method of writing essay in english

How to Write an Essay

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Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

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10 Tips to Write Better Essays in English

If writing an essay sounds a little bit scary, just think of it as a chance to improve your writing skills .

Nobody expects your first essay to be perfect. Just make sure you learn something new every time you write an essay, and you will  grow your abilities.

We’re going to help you out with ten tips for writing better essays while you’re learning English .

1. Create a Word Bank

2. act like a reporter, 3. create topic sentences, 4. argue both sides, 5. read backwards, 6. use an online thesaurus and a dictionary, 7. combine and separate sentences, 8. have a native english speaker edit your essay, 9. review the whole essay with your friend, then rewrite it, 10. use online apps, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

This is an interesting approach to writing your essay. First, choose a topic and write a thesis . A thesis is the main argument of your essay. For instance, if your topic is reading, your thesis might be “Reading makes you smarter.”

Once you have a thesis, think about your main topic and find words that relate to it in different ways. Then, branch out (broaden, diversify) your list to words that aren’t as closely related to your main topic.

For the example above, your primary list might include words like “books,” “reading” and “intelligent.” Your other “branched out” list might include “Harry Potter,” “reading by a fire” or “test scores.”

This process will help expand your vocabulary over time. Using these words when you write will also make your essay more vibrant (energetic, colorful).

When you are first assigned the topic, go ahead and really explore the possible options for your thesis. Ask questions. Get curious. The more questions you ask before you start writing, the more information you will have to use in the essay.

A strong essay is one that covers a lot of content in a succinct (short, to-the-point) way. This process of acting like a reporter will give you valuable quotes, resources and vocabulary to begin the writing process.

For instance, if you’re writing about a new diet plan , you might ask questions like, “Who is the best candidate for this diet plan?,” “How can someone get started?” and “What is the hardest part of this plan?”

A topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph, and it summarizes the rest of the paragraph. You can create them first to help you stay on track when writing your essay.

For the thesis “Reading makes you smarter,” one paragraph’s topic sentence might be, “Newspapers make you more aware of current events.” Another paragraph’s topic sentence could be, “Reading plays and classic literature will make you more cultured.”

If you’re writing about the three main issues facing writers today, you could write three full sentences that each address one main issue. Set these aside. Then, when you start writing the essay, refer to your topic sentences to create a solid structure that begins at point A and ends at point C.

If you have to write a longer or more complex essay, it might help to outline both sides of the argument before you start writing. When you write the essay, you will need to choose one side to focus on. But as you prepare, having a side-by-side list of points can be helpful in developing your thesis.

Also, by arguing for the opposite side of your opinion, you will learn which points you need to better address in your essay. You will learn more about the topic, and you will gain more vocabulary words to enrich the essay.

As an example, you might be writing an essay arguing that people should drink less coffee. To argue both sides, you’ll need to consider the opposite side: the benefits of coffee. How will people quit if they are addicted? What about the antioxidants in coffee? Aren’t those good for you? Really explore the entire concept (both sides of the argument) before you write.

Proper grammar is difficult for even the most fluent English speakers. Because you are learning English, you actually have an advantage. Many native speakers learned improper grammar from the start. It’s difficult to undo the damage caused by a lifetime of writing improperly.

As you learn the English language, make a serious effort to practice your grammar and sentence structure. One way to spot improper grammar in your own English writing is to read each sentence backwards (start with the last word and end with the first). This way, you won’t be fooled by how the words sound when you read them in your head.

Is everything in the correct tense (past, present, future, etc.)? If you’re writing about plurals, are the possessive nouns plural? Are the apostrophes in the right places? Does every sentence end with a punctuation mark (period, question mark, exclamation point)? Reading the text backwards makes you focus on the rules of grammar instead of the flow of the sentence.

You might have learned a large number of fancy words when studying for an entrance exam. But before you start using them in academic essays, be very sure you know what they mean in the context of your essay. This is where the dictionary can come in handy .

A thesaurus is another valuable tool when writing an essay. A thesaurus tells you synonyms, or words that have the same or a similar meaning to the word you look up. It’s important because it can add some volume to your essay and increase the impact of your words.

For example, if you’re writing about cooking, the words “stir” and “add” might come up a lot. This repetition is boring for a reader.

So instead of constantly saying, “Add the tomato” and “add the eggs,” a thesaurus will teach you to say things like “whisk in the eggs” or “gently fold in the tomatoes.” See? It sounds a lot better and adds interest to your essay.

Visual Thesaurus is a resource that works just like a regular thesaurus, but it also shows you the connections between the words. For example, if you type in the word “stir,” you’ll immediately see a whole circle of other words connected to “stir” with lines. From there, you can click on any of the words in the circle (like “move,” in this case) and then see all the words related to that word. This helps you find and learn new words quickly, and it’s also fun!

Once the essay is written, go back through the writing to find any sentences that seem too long or wordy. Break these into two or more sentences.

For example, the following sentence is too long, which makes it unclear:

If you want to write in another language, you need to practice writing in creative ways, like writing on a blog, writing fun poems or texting a friend who speaks the language you’re learning every day.

Instead, you could write it as two clearer sentences (with less repetition of the word “writing”):

If you want to write in another language, you need to practice in creative ways every day. For example, you could start a blog, create fun poems or text a friend.

Do the opposite with sentences you find too short.

Also, look for sentences that are very closely related to one another. If two sentences seem like the thoughts are connected, you can combine them with a semicolon ( ; ).

For example, the following sentences are very closely related:

Learning to write in another language can be really difficult, especially when you’re first getting started. That’s why it helps to practice every day.

That’s why you could write it this way:

Learning to write in another language can be really difficult, especially when you’re first getting started; daily practice is helpful.

Meet up with a friend who is fluent in English (or, at least, more fluent than you). This friend can edit your essay and point out any repetitive errors.

If they find mistakes that you make often, you will be able to watch more closely for that error as you write future essays. This friend will also be able to point out grammatical or spelling errors that you might have missed.

If you don’t have any friends who are fluent in English, you can use a website like Conversation Exchange . This is a free site where native English speakers will correct your writing. In exchange, you correct the writing of someone learning your native language.

Once you and your friend have both reviewed your essay and marked any mistakes, rewrite the whole thing. This step is important. Just noting that you made some mistakes will not help you learn how to avoid them in the future.

By rewriting the essay with the corrections in mind, you will teach yourself how to write those sections properly. You will create a memory of using proper grammar or spelling a word correctly. So, you will be more likely to write it correctly next time.

Lastly, there are some fantastic online resources that can help improve your writing. For instance,  Hemingway Editor  can review your document to find any confusing or wordy sentences. You can rewrite these to make them easier to understand.

