THE BASICS OF ESSAY WRITING

"What's this? This isn't the type of essay I am used to writing! How am I supposed to write this paper when I have no idea HOW to write it?"

These are common complaints college students have when they are presented with various complex college essay directions. In High School, the student was often assigned book reports or essays on themes of their choice. In college, however, the sheer volume of different type of essays, research papers, and term papers is overwhelming. Yes, there is more that one type of paper a student may be required to write. In fact, there are several.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a decent essay writer is the fact that there are a number of different essays a student could be asked to write. No, essays do not fall into the category of "one size fits all" as different essays will focus on different means of presenting their subject matter. Some of the common essays include: critical analysis centering on explaining the various positive and negative factors of a particular subject; reviews that deal with why you like or dislike something; compare/contrast essays were a side by side comparison of two different items is undertaken; research papers which compile information to prove a point or bring a new discovery to fruition; persuasive papers which are designed to bring the reader to a particular point of view; and many, many more.

Of course, even if you understand the differences between the various types of papers you must understand the common threads that go into writing a solid paper. If you lack this understanding then any paper that you write is prone to be poorly composed. Of course, a poorly composed paper can completely 'sink' a student's grade in a course. Obviously, that would not be good.

The major component that every essay must possess is organization. Without proper organization, a paper will lack any sense of clarity. That means the essay will be little more than a jumble of loosely connected words that serve no purpose other than being incoherent. With proper organization, the essay becomes more readable and focused.

On a baseline level, a properly organized essay has a beginning, middle, and an end. These three components will be comprised of a series of paragraphs that all serve specific purposes. The introductory paragraph will inform the reader what the essay is about. This introductory paragraph will include a thesis statement which is the central point regarding what your paper is about. This thesis will then be developed in the middle portion of the essay which is also known as the body of the essay.

Once again, the middle portion of the essay provides a step by step breakdown of why the thesis is accurate. If your thesis states that the New Deal saved the United States from the Great Depression the middle paragraphs would explain (step by step) why this is accurate. Often, this is performed by providing documentation and citations regarding where you got your facts from. This way, the assertions you make in the paper can be proved legitimate.

The end of the paper is a conclusion that restates the thesis. Also, the conclusion will summarize all the points made in the middle of the paper. A previously mentioned, this provides clarity and organization to the essay which makes the essay inherently more readable than an unfocused rant.

Of course, you can not write a paper off the top of your head and hand it in and expect a good grade. Essays and papers must be properly refined so as to guarantee their quality. This means you will need to revise and proofread your paper. Revising the paper means reading and re-reading it while making improvements and corrections in regards to the quality of the writing. Proofreading refers to checking the paper for spelling and grammatical errors and, of course, removing errors when discovered. Remember, poor proofreading and lack of revision will destroy the grade of a paper!

As one can see, it is not easy to compose a well written research paper or essay. But, if the paper embodies all the components of a properly written, logical and well organized paper the grade for the paper is guaranteed to be a decent one.