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Ah, the dreaded essay assignment. I remember, when I was back in high school, the word “essay” meant a week or so of toiling away at the computer looking for the right way to phrase something or checking the word/page count to make sure it was long enough. Well, even though writing can be pretty boring, it’s a necessary skill in wide range of professions, from academia to business. Luckily, it’s actually not all that hard to grasp. Here are the basics on how to write an essay.
Introduction
Every essay starts with an introduction. The goal of nearly every essay is to convince the reader of a certain viewpoint. The introduction paragraph is where you introduce your viewpoint, set up the supporting evidence, and capture your reader’s interest. This can be done in many ways. For example, you could:
- explain that a seemingly obvious viewpoint or widely held belief actually has a deeper meaning or is not correct
- explain the background of something and how it led to your viewpoint
- show that the given evidence can be reinterpreted to make a new conclusion
- provide a counter example and analyze the given evidence to see if it still applies
Obviously, not every one of these examples will fit every topic, and there are many more ways to write an introduction. You’ll need to decide how to introduce your viewpoint based on how you want to approach the topic. Here’s an example. Suppose the topic is about electric vs. gasoline cars. Since this topic is fairly objective, I would choose to use the “explain the background of something and how it led to your viewpoint” approach. The resulting introduction paragraph would look something like this:
“Ever since the electric car was invented in 1884, electric and gasoline-powered cars have been competing with each other for dominance in the auto industry. At first, electric cars were the preferred mode of transportation due to their ease of operation and comfort. Then, advances in internal combustion engines boosted the popularity of gasoline-powered cars and pushed electric cars into relative obscurity. Now, with unstable fuel costs, new advances in electric car technology, and the threat of global warming, electric cars are making a comeback, and as they become more affordable to own and operate, they may eventually replace gasoline-powered cars entirely.”
As you can see, I introduced the topic by giving background information. Then, I set up the evidence that I will use to reach my viewpoint (unstable fuel costs, new technology, global warming) and presented my viewpoint (that electric cars will replace gasoline-powered ones). At this point, the reader would want to read on to see if my evidence really holds up, and that’s what the supporting paragraphs are for.
Supporting Paragraphs
Here’s where you elaborate on the evidence that your viewpoint is based on. The typical five-paragraph essay has three supporting paragraphs, but you aren’t limited to just three. Put as many as your evidence demands. You’ll want to have each paragraph elaborate on just one piece of evidence. Going back to my example, my three supporting paragraphs would be about unstable gasoline costs and what is making them unstable, new developments in electric car technology like better batteries and recharging stations, and global warming and how gasoline-powered cars contribute to it.
Ideally, you’ll want to make these paragraphs lead into each other. This makes the essay “flow” better and prevents the supporting paragraphs from feeling like disjointed topics. For example, at the start of the second support paragraph, I would write “Fluctuating gasoline prices are not the only reason electric cars have a cost advantage.” At the start of the third support paragraph, I would write “Perhaps the greatest cost advantage electric cars have over gasoline-powered ones is their cost to the environment.” As you can see, these transitional sentences “merge” the supporting paragraphs so that it feels like reading about one big topic rather than three separate ones. A rule of thumb is that if you take the first sentence of each supporting paragraph, you’ll have an outline of the essay.
Remember to stay on topic! The goal of your supporting paragraphs is to strengthen your viewpoint, so try to tie any evidence you’re presenting in the paragraph back to it. An extraordinary claim needs extraordinary evidence!
Conclusion
The conclusion paragraph is where you present your viewpoint again and summarize how your supporting paragraphs verify and strengthen it. This paragraph shouldn’t introduce anything new and should just tie up everything you wrote previously into one concise package.
Yue’s Recommendation
I personally recommend The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. This book is needed in many intro college writing courses (including the one I took), so if you’re not in college yet, you might as well grab it now. It gives many tips on how to use certain words and expressions as well as general guidelines on how to make your writing smoother. It’s a fantastic writing reference, and it’s not too lengthy either.