How to Write an Essay: Step-by-Step Guide & Writing Tips

What Is an Essay: Definition

Before you learn how to write an essay, it's important to understand what an essay is. 

An essay is a piece of academic writing that communicates your ideas or point of view on a particular subject. Academic essays can be assigned in high school, college, and even university.

Depending on the purpose and nature of your assignment, there are various types of essays:

• Argumentative/ persuasive essays
• Analytical essays
• Expository essays
• Descriptive essays
• Narrative essays, etc.

Most high-school and college essays have a standard 5-paragraph essay structure. It may include more paragraphs depending on the subject matter. The length of an essay can range from 500 words to 1500 words and is determined by the assignment guidelines, level and topic.

An academic essay should be written in a formal style and should use clear, concise language. To get a better understanding of how to write a good essay, we recommend checking out the steps outlined below.

Essay Writing Process

The whole essay writing process can be broadly divided into 3 key phases:

1. Pre-writing: This stage involves everything that comes before the actual drafting of the essay. This includes understanding the assignment, brainstorming ideas, researching the topic, and creating an outline. The goal of prewriting is to gather and organize the necessary information and ideas that will be used to write the essay.
2. Writing: Using the information and ideas gathered during pre-writing, create a first draft. You should focus on getting the ideas down on paper, without worrying too much about grammar, spelling, or other technical details.
3. Refining: At this phase, you will revise and edit your draft in order to improve its clarity, coherence, and effectiveness. This might require reorganizing your ideas, clarifying arguments, improving sentence structure and word choice, and correcting errors. The goal is to produce a final version of a polished essay.

These 3 stages form the backbone of our essay writing tutorial and are easy to follow for anyone. Keep reading to learn more about detailed steps for an essay.

How to Write an Essay Step-by-Step?

To write an essay worth an A+, you need to develop a fine-tuned system. Fortunately, you are here and we are ready to share all the secrets to effective essay writing that most run-of-the-mill tutorials skip. From crafting a seducing introduction to developing a motivational concluding paragraph, you will learn tips to composing a great academic piece. These are the tricks that many students don't know and buy essays instead. But reading this guide won't cost you a dime – just a few minutes of your time.

Here's how to write a powerful essay in 8 simple steps.

1. Carefully Read Your Task

The first step of essay writing is reading instructions and ensuring that you understand it. Many students ignore this stage and jump straight into the writing process. As a result, they end up having a complete essay that doesn't address a prompt or fails to meet their teacher's requirements. By taking the time to fully comprehend the assignment, you can avoid this pitfall and set yourself up for success.

As you scan the requirements, pay attention to such details:

• Essay topic or main question
• Type of writing
• Required word/page count
• Guidelines on general organization
• Formatting rules
• Citation style.

It's also important to clarify any questions or concerns with your instructor before starting an essay to ensure that you are on the right track. Doing this will save you time further down the road and help you to stay on task.

>> Read more: How to Write an Essay Fast

2. Come Up With a Unique Topic

If you haven't been assigned with a specific essay topic, consider yourself lucky.  This gives you the freedom to explore any subject area that interests you. With the goal of a future essay in mind, brainstorm topics that align with your preferences. Choosing a topic that you're passionate about can help you stay motivated throughout the writing process. Opt for themes that are currently relevant or often appear on the news. This will give your essay an impactful angle.

If producing topics isn't your thing, we have prepared multiple lists of engaging suggestions ranging from argumentative essay topics and ending with topics for cause and effect essays. Take a minute to look through these options and find the one that clicks with you. You may also try to create a title using our smart generator.

Once you have a general topic in mind, try to narrow your focus to a specific aspect. For example , if your subject is "The American Revolution," choose one element to write about. It can be the impact of events in Boston or the formation of confederations around the colonies.

3. Do Preliminary Research

Research is an essential stage of essay writing that the majority overlook. Finding an appealing topic that is the perfect cross between your interests and your instructor's guidelines isn't enough. You need to dig deeper and examine all facts and evidence related to a chosen subject.

Begin your research with general sources such as textbooks, encyclopedias, and online databases to get an overview and gather basics. Target only credible sources and see what scholars are saying about your topic. You may use specific keywords and boolean operators to secure yourself from reading irrelevant articles.

