Do you need to write an essay, but you don’t know how to start? Don’t worry, the following article will tell you how to write an essay easily and effectively.

Not all people have writing skills, but at school, university, and even at work, you may need them for essays, term papers, and research papers.

If you have a struggle with writing such texts, and you lack the inspiration to go further than one page, read this article so you can learn all about essay types and how to write them step-by-step.

What is an essay?

Before you can learn how to write an essay, you should have a clear idea of what a written essay is. This type of text is characterized by the fact that the author presents a series of arguments in support of his position on a given topic.

When writing an essay, you need to conduct analysis, reflection, and evaluation on the chosen topic to develop your opinion, which should be clear. Although it is not as important to arrive at the final results, the main focus of the essay is to encourage the reader to think based on our particular point of view.

What are the types of essays?

Best essay writing services suggest various tips on how to write an essay; however, before you begin, you must clearly define the type of essay you are going to write.

There are 8 types of essays, and each one has its own characteristics.

Literary Essay

The purpose of a literary essay is to express your personal perception of a literary work. This type of text is characterized by more subjectivity, as the plot of the book is usually related to personal experiences and opinions.

Argumentative essay

An argumentative essay is characterized by presenting various arguments to support a hypothesis. There is less subjectivity here, as information from other authors is often cited to support the author’s position. There can also be an argumentative research paper where you need to do more in-depth investigation.

Scientific essay

It is similar to the argumentative essay, but the scientific essay requires much more in-depth research that uses various scientific theories and verifiable evidence to support the essay topic.

Expository Essay

In an expository essay, the goal is to be able to clearly explain various aspects of a given topic. There is less subjectivity here because this type of essay has a didactic purpose, so accurate and relevant information should be used.

Philosophical essay

The philosophical essay is characterized by a high degree of subjectivity. Here the author freely expresses his ideas and reflections, usually on topics related to love, life, death, or loneliness. He has a much more transcendent style of approach to the topics.

Critical Essay

In a critical essay, the author is on a mission to make an in-depth and rigorous judgment about a particular topic, usually a controversial one, by presenting various arguments to support his or her position. If you want to know how to write a critical essay, the first thing you should do is do thorough research and data collection to have good supporting arguments.

Sociological Essay

This type of essay deals with topics related to the social sphere, such as problems or cultural manifestations that affect society. The sociology essay also requires a scholarly rationale.

Historical Essay

As the name suggests, this type of essay is based on contrasting historical information and the author’s opinion, which he/she can express with great freedom.

How to Write an Essay: Essay Structure

To know how to write an essay, it is important to know what the parts of an essay are and what each part should contain.

An essay consists of 4 parts: introduction, development, conclusion, and appendices. Below we will tell you what information you should specify in each of them.

Introduction

The introduction of the essay should not be very long, usually a page or two (about 10% of the length of the essay). In this part of the essay, you should start by introducing the topic you are going to address throughout the text, and how you are going to approach it, and remember that you should also be clear about which position you are going to try to support with evidence and reliable theories.

Development

Development, also known as the body of the essay, is the central part of the document. Here you should present various arguments in support of your position, which you can draw from books, scientific journals, interviews, documentaries, reports, dissertations, etc.

The secret of how to write a successful essay is to work through the main body of the essay well, as it makes up about 80% of the entire essay. You should try to be clear and concise in your arguments and opinions, this way you will avoid boring the reader and it will be much easier for you to convince them of the correctness of your position.

Conclusion

The conclusion is the final part of the essay, here you should briefly summarize the most important ideas and arguments that you presented in the developing part. It takes up about 10% of the entire document, so it is important that you are very precise with the information you include in the conclusion of the essay.

Appendices

At the end of the essay structure, you should place a section that includes an appropriate bibliography, that is, all references to reference material that you have used and mentioned in your essay. In this way, the reader will be able to refer to these sources to expand his or her knowledge or simply compare the information he or she has read.

How to Write an Essay: What You Need to Consider Before You Start Writing

Before we tell you how to write an essay, we will give you some tips that will help you be better prepared when the time comes to start putting your ideas on paper.

1. Define the topic of your essay

To determine the structure of your essay, it is important to be clear about the topic you are going to address and the audience you are going to address. These should be interesting or controversial topics that may have different points of view so that you can focus on defending one of them.

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic you are going to discuss

Before you start writing your essay, you should first gather all the information that will help you formulate your arguments. Remember that it should be reliable sources such as books, dissertations, research papers, articles, etc.

3. Review other past essays related to the topic you are about to cover

To help you with your essay, you can refer to other past papers related to the topic to have a clearer idea of how to build your arguments.

4. Try not to cover too much

It is not necessary to cover all the different aspects of a particular topic to develop an essay. It is preferable to focus on one part of the topic and explore that point in depth.

5. Use short sentences

If you want to captivate the reader with your text, we recommend using short sentences that convey information clearly and concisely when writing an essay. This will keep the reader from getting bored.

6. Include your own reflections

In the main body of the essay, you should include any reflections you have made on the topic at hand. Remember that the main purpose of your essay is to express your own point of view, not someone else’s.

How to Compose an Essay Step-by-Step?

It’s time to get down to work! Now we will tell you how to make an essay from scratch, following the steps mentioned below.

Step 1: Brainstorm

Before you start writing your essay, you need to choose a topic. A good way to do this is to brainstorm various topics that you would like to cover in your essay.

Step 2: Evaluate possible topics

Once you have a list of possible topics, think about each one and choose the one you think you know the most about so you can include that information when writing your essay.

Step 3: Research

A very important step is the research you do on a given topic. By researching various sources, you will be able to gather valid and reliable information that you can include in the body of the essay to back up your arguments.

Step 4: Make an outline

To avoid getting bogged down while writing your essay, a good strategy is to make an outline of how you are going to put your ideas into the text. That way, you’ll know what line to follow.

Step 5: Write a draft

Once you have your outline ready, it’s time to start writing your draft, following the order of the essay structure.

Step 6: Read your paper

When you’re done writing your essay draft, reread what you’ve written again and checked for spelling and writing errors.

Step 7: Check your essay

After you’ve corrected all your mistakes, it’s time to tidy up your essay. After that, check it again, and you’re all set – now you know how to write an essay from scratch!

Final words

We hope you found this article helpful. By following these tips on how to write an essay from scratch, you will be able to produce a text that manages to express your opinions and beliefs clearly and effectively.

Remember that to write essay, you must follow the specified structure of introduction, development, conclusion, and appendices. In this last part, you must indicate all the sources cited, otherwise you may be accused of plagiarism. Be careful!