enriching your paper with examples and details.
- Remember that an essay is a formal style of paper. So, try to avoid colloquialisms, contracted language or informal style is acceptable.
- Use quotations of opinion leaders, writers, researchers, or journalists to support your statement or as a counterargument if you are opposed to a certain statement. Google Scholar has an extensive database of open-source research papers which can become a great reference or source of the quotation.
- Ask rhetoric questions and use some thought-provoking phrases to engage your reader and convince in your point of view.
- Use synonyms to widen your vocabulary. Thesaurus is an amazing tool to find semantically similar words and groups of words on the same topic.
- Avoid being polar in your essays. Frequently the essays are about providing arguments or proving a certain point. When expressing your thoughts on controversial themes, you should be as tolerant as possible and not forget about basic tactfulness, patience, and politeness. Stay respectful of other people’s opinions.
- Use Passive voice, complex sentences, and advanced vocabulary. Push your limits when it comes to the lexicon.
- Take a look at the language of the question in your topic sentence. You can rewrite the question of the topic in your own words to introduce your opinion further.
- The closing paragraph serves the purpose of summarizing all the points you’ve mentioned earlier in your essay, reiterating your opinion, or providing balanced consideration of the topic overall.
- Include formal linking words like ‘however’, ‘furthermore’, ‘hence’, ‘nonetheless’.
As you can see, an essay is mostly about structure. It teaches you to address different topics, supporting your opinion with arguments or looking at the topic from a different perspective. It is a great tool to learn how to prove your point logically and rationally.
