This explanation is by no means a general rule on how an essay or writing should be done for all areas, but rather, it is only a basic orientation of what is expected, in general, when a student is asked to do an essay or writing. about a subject and it will inform you of some basic concepts to improve in the essays you write and take into account factors that perhaps you did not take into account at present.
The first and most important factor is that depending on the subject, the objectives to be pursued, to whom it is to be delivered, etc., the particular requirements that are made of an essay may be one or the other. An essay is basically a reflection exercise in which four fundamental factors are valued:
- The degree of reflection.
- The degree of argumentation of the defended position.
- Creativity and originality in the approach.
- The quality of the exhibition.
The key points of a good essay are those that show a good reflection, are original, are highly argued and are very well written, on the contrary, a bad essay is characterized by an obvious lack of reflection on the subject, it will normally be superficial, uncreative and will tend to repeat what everyone says on the matter or will limit himself to saying what has been said in class, poorly written and above all poorly argued, giving few ideas to defend his position.
If the biggest problem is how to do an essay in order to get the best grade, this is not easy at all. To do so, you have to be very clear about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Keeping it short is even more difficult: when we remove the straw, quotes, summaries, copies, circumlocutions, etc.
Most of the time we use to prepare an essay we have to need it not to write but to think about the answer to questions that one thinks about the subject, such as:
- Do I agree or disagree with the author’s statement?
- Do i have an alternative?
- How will I argue?
- As I say it?
- What structure will my text have?
- What language do i use?
When we know what we want to say, how to say it is not very difficult. Therefore, the central phase in the elaboration of an essay consists in the construction of the outline of this essay, outline of both content and form.
We imagine that we are asked to write a two-page essay on the treatment that an author makes of a theme in a novel or on a political article that appears in the press. It will be necessary to follow a series of steps that ultimately have to bring us to the elaboration of a scheme of the type that will be like the facade of our essay.
1. Comprehensive reading
We have to work on the material that is proposed to us: we have to read, underline, look for important ideas, see how the author argues, until we are sure that we understand everything we have read.
2. Critical approach
Once we understand what we have read, we must analyze it critically. We will think if it seems to us that it is well argued, if we are convinced by the points of view that are presented, if the way in which the author explains it seems good to us, etc. Finally we will have to focus on one very important thing: do I agree with the position that the author maintains on the subject? The answer to this question is decisive for the approach of our essay.
3. Elaboration of the own approach.
Once we have decided that we agree, disagree or partially agree with the author’s approach to the subject, we will have to think very carefully about our position, that is, we will look for the arguments, the reasons we have to defend our position. and we will also think of the examples that would help us to explain them. Here it is essential to find information on the issue at hand. Sometimes it may be that we already have certain information on the subject or that a chat with colleagues provides it to us, but on other occasions, we will have to look for it in books, in the library, in the press, etc. It will be very difficult for us to write an understandable text that can be easily read about something we have no idea about.
Instructions for doing a test
- Decide the approach that our essay will have: if for, or against, or against neutral respect for the position defended by the author.
- Decide if we will focus on any specific idea of those presented by the author or if, on the contrary, we will dedicate ourselves to elaborate each and every one of the ideas that he presents. What should not be forgotten is that if you are wondering how to write an essay, you must be clear that although we can focus on some specific aspect, it will always be better that, at least, we give a brief general treatment of the other topics because it does not seem that, we simply skip what we do not understand.
- Decide how we will structure the essay, we will dedicate ourselves to defending and/or refuting the author’s ideas one by one, we will base ourselves on a book or a movie that we have read on the subject to criticize/defend the author’s ideas, based on news recent on the subject, etc. Here the possibilities are enormous and are only limited by the results, any approach that is clear and produces an interesting reflection on the proposed subject being accepted. What will never be correct is a mere repetition of the author’s ideas, copying the ideas pointed out in class or from the textbook and, above all, unjustifiably leaving the topic being discussed.
- We have to have an outline (it can be very brief) of what we are going to say and in what order before we start writing.
- It is necessary to decide what type of language will be used and from whom we will write since we will have to maintain it throughout the essay and we will never be able to change our point of view. The language will avoid colloquialism and we will have to try to use technical words that show that we have knowledge of the language and the sector on which we are conducting the essay.
- Never have to write or phrases or words of which we do not know exactly their meaning.
- After writing the essay we will try to get a person with whom we do not have a very close relationship to read it accurately and we will ask them to give us a full critique. These criticisms will be the most valuable and will be the ones that will make the essay improve its quality a lot after giving it some tweaks.
Tips for doing an essay
- At the moment we see that the essay is ending, it is the most dangerous moment since the desire to finish throws all the work done with a simple ending and lacks value and content on the ground.
- We have to try to focus as far as possible on the length that the essay is specified to have and not fall into the error of thinking that by filling out many pages we will be valued more because this is never the case.
We hope we have been able to help you how to do an essay and achieve the goal you were looking for.