You could also head over to  Essay Punch  to find resources, tools and support that can help improve your writing skills.  Grammar Book  is a great resource for practicing proper grammar and spelling.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

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Since many online resources are readily accessible, feel free to experiment with your options. Try to find the ones that cater best to your learning habits and needs.

The advice in this post is mainly for improving your essay writing over time. However, if you want a more professional opinion for an important essay, you can also use Scribendi . Scribendi is an online essay editing resource that helps with academic and admissions essays. If you’re applying to a school or are writing an important paper, you may want to consider their services to make sure your essay is the best it can be.

Learning a new language is certainly an ambitious (challenging) task. There are so many small details to learn, and the process takes a lot of time and commitment. But with practice and study, you will improve.

It takes even more effort to become a strong writer in a new language, but these tips will help you get started.

Hopefully, you were able to find one or two tips that you believe will help you improve your essay writing abilities. Over time, try to use all of these strategies (or at least more than one) in your writing routine. Good luck!

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials , as you can see here:

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.

For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.

The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.

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• Writing Tips

How to Write Top-Graded Essays in English

• 5-minute read
• 7th December 2022

Writing English papers and essays can be challenging at first, but with the right tools, knowledge, and resources, you can improve your writing skills. In this article, you’ll get some tips and tricks on how to write a top-graded essay in English.

Have you heard the saying “practice makes perfect”? Well, it’s wrong. Practice does make improvement, though. Whether you’re taking an English composition class, studying for the IELTS or TOEFL , or preparing to study abroad, you can always find new ways to practice writing in English.

If you practice on a daily basis, you’ll be exercising the skills you know while challenging yourself to learn even more. There are many ways you can practice writing in English daily:

• Keep a daily journal.
• Write practice essays.
• Do creative writing exercises .

Read in English

The best way to improve your writing is to read English books, news articles, essays, and other media. By reading the writing of other authors (whether they’re native or non-native speakers), you’re exposing yourself to different writing styles and learning new vocabulary. Be sure to take notes when you’re reading so you can write down things you don’t know (e.g., new words or phrases) or sentences or phrases you like.

For example, maybe you need to write a paper related to climate change. By reading news articles or research papers on this topic, you can learn relevant vocabulary and knowledge you can use in your essay.

FluentU has a great article with a list of 20 classic books you can read in English for free.

Immerse Yourself in English

If you don’t live in an English-speaking country, you may be thinking, “How can I immerse myself in English?” There are many ways to overcome this challenge. The following strategies are especially useful if you plan to study or travel abroad:

• Follow YouTube channels that focus on learning English or that have English speakers.
• Use social media to follow English-speaking accounts you are interested in.
• Watch movies and TV shows in English or use English subtitles when watching your favorite shows.
• Participate in your English club or salon at school to get more practice.
• Become an English tutor at a local school (teaching others is the best way to learn).

By constantly exposing yourself to English, you will improve your writing and speaking skills.

Visit Your Writing Center

If you’re enrolled at a university, you most likely have a free writing center you can use if you need help with your assignments. If you don’t have a writing center, ask your teacher for help and for information on local resources.

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Use Your Feedback

After you submit an English writing assignment, you should receive feedback from your teacher on how you did. Use this feedback to your advantage. If you haven’t been getting feedback on your writing, ask your teacher to explain what issues they are seeing in your writing and what you could do to improve.

Be Aware of Your Common Writing Mistakes

If you review your feedback on writing assignments, you might notice some recurring mistakes you are making. Make a list of common mistakes you tend to make when writing, and use it when doing future assignments. Some common mistakes include the following:

• Grammar errors (e.g., not using articles).
• Incorrect vocabulary (e.g., confusing however and therefore ).
• Spelling mistakes (e.g., writing form when you mean from ).
• Missing essay components (e.g., not using a thesis statement in your introduction).
• Not using examples in your body paragraphs.
• Not writing an effective conclusion .

This is just a general list of writing mistakes, some of which you may make. But be sure to go through your writing feedback or talk with your teacher to make a list of your most common mistakes.

Use a Prewriting Strategy

So many students sit down to write an essay without a plan. They just start writing whatever comes to their mind. However, to write a top-graded essay in English, you must plan and brainstorm before you begin to write. Here are some strategies you can use during the prewriting stage:

• Freewriting
• Concept Mapping

For more detailed information on each of these processes, read “5 Useful Prewriting Strategies.”

Follow the Writing Process

All writers should follow a writing process. However, the writing process can vary depending on what you’re writing. For example, the process for a Ph.D. thesis is going to look different to that of a news article. Regardless, there are some basic steps that all writers should follow:

• Understanding the assignment, essay question, or writing topic.
• Planning, outlining, and prewriting.
• Writing a thesis statement.
• Writing your essay.
• Revising and editing.

Writing essays, theses, news articles, or papers in English can be challenging. They take a lot of work, practice, and persistence. However, with these tips, you will be on your way to writing top-graded English essays.

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How to write an essay in english, by ielts expert, 29 june 2023 - 16:15.

Many students say writing is the worst part of their English, but it’s often just a case of confidence. With practice, and the tips in this post, you can gain the confidence you need to maximise your English and really show it off. This post will look at the three stages of writing - planning, writing the text and reading it back.

If you are preparing for an exam, please be aware that for the latest information on exam format you should always go straight to the source –  IELTS website . You can practice  free online IELTS Academic Writing tests  or  General Training Writing tests . You can also practice writing your answer by downloading an  IELTS Writing Answer Sheet .

Planning is an integral part of your writing. You might say “I don’t plan”, but somewhere in your subconscious, you do! By raising your awareness of your own planning process you can improve enormously. As a teacher, I see many students who plan and many who don’t. In general, the students that plan produce much better work, so if you are in the “no plan” camp, you should at least experiment with some of the ideas coming up.

Planning 1: Address the question

If you are writing for a class assignment or an exam, it is crucial that you address the question given. Adequate planning (five minutes is better than nothing) will keep you on track. 

Start by breaking the question down into its parts. There will usually be two or three aspects to the question. You want not only to cover all aspects of the question, but also make it obvious to your teacher or the examiner that you have done so, and the best way to demonstrate this is to give each aspect its own paragraph.

Planning 2: Brainstorm vocabulary as well as ideas

Once you have identified your paragraphs, think about what vocabulary you have at your disposal. Perhaps you would like to write one paragraph from a particular angle, but when you start planning you might find there are holes in your vocabulary and you are better able to write from a different angle. Choose ideas which best overlap with what you can clearly state in English.

Planning 3: Write chunks of language

Even with all the vocabulary in the world, some ideas are complex to express in writing. Causality, speculation and hypothetical scenarios are all abstract concepts which make it more challenging to say exactly what you want, but these are also an opportunity to push your English ability to the max and show your grammatical range. 

