Nova A.
Nova A.

Learn How to Write An Essay in Simple Steps

13 min read

Published on: Sep 8, 2017

Last updated on: Apr 22, 2024

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An essay is a common type of writing and assignment that high-school and college students have to deal with. Essay writing can be a pretty daunting task, especially when you lack creative writing skills or don’t enjoy writing at all, or both.

Most of the students are not aware of the essential steps to write an essay. Read on and master how to write an essay on any topic that is well-researched, detailed, and tailored for an A grade.

What is an Essay?

Let's begin by learning the definition of an essay. So, what is an essay? An essay is a brief composition based on a certain topic or subject that students do as part of their schoolwork or university coursework.

Essays are one of the most common assignments handed out by colleges and institutions since they are an excellent tool for improving many essential skills including analytical thinking, research, creative skills, and so on.

Let's look at writing strategies that can help you get an A in your essay. Let's start at the beginning and work our way through these steps to write a good essay:

  1. Choose the Essay Type
  2. Choose an Interesting Topic
  3. Create an Essay Outline
  4. Write Your First Draft
  5. Write an Essay Introduction
  6. Develop a Thesis Statement
  7. Compose Body Paragraphs
  8. Write a Strong Conclusion
  9. Review Your Essay

Let's take a look at each step of learning how to create an excellent essay in depth.

Steps to Write an Essay

Here is the basic structure that you need to follow for writing an academic essay:

1. Choose the Essay Type

The first step is to choose the type of essay that you are writing. Choosing the right type of essay also plays an important role in the overall success of your paper.

Here are the basic types of papers in which academic essays can be divided.

Knowing the type of essay will eventually help you decide on the topic and the overall structure of your essay in the best possible way.

2. Choose an Interesting Topic

If you are given the topic, skip to the next step, create an outline and start the writing process.

If you are not given a topic, you have a little more work to do and choose your topic first.

The key to choosing a good topic is to think of what interests you and what you can relate to, the most.

Also, make sure that the topic you choose has sufficient research material available. Search either on the internet or in books for the topic you have chosen to write on.

You can also find a list of interesting essay topics that you can explore and choose the one to write your essay on.

3. Create an Essay Outline

Creating an outline is very important if you want to compose an impressive piece of paper. By putting all the ideas on the paper, you can easily see connections and links between ideas in a more clear manner.

If you don’t know how to write an essay outline, here are the following steps that you need to follow for structuring your essay properly.

  1. Write your topic at the top of the page
  2. List down all the main ideas
  3. Leave space under each idea
  4. In this space, list down smaller ideas that relates to the main idea

Following these steps for writing an essay outline will give you a complete idea of the themes required to be discussed in your paper.

4. Write your First Draft

Your first writing draft will help you do the following;

  • Set the framework and structure of your essay.
  • The way you will answer the main question.
  • The kind of examples and evidence you will use in the essay.
  • The way you will structure your argument

The first draft is not your final essay. Consider it your essay’s raw material that you can edit and proofread later.

5. Write an Essay Introduction

The introductory paragraph of an essay should be both attention-grabbing and informative.

To learn how to write an essay introduction, you first need all the necessary information required to tell the reader about the main idea of your essay.

A vague or boring introduction will give off the wrong impression, and your reader might decide not to read it any further.

Here are the steps in which you can start your essay introduction that is both interesting and informative.

  1. Use a hook sentence and add informative or shocking revelations.
  2. Provide background information and context on your topic
  3. Define the objective of your essay
  4. Provide an overview of the whole essay structure

6. Develop a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement defines the main purpose and claims of your essay. It is typically defined in one or two sentences and is added at the end of your introductory paragraph.

A perfect thesis statement has two parts. The first part states the topic and the latter states the main point of the essay.

Let's have a look at examples of thesis statements and distinguish between strong and weak thesis statements.

A: “The technological advancement has revolutionized human interaction, medical progress, scientific invention, and economic ventures but also manifested insecurities and privacy issues.”

B: “The Internet has assisted humans in numerous ways but also affected them.”

A or B?

Without any doubt, A is a perfectly crafted thesis statement.

7. Compose Body Paragraphs

The body of an essay describes or explains your topic. Each idea that you write in the outline will be a separate paragraph within the body of the essay.

Since the body is made up of multiple paragraphs, it is important that they are consistent with one another.

Each body paragraph starts with a topic sentence. For those who don’t know what is a topic sentence, it is the first sentence that describes the main purpose of each paragraph. The topic sentence forms a transition between the body paragraphs.

Use transitions to introduce new paragraphs such as “firstly.. secondly... thirdly…, finally, moreover, furthermore, in addition”, etc.

It is a good idea to refer to the transition words for essays to introduce new paragraphs in an impressive manner.

The main aim of body paragraphs is to support your thesis by presenting evidence, facts and figures, statistics, quotes, examples, and other strong evidence.

Here are the tips that you should follow for writing each body paragraph.

