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- What is an essay?
What makes a good essay?
Typical essay structure, 7 steps to writing a good essay, a step-by-step guide to writing a good essay.
Whether you are gearing up for your GCSE coursework submissions or looking to brush up on your A-level writing skills, we have the perfect essay-writing guide for you. đŻ
Staring at a blank page before writing an essay can feel a little daunting . Where do you start? What should your introduction say? And how should you structure your arguments? They are all fair questions and we have the answers! Take the stress out of essay writing with this step-by-step guide â youâll be typing away in no time. đ©âđ»
What is an essay?
Generally speaking, an essay designates a literary work in which the author defends a point of view or a personal conviction, using logical arguments and literary devices in order to inform and convince the reader.
So â although essays can be broadly split into four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive â an essay can simply be described as a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. đ€
The purpose of an essay is to present a coherent argument in response to a stimulus or question and to persuade the reader that your position is credible, believable and reasonable. đ
So, a âgoodâ essay relies on a confident writing style â itâs clear, well-substantiated, focussed, explanatory and descriptive . The structure follows a logical progression and above all, the body of the essay clearly correlates to the tile â answering the question where one has been posed.
But, how do you go about making sure that you tick all these boxes and keep within a specified word count? Read on for the answer as well as an example essay structure to follow and a handy step-by-step guide to writing the perfect essay â hooray. đ
Sometimes, it is helpful to think about your essay like it is a well-balanced argument or a speech â it needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question in a coherent manner. âïž
Of course, essays can vary significantly in length but besides that, they all follow a fairly strict pattern or structure made up of three sections. Lean into this predictability because it will keep you on track and help you make your point clearly. Letâs take a look at the typical essay structure:
#1 Introduction
Start your introduction with the central claim of your essay. Let the reader know exactly what you intend to say with this essay. Communicate what youâre going to argue, and in what order. The final part of your introduction should also say what conclusions youâre going to draw â it sounds counter-intuitive but itâs not â more on that below. 1ïžâŁ
Make your point, evidence it and explain it. This part of the essay â generally made up of three or more paragraphs depending on the length of your essay â is where you present your argument. The first sentence of each paragraph â much like an introduction to an essay â should summarise what your paragraph intends to explain in more detail. 2ïžâŁ
#3 Conclusion
This is where you affirm your argument â remind the reader what you just proved in your essay and how you did it. This section will sound quite similar to your introduction but â having written the essay â youâll be summarising rather than setting out your stall. 3ïžâŁ
No essay is the same but your approach to writing them can be. As well as some best practice tips, we have gathered our favourite advice from expert essay-writers and compiled the following 7-step guide to writing a good essay every time. đ
#1 Make sure you understand the question
#2 complete background reading.
#3 Make a detailed plan
#4 Write your opening sentences
#5 flesh out your essay in a rough draft, #6 evidence your opinion, #7 final proofread and edit.
Now that you have familiarised yourself with the 7 steps standing between you and the perfect essay, letâs take a closer look at each of those stages so that you can get on with crafting your written arguments with confidence .
This is the most crucial stage in essay writing â r ead the essay prompt carefully and understand the question. Highlight the keywords â like âcompare,â âcontrastâ âdiscuss,â âexplainâ or âevaluateâ â and let it sink in before your mind starts racing . There is nothing worse than writing 500 words before realising you have entirely missed the brief . đ§
Unless you are writing under exam conditions , you will most likely have been working towards this essay for some time, by doing thorough background reading. Re-read relevant chapters and sections, highlight pertinent material and maybe even stray outside the designated reading list, this shows genuine interest and extended knowledge. đ
#3 Make a detailed plan
Following the handy structure we shared with you above, now is the time to create the âskeleton structureâ or essay plan. Working from your essay title, plot out what you want your paragraphs to cover and how that information is going to flow. You donât need to start writing any full sentences yet but it might be useful to think about the various quotes you plan to use to substantiate each section. đ
Having mapped out the overall trajectory of your essay, you can start to drill down into the detail. First, write the opening sentence for each of the paragraphs in the body section of your essay. Remember â each paragraph is like a mini-essay â the opening sentence should summarise what the paragraph will then go on to explain in more detail. đïž
Next, it's time to write the bulk of your words and flesh out your arguments. Follow the âpoint, evidence, explainâ method. The opening sentences â already written â should introduce your âpointsâ, so now you need to âevidenceâ them with corroborating research and âexplainâ how the evidence youâve presented proves the point youâre trying to make. âïž
With a rough draft in front of you, you can take a moment to read what you have written so far. Are there any sections that require further substantiation? Have you managed to include the most relevant material you originally highlighted in your background reading? Now is the time to make sure you have evidenced all your opinions and claims with the strongest quotes, citations and material. đ
This is your final chance to re-read your essay and go over it with a fine-toothed comb before pressing âsubmitâ. We highly recommend leaving a day or two between finishing your essay and the final proofread if possible â youâll be amazed at the difference this makes, allowing you to return with a fresh pair of eyes and a more discerning judgment. đ€
If you are looking for advice and support with your own essay-writing adventures, why not t ry a free trial lesson with GoStudent? Our tutors are experts at boosting academic success and having fun along the way. Get in touch and see how it can work for you today. đ
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How to Write the Perfect Essay
06 Feb, 2024 | Blog Articles , English Language Articles , Get the Edge , Humanities Articles , Writing Articles
You can keep adding to this plan, crossing bits out and linking the different bubbles when you spot connections between them. Even though you wonât have time to make a detailed plan under exam conditions, it can be helpful to draft a brief one, including a few key words, so that you donât panic and go off topic when writing your essay.
If you donât like the mind map format, there are plenty of others to choose from: you could make a table, a flowchart, or simply a list of bullet points.
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Thanks for signing up, step 2: have a clear structure.
Think about this while you’re planning: your essay is like an argument or a speech. It needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question.
Start with the basics! It’s best to choose a few major points which will become your main paragraphs. Three main paragraphs is a good number for an exam essay, since you’ll be under time pressure.Â
If you agree with the question overall, it can be helpful to organise your points in the following pattern:
- YES (agreement with the question)
- AND (another YES point)
- BUT (disagreement or complication)
If you disagree with the question overall, try:
- AND (another BUT point)
For example, you could structure the Of Mice and Men sample question, “To what extent is Curleyâs wife portrayed as a victim in Of Mice and Men ?”, as follows:
- YES (descriptions of her appearance)
- AND (other people’s attitudes towards her)
- BUT (her position as the only woman on the ranch gives her power as she uses her femininity to her advantage)
If you wanted to write a longer essay, you could include additional paragraphs under the YES/AND categories, perhaps discussing the ways in which Curleyâs wife reveals her vulnerability and insecurities, and shares her dreams with the other characters. Alternatively, you could also lengthen your essay by including another BUT paragraph about her cruel and manipulative streak.
Of course, this is not necessarily the only right way to answer this essay question â as long as you back up your points with evidence from the text, you can take any standpoint that makes sense.
Step 3: Back up your points with well-analysed quotations
You wouldnât write a scientific report without including evidence to support your findings, so why should it be any different with an essay? Even though you arenât strictly required to substantiate every single point you make with a quotation, thereâs no harm in trying.
A close reading of your quotations can enrich your appreciation of the question and will be sure to impress examiners. When selecting the best quotations to use in your essay, keep an eye out for specific literary techniques. For example, you could highlight Curleyâs wifeâs use of a rhetorical question when she says, a”nâ what am I doinâ? Standinâ here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs.” This might look like:
The rhetorical question âanâ what am I doinâ?â signifies that Curleyâs wife is very insecure; she seems to be questioning her own life choices. Moreover, she does not expect anyone to respond to her question, highlighting her loneliness and isolation on the ranch.
Other literary techniques to look out for include:
- Tricolon â a group of three words or phrases placed close together for emphasis
- Tautology â using different words that mean the same thing: e.g. “frightening” and “terrifying”
- Parallelism â ABAB structure, often signifying movement from one concept to another
- Chiasmus â ABBA structure, drawing attention to a phrase
- Polysyndeton â many conjunctions in a sentence
- Asyndeton â lack of conjunctions, which can speed up the pace of a sentence
- Polyptoton â using the same word in different forms for emphasis: e.g. “done” and “doing”
- Alliteration â repetition of the same sound, including assonance (similar vowel sounds), plosive alliteration (“b”, “d” and “p” sounds) and sibilance (“s” sounds)
- Anaphora â repetition of words, often used to emphasise a particular point
Donât worry if you canât locate all of these literary devices in the work youâre analysing. You can also discuss more obvious techniques, like metaphor, simile and onomatopoeia. Itâs not a problem if you canât remember all the long names; itâs far more important to be able to confidently explain the effects of each technique and highlight its relevance to the question.
Step 4: Be creative and original throughout
Anyone can write an essay using the tips above, but the thing that really makes it “perfect” is your own unique take on the topic. If youâve noticed something intriguing or unusual in your reading, point it out â if you find it interesting, chances are the examiner will too!
Creative writing and essay writing are more closely linked than you might imagine. Keep the idea that youâre writing a speech or argument in mind, and youâre guaranteed to grab your readerâs attention.
Itâs important to set out your line of argument in your introduction, introducing your main points and the general direction your essay will take, but donât forget to keep something back for the conclusion, too. Yes, you need to summarise your main points, but if youâre just repeating the things you said in your introduction, the body of the essay is rendered pointless.
Think of your conclusion as the climax of your speech, the bit everything else has been leading up to, rather than the boring plenary at the end of the interesting stuff.
To return to Of Mice and Men once more, here’s an example of the ideal difference between an introduction and a conclusion:
Introduction
In John Steinbeckâs Of Mice and Men , Curleyâs wife is portrayed as an ambiguous character. She could be viewed either as a cruel, seductive temptress or a lonely woman who is a victim of her societyâs attitudes. Though she does seem to wield a form of sexual power, it is clear that Curleyâs wife is largely a victim. This interpretation is supported by Steinbeckâs description of her appearance, other peopleâs attitudes, her dreams, and her evident loneliness and insecurity.
Overall, it is clear that Curleyâs wife is a victim and is portrayed as such throughout the novel in the descriptions of her appearance, her dreams, other peopleâs judgemental attitudes, and her loneliness and insecurities. However, a character who was a victim and nothing else would be one-dimensional and Curleyâs wife is not. Although she suffers in many ways, she is shown to assert herself through the manipulation of her femininity â a small rebellion against the victimisation she experiences.
Both refer back consistently to the question and summarise the essayâs main points. However, the conclusion adds something new which has been established in the main body of the essay and complicates the simple summary which is found in the introduction.
Hannah is an undergraduate English student at Somerville College, University of Oxford, and has a particular interest in postcolonial literature and the Gothic. She thinks literature is a crucial way of developing empathy and learning about the wider world. When she isn’t writing about 17th-century court masques, she enjoys acting, travelling and creative writing.Â
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- How to Write Dazzlingly Brilliant Essays: Sharp Advice for Ambitious Students
Rachel McCombie, a graduate of St John’s College, Oxford, shares actionable tips on taking your essays from “Good” to “Outstanding.”
For ambitious students, essays are a chance to showcase academic flair, demonstrate original thinking and impress with advanced written English skills.
The best students relish the challenge of writing essays because theyâre a chance to exercise academic research skills and construct interesting arguments. Essays allow you to demonstrate your knowledge, understanding and intelligence in a creative and relatively unrestricted way – provided you keep within the word count! But when lots of other people are answering the same essay question as you, how do you make yours stand out from the crowd? In this article, weâre going to show you the secret of writing a truly brilliant essay.
What are essays actually for?