Sound out in your head how you will make your arguments, and when you get stuck, try writing this part down in your plan. It might be a whole sentence of just a clause. This will help you decide if you have enough English ability to get across a really impressive idea, or if you need to simplify your thoughts in order to remain clear to the reader.

Writing the text 1: Use your plan!

I have seen many students write logical, competent plans that address the question, only to go off on a random tangent when they start writing! 

Of course, you might change some things as you go along, for example if you have a new idea, but keeping an eye on your plan will prevent you from getting distracted and bring you back to the question you must answer. It will also keep you aware of how you are doing for word count and time.

Writing the text 2: Write your introduction last

You should at least consider this idea. The purpose of an introduction is to tell the reader what they are going to read, so how can you write the introduction when you haven’t written the content yet?

Introductions are fiddly to write on a blank canvas, but much easier when we already have the content written in front of us.

If you are writing on paper, it is still possible to write the introduction last - you just need to leave a few lines for it.

Writing the text 3: Make sure your introduction and conclusion match

Your introduction and conclusion should also match the content of your main body paragraphs. This might seem obvious, but I wish I had a euro for every time I have seen an introduction passionately in favour of something followed by body paragraphs and a conclusion that were passionately against.

This problem can be avoided by writing your conclusion last, as suggested above. It will also be avoided by planning, and thinking a little more deeply how you feel about the question before you start. When I say a little more deeply, I’m talking about a minute or so, not hours.

Writing the text 4: Use linkers

Linkers are often misunderstood as simply a way of showing “formal English” but in fact, we use linkers all the time, even when chatting with friends. We use them in speech and in writing to indicate “I’m going to add to what was just said,”  “I’m going to contradict what was just said,” and generally to help the listener or reader understand where we are going next.

After writing the text

This is another area where many students are very reluctant - you need to read what you wrote! 

Check for spelling errors, missing third person s, capital letters, whatever errors you are prone to make… and if you don’t know what errors you are prone to make, it’s because you aren’t checking your writing, so you need to start today! You can be the expert on your own writing strengths and weaknesses, and this will just make you better and better.

Moreover, you should read back your text because it’s enjoyable to see how skillfully you put your ideas down and how convincing your arguments are. You did it! Well done! Enjoy the moment with some positivity!

• Why choose IELTS?

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

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Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

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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 you’ll find you’re better able to organize and articulate your thoughts.

When writing an essay, it’s common to follow a specific pattern, no matter what the topic is. Once you’ve 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. 

No matter which major you choose, you should know how to craft a good essay. Here, we’ll 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. 

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. 

For example, when arguing with a friend, your goal is to convince them that you’re right. The same goes for an argumentative essay. 

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 you’re 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. 

Argumentative Essay

In this essay, you’re 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, that’s not quite the case. 

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, it’s important to prepare the content and structure of your essay. If a topic wasn’t 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. You’ll work on developing your ideas and fleshing them out throughout the introduction, body, and conclusion (more on these soon).

In the final stage, you’ll go over your essay and check for a few things. First, you’ll 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.  

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 you’ll be expected to use. 

The five-paragraph essay is broken down into one introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. However, that doesn’t 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.

Let’s 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 “hook,” something that grabs your reader’s attention and makes them excited to read more. 

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. 

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. 

In general, you’re 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 — your thesis statement — 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, it’s important to keep this in mind so that you avoid going off-track or writing things that are off-topic.

Many students aren’t 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. 

You shouldn’t be presenting any new ideas in your conclusion, but you should summarize your main points and show how they back up your thesis statement. 

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. 

Photo by AMIT RANJAN on Unsplash

Steps to Writing an Essay

Now that you have a better idea of an essay’s structure and all the elements that go into it, you might be wondering what the different steps are to actually write your essay. 

Don’t worry, we’ve 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 you’ve 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 don’t want to lose marks just because you didn’t read the assignment carefully.

Research Your Topic

Once you understand your assignment, it’s 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. 

Search online or head to the library and get as many resources as possible. You don’t need to use them all, but it’s good to start with a lot and then narrow down your sources as you become more certain of your essay’s 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 they’re 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 that’s strong and that you’re about to develop throughout the entire essay. Therefore, you want to choose a thesis statement that’s broad enough that you’ll have enough to say about it, but not so broad that you can’t be precise. 

Write Your Outline

Armed with your research, brainstorming sessions, and your thesis statement, the next step is to write an outline. 

In the outline, you’ll want to put your thesis statement at the beginning and start creating the basic skeleton of how you want your essay to look. 

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. 

If you create an outline with the topic sentences for your body paragraphs and then a few points of what you want to discuss, you’ll already have a strong starting point when it comes time to sit down and write. This brings us to our next step… 

Write a First Draft

The first time you write your entire essay doesn’t need to be perfect, but you do need to get everything on the page so that you’re able to then write a second draft or review it afterward. 

Everyone’s 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 “meat” of the essay and tackle the body, and then fill in the other sections afterward. 

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. 

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. 

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, you’ll want to make sure everything that’s required is in your essay. Review your assignment again and see if all the requirements are there, such as formatting rules, citations, quotes, etc. 

Go over the order of your paragraphs and make sure everything makes sense, flows well, and uses the same writing style . 

Once everything is checked and all the last touches are added, give your essay a final read through just to ensure it’s as you want it before handing it in. 

A good way to do this is to read your essay out loud since you’ll 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 we’d 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. It’s one of the most important things you can do to write a good essay. If you start it the night before, then you won’t have enough time to research, brainstorm, and outline — and you surely won’t have enough time to review.
• Don’t try and write it in one sitting. It’s ok if you need to take breaks or write it over a few days. It’s better to write it in multiple sittings so that you have a fresh mind each time and you’re able to focus.
• Always keep the essay question in mind. If you’re given an assigned question, then you should always keep it handy when writing your essay to make sure you’re 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 doesn’t 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 doesn’t need to be daunting if you know how to approach it. Using our essay writing steps and tips, you’ll have better knowledge on how to write an essay and you’ll 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. 

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A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing

• Mark Rennella

It’s called the “one-idea rule” — and any level of writer can use it.

The “one idea” rule is a simple concept that can help you sharpen your writing, persuade others by presenting your argument in a clear, concise, and engaging way. What exactly does the rule say?

• Every component of a successful piece of writing should express only one idea.
• In persuasive writing, your “one idea” is often the argument or belief you are presenting to the reader. Once you identify what that argument is, the “one-idea rule” can help you develop, revise, and connect the various components of your writing.
• For instance, let’s say you’re writing an essay. There are three components you will be working with throughout your piece: the title, the paragraphs, and the sentences.
• Each of these parts should be dedicated to just one idea. The ideas are not identical, of course, but they’re all related. If done correctly, the smaller ideas (in sentences) all build (in paragraphs) to support the main point (suggested in the title).