As you read through your sources, take notes on key points, ideas, and evidence that support your argument. Jotting down critical ideas will help you arrange your thoughts and determine your own angle. You may also spot interesting quotes that you can use to create a catchy hook or integrate as evidence.

4. Create a Thesis Statement

What perspective of your subject are you going to discuss? Identifying a thesis statement is key to determining the trajectory of your essay or paper. It's the main claim or argument that you make and then back up with evidence.

A strong thesis should be brief, to the point, and provide a glimpse of your main ideas. Are you arguing for a specific opinion or exploring any concept? Are you challenging commonly accepted beliefs or offering unique solutions? The goal is to make your claim cristal-clear and focused. 

Remember that you will need to reinforce a thesis throughout your essay. That's why you need to build a strong claim that effectively conveys your primary idea.

Let's take a look at these examples to make things a bit clearer:

❌ Wrong example:

Cybersecurity is a growing concern.

This argument is generic and doesn't provide a clear direction for writing. Here's how it can be adjusted to make an essay centered around a more explicit issue:

✓ Right example:

Government surveillance should be limited to prevent incidences of cybersecurity breaches.

Feel free to use our generator to make an attention-grabbing claim in seconds.

5. Develop an Outline

Great essays don't just happen out of nowhere. Even professional essay writers need a rough idea to keep their writing neat. This is where an outline comes into play. Creating an outline is an important step before writing essays as it ensures that your arguments flow logically.

An outline shouldn't be lengthy or overloaded with details. At this point, you just need to devise a schematic plan to make sure that you don't waffle about matters not pertinent to your topic. Do not worry about how it looks, unless you need to submit it along with your assignment. Your main task is to identify the order of your thoughts.

Once your roadmap is shovel-ready, prepare to write your essay.

>> Read more: How to Write an Essay Outline

6. Write Your Essay

Now, we got to the stage where you can actually embark on the writing journey. As you begin composing a rough draft, focus on getting your ideas down on paper, without worrying too much about polishing every sentence. It's the first version of your writing and will most likely be revised later on.

Some students mistakenly believe that writing a successful essay is possible without any pre-drafting, and thus overlook this stage. However, in practice, it takes more time to craft a flawless piece from scratch than it does to re-read your draft and add some details. It's common for the first version to have errors, inconsistencies, and areas that need further development. Your main goal now is to start shaping your argument according to your outline.

>> Read more: How to Write a 5 Paragraph Essay

Write an Intro and Make It Appealing

We've already shared tricks on how to write an essay introduction, but let's briefly review it.

First, you need to put yourself in your teacher's shoes. They get hundreds of essays to check daily. So you need to make your piece stand out among others. The best way to do it is to craft an opening sentence (hook) that will capture the instructor's attention. This might involve using a provocative statement, a surprising fact or statistics, or a personal insight related to your discussion.

Then, establish a context and provide basic details about your topic. You can't jump into your main argument without offering some background information. You need to prepare your readers for it.

Finally, tell why you are writing your essay. In other words, you need to introduce your thesis statement and make your main argument clear. This can be a sentence or two which will help you focus your essay around a single idea.

Build Out the Body Part

Let's move on to the most extensive section of your essay – body part. It usually includes 3 body paragraphs. But if you need to do an essay for university or graduate school, you might expand this section to several pages.

Use your outline as a guide and start filling in the blanks. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that presents the main point to be discussed. Following the topic sentence, provide supporting evidence, examples, or explanations to reinforce your argument. You might need to conduct extra research to gather more facts to back up your argument. Give preference to accurate and trustworthy sources and always do fact-checking. Be sure to clearly connect your evidence to the key point and use essay transition words to maintain coherence.

>> Read more: How to Write a Body Paragraph

Write a Concluding Paragraph

Just as your first paragraph should be attention-grabbing, you want to write a good essay that will end strong as well. Your primary task here is to leave professors satisfied.

Your closing paragraph should concisely recap your argument and summarize the key points discussed in the body of your essay. Make sure to reiterate your central statement, but avoid word-for-word repetitions. Instead, think of a creative way to present your main idea from a fresh perspective.