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how to write an outstanding essay, we need to go right back to basics and think about what essays are actually designed to test. Only by understanding the purpose of an essay can you really begin to understand what it is that tutors are looking for when they read your work. No matter what the academic level of the student is, essays are designed to test many things: – Knowledge – fundamentally, essays test and help consolidate what youâve read and learned, making them an important part of the learning process, particularly for humanities subjects. –Â Comprehension – they test your ability to make sense of and clearly explain complex concepts and issues. – They test your ability to understand the question and produce a considered response to it. – They evaluate your ability to absorb and condense information from a variety of sources , which will probably mean covering a lot of material in a short space of time; this necessitates appraisal of which bits of material are relevant and which are not. – They test your ability to write a balanced and coherent argument that considers a number of points of view. – They showcase your level of written English skills. – They even put your time management to the test – essays are a part of your workload that must be planned, prioritised and delivered to a high standard, to deadline.
Characteristics of the perfect essay
Now that we know why weâre asked to write essays, what are the characteristics that define the essays that impress? The tutors marking your essays may have their own preferences and things they look for in outstanding essays, but letâs take a look at a few of the irrefutable traits of the best.
Original thinking
The hallmark of the truly brilliant essay is original thinking. That doesnât have to mean coming up with an entirely new theory; most of, if not all, the topics youâll be studying at GCSE , A-level or even undergraduate level have been thought about in so much depth and by so many people that virtually every possible angle will have been thought of already. But what it does mean is that the essay stands out from those of other students in that it goes beyond the obvious and takes an original approach – perhaps approaching the topic from a different angle, coming up with a different hypothesis from what youâve been discussing in class, or introducing new evidence and intelligent insights from material not included on the reading list.
Solid, in-depth knowledge and understanding
It goes without saying that the brilliant essay should demonstrate a strong knowledge of the facts, and not just knowledge but sound comprehension of the concepts or issues being discussed and why they matter. The perfect essay demonstrates an ability to deploy relevant facts and use them to form the basis of an argument or hypothesis. It covers a wide range of material and considers every point of view, confidently making use of and quoting from a variety of sources.
Clear structure with intelligent debate
The perfect essay provides a coherent discussion of both sides of the story, developing a balanced argument throughout, and with a conclusion that weighs up the evidence youâve covered and perhaps provides your own intelligent opinion on how the topic should be interpreted based on the evidence covered.
No superfluous information
Everything written in the perfect essay serves a purpose – to inform and persuade. Thereâs no rambling or going off at tangents – it sticks to the point and doesnât waste the readerâs time. This goes back to our earlier point about sorting the relevant facts from the irrelevant material; including material that isnât relevant shows that youâve not quite grasped the real heart of the matter.
Exceptional English
The words in the perfect essay flow effortlessly, and the reader feels in safe hands. Sentences need never be read more than once to be understood, and each follows logically on from the next, with no random jumping about from topic to topic from one paragraph to the next. Spelling and grammar are flawless, with no careless typos. So how do you go about writing this mythical Perfect Essay? Read on to find out!
Put in extra background work
Committed students always read beyond what the reading list tells them to read. Guaranteed to impress, wide reading gives you deeper knowledge than your peers and gives you the extra knowledge and insights you need to make your essay stand out. If youâre studying English, for example, donât just read the set text! Here are some ideas to widen your reading and give you a good range of impressive quotes to include in your essay: – Other works by the same author – how do they compare with your set text? – Works by contemporary authors – does your set text fit into a wider movement, or is it very different from what was being written at the time? – Works by the authorâs predecessors – what works inspired the author of your set text? How do you see them shining through in the text youâre studying, and how have they been developed? – Literary criticism – gauge the range of opinions about your set text by reading what the literary critics have to say. Whose opinion do you most agree with, and why? – Background history – so that you can appreciate and refer to the context in which the author was writing (weâll come back to this last point a little later). It sounds like a lot of extra work, but you donât necessarily have to read everything in full. Itâs fine to dip into these other resources providing you donât inadvertently take points out of context.
Know what you want to say before you start writing
Youâre probably sick of hearing this particular piece of advice, but itâs important to start out with a clear idea in your mind of what you want to say in your essay and how you will structure your arguments. The easiest way to do this is to write an essay plan. This neednât be a big deal, or time-consuming; all you need to do is to open a new document on your computer, type out the ideas you want to cover and drag and drop them into a logical order. From there, you simply start typing your essay directly into the plan itself. Your essay should include an introduction, a series of paragraphs that develop an argument rather than just jumping from topic to topic, and a conclusion that weighs up the evidence.
Answer the question youâve been set, not the question you want to answer
A common problem with studentsâ responses to essays is that rather than answering the question theyâve been set , they try to mould the question to what theyâd prefer to write about, because thatâs what they feel most comfortable with. Be very careful not to do this! You could end up writing a brilliant essay, but if didnât actually answer the question then itâs not going to be well received by the person marking it.
Give a balanced argumentâŠ
Good essays give both sides of an argument, presenting information impartially and considering multiple points of view. One-sided arguments wonât impress, as you need to show that youâve thought about the evidence comprehensively.
…but your opinion and interpretation matter too
Show that youâve made your own mind up based on your weighing up of the evidence. This shows that youâre not just hiding behind what other people say about the topic, but that youâve had the independence of mind to form your own intelligent opinion about it.
Quote liberally
Use quotations from academic works and sources to back up points you want to make. Doing so strengthens your argument by providing evidence for your statements, as well as demonstrating that youâve read widely around your subject. However, donât go too far and write an essay thatâs essentially just a list of what other people say about the subject. Quoting too much suggests that you donât have the confidence or knowledge to explain things in your own words, so have to hide behind those of other people. Make your own mind up about what youâre writing about – as already mentioned, itâs fine to state your own opinion if youâve considered the arguments and presented the evidence.
Context matters
As weâve already touched on, if you can demonstrate knowledge of the context of the subject youâre writing about, this will show that youâve considered possible historical influences that may have shaped a work or issue. This shows that you havenât simply taken the essay question at face value and demonstrates your ability to think beyond the obvious. An ability to look at the wider picture marks you out as an exceptional student, as many people canât see the wood for the trees and have a very narrow focus when it comes to writing essays. If youâre an English student, for instance, an authorâs work should be considered not in isolation but in the context of the historical events and thinking that helped define the period in which the author was writing. You canât write about Blakeâs poetry without some knowledge and discussion of background events such as the Industrial Revolution, and the development of the Romantic movement as a whole.
Include images and diagrams
You know what they say – a picture speaks a thousand words. What matters in an essay is effective and persuasive communication, and if a picture or diagram will help support a point youâre making, include it. As well as helping to communicate, visuals also make your essay more enjoyable to read for the person marking it – and if they enjoy reading it, the chances are youâll get better marks! Donât forget to ensure that you include credits for any images and diagrams you include.
Use full academic citations and a bibliography
Show you mean business by including a full set of academic citations, with a bibliography at the end, even if you havenât been told to. The great thing about this is that it not only makes you look organised and scholarly, but it also gives you the opportunity to show off just how many extra texts youâve studied to produce your masterpiece of an essay! Make use of the footnote feature in your word processor and include citations at the bottom of each page, with a main bibliography at the end of the essay. There are different accepted forms for citing an academic reference, but the main thing to remember is to pick one format and be consistent. Typically the citation will include the title and author of the work, the date of publication and the page number(s) of the point or quotation youâre referring to. Hereâs an example: 1. Curta, F. (2007) â âSome remarks on ethnicity in medieval archaeologyâ in Early Medieval Europe 15 (2), pp. 159-185
Before you ask, no, a spell check isnât good enough! How many times have you typed âformâ instead of âfromâ? Thatâs just one of a huge number of errors that spell check would simply miss. Your English should be impeccable if you want to be taken seriously, and that means clear and intelligent sentence structures, no misplaced apostrophes, no typos and no grammar crimes. Include your name at the top of each page of your essay, and number the pages. Also, make sure you use a font thatâs easy to read, such as Times New Roman or Arial. The person marking your essay wonât appreciate having to struggle through reading a fancy Gothic font, even if it does happen to match the Gothic literature youâre studying!
Meet the deadline
You donât need us to tell you that, but for the sake of being comprehensive, weâre including it anyway. You could write the best essay ever, but if you deliver it late, it wonât be looked upon favourably! Donât leave writing your essay until the last minute – start writing with plenty of time to spare, and ideally leave time to sleep on it before you submit it. Allowing time for it to sink in may result in you having a sudden brilliant revelation that you want to include. So there we have it – everything you need to know in order to write an essay to impress. If you want to get ahead, you might also want to think about attending an English summer school .
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16 Strong College Essay Examples from Top Schools
Whatâs Covered:
- Common App Essays
- Why This College Essays
- Why This Major Essays
- Extracurricular Essays
- Overcoming Challenges Essays
- Community Service Essays
- Diversity Essays
- Political/Global Issues Essays
- Where to Get Feedback on Your Essays
Most high school students donât get a lot of experience with creative writing, so the college essay can be especially daunting. Reading examples of successful essays, however, can help you understand what admissions officers are looking for.
In this post, weâll share 16 college essay examples of many different topics. Most of the essay prompts fall into 8 different archetypes, and you can approach each prompt under that archetype in a similar way. Weâve grouped these examples by archetype so you can better structure your approach to college essays.
If youâre looking for school-specific guides, check out our 2022-2023 essay breakdowns .
Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isnât genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized.Â
Note: the essays are titled in this post for navigation purposes, but they were not originally titled. We also include the original prompt where possible.
The Common App essay goes to all of the schools on your list, unless those schools use a separate application platform. Because of this, itâs the most important essay in your portfolio, and likely the longest essay youâll need to write (you get up to 650 words).Â
The goal of this essay is to share a glimpse into who you are, what matters to you, and what you hope to achieve. Itâs a chance to share your story.Â
Learn more about how to write the Common App essay in our complete guide.
The Multiple Meanings of Point
Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. (250-650 words)
Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. âReady spar!â Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped â only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger.Â
There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous âYes, sirâ and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the âwinnersâ celebrated their victory with laps as usual.Â
Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, âYes, sirâ and âYes, maâamâ, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous.Â
The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrĂ©e, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. âChassĂ© en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.â I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.  Â
There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: âYou might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.â Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. Itâs like being a white belt again â just in a leotard and ballet slippers.Â
But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesnât falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of âDancing Queenâ that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, itâs hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.Â
The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappĂ©s performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable.Â
The first obvious strength of this essay is the introductionâit is interesting and snappy and uses enough technical language that we want to figure out what the student is discussing. When writing introductions, students tend to walk the line between intriguing and confusing. It is important that your essay ends up on the intentionally intriguing side of that lineâlike this student does! We are a little confused at first, but by then introducing the idea of âsparring,â the student grounds their essay.