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Most advice about writing looks like a long laundry list of “do’s and don’ts.” These lists can be helpful from time to time, but they’re hard to remember … and, therefore, hard to depend on when you’re having trouble putting your thoughts to paper. During my time in academia, teaching composition at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I saw many people struggle with this.

• MR Mark Rennella is Associate Editor at HBP and has published two books, Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders and The Boston Cosmopolitans .  

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How to Write an Effective Essay

240 COMMENTS

Thanks a lot. There is a problem with sound in this video. It goes acynchronous after 1:26 min.

Andrey — the problem with the sound sync has now been fixed. Thanks for letting us know.

Hey can i have a link to the forum because i cant find it and I have many questions to ask for i need help.

You can comment here and also on our Facebook page !

I think James is one of the best teachers ever known to me. I am Nisha . I am from India. My English is good but after listening to James’ lectures I could not resist falling in love with his style of teaching. I think his enthusiasm and his crispy humors while teaching is incredible. Not only English but he has helped me improving my teaching skills also, as I am a teacher by profession.

Dear Nisha,

I am from Pakistan. While reading your comment, I found something strange; You used the word “humor” as a countable noun in your comment. I believe the word humor is an uncountable noun in the above context. However, it can be used as a countable noun only when it means the state of your feelings or mind at a particular time for example to be in the best of humors or when it means one of the four liquids that were thought in the past to be in a person’s body and to influence health and character, the latter meaning is of course not in use anymore. I hope I haven’t offended you. Ali Amiri

I think you are wonderful teacher for me,I am Ozlem.I am from Turkey ,my English is terrible but I am still training.First my grammar so bad:)))) I hope so I will to learn very soon:))))) Thank you very much….

i think Mr Ozlem that “when there i a well there is a way”.So, jut try to convince yourself that you are able to learn ,and that may help u in improving your english.I wih you all the luck

hi engvid i’m studen from indonesia,,..i was happy whn i knew about this video,,.coz i wanna learn english intensivly,.and i hope after i join wih u my english cn increase faster.,.,.!!!!thanx very much

Hi, My name’s Tatiana, I’m from Argentina. My teacher recomened this page to practice listening. I’m learning English, so my english isn’t good.. ja ja.. I liked this page a lot. Kisses.

well, I had some mistakes.. E.g. My teacher recommended me this page…

I am Jeyasugiththan from Sri Lanka. I hope it is good to follow James to improve my English. I have been never seen this type of teaching before. I like this page a lot.

I was looking for along time free English on internet. Finally i discovered best teacher on engvid .God bless on all of you. Keep on good work . Thank you.

Congratulation to James, he is pretty nice teacher, understandable all the time. I am studying from Panama, but living in USA. These english’s videos are very usufull to many people.

Well done. Excellent with high sense of humor, thanks

James an excellent teacher!Many thanks!

Hi James! I like the way to teach. Its very simple but understandable. I like your style man! :)

mr james i did nt wtite ur s tecqniques for an effective essay.

i like the way u teach god bless u , u realy help us allot

Hi James, I loved your video, you should be congratulated… thanks

[ I’m using engvid to improve my teaching skills as well and James is really helping, I really like your dynamic style and Im sure my students will apreciate it too. Thanks a lot James! ]

Thanks very much for all teachers.

I liked a lot your video class. I have one comment to you. I think that it will be better for the student just think in 3 steps on the essay task. Introduction, body (main ideas, support ideas) and conclusion (about main idea) as you explain. Because, when you read about the task you already have a question, so, you do not need to think about another question. And about the thesis, I think is kind of confusing. However, I really enjoy your class. Thank you Bye

I’m Ken , I’m from Malaysia , currently I’m studying in Dalat International school in Penang, for the most part i not doing good cause my grammar is bad , the reason is that my previous school didn’t teach a very good job in grammar since the most i could remember is them teaching vocab.heck maybe i just plain forgot everything, so basicly i don’t even know the basic of basic grammar like noun or pronoun or the rest of the basic . I don’t really want to kick out from that school so is there any advice from me ?

hiii from new zealand! i’m so happy to find out this great website,i’ve been preparing the EILTS that essay is most considerable to take it.i try to write essay everyday so may i send you those, and then you can check it for me??i wanna to learn my mistakes..in addition, my other problem is that to memorize academic words which are NOT used in daily life therefore i cannot make listening although i live in New zealand.., after to memorize,all of them flyy from my mind rapidly!!do you have any suggestion for it?? thankk you soo muchhh JAMESS

Hi you all¡, My name is Lorena Valenzuela, I am from Chile, I was looking for english resources and I find this great web site on the internet. I want to improve my writing skills and i think this lesson is very useful, doesn’t it?. Thank you very much James for share your knowlegde with us, I really appreciate your effort and enthusiasm in your classes, it feels that you really love what you do, thank again. In my english class, we are studing QUESTION WORDS AS SUBJECT, and i am not totally clear whit this issue. May you explain the grammar use?, Thank you and Bye, bye.

Hi,i am jai.i am just new to your site ,i felt its brilliant.I am wright IELTS exam in January,i am very week in writing (specially in forming sentence and spelling) please give me some tips to improve my wright,This exam is very important to me,thank you

thank you very much when i starting see the your lesson I am very encouraged myself. Because I always afraid when I start my writing. Thank you

this very good explain thank you

how to write essays

Teacher are yuo good man tanks

Hello respected Sir, I saw your videos and Iam really happy that i found a solution for my problems………….. Sir my problem is that Iam not good in english and Iam doing O levels. And Iam facing lots of problems in english class I can’t solve comprehension…. Please kindly help me …

Hi, my name is Khojiakbar. And I’m 17 years old. I’m from Uzbekistan, It’s in Central Asia. I wanna improve my english. I’ve problems in English, especially on grammar, I mean writing and speaking… my vocabulary isn’t good… Can you give advice??? pls…

hi i am abdou from morocco , i’m an elelmantary school teacher, i teach Arabic but i like to learn new languages, really your web site helped me especially these fascinating videos it’s surely a very effective tool to teach English ,i wish you more progress.bye.

