5 Stages of the Essay Writing Process

Knowing the process of writing good essays is a skill that will help you throughout your entire academic career. It’s useful for essays, business letters, and any other type of paper you’ll be asked to write. There are 5 parts to writing a great essay. As you go through each step, you’ll notice how they build on each other. Don’t try doing them in a different order! Step 1 and step 2 can be switched if you’re starting out not knowing what to write about.

  1. Purpose and thesis – your topic should be something you are passionate about. If your topic has been assigned, you might not have that choice. But try and find something that really sparks a fire within you because it will make the writing process come together a lot more smoothly. Is there something you could argue for or against?
  2. Research – if the essay is not based solely on personal experiences in your life, you’ll need to do adequate research. You need to find enough evidence or data to support your statement. If you find there’s too much material to use, then you need to refine and narrow down your thesis until you aren’t overwhelmed with data.
  3. Title and research statement. These are based carefully on your purpose and thesis. They may even be exactly the same. Make sure they are specific enough to suit the needs of your essay.
  4. Body of information. This is most of your essay. It is everything between the introduction and the conclusion. Each paragraph should cover a main point. Every claim you make should be supported with some kind of evidence.
  5. Write the introduction and conclusion. It’s always easier to write it after you’ve written the body because you can look over all the information in the essay and use it to base your introduction on. It may sound backward, but most effective writers have learned to do it this way. Once the body and introduction have been written, you can now craft the conclusion. It is very similar to the introduction, but should leave the reader feeling like you fulfilled the claims you made. If you’re writing a persuasive essay, the conclusion is your last chance to sway them to your viewpoint.

Following this basic essay writing process as outlined above will help you to write your next winning essay with ease.

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