  • Write a clear topic sentence
  • Provide solid evidence to support your argumen
  • Provide examples
  • Make sure the paragraph information is consistent
  • Use transitions between paragraphs
  • Conclude each paragraph by linking the evidence to your main point

8. Write a Strong Conclusion

The conclusion sums up the overall ideas and provides a final perspective on the topic. Concluding your essay holds the same importance as the introductory paragraph.

For writing a perfect essay conclusion, provide a futuristic overview, persuade your reader about your point of view and restate the thesis statement.

If you have no idea about how to write a conclusion for an essay, here are the key points that you should include.

  • Draw connections between the arguments mentioned in the body section
  • State the outcomes
  • Show the relevance and significance of the thesis statement
  • Mention the broader implications of the topic

Here is the information that you should avoid writing in a conclusion:

  • Don’t introduce new ideas or arguments at this stage.
  • Do not undermine your arguments
  • Do not write phrases like 'in conclusion, or 'to conclude'

9. Review Your Essay

If you think that you are done with your essay after writing your conclusion, you are wrong. Before considering that your work is finished, you need to do some final touches.

Review your essay and make sure it follows the essay format properly. Double-check your essay instructions and make sure your essay is in the desired format.

Don’t forget to check your paper for grammar and spelling mistakes as well.


How to Structure an Essay Paragraph?

Here are the factors that are included in each body paragraph of the essay.

  • topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. It sets the tone for the paragraph.
  • Supporting sentences that help to explain the main idea and topic of the paragraph.
  • Evidence that you have gathered with research, and supports your point of view.
  • Analysis of the given evidence and a critical conclusion of the paragraph.
  • conclusion or a concluding sentence that sums up the entire paragraph.

All of these components make up a perfect paragraph for any essay.

Essay Example

The best practice is to learn from the essay examples written by expert writers to avoid common essay writing problems. The examples can help you know the purpose of each type of essay and how to write a perfect one.

Imitate their writing style, argument construction, and structure.

As you read, highlight the important parts of an essay to learn how they did it. Keep in mind that the length of an essay depends on the level and complexity of the topic.

Here is a well-written sample essay from one of our expert writers that you can have a look at.

Essay Writing Tips

Here are the expert tips that you should follow for writing a perfect essay.

  • Start writing your essay early
  • Remember the main question or idea in your mind.
  • Brainstorm ideas
  • Research your topic in-depth
  • Break down the essay into different sections and do not try to finish it in a single sitting.
  • Write and add the introduction and conclusion after finishing the essay.
  • Use transition words to create a coherent flow between the paragraphs.
  • Connect the evidence with the main idea carefully.
  • Do not copy-paste the content.
  • Ensure flawless grammar and punctuation.
  • Cite the references properly.
  • Edit and revise relentlessly.
  • Put the essay away for a few days and check again.

Essay writing can be made easier if you follow a certain pattern and master the steps we have provided you with. Moreover, the tips given above will help you improve your essay-writing skills also.

Try practicing as much as you can and impress your teacher with a well-written essay.

Writing essays can be difficult but the fact is, you can’t escape academic writing no matter what.

This is where the best essay writing service like MyPerfectWords.com comes in to help students save their academic grades. We are an online essay and paper writing service that offers customer support to high school, college, and university students.

Here are the academic papers in which you can get help from expert writers here.

  • College essays (narrative essays, persuasive essays, compare and contrast essays, etc.)
  • Custom papers
  • Book reviews/book report
  • Case studies
  • Research papers
  • College papers

And that's not all! In addition to our top-notch essay writing service, we also provide complimentary revisions and plagiarism reports with every paper. Our dedicated team ensures that each student receives impeccable work tailored to their needs. 

All you need to do is fill out the order form and leave the rest to us.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an essay format?

The essay format is the set of guidelines that decide how your paper should be arranged. Formatting a paper includes following rules for its structure, title, and citations before you begin writing it.

When formatting this type of document there are certain things to focus on like making sure each paragraph has one main idea which leads into two more ideas in succession.

Remember not to let these paragraphs become too long because they can lose the reader's attention if they go over three pages long.

What are basic writing skills?

Here are the basic writing skills: 

  • Spelling and punctuation 
  • Good reading skills 
  • Knowledge of sentence and paragraph structure 
  • Understanding of different types of writing 
  • Great editing and rewriting skills 

Other than these, there are a number of other writing skills. 

Nova A.

WRITTEN BY

Nova A. (Literature, Marketing)

Nova Allison is a Digital Content Strategist with over eight years of experience. Nova has also worked as a technical and scientific writer. She is majorly involved in developing and reviewing online content plans that engage and resonate with audiences. Nova has a passion for writing that engages and informs her readers.

Nova Allison is a Digital Content Strategist with over eight years of experience. Nova has also worked as a technical and scientific writer. She is majorly involved in developing and reviewing online content plans that engage and resonate with audiences. Nova has a passion for writing that engages and informs her readers.

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