Hi James! Congratulation to your video-lesson! I enjoyed it very much. Your explanations are clear and understandable. I will share this video with all my friends who are learning English.¨ I am looking forward to all you new topics. Your fan Inka

Hey:) My name’s Maria and would say, that your video lessons are really good for improving the language skills! Relying my own experience, I thought it’s perfect to study English, when you’re surrounded by native speakers only…but now I fully realized, that your classes are of much use as well – one gets to know so many new interesting words, expressons and even sentences (!), which you can further use in your own speech. Well, I’m completely satisfied with what you’re doing and how you’re teaching! Thanx a lot for that!

thank’s james

thank you very much

thnx very much

would be more interesting if having more examples. A very nice a attrative teaching method.

thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks alot for this lesson

Hi James i enjoy your way of teaching

sir james can you send me some essays basing on above rules which you taught for explanation. thanks

r u from india or pak. “sir” is a post colonial remark

Thanks a lot

James is very artistic . I love the way he teaches : )

I am Sri Lanken these all lessons are fantastic and attractive i love it so much

hi i m from india . i just love the way you teach

i just love the way to teach…am feeling prpoud to found dis website…lol keep up dis gud work raj from canada

Hi James I wrote an essay about Walt Disney and my thesis is Why Walt Disney is so famous? and I can’t think of any supporting idea, can you suggest one for me please…

hi.. your lessons are very helpful and this website is great ..everytime i have problems with the english language this website is the solution ..thank you .. kamila from albania..

wonderful i love it :)

funniest teacher .. hahahaha…

Hello engVid!I am Veronica from Baku,Azerbaijan.I should say this video is very usefull!Thank you for making such effective websites that helps us a lot.James is an incredible teacher!

hi that’s nice video

The podcast is an academic and fundamental one. It’s absolutely stunning. Many thanks.

This videos are very helpful, i love the way how james explains his class. Thank you very much James

The videos are very helpful and James is a great instructor Thanks James

Video was very clear and informative.

This video help me to write .Specially , the first point and second point are helpful to write.

James, What about map mind? I always use it to write paragraph.

thank James again for this video

thank you james . you are a helpful person. i like your way in the explaination.

Hi Alesia. There is currently a problem with the registration. It should be fixed by the end of October 2010. Until then, you can comment without signing up. After that, only members will be able to comment.

I am a 31 year freshman from Ohio.James’s video on how to write an effective essay has helped me immensely, thank you. I will pass this site along to my study group.

This is my first time to visit your website. In my first day, I stayed 5 hours just to exhaust all the basic knowledge I need to learn in speaking. I love to write. But since English is my second language, am not yet expert in using some prepositions appropriately in sentences. I am hoping you can help me on this problem.

FIVE HOURS IN ONE DAY!??! That is great, mar! Please register and tell your friends about the site if you can. Let us know if you think there are things we can improve. We have some preposition classes, but this is a topic that involves a lot of memorization, unfortunately.

Is there a video lesson here? I’m sorry, I’m new here. Could you please tell me how to open the video? Thanks alot!

Hi Dian. You should see a video right at the top of this page, under the video title and description and above the quiz. If you don’t see it, please make sure you are able to watch YouTube videos on other sites. Try using a modern browser like Chrome if you are having trouble. Some countries (or schools/offices) block YouTube videos, so that may be the problem.

Thank you soo much my techer, I’ll become okay with your vid.

thanks, a lot

Hi, i am from the freedom country, canada.That is one of the best videos I saw from James. I would like to become one of my teachers. I wish you, James could make a persetation ( i can not spell very well) on speech. My class and I are starting to write speechs. I want to write a speech like OBAMA. THANK YOU!

i realy like the way James teaches.

i looove the way u teach,James! u r so pleasant!thanx a lot!kiss u

I am from Brasil, and i loved all video, evary teachers this page. I have a poblem when a teacher talk fast i lost a focus. Has here a basic class, not i so basic, but i goint to start step by step again.

I like his teaching style.

Dear James i was sent u a message .I watch every night ur lessons.really it is great to me because english is my second language.i have big problem with speaking .now i study English .my level is 1.but i have problem with speaking and undrstanding native people.would u please recomend me How improve my speaking.it is kind of u if u send to me email with my [email protected] u for ur help.with my Respects to u

Dear James i realy thank you that You made a video about how to write right! i am from Ukrain and you talk very good. i understand how to write but i have a big problem – How check grammar during speaking. I always make mane mistakes and i need your help. Respects to you

Hello James I m Hafiz from Pakistan i really like your and your team’s lessons. I wana suggest you; plz creat a lesson on Phonetic symbols and about poetry how to explain the verses of long narrative poems I would be thankful to you.

Thanks a lot,James. I come from Thailand. I think my english skill does not well. I wanna improve it. If you have a suggestion for me,I wonder you mind sending it to my e-mail address. Thanks you again.

thank you very much for posting this video this has helped my a lot with writing my essay.

thanks jaimes

thanks james, its really help to improve my skills. but I need more examples for effective writing skills.

This was my First class that I had with College I am at now. To teach us how to Read, Write, become Critical Thinkers, use the knowledge from your past to help you with your future. And by all means, if this will help me in the long run with my classes I will definatly come back and learn what I need to know.

Tomorrow I’m taking a test and writing an essay, this lesson really helped me a lot. Thanks

i am in grade8 and i need to write an essay about 1000and more. i learnd how to do it and i hoooooooop i will gat A OR B in thes essay. than MR James for helping me out and my friends in class.

and i hoop you can come and teach us in Dubai, UAE -_- hahahahahaah but i realy liked your way of teaching.

and i told my class about thes vid and they say it is funny and helpfull.

Hello James, thank you so much for engvid. it’s really helpful for me…you are cool person & I really like your dynamic style :) just going on…

dear james, how 2 write a effective essay.then can i ask a ex. of essay!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, James, for sharing this skill in writing a good essay. I will try to remember and apply your tips.

hello, i am wawa from Algeria. i want to thank you for your lessons but I have a big probleme with a writing it is very dificult to me when I write a paragraph.If it is possible to help.please

I LIKE THIS VIDEO BECAUSE I UNDERSTAND. THANK YOU.

HELLO I AM FROM PAKISTAN i want to thank you for your lessons but I have a big problem with a writing it is very difficult to me when I write a paragraph.I DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO START AN ESSAY. please help me and give me general idea how to start and write an effective essay .my ielts exam is held at 30 April 2011.

hi James, I want to write an essay for a competition. the topic is “I shudder to think” . Can you please give some tips regarding this essay What example can be taken to explain the essay and would i will be required to ask a question or not in this type of essay..???? plz ANSWER..!!! THNKX

is it possible to make a video about participles? thank you

Hi James, I haven’t been in school for over 20 years! I just decided to go back to school and pursue my dream career. Now, I have no problem being creative, but my problem is when I have an assignment, specially about writing, I panic and don’t know how to start! I searched how to write an essay and I came across your video and it was helpful. However, I’m still stuck and haven’t starting my essay, I’m finding it difficult to start. My essay is regarding an influential hairstylist and I have to detail his work and how he’s changed the industry, etc….then, I must write how his work influenced me. I can work on hair but I can’t write a simple essay! Rachel

Hi James Big thanks sir I want to ask you… how to make more idea Thx

Hi, Mr. James. Hope You are getting a kick of every moment of your life. The way you teach is really very fantastic. I found your lectures so useful. Frankly speaking you are an incomparable teacher. What if you please send me a video on how to conduct the introduction of the first day of the class. Thanks.

