Essay writing rules
An essay is one of the most creative papers that you can be asked to complete on your own. We will try to tell you how to compose it correctly, choose a topic, and avoid a large number of mistakes. We will consider the structure of the essay, the signs of difference from other genres, the relevance of the topic, and ways to express your thoughts on paper clearly and competently.
What is an essay?
Often it is compared with the usual composition, yes, they are similar in many ways, but at the same time they are quite strikingly different.
First of all, an essay is a literary genre , and prose. The name “essay” is translated from French as “essay”, “outline”. It expresses the feelings and point of view of the author, his view. The essay does not provide answers to specific questions, but rather simply conveys the author’s individual view of a burning topic.
Essay writing training develops argumentation, logic, the correct expression of one’s opinion, the competent choice of information and its presentation to the reader.
Distinctive features of the essay
In order to correctly write an essay, you need to know its features that distinguish it and distinguish it from other similar genres and works.
And here are the characteristic features:
- A narrow topic that forces the reader to think about it, and expresses some kind of problem.
- Individual opinion of the author, his subjective position. The highlight of the essay is the unique author’s view on various issues, the expression of a particular position, a look at the existing order and the world.
- Writing in a conversational style. Keep sentences as simple as possible, avoid abstruse phrases and other scientific terms. When working on an essay, imagine that you have known the reader for a long time and are informally telling him about your point of view. But one should not cross the line, turning the essay into tabloid literature, stuffed with unnecessary slang. It is important to establish a steamy emotional position with the help of simple words and sentences, understandable intonation, and closeness of the topic.
- Analyze the problem.
- Any point of view must be reasoned, backed up by sources, and be based on factual data.
- Brevity is the soul of wit. You are not limited in the number of pages, but in this genre the catchphrase about brevity is very accurate. Express your thoughts simply and accurately, do not pour water into the text.
- Freedom in construction. The essay is not adjusted to any framework, it was created for the free presentation of thoughts. The construction depends on the author himself, as he wants to express himself. Whether he will express one position or consider the topic from different angles depends only on the creator of the work.
- Logics. Like any work, an essay still obeys the rules of a certain logic. Try to observe the unity of thought, consistency, have a clear logical chain that runs through all the work.
- From the foregoing, we can conclude that the essay is characterized by a free style, the purpose of which is to make the reader think. The author does not impose his position, but calmly states it, inviting the reader to join the discussion of the topic he has chosen.
How to write it?
Proper writing depends on understanding the features of the genre. If you follow the basic rules and recommendations, you will definitely be able to create a fascinating and beautiful essay.
Topic selection
Usually the teacher provides a list of topics for the choice of a student or school child, but if there is none and your topic is absolutely free, then consider the audience to which you will present your work.
And students can be very different, from the educational commission to a possible employer.
If your essay is being created for a report to a teacher, then you need to understand what aspects will be evaluated by him. Based on this, the topic must be chosen with the ability to show the qualities that need to be demonstrated. The uniqueness of the point of view, the ability to form beautiful sentences, spelling, competence in a particular issue, and so on.
It is important that the topic appeals to you personally, as the audience almost always feels whether the narrator is passionate about his work or blindly molded it. It is desirable to have knowledge on this topic so that you can answer a sudden question from the audience.
If your work will be presented to the employer, then the topic should correspond to the future profession, show you as an original, sincere and intelligent person who has his own character and reflects positive qualities.
Introduction or beginning
It often happens that the most difficult thing in any business is to start. Since the introduction is the first thing the person sees and hears before whom your work opens. The formation of the introduction will be delayed, and in the end there is almost no time left for the work itself.
To prevent this from happening, we will give you a couple of recommendations:
Recommendation 1. Immediately find the idea, goal, sources of information. When you have a certain “skeleton” of work, writing will be much easier.
Recommendation 2: Use freewriting. This complex name implies writing down all the thoughts that visit the head, without editing, observing the rules of grammar and other things. After writing it all down, re-read it, highlight the most interesting thoughts for yourself, and starting from them, continue writing.
Recommendation 3: Don’t get hung up on the beginning. You can start writing from any part of the essay, and come up with the introduction last, when the main idea of your work becomes clear.
Plan
To begin with, it is worth mentioning that the plan, in principle, is optional for an essay. As mentioned earlier, this is quite a free job. If there is already logic in your presentation, then the plan can be omitted. However, if you have definitely decided that it is easier for you to work with the system, then we will devote some time and effort to compiling it.
Come up with paragraphs, subparagraphs. Reflect the main thoughts in them, detail them. Make sure that all the points are in their place, consistent with the narrative and structure of the work.
And now about the structure, as such. As in many works, the essay should follow three main steps – introduction, body, conclusion.
Let’s talk about the intro. It is also sometimes called an introduction, to whom it is convenient. Its task is to attract the reader, it should intrigue so that he reads the essay to the very end. You can insert a main problem, a rhetorical question, or some other technique to create an emotional mood so that the reader immediately grabs your topic.
Main part
It carries in itself different positions and points of view, touches upon the question itself, its essence, as if it argues.
Don’t be afraid to argue.
Arguments can include various situations from life, research, other people’s opinions, positions, and so on. This will convince the reader that your point of view carries logic and truth.
Conclusion
The conclusion kind of sums up everything you said earlier. You bring the reader to its logical end, explaining all positions, answering possible questions posed in the course of the story. You reiterate the problem, but this time you seem to solve it, drawing a logical conclusion.