People often advise young writers to âshow, not tell.â This student takes that advice a step further and makes the reader do a bit of work to figure out what they are telling us. Nowhere in this essay does it say âAfter years of Taekwondo, I made the difficult decision to switch over to ballet.â Rather, the student says âItâs like being a white belt again â just in a leotard and ballet slippers.â How powerful!Â
After a lot of emotional language and imagery, this student finishes off their essay with very valuable (and necessary!) reflection. They show admissions officers that they are more than just a good writerâthey are a mature and self-aware individual who would be beneficial to a college campus. Self-awareness comes through with statements like âsurrendering what you are only leads you to what you may becomeâ and maturity can be seen through the studentâs discussion of values: âhonor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.â
Sparking Self-Awareness
Prompt: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? (250-650 words)
Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug sprayâI wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire.Â
Furiously I rubbed the twigs togetherârubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers. No smoke. The twigs were too young, too sticky-green; I tossed them away with a shower of curses, and began tearing through the underbrush in search of a more flammable collection. My efforts were fruitless. Livid, I bit a rejected twig, determined to prove that the forest had spurned me, offering only young, wet bones that would never burn. But the wood cracked like carrots between my teethâold, brittle, and bitter. Roaring and nursing my aching palms, I retreated to the tent, where I sulked and awaited the jeers of my family.Â
Rattling their empty worm cans and reeking of fat fish, my brother and cousins swaggered into the campsite. Immediately, they noticed the minor stick massacre by the fire pit and called to me, their deep voices already sharp with contempt.Â
âWhereâs the fire, Princess Clara?â they taunted. âHaving some trouble?â They prodded me with the ends of the chewed branches and, with a few effortless scrapes of wood on rock, sparked a red and roaring flame. My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame.Â
In the tent, I pondered my failure. Was I so dainty? Was I that incapable? I thought of my hands, how calloused and capable they had been, how tender and smooth they had become. It had been years since Iâd kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, Iâd practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musicianâfleshy and sensitive. And Iâd gotten glasses, having grown horrifically nearsighted; long nights of dim lighting and thick books had done this. I couldnât remember the last time I had lain down on a hill, barefaced, and seen the stars without having to squint. Crawling along the edge of the tent, a spider confirmed my transformationâhe disgusted me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to squash him.Â
Yet, I realized I hadnât really changedâI had only shifted perspective. I still eagerly explored new worlds, but through poems and prose rather than pastures and puddles. Iâd grown to prefer the boom of a bass over that of a bullfrog, learned to coax a different kind of fire from wood, having developed a burn for writing rhymes and scrawling hypotheses.Â
That night, I stayed up late with my journal and wrote about the spider I had decided not to kill. I had tolerated him just barely, only shrieking when he jumpedâit helped to watch him decorate the corners of the tent with his delicate webs, knowing that he couldnât start fires, either. When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smokedâmy hands burned from all that scrawlingâand even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparkingâI was on fire, always on fire.
First things first, this Common App essay is well-written. This student is definitely showing the admissions officers her ability to articulate her points beautifully and creatively. It starts with vivid images like that of the ârustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free.â And because the prose is flowery (and beautiful!), the writer can get away with metaphors like âI knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palmsâ that might sound cheesy without the clear command of the English language that the writer quickly establishes.
In addition to being well-written, this essay is thematically cohesive. It begins with the simple introduction âFire!â and ends with the following image: âWhen the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smokedâmy hands burned from all that scrawlingâand even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparkingâI was on fire, always on fire.â This full-circle approach leaves readers satisfied and impressed.
While dialogue often comes off as cliche or trite, this student effectively incorporates her family members saying âWhereâs the fire, Princess Clara?â This is achieved through the apt use of the verb âtauntedâ to characterize the questioning and through the questionâs thematic connection to the earlier image of the student as a rustic princess. Similarly, rhetorical questions can feel randomly placed in essays, but this studentâs inclusion of the questions âWas I so dainty?â and âWas I that incapable?â feel perfectly justified after she establishes that she was pondering her failure.
Quite simply, this essay shows how quality writing can make a simple story outstandingly compelling.Â
Why This College?
âWhy This College?â is one of the most common essay prompts, likely because schools want to understand whether youâd be a good fit and how youâd use their resources.
This essay is one of the more straightforward ones youâll write for college applications, but you still can and should allow your voice to shine through.
Learn more about how to write the âWhy This College?â essay in our guide.
Prompt: How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying (650 words).
Sister Simone Roach, a theorist of nursing ethics, said, âcaring is the human mode of being.â I have long been inspired by Sister Roachâs Five Câs of Caring: commitment, conscience, competence, compassion, and confidence. Penn both embraces and fosters these values through a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum and unmatched access to service and volunteer opportunities.
COMMITMENT. Reading through the activities that Penn Quakers devote their time to (in addition to academics!) felt like drinking from a firehose in the best possible way. As a prospective nursing student with interests outside of my major, I value this level of flexibility. I plan to leverage Pennâs liberal arts curriculum to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges LGBT people face, especially regarding healthcare access. Through courses like âInteractional Processes with LGBT Individualsâ and volunteering at the Mazzoni Center for outreach, I hope to learn how to better support the Penn LGBT community as well as my family and friends, including my cousin, who came out as trans last year.
CONSCIENCE. As one of the first people in my family to attend a four-year university, I wanted a school that promoted a sense of moral responsibility among its students. At Penn, professors challenge their students to question and recreate their own set of morals by sparking thought- provoking, open-minded discussions. I can imagine myself advocating for universal healthcare in courses such as âHealth Care Reform & Future of American Health Systemâ and debating its merits with my peers. Studying in an environment where students confidently voice their opinions â conservative or liberal â will push me to question and strengthen my value system.
COMPETENCE. Two aspects that drew my attention to Pennâs BSN program were its high-quality research opportunities and hands-on nursing projects. Through its Office of Nursing Research, Penn connects students to faculty members who share similar research interests. As I volunteered at a nursing home in high school, I hope to work with Dr. Carthon to improve the quality of care for senior citizens. Seniors, especially minorities, face serious barriers to healthcare that I want to resolve. Additionally, Pennâs unique use of simulations to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world application impressed me. Using computerized manikins that mimic human responses, classes in Pennâs nursing program allow students to apply their emergency medical skills in a mass casualty simulation and monitor their actions afterward through a video system. Participating in this activity will help me identify my strengths and areas for improvement regarding crisis management and medical care in a controlled yet realistic setting. Research opportunities and simulations will develop my skills even before I interact with patients.
COMPASSION. I value giving back through community service, and I have a particular interest in Pennâs Community Champions and Nursing Students For Sexual & Reproductive Health (NSRH). As a four-year volunteer health educator, I hope to continue this work as a Community Champions member. I am excited to collaborate with medical students to teach fourth and fifth graders in the city about cardiology or lead a chair dance class for the elders at the LIFE Center. Furthermore, as a feminist who firmly believes in womenâs abortion rights, Iâd like to join NSRH in order to advocate for womenâs health on campus. At Penn, I can work with like-minded people to make a meaningful difference.
CONFIDENCE. All of the Quakers that I have met possess one defining trait: confidence. Each student summarized their experiences at Penn as challenging but fulfilling. Although I expect my coursework to push me, from my conversations with current Quakers I know it will help me to be far more effective in my career.
The Five Câs of Caring are important heuristics for nursing, but they also provide insight into how I want to approach my time in college. I am eager to engage with these principles both as a nurse and as a Penn Quaker, and I canât wait to start.
This prompt from Penn asks students to tailor their answer to their specific field of study. One great thing that this student does is identify their undergraduate school early, by mentioning âSister Simone Roach, a theorist of nursing ethics.â You donât want readers confused or searching through other parts of your application to figure out your major.
With a longer essay like this, it is important to establish structure. Some students organize their essay in a narrative form, using an anecdote from their past or predicting their future at a school. This student uses Roachâs 5 Câs of Caring as a framing device that organizes their essay around values. This works well!
While this essay occasionally loses voice, there are distinct moments where the studentâs personality shines through. We see this with phrases like âfelt like drinking from a fire hose in the best possible wayâ and âAll of the Quakers that I have met possess one defining trait: confidence.â It is important to show off your personality to make your essay stand out.Â
Finally, this student does a great job of referencing specific resources about Penn. Itâs clear that they have done their research (theyâve even talked to current Quakers). They have dreams and ambitions that can only exist at Penn.
Prompt: What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)
Coin collector and swimmer. Hungarian and Romanian. Critical and creative thinker. I was drawn to Yale because they donât limit oneâs mind with âorâ but rather embrace unison with âand.âÂ
Wandering through the Beinecke Library, I prepare for my multidisciplinary Energy Studies capstone about the correlation between hedonism and climate change, making it my goal to find implications in environmental sociology. Under the tutelage of Assistant Professor Arielle Baskin-Sommers, I explore the emotional deficits of depression, utilizing neuroimaging to scrutinize my favorite branch of psychology: human perception. At Walden Peer Counseling, I integrate my peer support and active listening skills to foster an empathetic environment for the Yale community. Combining my interests in psychological and environmental studies is why Iâm proud to be a Bulldog.Â
This answer to the âWhy This Collegeâ question is great because 1) the student shows their excitement about attending Yale 2) we learn the ways in which attending Yale will help them achieve their goals and 3) we learn their interests and identities.
In this response, you can find a prime example of the âImage of the Futureâ approach, as the student flashes forward and envisions their life at Yale, using present tense (âI explore,â âI integrate,â âIâm proudâ). This approach is valuable if you are trying to emphasize your dedication to a specific school. Readers get the feeling that this student is constantly imagining themselves on campusâit feels like Yale really matters to them.
Starting this image with the Beinecke Library is great because the Beinecke Library only exists at Yale. It is important to tailor âWhy This Collegeâ responses to each specific school. This student references a program of study, a professor, and an extracurricular that only exist at Yale. Additionally, they connect these unique resources to their interestsâpsychological and environmental studies.
Finally, we learn about the student (independent of academics) through this response. By the end of their 125 words, we know their hobbies, ethnicities, and social desires, in addition to their academic interests. It can be hard to tackle a 125-word response, but this student shows that itâs possible.
Why This Major?
The goal of this prompt is to understand how you came to be interested in your major and what you plan to do with it. For competitive programs like engineering, this essay helps admissions officers distinguish students who have a genuine passion and are most likely to succeed in the program. This is another more straightforward essay, but you do have a bit more freedom to include relevant anecdotes.
Learn more about how to write the âWhy This Major?â essay in our guide.
Why Duke Engineering
Prompt: If you are applying to the Pratt School of Engineering as a first year applicant, please discuss why you want to study engineering and why you would like to study at Duke (250 words).
One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didnât realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering. Later, in a high school biology class, I learned that engineering didnât only apply to circuits, but also to medical devices that could improve peopleâs quality of life. Biomedical engineering allows me to pursue my academic passions and help people at the same time.
Just as biology and engineering interact in biomedical engineering, I am fascinated by interdisciplinary research in my chosen career path. Duke offers unmatched resources, such as DUhatch and The Foundry, that will enrich my engineering education and help me practice creative problem-solving skills. The emphasis on entrepreneurship within these resources will also help me to make a helpful product. Dukeâs Bass Connections program also interests me; I firmly believe that the most creative and necessary problem-solving comes by bringing people together from different backgrounds. Through this program, I can use my engineering education to solve complicated societal problems such as creating sustainable surgical tools for low-income countries. Along the way, I can learn alongside experts in the field. Dukeâs openness and collaborative culture span across its academic disciplines, making Duke the best place for me to grow both as an engineer and as a social advocate.
This prompt calls for a complex answer. Students must explain both why they want to study engineering and why Duke is the best place for them to study engineering.
This student begins with a nice hookâa simple anecdote about a simple present with profound consequences. They do not fluff up their anecdote with flowery images or emotionally-loaded language; it is what it is, and it is compelling and sweet. As their response continues, they express a particular interest in problem-solving. They position problem-solving as a fundamental part of their interest in engineering (and a fundamental part of their fascination with their childhood toy). This helps readers to learn about the student!
Problem-solving is also the avenue by which they introduce Dukeâs resourcesâDUhatch, The Foundry, and Dukeâs Bass Connections program. It is important to notice that the student explains how these resources can help them achieve their future goalsâit is not enough to simply identify the resources!
This response is interesting and focused. It clearly answers the prompt, and it feels honest and authentic.
Why Georgia Tech CompSci
Prompt: Why do you want to study your chosen major specifically at Georgia Tech? (300 words max)
I held my breath and hit RUN. Yes! A plump white cat jumped out and began to catch the falling pizzas. Although my Fat Cat project seems simple now, it was the beginning of an enthusiastic passion for computer science. Four years and thousands of hours of programming later, that passion has grown into an intense desire to explore how computer science can serve society. Every day, surrounded by technology that can recognize my face and recommend scarily-specific ads, Iâm reminded of Uncle Benâs advice to a young Spiderman: âwith great power comes great responsibilityâ. Likewise, the need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed with AIâs far-reaching presence in society; and I believe that digital fairness starts with equality in education.
