1. Analyze the question on which the essay will be written
Essay questions are questions that pose a particular problem or situation.
Their character can be literary, scientific, academic, social, political or artistic, among others. They are usually made up of three fundamental parts (although some may not expressly carry a question):
• A statement
• A question: which ones, how, where, what, why?
• A request: explain, define, give examples, support, express your opinion
Usually the key issue is found in the statement. Pay special attention to this part.
A good strategy is to copy the question on a piece of paper or on your computer and highlight the most relevant words: nouns, verbs, adjectives:
We share this example with you from the Oxford Dictionaries' post “how to understand the essay question”:
Assess the risks of world war during the Cuban missile crisis.
The verb to evaluate is the request they are making to the author.
World war, crisis, risks and Cuban missiles are nouns that stand out in the sentence. They are the subject.
TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT:
○ Extract from the question the topic of the essay.
○ Understand what you are being asked to develop from that question.
The Analysis of the subject:
It is very likely that the topic on which you are going to write your essay is a topic that you have previously seen in class or read or studied on your own, which will make the process easier.
But, if it is a topic that you do not know in depth, informing yourself before you start wow writing will be crucial.
Don't worry! You don't have to be an expert on the subject, but you do have to focus on what is most important to the question you have been asked.
Remember the previous point. The topic you are going to analyze is the topic you extracted from the analysis of the essay question.
Let's take the example mentioned again:
the Cuban missile crisis is one of the issues you will have to investigate. And the emphasis you should make is to establish the risks that a third world war could break out because of this situation.
You see?
It's a matter of making a careful analysis of the words that make up the essay question in order to understand it fully.
Planning the research:
• Do you have books on the subject?
• Are you a regular visitor to pages co-related to the topic of your essay?
• Do you attend discussion groups?
• Do you have contact with people who can shed light on the topic and serve as a secondary source to support your arguments for or against it?
Anything that broadens your knowledge on the subject will be of great help to inform you, to know other opinions and thus compare them with your own. And to think about it in an organized way will help you to take advantage of your time.
TO NOTE: Take note of those things that you consider relevant to you. They will be essential when you start writing your essay.
2. Brainstorming and organizing the order of topics
Once you have clearly understood the question you are going to develop with the essay, and have collected good information on the topic, you can start with step 2:
List of Ideas:
Helping you with your notes and all the information you now have in your mind about the topic, make a list of all the ideas that help you answer the essay question.
TO NOTE: Remember that an essay is a personal writing, in which through your opinion you will show your position on a topic, your ideas and way of thinking.
List the topics and their order on a piece of paper:
An essay is composed of several paragraphs of development, so on a paper you will have to plan how you are going to develop the topic. Create an order that you consider important to develop the topic.
Why is it important that you order the development of the topic in several paragraphs? Because this way you will be able to present a main idea, defend or support your position in the situation and provide references that support or sustain your essay.
By doing it in several paragraphs it will be easier for the reader to understand the whole text.
At this point, do not think about the final order of the essay but about the order in which you will address the topic as such, related to the question for the essay.
PLEASE NOTE: To write an academic essay there are no rules about its length, that will be defined by you and above all, the information it includes.
Start writing the draft of the essay:
the time has come! You can start writing.
If you like dictionaries in physics, make sure you have one at hand or one of the best online dictionaries that you like.
Is it advisable to start writing directly on the computer?
We consider it a personal decision.
It all depends on your preferences. Some people prefer to write on paper and then transcribe the final text, while others prefer to write directly on the computer and make corrections as they go along.
What we do recommend and emphasize is that you always take notes throughout the analysis of the essay question and the research of the topic.
The notes are one of the inputs that the author cannot do without.
3. Give the structure to the parts of the test
The structure and the parts of an essay are essential, for presentation and to give continuity to the content.
The introduction:
This is a brief text that will tell your reader in general terms what he or she will find throughout the essay.
Make sure it is a clear and short paragraph. And, attractive to engage the reader.
TO NOTE: It is very important that you are persuasive at this point! The introduction is the first part of your essay, a gateway to deeper and greater text.
The development of the topic:
Here are all the relevant ideas on the topic, your questions, your opinions, your comparisons, your analysis, your position; everything that answers the essay question.
This part also includes the evidence and proofs that support your opinion.
The conclusions:
It is a brief summary of the most relevant ideas of the essay. If in the introduction you attract the reader to read the essay, in the conclusions you leave important points to think about.
The bibliography / webgraphy:
All the text and audio-visual supports on which you based your research on the topic.