HI THIS CLASS WILL WORK FOR IELTS, BECAUSE A TRIED TO PASS IELTS.

Hi Mr. James I am from Syria thanks a lot about this lesson ,but I have a strange question How can I think in English? Do you have any lesson about this subject? please healp me.

thanks very much it help heaps

hi james?many thanks for the great leason!but havee one qustion?can you tell me how to write thieses statement in essay?please help me?????

Hi James i have a question i have to write an essay on a literary term and show how

it is related to the two novels i have to do i am having problems with my introduction i just can not find a way to start it off any advice on how i should start off an essay on a literary term Ex. Foreshadowing

Thanks sir James!!! It helps me to make my essay and journal writing… anyway, I miss your partner Mr. E Worm….

Dear James I did’nt understand what thesis is.Can u please explain it?

Dear james Can u please explain what thesis is?

someone was asking what thesis is, so can help! THESIS ITS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON…

Thank you Jame! Your skill of teaching is so great. Let’s go on!

Thanks Dear teacher! If you don’t mind please explain and write an essay, show us procedure of writing about ”love better than money”.I mean your arguments.

Hi James , I really would like to thank you for all your support to us and your help to us but I’m still confused about thesis so can you more videos about thesis and give us examples please .

First of all,My English is very poor and I can not speak English as well but today I found your clip at youtube.com then I believe you gonna be my best teacher.

Hallo James, You are cool teacher! all best to you!

Thank You Very Much

thanks james!

Thanks very much!!!!!!!!

Dear Mr James,

I am Hiep, living in Viet Nam. Incidentally, I watched your video about teaching English about how to write an effective essay. It was so exciting to me and the way you taught is very easy to understand for learners. Really, I liked it very much because you helped me to write an essay. Upon to now, I have just writen an essay without layout before writing that is reason why I often get a low point for test. Everything changes for me after watching your video. I think I should spend more time to write as much as possible with layout before starting to write. Thank you again, I always keep in touch with Engvid.com.

yours sincerely, New leaners, Hiepnguyenthanh.

Hi James, I am Vietnamese and I must take an IELTS exam. thank you so much for giving an interesting lecture.

so good so very cute. Sir. I`m very happy now because I learned from you: How to write an effective essay !!.. thank you very much.. From dinny from ALBANIA, KUMANOVO (Macedonia)

hey james your teaching is good and i had improved my speaking thank u all

Hello Sir I am Habib from Pakistan, Balochistan… thank u very much for all this.. Can U say how to make a precis?

hello, my name is said, im from morocco,a university studenet of english, concerning your teaching method frankly;is workable and effective,thank you so much mr james.finally,i want you to include a course about the difference between an essay and an article because in the exams we were given to write an article and we follow the esseay plan when writing the article

James,u are just awesome.your tutorials help me a lot on TOEFl,got 106/120.Thank you.Fighting is good !!;-)

Hi James.. you know!! you are amazing

thank you a heap

hello James thanks alot for that tutorial , ur amazing , and I really love ur way in teaching , am from Egypt , and I really appreciate u for helping English learners and I couldn’t believe my self when I found that site thanks to all the teachers who are helping us , plzz continue and don’t stop , i hope u read my comment :-D but plzz dont get too much conceited ;-)

My brother recommended me to this blog. He was absolutely right. This post really meets my expectations. It’s hard to imagine how much time I spent on that information. Thanks Amelia

Thanks for your help. I’m actually trying to write an essay but it’s harder then I thought. I Wish I would think like U. One idea after another just wow. It’s good that you’re positive and I think that u like what’s u doing and that’s a great advantage in your profession. Once again thank U! :)

I really enjoy your introduction lesson James. Now where is the body of what you started. I would like to see how it all pans out.

thank for helping me get an A* in my quiz.you are a really good teacher ^_^

[…] How to Write Essay video part 2 Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. How to Write Essay Introduction (engvid) RSS feed […]

I would like you to do compere between formal and informal email and report please

thanks James

I am from Tunisia and we study those topics at university and I find your lessons sir are very interesting thank you for your efforts

I really like you way of teaching thanks a lot

HIII JAMES, i wanna improve my writting but i don’t know how to do ??? PLZZZZZZ i need your help

Hi, James, very good job in this site. Amazing didactics and useful tips.

I took notes and composed an essay in 36 minutes. I know that I will have only 30 minutes to do in a iBT TOEFL Exam. Nevertheless, could you rate it, please? If so, I can send it you by e-mail.

Thank you Best regards from Brazil.

I request that you teach a lesson about advanced grammer and anounciation.

Hi!Very fine and very useful lessons ,but…Please,James, in the future speak a little bit slower,intelligible ,in other words be more”legibly” in expression .Thank you.

Hey I study for hours a day

PLEAS SHOW US HOW TO WRITE THE TRANSITIONS WORD SUCH AS IN CONCLUDING ALL IN ALL, TO SUM UP ,ETS FIRST , SCEND ,……..

Hi James, I am having trouble getting my ideas on paper when i write essays. I see the essay in my mind but i have difficulty putting it on paper. Please help

Hi! Thanks for the video. Some of the lessons are really useful for studying for the SATs. I wish you were my teacher!

Thank’s for the lesson,I agree with Ami,I wish you were my teacher too,that would be awesome :)

best teacher EVER .Thanks

thank u very much..

Hey, how could you ever teach such a boring skill in such a humorous way? Congrads.

Just wanted to say thanks! After watching this video (several times). I took my college Accuplacer essay test again and scored a 6 (up from a 4) and avoided remedial english. :-) Thanks again!

thank you so much <3

thank you alot, James!)

I’m sure it will help me to write an essay!

This is Talal from Saudi Arabia

I really like the way of explanation, as well as the smart body languages that used to pass the ideas, and appreciate your efforts in this regards.

Thanks you James it’s an effective way to explain an effective essay, that’s really helpful for me, I have to write an essay of “King Speech” movie, it’s a good movie I recommend it. (bad english, im still learning)

Hay, theacher, i just wont to say that i like your lessons very much, but this particular one i dont quite understand. i ll trie to figure out while trying to write an essay.

What is the difference between care and loving?

It is really helpful lesson. The essay structure proposed here is nice and easy to understand. Thank you.

