A modern student often needs to write an essay. You should not be afraid of it. The main thing is not just to reveal the topic but to do it brightly and interestingly, trying to capture the reader’s attention with the first sentence.
What Is An Essay?
An essay is a small prose work with a free composition and pronounced personal impressions and considerations of the author regarding a specific issue or situation. A profound interpretation of the subject is not expected.
The primary purpose of writing an essay on the topic is to develop creative thinking and the ability to express thoughts in writing. The work on the paper is handy for the author, as it teaches him to qualitatively structure information, identify cause and effect relationships, accurately supplement his experience with specific examples, and argue his point of view.
To avoid becoming a victim of a “white sheet,” it is essential to study the structure of the essay. This will help you not to get confused while writing. You can look for services like writance, which helps with the whole process. In addition, it is necessary to develop your erudition, to gain different life experiences, which can then be used to argue theses and prove/disprove hypotheses.
Key features of the essay
- The critical differences between essays and other types of works are
- Small volume. Limiting yourself to 1000 words is recommended, approximately 3.5 pages of printed text in 14 fonts. At the same time, students during the educational process can write works of a slightly smaller volume,
- Clearly defined topic. The essay explores one of the broad topics.
- Subjectivity. When writing an essay, you should focus solely on personal experience and point of view. It is essential to argue your attitude to the topic as if you are trying to convey an opinion to your best friend.
- Metaphors. One can use emotionally colored images, vivid comparisons, and metaphors when writing an essay. The work can be filled with dreaminess, melancholy, and emotions.
- Spoken language. The essay needs to create the illusion of live communication with the reader. The author can ask exclamatory and rhetorical questions, adhere to his unique writing style, and integrate his personality into the text as much as possible.
- Non-triviality of approach. An essay differs significantly from dry and informationally accurate abstracts by its artistry and openness to the new. Great titles and well-chosen quotes allow essay authors to move away from boring and hackneyed templates.
How To Write An Essay?
There are specific rules for writing an essay on a literary work. Let’s deal with each of them to create a worthy work:
First, the author needs to raise the problem that the author of the work presented. It is recommended to do this in the form of a formulated question that relates directly to the text read. If the whole job is an answer to your question, then the problem is identified correctly. Those who actively understand how to write an essay correctly should put the issue of the article in the first paragraph of their text.
The second stage is to determine the attitude of the author of the text to the problem you have formulated. It is essential to understand how the writer feels about the situation – whether he is ironic, ridiculed, or regretful. It is also necessary to share your position and argue why you agree or disagree with the author’s position.
The final step is to select apt examples from works of art or your own life where you stumbled over a similar problem. If you need help understanding how to write an essay when you need more than your life experience to find a relevant example, you can always invent one.
It is worth remembering that all actions in the text are carried out not by the author but by the literary character, who is the work’s main character.
Essay structure
The structure of the essay involves putting forward a specific thesis at the beginning of the work. After that, the argumentation of the thought begins with appropriate statements, apt quotations, or relevant facts from life.
- Traditionally, an essay consists of the following:
- Title, which should accurately describe the content of the written work. The essay should not use a plan, so the author automatically goes to the main text.
- The introductory part justifies the need to study the issues chosen by the author and puts forward a critical hypothesis. The hypothesis, in this case, is a particular assumption that will be confirmed or refuted in the course of writing the essay. It is worth noting that the independently formed idea must be established. The author of the article in his text emphasizes that his initial opinion was wrong, and he changed his attitude toward the situation. In the case of a small essay, the word “introduction” can be omitted.
- The body is the central part. For a small essay, it is easy to prescribe the structure. Each new paragraph is a new thesis and argumentation of thoughts. However, if you can’t help but use large blocks of information in your essay, it is better to highlight them with subheadings and bold font. The structure of the central part of the essay is similar to a chain. Ring after ring, the thesis is continued by arguments, and after proving one hypothesis, reasoning about another begins.
- The author can decide how many theses should be proved in his essay. At the same time, each idea should have at least 2-3 strong arguments. Otherwise, the research will look unreliable and unconvincing.
You can prove or disprove the idea by means:
- Own experience, stories from the lives of people you know or celebrities.
- Phenomena that people observe in everyday life.
- Facts that are transmitted in their original form, without distortion and manipulation.
- Quotes of famous people.
- Historical events in the context of cause and effect analysis.
- Laws that are in force or have been in detail in the past.
- All the evidence used is intended to tactically lead the reader to the direct proof or total refutation of the hypothesis. That is why the logic and consistency of the presentation of thoughts are crucial when writing an essay.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to express my opinion in the essay?
Yes, it is. The essay’s primary purpose is to show its author’s attitude to a specific problem raised in the read work. When writing an essay, you must use your experience to argue your point of view and perspective on the problem.
What are the main structural components of an essay?
An essay has three main elements: title, introduction, and body.