Hints on Writing Essays

chakobaby · Joined: 07 Jun 2009 Posts: 6

1. THINK where you want your essay to GO. It should always be answering a historical question.

2. To know where you are going you need a ROUTE MAP. For essay-writing, let’s call that a PLAN. Think of the Plan as your
SAT-NAV – where the destination is a piece of writing which is coherent, easy to follow and answers the question you have been set.

HINTS ON WRITING ESSAYS

3. Nearly all good essays are WELL-PLANNED essays. A plan should guide you through the stages of writing.

4. Remember that all essay questions contain within them a FOCUS. Being aware of the focus gets you well along the route. What different kinds of focus are there?

4.1 CAUSATION – essay about cause ‘Why did the New Deal cause so much controversy in the United States in the years 1933-41?’ ‘For what reasons did…’

4.2 CONSEQUENCE – ‘How did Civil Rights legislation affect the living conditions of US citizens…’ ‘To what extent was the Wall Street Crash a consequence of unwise US investment during the 1920s?’

4.3 CHANGE – ‘In what ways did working opportunities for black citizens of the USA change in the first half of the twentieth century?’

4.4 ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF THE INDIVIDUAL – ‘How important was the career of Malcolm X for the civil rights of black US citizens in the 1950s and 1960s?’

4.5 JUDGMENT ABOUT RELATIVE IMPORTANCE - ‘How important were the Alphabet Agencies in the success of F D Roosevelt’s “New Deal”?

4.6 DESCRIPTION
Telling the key aspects of a story of the period given: ‘Describe the stages by which black citizens of the US experienced increased civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s.’ Or ‘In what ways did civil rights legislation develop in the US in the 1950s and 1960s’. Here the emphasis is not so much on explanation as SELECTION

5. So when you see an essay question, don’t just think ‘Do I know the facts about this?’. Think also ‘Do I understand what the FOCUS of this question is?’

You can use the FOCUS to guide you in the construction of paragraphs.

7. SO a planned essay to a question whose focus is on CAUSATION (say ‘Why did the New Deal cause so much controversy in the United States in the years 1933-41?) might look a bit like this:

7.1 INTRODUCTION – very briefly, perhaps, say why this question is interesting, or whether historians have looked at the question in different ways. One way or another briefly you suggest that you know where you will be going.

7.2 SUBSTANTIVE PARAGRAPHS
The number will depend on the length of the essay. For an essay being written in 45 minutes, 4 or 5 substantive paragraphs are usually enough. EACH paragraph should EXPLAIN A CAUSE – because that this is focus of the question. Select your paragraphs so that each will do this. In this case, select aspects of the New Deal which were controversial, or excited hostility or opposition. Say first what cause you are discussing – then DEVELOP your point with appropriately selected, relevant information.

7.3 CONCLUSION

Here you need to draw the threads together and make sure that your reader understands what you think the key causes of what you explaining are. Additionally, it is a good idea to finish off with a little ‘flourish’. You might explain either why one of the causes in 7.2 above may be more important than the others or how one cause is dependent on another or how the causes link together to produce a coherent overall explanation of why something happened.

8. SO the good essay, will be

WELL PLANNED, will ANSWER THE QUESTION SET, SHOWING A CLEAR AWARENESS OF ITS FOCUS and will depend on WELL-SELECTED INFORMATION to support the points being made.

miljo123 · Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 3

These simple steps will guide you through the essay writing process:

Decide on your topic.

Prepare an outline or diagram of your ideas.

Write your thesis statement.

Write the body.

Write the main points.
Write the subpoints.
Elaborate on the subpoints.

Write the introduction.

Write the conclusion.

Add the finishing touches.
Topic Has Been Assigned
You may have no choice as to your topic. If this is the case, you still may not be ready to jump to the next step.

Think about the type of paper you are expected to produce. Should it be a general overview, or a specific analysis of the topic? If it should be an overview, then you are probably ready to move to the next step. If it should be a specific analysis, make sure your topic is fairly specific. If it is too general, you must choose a narrower subtopic to discuss.