The unique use of threads at the College of Computing perfectly matches my interests in AI and its potential use in education; the path of combined threads on Intelligence and People gives me the rare opportunity to delve deep into both areas. Iâm particularly intrigued by the rich sets of both knowledge-based and data-driven intelligence courses, as I believe AI should not only show correlation of events, but also provide insight for why they occur.
In my four years as an enthusiastic online English tutor, Iâve worked hard to help students overcome both financial and technological obstacles in hopes of bringing quality education to people from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, Iâm extremely excited by the many courses in the People thread that focus on education and human-centered technology. Iâd love to explore how to integrate AI technology into the teaching process to make education more available, affordable, and effective for people everywhere. And with the innumerable opportunities that Georgia Tech has to offer, I know that I will be able to go further here than anywhere else.
With a âWhy This Majorâ essay, you want to avoid using all of your words to tell a story. That being said, stories are a great way to show your personality and make your essay stand out. This studentâs story takes up only their first 21 words, but it positions the student as fun and funny and provides an endearing image of cats and pizzasâwho doesnât love cats and pizzas? There are other moments when the studentâs personality shines through also, like the Spiderman reference.
While this pop culture reference adds color, it also is important for what the student is getting at: their passion. They want to go into computer science to address the issues of security and equity that are on the industryâs mind, and they acknowledge these concerns with their comments about âscarily-specific adsâ and their statement that âthe need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed.â This student is self-aware and aware of the state of the industry. This aptitude will be appealing for admissions officers.
The conversation around âthreadsâ is essential for this studentâs response because the prompt asks specifically about the major at Georgia Tech and it is the only thing they reference that is specific to Georgia Tech. Threads are great, but this student would have benefitted from expanding on other opportunities specific to Georgia Tech later in the essay, instead of simply inserting âinnumerable opportunities.â
Overall, this student shows personality, passion, and aptitudeâprecisely what admissions officers want to see!
Extracurricular Essay
Youâre asked to describe your activities on the Common App, but chances are, you have at least one extracurricular thatâs impacted you in a way you canât explain in 150 characters.
This essay archetype allows you to share how your most important activity shaped you and how you might use those lessons learned in the future. You are definitely welcome to share anecdotes and use a narrative approach, but remember to include some reflection. A common mistake students make is to only describe the activity without sharing how it impacted them.
Learn more about how to write the Extracurricular Essay in our guide.
A Dedicated Musician
My fingers raced across the keys, rapidly striking one after another. My body swayed with the music as my hands raced across the piano. Crashing onto the final chord, it was over as quickly as it had begun. My shoulders relaxed and I couldnât help but break into a satisfied grin. I had just played the Moonlight Sonataâs third movement, a longtime dream of mine.Â
Four short months ago, though, I had considered it impossible. The pieceâs tempo was impossibly fast, its notes stretching between each end of the piano, forcing me to reach farther than I had ever dared. It was 17 pages of the most fragile and intricate melodies I had ever encountered.Â
But that summer, I found myself ready to take on the challenge. With the end of the school year, I was released from my commitment to practicing for band and solo performances. I was now free to determine my own musical path: either succeed in learning the piece, or let it defeat me for the third summer in a row.Â
Over those few months, I spent countless hours practicing the same notes until they burned a permanent place in my memory, creating a soundtrack for even my dreams. Some would say Iâve mastered the piece, but as a musician I know better. Now that I can play it, I am eager to take the next step and add in layers of musicality and expression to make the once-impossible piece even more beautiful.
In this response, the student uses their extracurricular, piano, as a way to emphasize their positive qualities. At the beginning, readers are invited on a journey with the student where we feel their struggle, their intensity, and ultimately their satisfaction. With this descriptive image, we form a valuable connection with the student.
Then, we get to learn about what makes this student special: their dedication and work ethic. The fact that this student describes their desire to be productive during the summer shows an intensity that is appealing to admissions officers. Additionally, the growth mindset that this student emphasizes in their conclusion is appealing to admissions officers.
The Extracurricular Essay can be seen as an opportunity to characterize yourself. This student clearly identified their positive qualities, then used the Extracurricular Essay as a way to articulate them.
A Complicated Relationship with the School Newspaper
My schoolâs newspaper and I have a typical love-hate relationship; some days I want nothing more than to pass two hours writing and formatting articles, while on others the mere thought of student journalism makes me shiver. Still, as weâre entering our fourth year together, you could consider us relatively stable. Weâve learned to accept each otherâs differences; at this point Iâve become comfortable spending an entire Friday night preparing for an upcoming issue, and I hardly even notice the snail-like speed of our computers. Iâve even benefitted from the polygamous nature of our relationshipâwith twelve other editors, thereâs a lot of cooperation involved. Perverse as it may be, from that teamwork Iâve both gained some of my closest friends and improved my organizational and time-management skills. And though leaving it in the hands of new editors next year will be difficult, I know our time together has only better prepared me for future relationships.
This response is great. Itâs cute and endearing and, importantly, tells readers a lot about the student who wrote it. Framing this essay in the context of a âlove-hate relationship,â then supplementing with comments like âWeâve learned to accept each otherâs differencesâ allows this student to advertise their maturity in a unique and engaging way.Â
While Extracurricular Essays can be a place to show how youâve grown within an activity, they can also be a place to show how youâve grown through an activity. At the end of this essay, readers think that this student is mature and enjoyable, and we think that their experience with the school newspaper helped make them that way.
Participating in Democracy
Prompt: Research shows that an ability to learn from experiences outside the classroom correlates with success in college. What was your greatest learning experience over the past 4 years that took place outside of the traditional classroom? (250 words)Â
The cool, white halls of the Rayburn House office building contrasted with the bustling energy of interns entertaining tourists, staffers rushing to cover committee meetings, and my fellow conference attendees separating to meet with our respective congresspeople. Through civics and US history classes, I had learned about our government, but simply hearing the legislative process outlined didnât prepare me to navigate it. It was my first political conference, and, after learning about congressional mechanics during breakout sessions, I was lobbying my representative about an upcoming vote crucial to the US-Middle East relationship. As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, my whole life had led me to the moment when I could speak on behalf of the family members who had not emigrated with my parents.
As I sat down with my congresswomanâs chief of staff, I truly felt like a participant in democracy; I was exercising my right to be heard as a young American. Through this educational conference, I developed a plan of action to raise my voice. When I returned home, I signed up to volunteer with the state chapter of the Democratic Party. I sponsored letter-writing campaigns, canvassed for local elections, and even pursued an internship with a state senate campaign. I know that I donât need to be old enough to vote to effect change. Most importantly, I also know that I want to study governmentâI want to make a difference for my communities in the United States and the Middle East throughout my career.Â
While this prompt is about extracurricular activities, it specifically references the idea that the extracurricular should support the curricular. It is focused on experiential learning for future career success. This student wants to study government, so they chose to describe an experience of hands-on learning within their fieldâan apt choice!
As this student discusses their extracurricular experience, they also clue readers into their future goalsâthey want to help Middle Eastern communities. Admissions officers love when students mention concrete plans with a solid foundation. Here, the foundation comes from this studentâs ethnicity. With lines like âmy whole life had led me to the moment when I could speak on behalf of the family members who had not emigrated with my parents,â the student assures admissions officers of their emotional connection to their future field.
The strength of this essay comes from its connections. It connects the studentâs extracurricular activity to their studies and connects theirs studies to their personal history.
Overcoming Challenges
Youâre going to face a lot of setbacks in college, so admissions officers want to make youâre you have the resilience and resolve to overcome them. This essay is your chance to be vulnerable and connect to admissions officers on an emotional level.
Learn more about how to write the Overcoming Challenges Essay in our guide.
The Student Becomes the Master
âAdvanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.â Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.
Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.
Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldnât understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.
Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one.Â
I first approached the adults in the dojang â both instructors and membersâ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldnât devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.
At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.
Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their childrenâs coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.
Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldnât let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojangâs longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.
Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.
Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we competed with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.
This essay is great because it has a strong introduction and conclusion. The introduction is notably suspenseful and draws readers into the story. Because we know it is a college essay, we can assume that the student is one of the competitors, but at the same time, this introduction feels intentionally ambiguous as if the writer could be a competitor, a coach, a sibling of a competitor, or anyone else in the situation.
As we continue reading the essay, we learn that the writer is, in fact, the competitor. Readers also learn a lot about the studentâs values as we hear their thoughts: âI knew I couldnât let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was.â Ultimately, the conflict and inner and outer turmoil is resolved through the âSame, but Differentâ ending technique as the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiencing it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is a very compelling strategy!
Growing Sensitivity to Struggles
Prompt: The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? (650 words)
âYou ruined my life!â After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.
Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.
When my parents learned about The Green Academy, we hoped it would be an opportunity for me to find not only an academically challenging environment, but also â perhaps more importantly â a community. This meant transferring the family from Drumfield to Kingston. And while there was concern about Max, we all believed that given his sociable nature, moving would be far less impactful on him than staying put might be on me.
As it turned out, Green Academy was everything Iâd hoped for. I was ecstatic to discover a group of students with whom I shared interests and could truly engage. Preoccupied with new friends and a rigorous course load, I failed to notice that the tables had turned. Max, lost in the fray and grappling with how to make connections in his enormous new high school, had become withdrawn and lonely. It took me until Christmas time â and a massive argument â to recognize how difficult the transition had been for my brother, let alone that he blamed me for it.
Through my own journey of searching for academic peers, in addition to coming out as gay when I was 12, I had developed deep empathy for those who had trouble fitting in. It was a pain I knew well and could easily relate to. Yet after Maxâs outburst, my first response was to protest that our parents â not I â had chosen to move us here. In my heart, though, I knew that regardless of who had made the decision, we ended up in Kingston for my benefit. I was ashamed that, while I saw myself as genuinely compassionate, I had been oblivious to the heartache of the person closest to me. I could no longer ignore it â and I didnât want to.
We stayed up half the night talking, and the conversation took an unexpected turn. Max opened up and shared that it wasnât just about the move. He told me how challenging school had always been for him, due to his dyslexia, and that the ever-present comparison to me had only deepened his pain.
We had been in parallel battles the whole time and, yet, I only saw that Max was in distress once he experienced problems with which I directly identified. Iâd long thought Max had it so easy â all because he had friends. The truth was, he didnât need to experience my personal brand of sorrow in order for me to relate â he had felt plenty of his own.
My failure to recognize Maxâs suffering brought home for me the profound universality and diversity of personal struggle; everyone has insecurities, everyone has woes, and everyone â most certainly â has pain. I am acutely grateful for the conversations he and I shared around all of this, because I believe our relationship has been fundamentally strengthened by a deeper understanding of one another. Further, this experience has reinforced the value of constantly striving for deeper sensitivity to the hidden struggles of those around me. I wonât make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someoneâs life reflects their underlying story.
Here you can find a prime example that you donât have to have fabulous imagery or flowery prose to write a successful essay. You just have to be clear and say something that matters. This essay is simple and beautiful. It almost feels like having a conversation with a friend and learning that they are an even better person than you already thought they were.
Through this narrative, readers learn a lot about the writerâwhere theyâre from, what their family life is like, what their challenges were as a kid, and even their sexuality. We also learn a lot about their valuesânotably, the value they place on awareness, improvement, and consideration of others. Though they never explicitly state it (which is great because it is still crystal clear!), this studentâs ending of âI wonât make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someoneâs life reflects their underlying storyâ shows that they are constantly striving for improvement and finding lessons anywhere they can get them in life.
Community Service/Impact on the Community
Colleges want students who will positively impact the campus community and go on to make change in the world after they graduate. This essay is similar to the Extracurricular Essay, but you need to focus on a situation where you impacted others.Â
Learn more about how to write the Community Service Essay in our guide.
