What Makes a Good Essay?

People have many different opinions regarding topics about just about anything and everything. For the most part, the consensus of students all proclaim a pretty similar opinion, they do not care to write. Not only do students not like to write, they in particular do not like to write essays '" which require work and a specific format. Writing in life is important. It is a great form of communication and one that will never be exempt from life, even with high-tech media tools. So, everyone eventually has to master writing. Students can put in some effort to formulate good essays that they are proud of and will likely start to like writing a little more.

In school, topics are generally shared for your essay content that might be an analytical essay '" where you are reviewing a work of literature, art, or perhaps a political event. These analytical essay topics are generally prepared for you as part of your assignment. To convey a good essay, you first need to plan your writing. What is it that you want to say about your topic?

The best way to organize your thoughts is to brainstorm or participate in a mind map of some major themes surrounding your essay topic. For example, if you were writing about the book Uncle Tom's Cabin, your mind map might include: written by a female author, strong protagonist and antagonist characters, slavery views, and treatment of slaves.

From here you could dig deeper and come up with two to three discussions based on your main topic. Once you narrowed down three main points, you could start writing your introduction and thesis statement. Within your thesis statement, you would describe the three main points you are addressing within the body of the essay.

Each following paragraph should highlight your main points with specific passages either from your book or other resources to back up your information and ensure validity and credibility to your writing. Show where you are obtaining your reasoning in thinking, this is a tool that will continue to help you always write good essays.

Once you have finished all three paragraphs describing in detail your main topic, you write a summary that shares a re-cap of your main points. This is important since it provides closure to the reader. Within the last paragraph you can add a personal "I" statement, however, throughout the remaining body of the essay, you should not use I statements.

You want your personal views to remain objective to a reader, allowing them to create their own views. You can help to influence them in your favor by adding in details and examples that share your view or philosophy. A good essay always provides an example of where a view is being obtained from.

Good essays take a little time to brainstorm, write, read, edit, and re-write. This is the writing process as a whole, no matter what type of assignment you are writing. With diligence and an idea where you can express yourself, you can easily write a good essay and even enjoy the writing process.