Want to know the ultimate solution to how to write an essay? Here is my tried and tested essay-writing method to ensure you get top marks every time!
Knowing how to write an essay can be really challenging, but it’s a skills you have to know for so many subjects. This article details the method I used through GCSEs, A levels and a degree in English Literature and History, and it saved me SO much time and stress!
You are going to learn about essay-writing tips, from a look at paragraph structure to the overall structure every essay must have.
I’m depressingly over-qualified to talk about essay-writing, having spent the last half a decade or so writing them every other week… Hopefully, my suffering might limit yours!
This article is all about how to write an essay.
How to Write an Essay
The Three Tenets of Essay-Writing
If you take away nothing else from this article, remember these Three Tenets of Essay-Writing:
- Focus
- Structure
- Precision
If you focus on these three tenets, your essays will improve dramatically. Here’s a bit more info on how to implement them.
1. Focus
Learning how to focus your essays is the first big thing you have to learn. Luckily, it’s very easy! All you have to do is repeat the key words in the question, and their synonyms, A LOT.
2. Structure
Now comes the hard part – structuring an essay can be very confusing! We’ll go into a lot more detail down below, but for now, just remember you need an introduction, main body (three or four paragraphs) and a conclusion.
3. Precision
Precision is really just knowing your topic very well. If you are writing an English Literature essay, know your quotes and references; if you are writing a History essay, know your facts and figures.
A Deep Dive into Essay Structure
Of the three tenets, essay structure is probably the trickiest to grasp. The key here is planning, which can seriously elevate your mark. When you first see your essay question, spend at least five minutes deciding what your paragraphs are going to be about and then picking quotes or statistics to fit into each one. Here’s an example of a possible essay plan, answering the question ‘To what extent was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand the most significant cause of World War I?’
- Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
By Gavrilo Princip (Black Hand group) on 28th June 1914
Caused July Crisis and declarations of war
Trigger for the war – would war have happened without it?
2. Nationalism
Assassin was Bosnian-Serb against Austro-Hungarian dominant power
Russia supported Serbia because of shared Slavic heritage
Linked to militarism + imperialistic competition between Germany and Britain
3. Alliance system
Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia)
Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy)
Italy didn’t join, so perhaps alliances less important?
Not cause of war, but did make it a world war
As you can see, I have used coloured text to show a few links between my paragraphs – you can use highlighters or arrows to show this in your essay plans. These links are another excellent way of getting structure marks.
Note also that the first paragraph should directly address the issue given in the question. