How to do an essay: the 3 phases

Will you believe us when we tell you that writing an essay is not as twisted as it seems? In this article, we will explain how to do a solid 3-phase essay. Perhaps it is the opportunity to learn how to develop an extremely useful genre. Once you understand the logic of how to write essays, in no time you can become a very skilled essayist. Go for it!

 

What is an essay?

Before answering the question of how to write an essay, let's talk briefly about this genre that took shape from Montaigne's Essays in the 16th century.

The essay is the prose writing of a thesis, that is, a personal position on a specific topic supported by arguments. This topic is normally controversial: there is no unanimity on the matter in the academic community.

The objective of the essay is to present your ideas to persuade the readers about your position. Therefore, the essay is not intended to be dogmatic. The strength of the arguments should be what, in the end, leads you to achieve this goal.

In addition, the essay is considered a literary genre. As an author, you should look for a narrative style with an artistic tint, since your ideas should be presented in a friendly and unambiguous way, within a formal register.

 

So is it all rehearsal?

No. Not everything is rehearsal. Teachers and students often use the term essay loosely, to refer to any prose writing of a certain length that addresses a particular topic. It is not entirely clear how to write an essay and when to do it. This affects the other genres that share some of its characteristics, such as review, summary or report.

Now yes, how to write essays?

The process of writing a good essay has three phases:

1. Before writing
2. draft writing
3. Review and correction
4. before writing

The first thing is the pre-writing. Before writing, take the time to read about the topic at hand. This approach will lead to the generation of ideas, which you must organize and support with selected documentation.

When you already have the ideas you want to present, make a list and ask yourself what logical order you would give them. Throughout this preliminary process you will discover and shape your own position on the subject that is...

… The thesis

As we know, the essay pronounces on a thesis, the main idea that you will defend. This thesis should not be too general, but specific, cut, and clear. The thesis is the axis of the essay. It implies a clear affirmation of something that, in principle, is questionable and, therefore, needs to be argued.

Also before writing you must decide whether you will find an expert writing online or will you write the whole thing

 Draft writing

You are now ready to start writing. In any case, keep in mind that what you write first does not have to be final. This is a draft. The draft will allow you to present all the central ideas and arguments in a visual way.

Depending on the support you have chosen to write, we will talk about one draft or several. What happens is that word processors for writers offer the possibility of easily erasing and rewriting the same document.

On the other hand, if you write by hand on paper, the process will require you to write and rewrite several versions until you reach the final essay. Allow yourself to write as many drafts as necessary to reach the level that satisfies you.

The organization of the ideas you made in the first stage will guide you in deciding how to make an organized essay. An essay consists of 3 fundamental parts:

1. The introduction.
2. The node or body.
3. The conclusion.
4. The introduction

The first part of the essay is the introduction. Its mission is to introduce the reader to the topic on which it is argued, while you begin to establish a position on it. Therefore, there must be limits in the approach so that the reader is always clear about the subject being discussed. The idea is to present a series of questions that you ask yourself on the subject, which will help you develop the thesis.

Body

In this part, you must develop the aspects that were indicated in the introduction. The content must be deep and the speech firm; otherwise, you will not be able to convince. Remember that the topic on which the essay is about admitted contrary positions.

What resources do we have? It is time to resort to citations of authors on which we rely to build our position, which must be exposed following the appropriate citation standards ( APA , Vancouver , ICONTEC , or those that your university or college requests).

In addition, you must show that you are not unaware that there are different positions. However, you must confidently state the reasons why, against your will, you defend this thesis and not others, and show credibility. The challenge of how to write essays is not to guess right from wrong, but to think and argue.

Conclusion

The conclusion is the last paragraph of the essay. Here, you must answer the questions you raised in the introduction, and briefly review the ideas that were presented in the thesis. In the conclusion, the formula of the introduction is inverted: it begins with a brief summary of the essay and ends with a consistent sentence, which draws the reader's attention to the key point of the essay.

Third phase: revision and correction

The problem of how to do an essay is being solved, right?

Once you have organized the draft in a good way and all the ideas and arguments are already part of the speech, comes the third phase: revision and correction.

But what to pay attention to when reviewing it? In an essay it is judged:

1. If your content is relevant and well documented.
2. If you have an appropriate and well-organized argument.
3. If you present the correct use of language.

Sometimes self-correction work can become difficult. And don't let this surprise you, because it's more normal than you think. What happens is that, after so many rereadings of your own material, you get saturated and you may not perceive the weaknesses in terms of organization and grammar.

If your work must be presented before a court, contest, or will go through a grading instance, consider having the services of an expert proofreader in academic essays.

Personally, we really like the essay because it assumes not only the debate of ideas but also the possibility of not being right. There may be other foundations that, when reflecting on them, make it possible to expand the knowledge and worldview of the authors.

An added value that the essay genre has is the exercise of humility, of learning to value one's own ideas and those of others. The essayist must always assume the possibility of being wrong and learn from others. In any case, he remembers that you did not arrive at the position on your own; through the textual quotation, we recognize the legacy of other thinkers and their contributions.

At last writing an essay is not easy so if you need Business Assignment Help ask for someone to help you if you just can't.