Education

How to Write an Effective and Engaging Essay

The majority of students sit down to write an essay, and they do the same thing: they open a blank document, look at it for twenty minutes, write the first sentence three different ways, delete all of them, and then check their phone. Sound familiar?

Good writing is not a talent that is innate. It’s the knowledge of what you are supposed to do, before you put your fingers to the keyboard. Then it becomes a lot easier with everything being known. 

Here is how to do it properly.

Start With the Question, Not the Answer

This is where most essays goes wrong, and the sole reason why students contact pay to do my assignment to make the most out of their better grades. 

Students read the essay question once, and begin writing right away, assuming they think they understand the question. As they are reading two pages, they discover that they were answering a different question all along. It’s not a writing issue. That’s a reading issue.

Read your essay question at a slow pace. Then read it again. Highlight the key instruction words (words such as analyse, discuss, evaluate, and compare). These words will guide you in knowing what kind of thinking your essay should demonstrate. Analyse = analyse it down. Discuss: See both sides. Evaluate, make a judgement and support it.

If you skip this step everything else falls apart. If you get it right everything else becomes easier.

Plan Before You Write — Even If You Hate Planning

Planning an essay is no one’s idea of fun. It is like additional effort prior to the actual work. However, students who prepare their writing tend to write more quickly and focus more on the main idea, and who nearly always write better essays than students who do not prepare.

Your plan does not need to be complicated. It can be five lines on a piece of paper.

  • What is my main argument?
  • What are my three or four key points?
  • What evidence supports each point?
  • What is my conclusion going to say?

That is it. A plan is worth 10 minutes of writing, and an hour of confusion. It also prevents you from reaching the dreaded middle of the essay and finding that you have no idea what you are doing.

Write an Introduction That Actually Introduces Something

There are three things a good introduction does. It gives the reader an idea of what the essay is about, it suggests the argument you will be developing, and it makes the reader continue reading.

A bad introduction is simply a repetition of the question in other words and then a list of what the essay will contain, similar to a contents page. No one is interested in that. More importantly, your marker has read a thousand of them and he’s still not impressed.

The Middle Is Where Your Essay Actually Lives

Each paragraph in your essay should have one purpose. State one point, then provide evidence and an explanation to support that point, then explain why that point is important to your argument.

Don’t try to fit three ideas into one paragraph because you’re afraid of it being too short. Avoid extending one weak point over four paragraphs, just because you’re running out of ideas. Quality, not quantity, is not just a saying it’s the difference between a good grade and a mediocre one in writing an essay.

Avoid lengthy sentences, if possible. Sentences that contain multiple clauses, which branch out in multiple directions, and then finally reach a point that is unclear are tiring to read. Concise sentences make a bigger impact. They are more straightforward to understand. 

Moreover, if you still cannot ace the structure of an essay, the easiest way is to pay someone to do my assignment to secure good grades. 

Use Evidence Like You Mean It

Evidence is not decoration. Sometimes students will insert a quotation or some data and then proceed as if that is the work done. It is not.

All evidence used must be explained. Why is this quote important? What does this information tell you? How does it help to support the point you just made? If you don’t know the answer to those questions, then your evidence is just lying there doing nothing.

Also, avoid using quotes to speak for you. A lengthy block quote, with no text after it, indicates that you were unsure what to do with it. Always be the lead voice in the paragraph and use shorter quotes whenever possible, paraphrase when possible, and never quote another person’s voice.

Write a Conclusion That Closes Properly

Your conclusion is not a summary. Or at least it should not only be a summary.

Yes, it is important to summarize the key points you’ve made briefly. However, your ending should address the question directly, clearly, and confidently that is, respond to the question. Here you are going to make your final decision. This is where the reader should feel like the essay has come to a place.

Don’t present new ideas in conclusion. Avoid closing the paragraph with a general statement that the topic is complicated and there are numerous viewpoints. Conclude with a definite conclusion. Don’t let the last sentence go to waste.

The Honest Truth About Essay Writing

No one can write a first draft without any problems. The students with the highest grades aren’t necessarily the ones who find it the easiest, they’re the ones who give themselves plenty of time to write down the wrong thing before they edit it out. 

Start early. Plan properly. Yes, it is OK to write one clear point per line. Edit with a fresh perspective.

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