Thankyou for sharing your lecture, it actually taught me how to write thesis statement and what is required for a good essay. You made my job easy. Thanks alot! :)

Hi James, I am preparing to take the IESLT exam in a couple of weeks and I am having a hard time with the writing section, I just watched a video where you explain an easy way to write an essay, it was very fun the way you explained it and found it very helpful. Thanks and I will be watching more of your on line-classes. Octavio from Mexico

wow that’s very helpful thanks :)

thank you … i find this video is very helpful but i don’t think that it works for all kinds of essays , i mean when you write an essay about your your life you cant ask a question a first !!

Thank You so much James sir for this lesson :)

WHERES MR E. LOL GREAT LESSON N SO MUCH FUN.THANK YOU.

Thanks! ^_^

greatings everyone, I would love if you would put a video on how to write a very good grabber for an intro ..

A massive thank you ..

This video did help but, I have to write a essay on Foreign Policy about if Iran does have very powerful weapons or do they not but, know I have a awesome In the Beginning Paragraph thanks James for your help

Thank you James for tips, they are very useful. I’d like see more lessons of vocabulary and listening.

Thank you James

Hello guys,, please I have exam Thursday and I need paragraph about employee done good contract for his company and he sent email for his manger request for an promotion they need 100 to 150 words from me so please can any one help me…

My brother recommended I would possibly like this website. He was once entirely right. This post actually made my day. You can not believe simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!

i Just wanted to say thank you for this video but i still have problem to do the conclusion can you do another conclusion please? thanks and advance.

It’s really very useful for people who wants to learn English. Thank you very much..

I am an ESL teacher and I wanted to show my students on of these videos. Due to blocking of many websites, is there any way we are allowed to download them?

hi james! thanks for uploading the introductory part of the essay but i want to get more tips of body part and conclusion can u please upload this vidoes because im going to give ielts test

hello, I`m from Argentina and i love this page so i wrote my essay about which is better love or money, i wish if you could answer me if this essay is good or not.

NOWADAYS WE LIVE IN A VERY CONSUMERIST WORLD WHICH MANY PEOPLE THINK THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIVES IS THE MONEY FOR THE HAPPINES AND NOT THE LOVE.

IN THE FIRST PLACE, LOT OF PEOPLE CONFUSED MONEY WITH HAPPINESS BUT THE REAL THING IS THAT THEY DONT SEE LOVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE. THEREFORE IT’S POSSIBLE THAT YOU HAVE THE MONEY OF THE ENTIRE WORLD BUT YOU FEEL SO LONELY AND POOR IN LOVE.

ON THE OTHER HAND, IT SAID THAT IS WORTH TO BE POOR BUT WITH LOT OF LOVE THAN BE RICH AND DO NOT HAVE ANYONE FOR LOVE. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE SOULD LEARN ABOUT LOVE AND MONEY.

I AGREE THAT IF WE DONT HAVE MONEY IS MORE DIFFICULT TO LIVE AND BE HAPPY IN THE SAME TIME. BUT, IN CONCLUSION I THINK THAT WE DONT HAVE TO CARE SO MUCH FOR HAVE MONEY OTHERWISE WE MUST TO CHOOSE HAVE MORE PEOPLE FOR LOVE.

is this correct?

okay, so I think I got the general idea of how I’m supposed to write an essay. But, I’m still kind of confused on how to start it…on the video I learned it will be a good idea to start with a question, for example: (this is the topic given to me) Should students do part time jobs?) how would you turn that into a different question for my essay ? and what should I do next….this is what I came up with……………. would a regular student be capable to hande the responsibilities and pressures a part-time job offer?.

Very useful, i liked Rebecca’s explanation.

I am dara from kurdistan ,,thanks fa u James really u r the best English teacher that I have seen during my life ,,bcz u have so interisting lectures and u r so enthusiasm ,,,I wish best of luck fa u ,,,

Help….can’t find the How to write an effective essay, Ultimate Body video.

Help….can’t find the How to write an effective essay, Ultimate Body video.–>me, too.

I am completely enamored with James. Thanks for helping me write my essay:)

Hi, i really know the different between the essay and the paragraph but how can i write a well organized paragraph on the following topic: you were traveling by train when an unexpected event happened ,tell us about it . plz help me plz

hi Hi, i really know the different between the essay and the paragraph but how can i write a well organized paragraph on the following topic: you were traveling by train when an unexpected event happened ,tell us about it . plz help me plz

Well… have you ever had anything surprising happen on the train? That’s the first step :)

hello James, hope you are fine by the Grace of God. im sarah from Pakistan. i have planed to appear for public commission exam in November. as time is limited can you please help me to get prepare for it. regards Sarah

Long live for all Teachers

Hi! My name is Danielle and I am a nineth grader and I have to take a writing accuplacer and I have to study for it so I just wanted to say that this video helped me with learn how to write an essay. Thank you very much!

Hi! my name is Janet I go to college and I wanted to know if you can do a overall point in paragraph?

Hi,James.. Your videos are very nice and your style of teaching is very effective.Could u please prepare a video on self introduction or how to introduce ourselves in an interview or IELTS exam. thanking you, Anu Mary. :)

you are amazing teacher

Thank you for your lesson. If possible can you give information abut personal statement?

Thanks you help me a lot.

Hi James. thanks a lot for your video. I think EngVid is the best website for learning English I have ever seen. It helps me very much take care

I,m always in trouble with essay. However from now on it has become clear due this amazing class. Thank you so much James.

Thanks so much James!

Great video, but why didn’t you include that caterpillar guy, you said he would appear in every video

hi Sir i am from pakistan i want to learn all the effective methods to improve my writing skills. please help me in it

Where are the video lessons can any body guide me i want to listen them i have half the video just of intro upto TOPIC where Sir James talk about three main ideas after that my video do not play, this is the reason i searched this site and want to listen all the video lessons regarding English Essay, please help me.

The intro for an effective essay is indeed a grabber!

thanks a lot Mr.James but why there is no quiz ? anyway its amazing and you are really amazing teacher

Great. That is useful.

I thing I need practice more and more, With yours website.

Thank James.

Thank you Mr.James

How can I Know or write direct and indirect in the introduction ?

I hope from you answer my qeuestion soon

thank you for all lessens Mr.James

Thanks sir you are the best teacher in the world That was very useful

Sometimes is very hard to write an essay for me I know I have to practice more this subject and I will use your tips in my next essays.

thanks alot but i need more

GREAT TEACHER

This lesson help me to write in spanish too. Thanks!

Dear James, I really enjoyed the lesson and I have acquired some of the skill of writing an effective thesis. Similarly, this lesson help me in improving my writing. Thank you

Thanks for the lesson James it really help me a lot now I know how to write one

Hi James! I love the way you explain :). Thank you for the videos.