For example, the topic "KENYA" is a general one. If your objective is to write an overview, this topic is suitable. If your objective is to write a specific analysis, this topic is too general. You must narrow it to something like "Politics in Kenya" or "Kenya's Culture."

Once you have determined that your topic will be suitable, you can move on.

Organize Your Ideas

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The purpose of an outline or diagram is to put your ideas about the topic on paper, in a moderately organized format. The structure you create here may still change before the essay is complete, so don't agonize over this.

Decide whether you prefer the cut-and-dried structure of an outline or a more flowing structure. If you start one or the other and decide it isn't working for you, you can always switch later.

Compose a Thesis Statement

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Now that you have decided, at least tentatively, what information you plan to present in your essay, you are ready to write your thesis statement.

The thesis statement tells the reader what the essay will be about, and what point you, the author, will be making. You know what the essay will be about. That was your topic. Now you must look at your outline or diagram and decide what point you will be making. What do the main ideas and supporting ideas that you listed say about your topic?

Your thesis statement will have two parts.
The first part states the topic.
Kenya's Culture
Building a Model Train Set
Public Transportation
The second part states the point of the essay.
has a rich and varied history
takes time and patience
can solve some of our city's most persistent and pressing problems
Or in the second part you could simply list the three main ideas you will discuss.
has a long history, blends traditions from several other cultures, and provides a rich heritage.
requires an investment in time, patience, and materials.
helps with traffic congestion, resource management, and the city budget.
Once you have formulated a thesis statement that fits this pattern and with which you are comfortable, you are ready to continue.

Write the Body Paragraphs

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In the body of the essay, all the preparation up to this point comes to fruition. The topic you have chosen must now be explained, described, or argued.

Each main idea that you wrote down in your diagram or outline will become one of the body paragraphs. If you had three or four main ideas, you will have three or four body paragraphs.

Each body paragraph will have the same basic structure.
Start by writing down one of your main ideas, in sentence form.
If your main idea is "reduces freeway congestion," you might say this:
Public transportation reduces freeway congestion.
Next, write down each of your supporting points for that main idea, but leave four or five lines in between each point.
In the space under each point, write down some elaboration for that point.
Elaboration can be further description or explanation or discussion.

Supporting Point
Commuters appreciate the cost savings of taking public transportation rather than driving.
Elaboration
Less driving time means less maintenance expense, such as oil changes.
Of course, less driving time means savings on gasoline as well.
In many cases, these savings amount to more than the cost of riding public transportation.
If you wish, include a summary sentence for each paragraph.
This is not generally needed, however, and such sentences have a tendency to sound stilted, so be cautious about using them.
Once you have fleshed out each of your body paragraphs, one for each main point, you are ready to continue.

Write the Introduction and Conclusion

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Your essay lacks only two paragraphs now: the introduction and the conclusion. These paragraphs will give the reader a point of entry to and a point of exit from your essay.

Add the Finishing Touches

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You have now completed all of the paragraphs of your essay. Before you can consider this a finished product, however, you must give some thought to the formatting of your paper.

Check the order of your paragraphs.
Look at your paragraphs. Which one is the strongest? You might want to start with the strongest paragraph, end with the second strongest, and put the weakest in the middle. Whatever order you decide on, be sure it makes sense. If your paper is describing a process, you will probably need to stick to the order in which the steps must be completed.

Check the instructions for the assignment.
When you prepare a final draft, you must be sure to follow all of the instructions you have been given.

Are your margins correct?
Have you titled it as directed?
What other information (name, date, etc.) must you include?
Did you double-space your lines?
Check your writing.
Nothing can substitute for revision of your work. By reviewing what you have done, you can improve weak points that otherwise would be missed. Read and reread your paper.

Does it make logical sense?
Leave it for a few hours and then read it again. Does it still make logical sense?

Do the sentences flow smoothly from one another?
If not, try to add some words and phrases to help connect them. Transition words, such as "therefore" or "however," sometimes help. Also, you might refer in one sentence to a thought in the previous sentence. This is especially useful when you move from one paragraph to another.

Have you run a spell checker or a grammar checker?
These aids cannot catch every error, but they might catch errors that you have missed.

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