Academic Signing Day
Prompt: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
The scent of eucalyptus caressed my nose in a gentle breeze. Spring had arrived. Senior class activities were here. As a sophomore, I noticed a difference between athletic and academic seniors at my high school; one received recognition while the other received silence. I wanted to create an event celebrating students academically-committed to four-years, community colleges, trades schools, and military programs. This event was Academic Signing Day.
The leadership label, âEvents Coordinator,â felt heavy on my introverted mind. I usually was setting up for rallies and spirit weeks, being overlooked around the exuberant nature of my peers.Â
I knew a change of mind was needed; I designed flyers, painted posters, presented powerpoints, created student-led committees, and practiced countless hours for my introductory speech. Each committee would play a vital role on event day: one dedicated to refreshments, another to technology, and one for decorations. The fourth-month planning was a laborious joy, but I was still fearful of being in the spotlight. Being acknowledged by hundreds of people was new to me.    Â
The day was here. Parents filled the stands of the multi-purpose room. The atmosphere was tense; I could feel the angst building in my throat, worried about the impression I would leave. Applause followed each of the 400 students as they walked to their college table, indicating my time to speak.Â
I walked up to the stand, hands clammy, expression tranquil, my words echoing to the audience. I thought my speech would be met by the sounds of crickets; instead, smiles lit up the stands, realizing my voice shone through my actions. I was finally coming out of my shell. The floor was met by confetti as I was met by the sincerity of staff, students, and parents, solidifying the event for years to come.Â
Academic students were no longer overshadowed. Their accomplishments were equally recognized to their athletic counterparts. The school culture of athletics over academics was no longer imbalanced. Now, every time I smell eucalyptus, it is a friendly reminder that on Academic Signing Day, not only were academic students in the spotlight but so was my voice.
This essay answers the prompt nicely because the student describes a contribution with a lasting legacy. Academic Signing Day will affect this high school in the future and it affected this studentâs self-developmentâan idea summed up nicely with their last phrase ânot only were academic students in the spotlight but so was my voice.â
With Community Service essays, students sometimes take small contributions and stretch them. And, oftentimes, the stretch is very obvious. Here, the student shows us that Academic Signing Day actually mattered by mentioning four months of planning and hundreds of students and parents. They also make their involvement in Academic Signing Day clearâit was their idea and they were in charge, and thatâs why they gave the introductory speech.
Use this response as an example of the type of focused contribution that makes for a convincing Community Service Essay.
Climate Change Rally
Prompt: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? (technically not community service, but the response works)
Letâs fast-forward time. Strides were made toward racial equality. Healthcare is accessible to all; however, one issue remains. Our aquatic ecosystems are parched with dead coral from ocean acidification. Climate change has prevailed.
Rewind to the present day.
My activism skills are how I express my concerns for the environment. Whether I play on sandy beaches or rest under forest treetops, nature offers me an escape from the haste of the world. When my body is met by trash in the ocean or my nose is met by harmful pollutants, Earthâs pain becomes my own.Â
Substituting coffee grinds as fertilizer, using bamboo straws, starting my sustainable garden, my individual actions needed to reach a larger scale. I often found performative activism to be ineffective when communicating climate concerns. My days of reposting awareness graphics on social media never filled the ambition I had left to put my activism skills to greater use. I decided to share my ecocentric worldview with a coalition of environmentalists and host a climate change rally outside my high school.
Meetings were scheduled where I informed students about the unseen impact they have on the oceans and local habitual communities. My fingers were cramped from all the constant typing and investigating of micro causes of the Pacific Waste Patch, creating reusable flyers, displaying steps people could take from home in reducing their carbon footprint. I aided my fellow environmentalists in translating these flyers into other languages, repeating this process hourly, for five days, up until rally day. Â
It was 7:00 AM. The faces of 100 students were shouting, âThe climate is changing, why canât we?â I proudly walked on the dewy grass, grabbing the microphone, repeating those same words. The rally not only taught me efficient methods of communication but it echoed my environmental activism to the masses. The City of Corona would be the first of many cities to see my activism, as more rallies were planned for various parts of SoCal. My once unfulfilled ambition was fueled by my tangible activism, understanding that it takes more than one person to make an environmental impact.
Like with the last example, this student describes a focused event with a lasting legacy. Thatâs a perfect place to start! By the end of this essay, we have an image of the cause of this studentâs passion and the effect of this studentâs passion. There are no unanswered questions.
This student supplements their focused topic with engaging and exciting writing to make for an easy-to-read and enjoyable essay. One of the largest strengths of this response is its pace. From the very beginning, we are invited to âfast-forwardâ and ârewindâ with the writer. Then, after we center ourselves in real-time, this writer keeps their quick pace with sentences like âSubstituting coffee grounds as fertilizer, using bamboo straws, starting my sustainable garden, my individual actions needed to reach a larger scale.â Community Service essays run the risk of turning boring, but this unique pacing keeps things interesting.
Having a diverse class provides a richness of different perspectives and encourages open-mindedness among the student body. The Diversity Essay is also somewhat similar to the Extracurricular and Community Service Essays, but it focuses more on what you might bring to the campus community because of your unique experiences or identities.
Learn more about how to write the Diversity Essay in our guide.
A Story of a Young Skater
âââEveryone follow me!â I smiled at five wide-eyed skaters before pushing off into a spiral. I glanced behind me hopefully, only to see my students standing frozen like statues, the fear in their eyes as clear as the ice they swayed on. âCome on!â I said encouragingly, but the only response I elicited was the slow shake of their heads. My first day as a Learn-to-Skate coach was not going as planned.Â
But amid my frustration, I was struck by how much my students reminded me of myself as a young skater. At seven, I had been fascinated by Olympic performers who executed thrilling high jumps and dizzying spins with apparent ease, and I dreamed to one day do the same. My first few months on skates, however, sent these hopes crashing down: my attempts at slaloms and toe-loops were shadowed by a stubborn fear of falling, which even the helmet, elbow pads, and two pairs of mittens I had armed myself with couldnât mitigate. Nonetheless, my coach remained unfailingly optimistic, motivating me through my worst spills and teaching me to find opportunities in failures. With his encouragement, I learned to push aside my fears and attack each jump with calm and confidence; itâs the hope that I can help others do the same that now inspires me to coach.
I remember the day a frustrated staff member directed Oliver, a particularly hesitant young skater, toward me, hoping that my patience and steady encouragement might help him improve. Having stood in Oliverâs skates not much earlier myself, I completely empathized with his worries but also saw within him the potential to overcome his fears and succeed.Â
To alleviate his anxiety, I held Oliverâs hand as we inched around the rink, cheering him on at every turn. I soon found though, that this only increased his fear of gliding on his own, so I changed my approach, making lessons as exciting as possible in hopes that he would catch the skating bug and take off. In the weeks that followed, we held relay races, played âfreeze-skateâ and âice-potatoâ, and raced through obstacle courses; gradually, with each slip and subsequent success, his fear began to abate. I watched Oliverâs eyes widen in excitement with every skill he learned, and not long after, he earned his first skating badge. Together we celebrated this milestone, his ecstasy fueling my excitement and his pride mirroring my own. At that moment, I was both teacher and student, his progress instilling in me the importance of patience and a positive attitude.Â
Itâs been more than ten years since I bundled up and stepped onto the ice for the first time. Since then, my tolerance for the cold has remained stubbornly low, but the rest of me has certainly changed. In sharing my passion for skating, I have found a wonderful community of eager athletes, loving parents, and dedicated coaches from whom I have learned invaluable lessons and wisdom. My fellow staffers have been with me, both as friends and colleagues, and the relationships Iâve formed have given me far more poise, confidence, and appreciation for others. Likewise, my relationships with parents have given me an even greater gratitude for the role they play: no one goes to the rink without a parent behind the wheel!Â
Since that first lesson, I have mentored dozens of children, and over the years, witnessed tentative steps transform into powerful glides and tears give way to delighted grins. What I have shared with my students has been among the greatest joys of my life, something I will cherish forever. Itâs funny: when I began skating, what pushed me through the early morning practices was the prospect of winning an Olympic medal. Now, what excites me is the chance to work with my students, to help them grow, and to give back to the sport that has brought me so much happiness.Â
This response is a great example of how Diversity doesnât have to mean race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, or ability. Diversity can mean whatever you want it to meanâwhatever unique experience(s) you have to bring to the table!
A major strength of this essay comes in its narrative organization. When reading this first paragraph, we feel for the young skaters and understand their fearâskating sounds scary! Then, because the writer sets us up to feel this empathy, the transition to the second paragraph where the student describes their empathy for the young skaters is particularly powerful. Itâs like we are all in it together! The studentâs empathy for the young skaters also serves as an outstanding, seamless transition to the applicant discussing their personal journey with skating: âI was struck by how much my students reminded me of myself as a young skater.â
This essay positions the applicant as a grounded and caring individual. They are caring towards the young skatersâchanging their teaching style to try to help the young skaters and feeling the young skatersâ emotions with themâbut they are also appreciative to those who helped them as they reference their fellow staffers and parents. This shows great maturityâa favorable quality in the eyes of an admissions officer.
At the end of the essay, we know a lot about this student and are convinced that they would be a good addition to a college campus!
Finding Community in the Rainforest
Prompt: Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If youâd like to share a perspective you bring or experiences youâve had to help us understand you betterâperhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural backgroundâwe encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke (250 words).
I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Although we flew in from distant corners of the U.S., we shared a common purpose: immersing ourselves in our passion for protecting the natural world.
Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns. My classmates debated the feasibility of Trumpâs wall, not the deteriorating state of our planet. Contrastingly, these seven strangers delighted in bird-watching, brightened at the mention of medicinal tree sap, and understood why I once ran across a four-lane highway to retrieve discarded beer cans. Their histories barely resembled mine, yet our values aligned intimately. We did not hesitate to joke about bullet ants, gush about the versatility of tree bark, or discuss the destructive consequences of materialism. Together, we let our inner tree huggers run free.
In the short life of our little community, we did what we thought was impossible. By feeding on each otherâs infectious tenacity, we cultivated an atmosphere that deepened our commitment to our values and empowered us to speak out on behalf of the environment. After a week of stimulating conversations and introspective revelations about engaging people from our hometowns in environmental advocacy, we developed a shared determination to devote our lives to this cause.
As we shared a goodbye hug, my new friend whispered, âThe world needs saving. Someoneâs gotta do it.â For the first time, I believed that someone could be me.
This response is so wholesome and relatable. We all have things that we just need to geek out over and this student expresses the joy that came when they found a community where they could geek out about the environment. Passion is fundamental to university life and should find its way into successful applications.
Like the last response, this essay finds strength in the fact that readers feel for the student. We get a little bit of backstory about where they come from and how they felt silencedââBack home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concernsââ, so itâs easy to feel joy for them when they get set free.
This student displays clear values: community, ecoconsciousness, dedication, and compassion. An admissions officer who reads Diversity essays is looking for students with strong values and a desire to contribute to a university communityâsounds like this student! Â
Political/Global Issues
Colleges want to build engaged citizens, and the Political/Global Issues Essay allows them to better understand what you care about and whether your values align with theirs. In this essay, youâre most commonly asked to describe an issue, why you care about it, and what youâve done or hope to do to address it.Â
Learn more about how to write the Political/Global Issues Essay in our guide.
Note: this prompt is not a typical political/global issues essay, but the essay itself would be a strong response to a political/global issues prompt.
