
Shutterstock
There are millions of students writing their essays every year and there are hundreds of essay writing services that help them with it. The problem with these essay writing services is that they can’t guarantee you good grades. Why? Because if your essay isn’t unique enough, your teacher will spot it immediately and deduct some points from your final score. But we want to make sure that you get the best grade on each essay you write so we’ve prepared this step-by-step guide on how to write my essay for the college students. Follow our advice and you’ll never fail an essay again!
Step 1: Create an Outline
Your outline is going to be your map. It’s how you will structure your essay and make sure you know what it is you are trying to say. Plan out how many paragraphs and sections (as applicable) your essay will have. Each paragraph should have its own topic sentence that leads into 3-5 sentences, each of which expand on different aspects of that topic sentence (these are called support or explanation sentences). When creating an outline, plan for roughly one paragraph per page; don’t worry about getting every word perfect yet, just get a good idea of where things are going.
Step 2: Collect the Source Material
Collect as many resources as you can to assist you in writing your essay. Most common sources include encyclopedias, books, research papers, etc. With so much information on offer, it’s always a good idea to write down what you want from each source before reading them. For example write down who authored and published the work (the author), its year of publication, its title, where it was published and an abstract of what it is about. You may also want to take notes during your reading session for future reference. As soon as you finish reading one material move on to another; do not reread or skim read for any reason other than checking for facts that were unclear during first read throughs.
Step 3: Create an Introduction
You are now ready to create an introduction. If you’re writing a cause and effect essay or narrative essay, your introduction should be about two sentences long. It should give your readers a sense of what you will talk about in your essay (ex. The first day of high school was both terrifying and exciting, or My sister’s death changed my life forever; I never looked at life quite the same way again). But if you’re writing an expository essay, you need to make your introduction much longer.
Step 4: Construct the Body Paragraphs
Your body paragraphs should be relatively short—three to five sentences each. Develop and support your thesis statement with specific examples, facts, definitions, illustrations and evidence. Each body paragraph should have a topic sentence that summarizes your supporting point. Following your topic sentence should be at least three sentences of support for your main point, ending with a concluding sentence that restates your thesis statement.
Make sure to include a transition between each of these four sentences within each body paragraph so that it is cohesive and logical; you don’t want an abrupt change from one topic to another. Start each body paragraph with an introductory sentence that hooks readers’ attention by setting up or expanding on a previous idea within that same paragraph.
Step 5.) Your Conclusion
You don’t have to obsess over your topic or thesis until you have a complete draft; instead, it’s better to focus on figuring out what your argument is and who you are trying to convince. Once you know where you’re going with your essay, it becomes much easier to figure out how to get there. As you write, keep track of key arguments and examples that support them.
This can make it easier for you to use them later in your essay as well as provide a useful outline for your conclusion. If possible, try writing a brief outline of how each paragraph will begin, how each will develop its main point, and what conclusion or closing thought each one will have before moving onto writing those paragraphs themselves.