Thanks for such a useful lesson

thank you so much it is very useful

Thanks for your lesson, teacher Jame. You’re the best teacher ever :)

oops, James not Jame :D

Hi. My name is Andi Marlina. I’m from Indonesia. Thanks for the lesson from Engvid, it’s really help me to learn more. I like using Engvid ’cause it’s got all about the lesson that you may need. thank you.

Very helpful and easy to follow

Well, reviewing all the concepts about how to write an effective essay, I can remember the rule of 5 steps: First, the question; second, the thesis statements; third, the introduction; fourth, to prove the thesis with main reason and supporting ideas; and the last fifth step, the conclusion. Thanks a lot teacher James from EngVid, a very interesting lesson.

Hi! I’m brazilian and i’m studying english. i hope that you help me. tanks all.

Great lesson! Thanks James!

If you want to speak english with me my instagram account is zeynepmiri thanks

These are a good Ideas but I wanted more detials

Thank a lot for great ideas, looking for more.

Thank you very much! This is attractive lecture and I will keep following it! i have one question. that is:-whenever we write either descriptive essay or argumentative essay and others, are these principles that you have told us before common or changeable?

Congratulations for share this information to us, indeed it will have a great contribution on my learning specially writing. By the way there is no homework to support this lesson?

Thanks James.

Thank you for these tips

tahnk you jams

Thank you Sir, I got many ideas from this video but I have a question that how to start an attention grabber introduction either with quotation or an other idea is there because I have no quotes about each and every essay…

really really nice class james!!! thank you so much! you are the man brow!

Dear James Your video about essay structure make it seem easy but I always have problems with sequence and organisation. In particular when writing academic essays I can never pick out main headings for body proofs-for either side of the argument. where am I going wrong??

The introduction and how to write an effective essay were excellent but where do i find how to write a body paragraph mentioned in the how to write an introduction video?

James,thank you a lot.your leason is so interesting!I hope to watch more!

A very good teacher!!!so funny and so clear!! bravo

Thank you, James. This is helpful and ready to have more from you.

I watched the video once on June 22, 2021.

no quiz. thank you James for the lesson

Thank you James, I learned!

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How to structure paragraphs using the PEEL method

Sophia Gardner

Sep 1, 2023

You may have heard of the acronym PEEL for essays, but what exactly does it mean? And how can it help you? We’re here to explain it all, plus give you some tips on how to nail your next essay.

There’s certainly an art to writing essays. If you haven’t written one for a while, or if you would like to hone your academic writing skills, the PEEL paragraph method is an easy way to get your point across in a clear and concise way, that is easily digestible to the reader. 

So, what exactly is PEEL ? 

The PEEL paragraph method is a technique used in writing to help structure paragraphs in a way that presents a single clear and focused argument, which links back to the essay topic or thesis statement. 

It’s good practice to dedicate each paragraph to  one  aspect of your argument, and the PEEL structure simplifies this for you.

It allows you to create a paragraph that is easy and accessible for others to understand. Remember, when you’re writing something, it’s not just you who is reading it - you need to consider the reader and how they are going to be digesting this new information. 

What does PEEL stand for? 

P = Point: start your paragraph with a clear topic sentence that establishes what your paragraph is going to be about. Your point should support your essay argument or thesis statement.

E = Evidence/Example: here you should use a piece of evidence or an example that helps to reaffirm your initial point and develop the argument. 

E = Explain: next you need to explain exactly how your evidence/example supports your point, giving further information to ensure that your reader understands its relevance.

L = Link: to finish the paragraph off, you need to link the point you’ve just made back to your essay question, topic, or thesis.

Download a free PEEL paragraph planner below. 👇

Studiosity English specialist Ellen, says says students often underestimate the importance of a well-structured paragraph. 

PEEL in practice

Here’s an example of what you might include in a PEEL structured paragraph: 

Topic: Should infants be given iPads?  Thesis/argument: Infants should not be given iPads.

Point : Infants should not be given iPads, because studies show children under two can face developmental delays if they are exposed to too much screen time. 

Evidence/Example: A recent paediatric study showed that infants who are exposed to too much screen time may experience delays in speech development.

Explanation: The reason infants are facing these delays is because screen time is replacing other key developmental activities.

Link: The evidence suggests that infants who have a lot of screen time experience negative consequences in their speech development, and therefore they should not be exposed to iPads at such a young age.

Once you’ve written your PEEL paragraph, do a checklist to ensure you have covered off all four elements of the PEEL structure. Your point should be a clear introduction to the argument you are making in this paragraph; your example or evidence should be strong and relevant (ask yourself, have you chosen the best example?); your explanation should be demonstrate why your evidence is important and how it conveys meaning; and your link should summarise the point you’ve just made and link back to the broader essay argument or topic. 

Keep your paragraphs clear, focused, and not too long. If you find your paragraphs are getting lengthy, take a look at how you could split them into multiple paragraphs, and ensure you’re creating a new paragraph for each new idea you introduce to the essay. 

Finally, it’s important to always proofread your paragraph. Read it once, twice, and then read it again. Check your paragraph for spelling, grammar, language and sentence flow. A good way to do this is to read it aloud to yourself, and if it sounds clunky or unclear, consider rewriting it. 

That’s it! We hope this helps explain the PEEL method and how it can help you with your next essay. 😊

You might also like:  Proofreading vs editing: what's the difference? How to get easy marks in an exam 5 study hacks that actually work

Topics: English , Writing , Grammar

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Using the "Hamburger Method" to Write an Essay: Overview

• Planning the Essay
• Writing Paragraphs

The diagram to the left can help you easily remember the simple essay structure.

Emma Dunn, Writing and Multimodal Communication Speciliast at the University of Waterloo, explains:

In short, each ingredient of the hamburger represents a different paragraph of the essay. It starts with an introduction paragraph and ends with a conclusion paragraph, represented by the top and bottom buns, respectively. Just like a real burger bun, these paragraphs frame the juicy contents inside – the body paragraphs – which are each represented by a different topping: lettuce, tomato, or patty.

Pay attention to the order of toppings in the hamburger essay. The lettuce comes first; it’s light and flimsy, representing one of the lighter arguments of the paper. The tomato is somewhat more robust (in terms of argument), while the patty at the end is the true “meat” of the essay. Just like the toppings of a hamburger in real-life, the body paragraphs build on one another to fill out the paper, giving it substance and flavour.

Dunn, Emma, "How to Turn the High School "Hamburger" Essay into a University-level Paper." Writing and Communication Centre: September 14, 2020. University of Waterloo. Accessed November 24, 2023. https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/blog/how-turn-high-school-hamburger-essay-university-level-paper. 

• Next: Planning the Essay >>
• Last Updated: Nov 25, 2023 12:41 AM
• URL: https://library.cdu.edu/hamburger-method

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