Fighting Violence Against Women
Prompt: Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation, title and author at the beginning of your essay. (250-650 words)
âOne of the great challenges of our time is that the disparities we face today have more complex causes and point less straightforwardly to solutions.âÂ
â Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics, Princeton University. This quote is taken from Professor Wasowâs January 2014 speech at the Martin Luther King Day celebration at Princeton University.Â
The air is crisp and cool, nipping at my ears as I walk under a curtain of darkness that drapes over the sky, starless. It is a Friday night in downtown Corpus Christi, a rare moment of peace in my home city filled with the laughter of strangers and colorful lights of street vendors. But I cannot focus.Â
My feet stride quickly down the sidewalk, my hand grasps on to the pepper spray my parents gifted me for my sixteenth birthday. My eyes ignore the surrounding city life, focusing instead on a pair of tall figures walking in my direction. I mentally ask myself if they turned with me on the last street corner. I do not remember, so I pick up the pace again. All the while, my mind runs over stories of young women being assaulted, kidnapped, and raped on the street. I remember my motherâs voice reminding me to keep my chin up, back straight, eyes and ears alert.Â
At a young age, I learned that harassment is a part of daily life for women. I fell victim to period-shaming when I was thirteen, received my first catcall when I was fourteen, and was nonconsensually grabbed by a man soliciting on the street when I was fifteen. For women, assault does not just happen to usâ its gory details leave an imprint in our lives, infecting the way we perceive the world. And while movements such as the Womenâs March and #MeToo have given victims of sexual violence a voice, harassment still manifests itself in the lives of millions of women across the nation. Symbolic gestures are important in spreading awareness but, upon learning that a surprising number of men are oblivious to the frequent harassment that women experience, I now realize that addressing this complex issue requires a deeper level of activism within our local communities.Â
Frustrated with incessant cases of harassment against women, I understood at sixteen years old that change necessitates action. During my junior year, I became an intern with a judge whose campaign for office focused on a need for domestic violence reform. This experience enabled me to engage in constructive dialogue with middle and high school students on how to prevent domestic violence. As I listened to young men uneasily admit their ignorance and young women bravely share their experiences in an effort to spread awareness, I learned that breaking down systems of inequity requires changing an entire culture. I once believed that the problem of harassment would dissipate after politicians and celebrities denounce inappropriate behavior to their global audience. But today, I see that effecting large-scale change comes from the âsmallâ lessons we teach at home and in schools. Concerning womenâs empowerment, the effects of Hollywood activism do not trickle down enough. Activism must also trickle up and it depends on our willingness to fight complacency.Â
Finding the solution to the long-lasting problem of violence against women is a work-in-progress, but it is a process that is persistently moving. In my life, for every uncomfortable conversation that I bridge, I make the world a bit more sensitive to the unspoken struggle that it is to be a woman. I am no longer passively waiting for others to let me live in a world where I can stand alone under the expanse of darkness on a city street, utterly alone and at peace. I, too, deserve the night sky.
As this student addresses an important social issue, she makes the reasons for her passion clearâpersonal experiences. Because she begins with an extended anecdote, readers are able to feel connected to the student and become invested in what she has to say.
Additionally, through her powerful endingââI, too, deserve the night skyââwhich connects back to her beginningâ âas I walk under a curtain of darkness that drapes over the skyââthis student illustrates a mastery of language. Her engagement with other writing techniques that further her argument, like the emphasis on timeââgifted to me for my sixteenth birthday,â âwhen I was thirteen,â âwhen I was fourteen,â etc.âalso illustrates her mastery of language.
While this student proves herself a good writer, she also positions herself as motivated and ambitious. She turns her passions into action and fights for them. That is just what admissions officers want to see in a Political/Global issues essay!
Where to Get Feedback on Your College Essays
Once youâve written your college essays, youâll want to get feedback on them. Since these essays are important to your chances of acceptance, you should prepare to go through several rounds of edits.Â
Not sure who to ask for feedback? Thatâs why we created our free Peer Essay Review resource. You can get comments from another student going through the process and also edit other studentsâ essays to improve your own writing.Â
If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you  to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!
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How To Write The Perfect Essay in 8 Easy Steps
by Pat Wyman | Aug 25, 2011 | Articles
Everyone can write the perfect essay.
The ideas are inside your child’s or student’s brain just waiting to be put on paper in a form that everyone can read.
The following is an excerpt from the book  Instant Learning for Amazing Grades .
Schools and home-schools require essay writing, so do colleges and college entrance exams, so, why not learn a few simple tips to make essay writing easy?
Below is a template, followed by 8 additional easy steps on how to write the perfect essay in 8 easy steps, every time.
How to Write the Perfect Essay in 8 Easy Steps
1) the topic.
Example: Â Amazing Grades
2) Brainstorm
This helps you think of related ideas.
- Motivating yourself instantly
- Cut learning time in half; higher grades in 14 days
- High-Performance Memory Strategies
Example: Â How to Create Higher Grades in 14 Days Using Your Child’s Personal Learning Style
4)Â Â Â Grab the Reader’s Interest
What is the first sentence you would use to pique their interest?
Perhaps it might be a question or a simple statement.
Example: Â Would you like to have higher grades in 14 days?
5) Elaborate Your Point
This is the part where you use as many facts to support your idea as possible. Write several sentences using some of the brainstorms you had in step 2.
Example: Â Learning can be difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone.
Many learning experts say that learning is not about being smart â it’s about strategy.
These experts show you how with xxxâŠ
6) Do You Need an Introduction?
7) What About a Conclusion?
8) You Did It!
Congratulate yourself â you’ve just written an excellent essay!
Writing the perfect essay is a matter of  building up your skill level  a step at a time.
Once you have fallen into the rhythm of the template above, you can step up your essay game!
8 More Easy Steps to Write the Perfect Essay, Every Single Time
Step one â picture perfect summary.
Put your title/main idea in the center of the page, make a circle around it, and write down all the ideas and keywords about your topic that you can think of.
Use one branch off the circle for each main idea.
You’re brainstorming at this point, so just write down any ideas that come into your mind.
(That’s how I write magazine and news articles and books too)!
Step Two â Find Your Keywords
Organize them into groups.
Make sure that each group reflects the topic or question that you’re writing about.
Step Three â The Beginning, Middle, and End
The middle develops and supports your main topic.
Back everything you say up with facts, quotations, evidence.
The end will give a clever answer or summary to the original question or idea that you started with and tie up those loose ends.
Step Four â Your First Draft!
That’s how I wrote this book!
Give each idea its own paragraph, don’t worry about style and spelling at this point.
You can check this later.
Your Picture Perfect Summary is your guide. Use all the ideas that you decided were important.
Step Five â Then the Ending
Make sure it sums up your answer/summary to the main topic/question. Look back at the draft of the middle.
Write down the 5 or 10 most important keywords.
Find the shortest way to link them together â this is your ending.
Step Six â Now the Beginning
There’s an old saying from my college days English class: Tell ’em what you’re going to say, tell ’em, tell ’em what you said!
This beginning is essential to set the stage â make sure it’s catchy and makes the reader interested in what you have to say.
Once you have the body and conclusion of your essay completed, you already have the big picture in your mind.
This makes writing the introduction much easier because you know what you’re going to be talking about in the rest of the piece!
Step Seven â Get Some Rest!
Now, go to bed and get some rest. Give the ideas a chance to process in your brain. Tomorrow you’ll notice a few more points to talk about and think of additional ways to say things.
Step Eight â Edit
Author, Colin Rose, says, “EDIT â Excellent Draft, Inspirational Text”⊠read the whole essay aloud to yourself.
Audio record it if you can. Does it sound logical and convincing? You are on your way to understanding how to write the perfect essay.
Are your examples bringing your ideas to life? Check the beginning â is it awesome? Does it make sense?
Edit the beginning, middle, and end â check spelling and grammar. Have someone else proofread it too. Now check the middle. Did everything you said relate to the main topic or question? Is it convincing?
Go to your ending. Edit it â is it punchy? This is the place to really put on your thinking cap. Did you really convince your reader??
Polish up how the essay looks â Is it neat, organized, well written?
Are you satisfied that it does the job you started out to do?
Only you can be the judge of this.
Your essay reflects how you think â do you like the way it came out? If so, turn it in. Now you know how to write the perfect essay in just 8 easy steps.
Now I’d like to hear from you!
Did you find these steps helpful?
Do you think you can now write the perfect essay, every time?
Drop me a line and let me know!
Her superpower is helping people learn, read and remember everything faster. Pat is the best-selling author of more than 15 books and is also a university instructor, mom and golden retriever lover!
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How To Write An Essay: Beginner Tips And Tricks
Updated: July 11, 2022
Published: June 22, 2021
Many students dread writing essays, but essay writing is an important skill to develop in high school, university, and even into your future career. By learning how to write an essay properly, the process can become more enjoyable and youâll find youâre better able to organize and articulate your thoughts.
When writing an essay, itâs common to follow a specific pattern, no matter what the topic is. Once youâve used the pattern a few times and you know how to structure an essay, it will become a lot more simple to apply your knowledge to every essay.Â
No matter which major you choose, you should know how to craft a good essay. Here, weâll cover the basics of essay writing, along with some helpful tips to make the writing process go smoothly.
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
Types of Essays
Think of an essay as a discussion. There are many types of discussions you can have with someone else. You can be describing a story that happened to you, you might explain to them how to do something, or you might even argue about a certain topic.Â
When it comes to different types of essays, it follows a similar pattern. Like a friendly discussion, each type of essay will come with its own set of expectations or goals.Â
For example, when arguing with a friend, your goal is to convince them that youâre right. The same goes for an argumentative essay.Â
Here are a few of the main essay types you can expect to come across during your time in school:
Narrative Essay
This type of essay is almost like telling a story, not in the traditional sense with dialogue and characters, but as if youâre writing out an event or series of events to relay information to the reader.
Persuasive Essay
Here, your goal is to persuade the reader about your views on a specific topic.
Descriptive Essay
This is the kind of essay where you go into a lot more specific details describing a topic such as a place or an event.Â
Argumentative Essay
In this essay, youâre choosing a stance on a topic, usually controversial, and your goal is to present evidence that proves your point is correct.
Expository Essay
Your purpose with this type of essay is to tell the reader how to complete a specific process, often including a step-by-step guide or something similar.
Compare and Contrast Essay
You might have done this in school with two different books or characters, but the ultimate goal is to draw similarities and differences between any two given subjects.
The Main Stages of Essay Writing
When it comes to writing an essay, many students think the only stage is getting all your ideas down on paper and submitting your work. However, thatâs not quite the case.Â
There are three main stages of writing an essay, each one with its own purpose. Of course, writing the essay itself is the most substantial part, but the other two stages are equally as important.
So, what are these three stages of essay writing? They are:
Preparation
Before you even write one word, itâs important to prepare the content and structure of your essay. If a topic wasnât assigned to you, then the first thing you should do is settle on a topic. Next, you want to conduct your research on that topic and create a detailed outline based on your research. The preparation stage will make writing your essay that much easier since, with your outline and research, you should already have the skeleton of your essay.
Writing is the most time-consuming stage. In this stage, you will write out all your thoughts and ideas and craft your essay based on your outline. Youâll work on developing your ideas and fleshing them out throughout the introduction, body, and conclusion (more on these soon).
In the final stage, youâll go over your essay and check for a few things. First, youâll check if your essay is cohesive, if all the points make sense and are related to your topic, and that your facts are cited and backed up. You can also check for typos, grammar and punctuation mistakes, and formatting errors. Â
The Five-Paragraph Essay
We mentioned earlier that essay writing follows a specific structure, and for the most part in academic or college essays , the five-paragraph essay is the generally accepted structure youâll be expected to use.Â
The five-paragraph essay is broken down into one introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. However, that doesnât always mean that an essay is written strictly in five paragraphs, but rather that this structure can be used loosely and the three body paragraphs might become three sections instead.
Letâs take a closer look at each section and what it entails.
Introduction
As the name implies, the purpose of your introduction paragraph is to introduce your idea. A good introduction begins with a âhook,â something that grabs your readerâs attention and makes them excited to read more.Â
Another key tenant of an introduction is a thesis statement, which usually comes towards the end of the introduction itself. Your thesis statement should be a phrase that explains your argument, position, or central idea that you plan on developing throughout the essay.Â
You can also include a short outline of what to expect in your introduction, including bringing up brief points that you plan on explaining more later on in the body paragraphs.
