Essay rules
The essay is one of the most creative works that you may be asked to do on your own. We will try to tell you how to compose it correctly, choose a topic, and avoid a lot of mistakes. We will consider the structure of the essay, signs of differences from other genres, the relevance of the topic, and ways to express your thoughts on paper clearly and competently.
- What is an essay?
- Distinguishing features of an essay
- How to write it?
- Choosing the topic
- Introduction or beginning
- Outline
What is an essay?
Essay… Some students don’t like to write it and always asking questions like: ‘Is there anybody who wants to write my essays for me?’ But don’t worry, in this article you’ll find great tips on how to write it without any troubles. First of all, an essay is a literary genre, and a prose one at that. The name “essay” from the French translates as “essay”, “sketch”. It expresses the experiences and point of view of the author, his view. An essay does not provide answers to certain questions, but rather simply conveys the author’s perspective on a burning topic.
Practice in writing an essay develops argumentation, logic, correct expression of one’s opinion, competent choice of information, and its presentation to the reader.
Distinctive features of essays
To write an essay competently, you need to know the features that make it stand out and distinguish it from other similar genres and works.
And here are the characteristic features:
- A narrow topic that makes the reader think about it, and expresses some problem.
- Individual opinion of the author, his subjective position. The highlight of the essay is the author’s unique perspective on various issues, the expression of this or that position, a view of the existing order and the world.
- Writing in a conversational style. Make sentences as simple as possible, avoid abstruse phrases and other scientific terms. While working on the essay, imagine that you have known the reader for a long time and casually tell him or her your point of view. But you 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, clear intonation, proximity to the subject.
- Analyze the problem.
- Brevity is the sister of talent. You are not limited in the number of pages, but in this genre, the winged expression about brevity is very accurate. Express your thought simply and accurately, don’t water down the text.
- Freedom in the construction. The essay does not fit into any framework, it is designed for a free presentation of ideas. The construction is up to the author, the way he wants to express himself. Whether it will express one position, or consider the topic from different sides depends only on the creator of the work.
- Logic. Like any work, the essay is still subject to the rules of a certain logic. Try to observe the unity of thought, coherence, have a clear logical chain running through the entire work.
- From the above, it can be concluded that the essay is characterized by a freestyle, 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 analysis of his chosen topic.
How to write it?
Competent writing depends on understanding the peculiarities of the genre. There are a lot of services that can help you with that. For example, McEssay.
If you adhere to the basic rules and recommendations, you will be able to create a fascinating and beautiful essay.
Choosing a topic
Usually, the instructor provides a list of topics for the student or schoolboy to choose from, but if there is none and your topic is completely free, then take into account the audience to whom you will be presenting your work.
And the audience can range from a study committee to a possible employer.
If your essay is created to report to a teacher, you need to understand what aspects will be evaluated by them. Already based on this, the topic should be chosen with the opportunity to show the qualities that need to be demonstrated. The uniqueness of point of view, the ability to form beautiful sentences, spelling, competence in a certain issue, etc.
The topic must appeal to you personally, as the audience almost always feels whether the storyteller is passionate about his work or has molded it from a stick. It is desirable to know about the topic so that you can answer a sudden question from the audience.
If your work is to be presented in front of an employer, the topic should be relevant to your future profession, showing you as an original, sincere, and intelligent person with character and reflecting positive qualities.
Introduction or Beginning
It often happens that the most difficult thing in any business is the beginning. Because the introduction is the first thing the person before whom your work opens sees and hears. The formation of the introduction drags on, and in the end, there is almost no time left for the work itself.
To prevent this from happening, we’ll give you a couple of recommendations:
Recommendation 1. Find the idea, the goal, the sources of information right away. When you have a definite “skeleton” of your work, it will be much easier to write.
Recommendation 2. Take advantage of freewriting. This complex name implies writing down all the thoughts that come into your head, without editing, compliance with the rules of grammar, and other things. Having written it all down, reread, find the most interesting thoughts, and based on them – continue writing.
Recommendation 3. Don’t get hung up on the beginning. You may begin to write from any part of the essay, and you may think of the introduction as the last one when the main idea of your work is already clear.
Plan
To begin with, it is worth mentioning that a plan, in principle, is not necessary for an essay. As mentioned earlier, this is very loose work. If there is already logic in your statement, you can omit the plan. However, if you have decided that it is easier for you to work with the system, then take some time and effort to compile it.
Come up with items, sub-items. Reflect in them the main thoughts, detail. Make sure that all the points stand in their place, fit the narrative and the structure of the work.
And now about the structure, as such. As with many papers, you should stick to three basic steps in an essay – introduction, main body, conclusion.
Let’s talk about the introductory part. It is also sometimes called the introduction, to whoever is comfortable. Its task is to attract the reader, it should intrigue him so that he will read the essay to the very end. You can insert the main problem, a rhetorical question, or other techniques to create an emotional mood so that the reader immediately grasps your topic.
Main part.
It carries different positions and points of view, touches on the question itself, its essence as if reasoning.
Do not be afraid to argue.
Arguments can include various situations from life, studies, other people’s opinions, positions, and so on. This will convince the reader that your point of view carries logic and truth underneath.
Conclusion
The conclusion sort of sums up everything you said earlier. You bring the reader to a logical conclusion, explaining all the positions, answering possible questions posed along the way. You restate the problem, but this time it’s as if you’re solving it by drawing a logical conclusion.