Your conclusion is also a great place to provide a call-to-action (CTA). If you came up with any motivational idea or preventive measures, include this information in the conclusion to inspire readers for action.

>> Learn more: How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay

7. Use Citations as You Write an Essay

It's likely that you will have to use multiple sources for your essay. As soon as you find a relevant fact or argument, add it to your bookmarks and take notes. Sometimes, you will need to cite the source right away. So don't forget that your essay must conform to formatting standards and include in-text citations and a reference list.

It's crucial to follow your instructor's guidelines regarding the style and formatting of citations.  Be consistent and use the same system throughout your essay.

For example, if you choose APA style for citations, you need to organize your entire text using APA guidelines. But if you are using an MLA format or Chicago style, adjust your work accordingly.

8. Edit and Proofread

You've written your essay. What's next up?

Step away for a while so you can come back to your draft with a fresh mind and perfect your writing. Apart from traditional spell check, you need to run a grammar check to fix possible mistakes. 

Pay special attention to word choice and readability. There is nothing worse than having your arguments diluted by fluffy words or awkward sentences. You might want to use our readability checker or essay rater to improve your writing.

Make sure to use formal language (if not asked otherwise) and avoid passive voice and cliches. Editing is not just about correcting grammatical and stylistic errors. You should be able to see your text as a whole and delete some phrases or entire sentences for the sake of cohesion. Read your essay aloud to confirm that your text makes sense.

>> Learn more: How to Revise an Essay

Bonus Essay Writing Tips

Essay writing is an art and it takes practice. The more you compose, the better your writing skills become. Here are some extra tips for writing an essay: 

1. Start early. Don't wait until the last minute, otherwise you risk having too little time to produce an essay.
2. Use diverse sources. Incorporate a variety of trustworthy sources to support your argument. This adds credibility to your text and demonstrates thorough research.
3. Use quotations wisely. Integrate quotes sparingly and be sure to analyze their contribution to your work.
4. Be concise. Avoid unnecessary wordiness or redundancy. Stick to the point and express your ideas clearly.
5. Vary sentence structure. Mix up sentence lengths and structures to keep your writing engaging and prevent monotony.
6. Address counterarguments. Demonstrating awareness of opposing viewpoints and addressing them effectively can strengthen your argument. This shows that you have considered various perspectives and have a well-rounded understanding of your subject.
7. Read other essays. Using essay examples can be helpful when you're working on your own piece. Samples provide a reference for structure, style, and content. However, it's essential to use them responsibly and avoid plagiarism.
8. Take breaks. If you are stuck and unable to move forward, take a break for a few minutes and start writing again.
9. Seek feedback. Share your essay with peers, teachers, or mentors and ask for their constructive feedback. This can help you identify areas for improvement and enhance your writing skills.
10. Stay motivated. Remember that becoming a skilled writer takes time and dedication. Remain persistent and be patient with yourself as you hone your abilities.

Dos and Don'ts When Writing an Essay

To write essays like a pro, you need to be aware of certain dos and don'ts. Let's first clarify  the dos to help you improve the quality of your work.

Dos:

1. Do be direct, approaching the main points without stuffing superfluous details.
2. Do ensure accuracy of facts and examples.
3. Do maintain a tone appropriate for your target audience.
4. Do use an outline to plan the general structure.
5. Do manage your time effectively by breaking the process into smaller tasks.

Don'ts:

1. Don't plagiarize or use other people's work without proper citation.
2. Don't use slang, colloquialisms, or overly casual language.
3. Don't rely too heavily on quotes or overuse them.
4. Don't use overly complex terms or jargons.
5. Don't submit your essay without meticulous proofreading.

Essay Writing Checklist

A checklist is a helpful tool that will help you stay on course. Below we covered the most critical aspects that you definitely should verify before turning your paper in. Use this to-do list  as a guide when writing your essay:

Bottom Line on How to Write an Essay

Writing an essay is one of those undertakings that seem more challenging until you try to do it. Stick to the steps on how to write an A+ essay described and you will see that there is nothing so scary about the process. So when you are assigned with your next essay, arm yourself with our comprehensive guide and you will be able to produce a masterpiece without putting in too much effort.