Here is where most of your essay happens. The body paragraphs are where you develop your ideas and bring up all the points related to your main topic.Â
In general, youâre meant to have three body paragraphs, or sections, and each one should bring up a different point. Think of it as bringing up evidence. Each paragraph is a different piece of evidence, and when the three pieces are taken together, it backs up your main point â your thesis statement â really well.
That being said, you still want each body paragraph to be tied together in some way so that the essay flows. The points should be distinct enough, but they should relate to each other, and definitely to your thesis statement. Each body paragraph works to advance your point, so when crafting your essay, itâs important to keep this in mind so that you avoid going off-track or writing things that are off-topic.
Many students arenât sure how to write a conclusion for an essay and tend to see their conclusion as an afterthought, but this section is just as important as the rest of your work.Â
You shouldnât be presenting any new ideas in your conclusion, but you should summarize your main points and show how they back up your thesis statement.Â
Essentially, the conclusion is similar in structure and content to the introduction, but instead of introducing your essay, it should be wrapping up the main thoughts and presenting them to the reader as a singular closed argument.Â
Photo by AMIT RANJAN on Unsplash
Steps to Writing an Essay
Now that you have a better idea of an essayâs structure and all the elements that go into it, you might be wondering what the different steps are to actually write your essay.Â
Donât worry, weâve got you covered. Instead of going in blind, follow these steps on how to write your essay from start to finish.
Understand Your Assignment
When writing an essay for an assignment, the first critical step is to make sure youâve read through your assignment carefully and understand it thoroughly. You want to check what type of essay is required, that you understand the topic, and that you pay attention to any formatting or structural requirements. You donât want to lose marks just because you didnât read the assignment carefully.
Research Your Topic
Once you understand your assignment, itâs time to do some research. In this step, you should start looking at different sources to get ideas for what points you want to bring up throughout your essay.Â
Search online or head to the library and get as many resources as possible. You donât need to use them all, but itâs good to start with a lot and then narrow down your sources as you become more certain of your essayâs direction.
Start Brainstorming
After research comes the brainstorming. There are a lot of different ways to start the brainstorming process . Here are a few you might find helpful:
- Think about what you found during your research that interested you the most
- Jot down all your ideas, even if theyâre not yet fully formed
- Create word clouds or maps for similar terms or ideas that come up so you can group them together based on their similarities
- Try freewriting to get all your ideas out before arranging them
Create a Thesis
This is often the most tricky part of the whole process since you want to create a thesis thatâs strong and that youâre about to develop throughout the entire essay. Therefore, you want to choose a thesis statement thatâs broad enough that youâll have enough to say about it, but not so broad that you canât be precise.Â
Write Your Outline
Armed with your research, brainstorming sessions, and your thesis statement, the next step is to write an outline.Â
In the outline, youâll want to put your thesis statement at the beginning and start creating the basic skeleton of how you want your essay to look.Â
A good way to tackle an essay is to use topic sentences . A topic sentence is like a mini-thesis statement that is usually the first sentence of a new paragraph. This sentence introduces the main idea that will be detailed throughout the paragraph.Â
If you create an outline with the topic sentences for your body paragraphs and then a few points of what you want to discuss, youâll already have a strong starting point when it comes time to sit down and write. This brings us to our next step…Â
Write a First Draft
The first time you write your entire essay doesnât need to be perfect, but you do need to get everything on the page so that youâre able to then write a second draft or review it afterward.Â
Everyoneâs writing process is different. Some students like to write their essay in the standard order of intro, body, and conclusion, while others prefer to start with the âmeatâ of the essay and tackle the body, and then fill in the other sections afterward.Â
Make sure your essay follows your outline and that everything relates to your thesis statement and your points are backed up by the research you did.Â
Revise, Edit, and Proofread
The revision process is one of the three main stages of writing an essay, yet many people skip this step thinking their work is done after the first draft is complete.Â
However, proofreading, reviewing, and making edits on your essay can spell the difference between a B paper and an A.
After writing the first draft, try and set your essay aside for a few hours or even a day or two, and then come back to it with fresh eyes to review it. You might find mistakes or inconsistencies you missed or better ways to formulate your arguments.
Add the Finishing Touches
Finally, youâll want to make sure everything thatâs required is in your essay. Review your assignment again and see if all the requirements are there, such as formatting rules, citations, quotes, etc.Â
Go over the order of your paragraphs and make sure everything makes sense, flows well, and uses the same writing style .Â
Once everything is checked and all the last touches are added, give your essay a final read through just to ensure itâs as you want it before handing it in.Â
A good way to do this is to read your essay out loud since youâll be able to hear if there are any mistakes or inaccuracies.
Essay Writing Tips
With the steps outlined above, you should be able to craft a great essay. Still, there are some other handy tips weâd recommend just to ensure that the essay writing process goes as smoothly as possible.
- Start your essay early. This is the first tip for a reason. Itâs one of the most important things you can do to write a good essay. If you start it the night before, then you wonât have enough time to research, brainstorm, and outline â and you surely wonât have enough time to review.
- Donât try and write it in one sitting. Itâs ok if you need to take breaks or write it over a few days. Itâs better to write it in multiple sittings so that you have a fresh mind each time and youâre able to focus.
- Always keep the essay question in mind. If youâre given an assigned question, then you should always keep it handy when writing your essay to make sure youâre always working to answer the question.
- Use transitions between paragraphs. In order to improve the readability of your essay, try and make clear transitions between paragraphs. This means trying to relate the end of one paragraph to the beginning of the next one so the shift doesnât seem random.
- Integrate your research thoughtfully. Add in citations or quotes from your research materials to back up your thesis and main points. This will show that you did the research and that your thesis is backed up by it.
Wrapping Up
Writing an essay doesnât need to be daunting if you know how to approach it. Using our essay writing steps and tips, youâll have better knowledge on how to write an essay and youâll be able to apply it to your next assignment. Once you do this a few times, it will become more natural to you and the essay writing process will become quicker and easier.
If you still need assistance with your essay, check with a student advisor to see if they offer help with writing. At University of the People(UoPeople), we always want our students to succeed, so our student advisors are ready to help with writing skills when necessary.Â
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How to write a perfect essay
Need to write an essay? Does the assignment feel as big as climbing Mount Everest? Fear not. Youâre up to the challenge! The following step-by step tips from the Nat Geo Kids Almanac will help you with this monumental task.
Sometimes the subject matter of your essay is assigned to you, sometimes itâs not. Either way, you have to decide what you want to say. Start by brainstorming some ideas, writing down any thoughts you have about the subject. Then read over everything youâve come up with and consider which idea you think is the strongest. Ask yourself what you want to write about the most. Keep in mind the goal of your essay. Can you achieve the goal of the assignment with this topic? If so, youâre good to go.
WRITE A TOPIC SENTENCE
This is the main idea of your essay, a statement of your thoughts on the subject. Again, consider the goal of your essay. Think of the topic sentence as an introduction that tells your reader what the rest of your essay will be about.
OUTLINE YOUR IDEAS
Once you have a good topic sentence, you then need to support that main idea with more detailed information, facts, thoughts, and examples. These supporting points answer one question about your topic sentenceââWhy?â This is where research and perhaps more brainstorming come in. Then organize these points in the way you think makes the most sense, probably in order of importance. Now you have an outline for your essay.
ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, WRITE!
Follow your outline, using each of your supporting points as the topic sentence of its own paragraph. Use descriptive words to get your ideas across to the reader. Go into detail, using specific information to tell your story or make your point. Stay on track, making sure that everything you include is somehow related to the main idea of your essay. Use transitions to make your writing flow.
Finish your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your entire essay and 5 restates your main idea.
PROOFREAD AND REVISE
Check for errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Look for ways to make your writing clear, understandable, and interesting. Use descriptive verbs, adjectives, or adverbs when possible. It also helps to have someone else read your work to point out things you might have missed. Then make the necessary corrections and changes in a second draft. Repeat this revision process once more to make your final draft as good as you can.
Download the pdf .
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Choose Your Test
Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to get a perfect 12 on the act writing essay.
ACT Strategies , ACT Writing
There is no part of the ACT more mysterious to students than the essay, and very few people seem to know what exactly the ACT is looking for in a "perfect" essay (particularly since September 2015 was the new ACT Writing test's debut). Luckily, we've got the expertise to give you some insight into how the essay works and what you can do to push your score those extra few points up the scale.
Whether you're trying to impress your dream school or just want to boost your ACT score, the essay is a great thing to work on. Some of the tips below stand alone, while others are part of larger categories that have been assembled based our ACT expertise.
Important: If you haven't read these two other ACT Writing guides before , take a minute and read them now:
The ACT Writing Rubric: Analysis, Explanation, and Strategies
How to Write an ACT Essay, Step by Step
This will make the rest of the article make more sense.
Part I: What a 12 on the ACT Essay Means
If you're already scoring an 8 or above in every domain on practice (or real) ACT essays, you have a shot at completely nailing what the graders want, represented by a score of 12, with a little practice.
But there's something important to remember in your quest for perfection: on the ACT essay, a 12 is not always achievable. We've got good news and bad news for those of you who are determined to know how to get a 12 on the ACT essay.
The Big Secret
You'll have to practice this specific essay. The perfect ACT essay is like a puzzle that happens to be in writing formâit can be mastered, but to do it well and completely every time requires a few month's practice. Knowing how to write other kinds of essays will only help you a limited amount.
The Bad News
Because the whole essay must be written in 40 minutes, getting a 12 requires some luck. You have to pick a thesis and think of relevant and convincing evidence to support it before you can even start writing, so a lot depends on how quickly you can decided on a point of view and relevant support for whatever the prompt happens to be. And because perfect-scoring essays are almost always at least two pages long , you won't have any time to spare.
The Good News
Because the essay is so formulaic, it's always possible to get at least a 10 in each domain. And, on top of this, no college worth its salt is going to base your college admission on getting those last two points on an essay you had to write in 40 minutes. The goal, really, is to show that you can write a decent essay in that time, and a 10 in each domain shows that just as well as a 12 does.
Part II: The Difference Between a 10 and a 12
If we asked the ACT what the difference is between a 10 and a 12 ACT essay, they would direct us to their scoring criteria (replicated in the table below) that describes the difference between the 5 and 6 essay scores in each domain. As you may already know, a total domain score of 12 comes from two readers separately giving your essay a 6; the four domain scores are then averaged to calculate your total essay score of 12.
We've marked the differences between the 5 and 6 criteria in bold . Later, we'll look at these differences in the context of a sample essay.
Part III: Applying the Criteria in a Real ACT Essay Example
Now we'll look at a sample essay and how it demonstrates the characteristics of the 6 essay above. First, let's look at the prompt:
Intelligent Machines
Many of the goods and services we depend on daily are now supplied by intelligent, automated machines rather than human beings. Robots build cars and other goods on assembly lines, where once there were human workers. Many of our phone conversations are now conducted not with people but with sophisticated technologies. We can now buy goods at a variety of stores without the help of a human cashier. Automation is generally seen as a sign of progress, but what is lost when we replace humans with machines? Given the accelerating variety and prevalence of intelligent machines, it is worth examining the implications and meaning of their presence in our lives.
Perspective One: What we lose with the replacement of people by machines is some part of our own humanity. Even our mundane daily encounters no longer require from us basic courtesy, respect, and tolerance for other people.
Perspective Two: Machines are good at low-skill, repetitive jobs, and at high-speed, extremely precise jobs. In both cases they work better than humans. This efficiency leads to a more prosperous and progressive world for everyone.
Perspective Three: Intelligent machines challenge our long-standing ideas about what humans are or can be. This is good because it pushes both humans and machines toward new, unimagined possibilities.
Write a unified, coherent essay about the increasing presence of intelligent machines.
Now, read the ACT essay example below , and try to notice how it meets the criteria in the table above.
