Learning how to write an essay can be a frustrating process, but it doesn't have to be. If you understand what to do it will be easier. Here is a ten-step process that help you write an essay.
1.Research: Begin the essay writing process by researching yourself, making yourself an expert on you. Your name, how you have grown up, what you like and don’t like, what your expectations are and all that. ‘About Me’ handout.
2. Analysis: Now that you have a good knowledge base, start analyzing yourself. Clearly define yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
3. Brainstorming: Your essay will require insight of your own personal self. Ask yourself 12 questions and answer them. Meditate with a pen in your hand. Take walks & think & think until you come up with original insights/things to write about. Draw, sketch, sing, think. Who am I - what do I want?
4. Thesis: Pick your best ideas and pin them down so that you can write your entire essay around these ideas. Your thesis is your main point, summed up in a concise sentence that lets the reader know where you're going, and why.
5. Outline: Sketch out your essay before straightway writing it out. Use one-line sentences to describe paragraphs, and bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain. Play with the essay's order. Map out the structure of your argument, and make sure each paragraph is unified. Begin with the ‘About Me’ assignment!
6. Introduction: Now sit down and write the essay. The introduction should grab the reader's attention. Your intro is merely a buildup of the issue, a stage of bringing your reader into the writing.
(Note: The title & 1st paragraph are probably the most important elements in your essay. This is an essay-writing point that doesn't always sink in within the context of the classroom. In the first paragraph you either interest or lose the reader.) In the real world, readers make up their minds about whether or not to read your essay by glancing at the title alone.)
7. Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused on a single idea. Begin paragraphs with topic sentences, give examples of why/ evidence, and your ideas in the clearest way you can. Speak to your reader as if he or she were sitting in front of you. In other words, instead of writing the essay, try talking the essay.
8. Conclusion: End your critical self description essay by making an ending sentence, and then end on some memorable thought, perhaps a quotation, or an interesting twist of logic, or some important point about you.Is there something you want the reader to walk away with? Let him or her know exactly what.
9. MLA Style: Format your essay according to the correct guidelines for citation. All borrowed ideas & quotations should be correctly cited in the body of your text, followed up with a Works Cited (references) page listing the details of your sources.
10. Language: You're not done writing your essay until you've polished your language: correct the grammar, make sentences flow, adjust the formality, give it a level-headed tone, and make other intuitive edits. Proofread until it reads just how you want it to sound. You don't want to bungle the hours of work you've put into writing your essay by leaving a few sloppy misspellings &badly worded phrases.
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