From the simplest system of pulleys and ropes to the most complex supercomputer in the world today, machines have had (and continue to have) a profound influence on the development of humanity. Whether it is taking over monotonous, low-skill tasks or removing that messy "human" element from our day-to-day interactions, machines have answered the call to duty. The increasing prevalence of intelligent machines challenges us to change long held beliefs about our limitations and to continue forward to new and even more advanced possibilities. One common argument against the increased presence of machines in our day to day lives is that machines leach from us our basic humanity. Indeed, certain people whose only social interactions are anonymous text-based conversations with other anonymous Internet forum dwellers over computers may begin to lose basic human courtesy and empathy. This is crystal clear with a glance at the comments section of any popular news article. Yet machines are also capable of enhancing people's abilities to communicate. An example of this can be found in Tod Machover's lab at MIT, where breakthroughs in neurotechnology have made it possible for quadripalegics to manipulate text on computers with their minds. Such interactions would be impossible without the existence of intelligent machines. Therefore, I must disagree with Perspective one. Rather than losing part of our own humanity to machines, we instead make that most-essential-to-humanity of acts, communication, possible. Another school of thought (Perspective Two) argues that machines are good at how and high skill repetitive jobs, which leads to a more prosperous and progressive world for everyone. This can be seen in the human work hours that are saved daily with automated phone menus. Before intelligent machines made automatic telephone menus possible, every customer service call ate up valuable employee time. Now, menus allow callers to choose the number that best suits their needs, routing calls to appropriate destinations without the need for human employees to waste time explaining for the hundredth time that "our business hours are 10am-6pm." On the other hand, no mechanized system of this kind is perfect, because it can't predict all future outcomes. In terms of automated telephone menus, this means that sometimes, no menu options are correct. While automated systems may take the burden off of human workers, it is a mistake to think that they can replace humans entirely. Why else would the last line of resort for most automated phone menus be "Dial "0" to speak to an operator/customer service representative?" Perspective Two is true, but it only goes so far. A final example will demonstrate how intelligent machines challenge longstanding ideas and push us towards new, unimagined possibilities (perspective three). At my high school, all students had to take diagnostic tests in every main subject to figure out our strengths and weaknesses, and we were then sorted into class by skill level. A truly remarkable pattern emerged as a result of this sorting: it turned out that every kid in my medium-level physics class was also a talented musician. The system that sorted us allowed us to find this underlying pattern, which changed the way our teachers taught us; we learned about mechanics through examples that were more relevant to our lives (answering questions like "how many pulleys are needed to lift a piano?"), which in turn made our classes both more enjoyable and also more effective. When before I had struggled with physics and simply assumed it was a subject I "wasn't good at," the intelligent, automated sorting system allowed me to discover that I could in fact understand mechanics if taught in the right way. This discovery pushed me toward previously unimagined academic possibilities. In conclusion, intelligent machines help us to move forward as a species to greater heights. While machines can cause problems and may in some cases need human input to function optimally, it is how we react and adapt to the machines that is the real takeaway.
This was a real essay written by me within the time limit. What do you think?
Now let's look at an annotated version of this ACT essay example that points out the essay's features.
What Makes This ACT Essay a 12, Rather Than an 8 or 10?
Considerations that aren't included in the act's published guidelines.
The essay is long enough to analyze and compare the author's perspective to other perspectives in a nuanced way (one positive example for each perspective with an addition negative example comparing two perspectives the author disagreed with to her own perspective) and include an introductory paragraph and a conclusion.
While ACT, Inc. doesn't acknowledge that length is a factor in scoring ACT essays , most experts agree that it is. But length means nothing if there isn't valuable information filling the space, so long ACT essays also need to be detailedâthis author uses the space to give lots of analysis of and context for her examples.
Paragraph Breaks
You may have noticed that the essay is broken up into multiple paragraphs (into the standard five-paragraph format, in fact). This makes the essay easier to read, especially for the ACT readers who have about two to three minutes to read (and score!) each essay. If your points can easily be split up into small parts, then it makes sense to split it up into even more paragraphs, as long as your essay's organization and logical progression remains clear.
Content and Examples
This essay uses a personal example, which may or may not be made up (spoiler alert: it is). But the point is that it could be made up, as can anything you use in your essay. Being able to think of examples (that are not too obviously made up) can give you a huge advantage on the ACT essay.
Do's and Don'ts for a 12 ACT Essay
The key to a perfect score on the ACT essay is to use every second of your time wisely. To this end, here are a few tips to avoid common time-wasters and put your energy where it will get you the most points.
Do spend time:
#1: Writing as much as you can without including repetitive or irrelevant information.
#2: Revising the first and last paragraphs (they stand out in readers' minds).
#3: Making sure you have transitions.
Don't spend time:
#1: Thinking of 'smart' sounding evidenceâ examples from your own life (or made up about your own life) are just as viable as current events, as long as you keep your example focused and concise.
#2: Trying to correct every errorâthe grammar and spelling do not have to be perfect to score a 12 in the Language Use domain.
#3: Adding as many vocabulary words as you canâyou only need enough to avoid repeating the same basic words or phrases multiple times; you'll max out fancy vocab's potential at two words per paragraph.
How To Practice Your Writing To Get A Perfect 12 In Each Domain
- Start with our list of ACT essay prompts.
- Create a list of evidence examplesâfrom literature, history, or personal experienceâthat you can use for many or most prompt arguments.
- Practice first with extended timeâ50 minutesâso you can get an idea of what it takes to get a top-scoring essay.
- Find a way to grade your essay, using the ACT Writing Rubric . If you can be objective about your writing, you can notice weak spots, especially if you ran out of time but know what to do. Otherwise, try to get help from an English teacher or a friend who's a better writer than you are.
- Start narrowing the time down to 40 minutes to mirror the actual test.
- Stay confident! The ACT essay is just like a puzzleâevery time you do one, you get better at doing it.
What's Next?
Find out more about how to write an ACT essay with this step-by-step example .
Use our analysis of the ACT Writing Rubric to learn about how your essay will be scoredâand discover strategies you can use to get the score you want.
Want to aim for perfection on the ACT with a 36? Read our guide on how to score a perfect ACT score, written by our resident 36 scorer.
Make sure your ACT score is high enough for the schools you want to apply to. Find out how to find your ACT target score .
Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points?
Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes . We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more.
Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts . If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next.
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Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.
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- How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples
How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples
Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.
A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .
Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.
You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:
- Start with a question
- Write your initial answer
- Develop your answer
- Refine your thesis statement
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Table of contents
What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.
A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.
The best thesis statements are:
- Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweetâdonât use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
- Contentious: Your thesis shouldnât be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
- Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.
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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .
The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.
You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about itâa clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.
You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?
For example, you might ask:
After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .
Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.
In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.
The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.
In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.
The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.
A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:
- Why you hold this position
- What they’ll learn from your essay
- The key points of your argument or narrative
The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.
These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.
Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:
- In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
- In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.
If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!
- Ad hominem fallacy
- Post hoc fallacy
- Appeal to authority fallacy
- False cause fallacy
- Sunk cost fallacy
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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.
The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:
- It gives your writing direction and focus.
- It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.
Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.
Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :
- Ask a question about your topic .
- Write your initial answer.
- Develop your answer by including reasons.
- Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.
The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .
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This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion . Each paragraph addresses a single central point, introduced by a topic sentence , and each point is directly related to the thesis statement .
This college essay tip is by Abigail McFee, Admissions Counselor for Tufts University and Tufts '17 graduate. 2. Write like a journalist. "Don't bury the lede!" The first few sentences must capture the reader's attention, provide a gist of the story, and give a sense of where the essay is heading.
As well as some best practice tips, we have gathered our favourite advice from expert essay-writers and compiled the following 7-step guide to writing a good essay every time. đ. #1 Make sure you understand the question. #2 Complete background reading. #3 Make a detailed plan. #4 Write your opening sentences.
Step 2: Have a clear structure. Think about this while you're planning: your essay is like an argument or a speech. It needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question. Start with the basics! It's best to choose a few major points which will become your main paragraphs.
Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essayâyou could never mistake one writer for the other). My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.
The words in the perfect essay flow effortlessly, and the reader feels in safe hands. Sentences need never be read more than once to be understood, and each follows logically on from the next, with no random jumping about from topic to topic from one paragraph to the next. Spelling and grammar are flawless, with no careless typos.
In this post, we'll share 16 college essay examples of many different topics. Most of the essay prompts fall into 8 different archetypes, and you can approach each prompt under that archetype in a similar way. ... as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan ...
The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body. This article provides useful templates and tips to help you outline your essay, make decisions about your structure, and ...
Table of contents. Step 1: Hook your reader. Step 2: Give background information. Step 3: Present your thesis statement. Step 4: Map your essay's structure. Step 5: Check and revise. More examples of essay introductions. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.
The basic steps for how to write an essay are: Generate ideas and pick a type of essay to write. Outline your essay paragraph by paragraph. Write a rough first draft without worrying about details like word choice or grammar. Edit your rough draft, and revise and fix the details. Review your essay for typos, mistakes, and any other problems.
Here are the eight steps to write an essay: Stage 1: Planning. 1. Pick an appropriate research topic. In certain cases, your teacher or professor may assign you a topic. However, in many cases, students have the freedom to select a topic of their choice.
Step One - Picture Perfect Summary. First, create a Picture Perfect Summary. Put your title/main idea in the center of the page, make a circle around it, and write down all the ideas and keywords about your topic that you can think of. Use one branch off the circle for each main idea. You're brainstorming at this point, so just write down ...
Writing an essay can be a daunting task for many students, but it doesn't have to be. In this blog post, you will learn some simple tips and tricks on how to write an essay, from choosing a topic to editing your final draft. Whether you need to write an essay for school, work, or personal interest, this guide will help you improve your skills and confidence.
College essay example #1. This is a college essay that worked for Harvard University. (Suggested reading: How to Get Into Harvard Undergrad) This past summer, I had the privilege of participating in the University of Notre Dame's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program .
Argumentative Essay Example 2. Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through female Anopheles mosquitoes. Each year, over half a billion people will become infected with malaria, with roughly 80% of them living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Examples of argumentative essay prompts. At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response. Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.
The perfect SAT essay is like a puzzle that happens to be in written formâit can be mastered, but to do it well and completely every time requires practice with a lot of sample topics. You need to learn the format of an effective essay and how to fill out a complete essay within 50 minutes.
Revised on July 23, 2023. An essay outline is a way of planning the structure of your essay before you start writing. It involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you will cover in each paragraph, giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold. You'll sometimes be asked to submit an essay outline as a separate ...
The five-paragraph essay format is a guide that helps writers structure an essay. It consists of one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs for support, and one concluding paragraph. Because of this structure, it has been nicknamed the "hamburger essay," the "one-three-one essay," and the "three-tier essay.".
Follow your outline, using each of your supporting points as the topic sentence of its own paragraph. Use descriptive words to get your ideas across to the reader. Go into detail, using specific information to tell your story or make your point. Stay on track, making sure that everything you include is somehow related to the main idea of your ...
Step 1: Return to your thesis. To begin your conclusion, signal that the essay is coming to an end by returning to your overall argument. Don't just repeat your thesis statement âinstead, try to rephrase your argument in a way that shows how it has been developed since the introduction. Example: Returning to the thesis.
This essay about Robert Hansen, known as a "perfect model" of a serial killer, examines his life, crimes, and the complexities of criminal profiling. Hansen, a seemingly ordinary baker in Anchorage, Alaska, secretly perpetrated a series of abductions, rapes, and murders from 1971 to 1983.
Major Differences between a 5 and a 6 Essay (from table above) Sample Essay: Ideas and Analysis: The 6 essay gives a more specific and logically precise context. The thesis and argument show a deep understanding of the issue, while the analysis not only mentions, but also inspects the complexities and implications of the issue.
Step 2: Write your initial answer. After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process. The internet has had more of a positive than a negative effect on education.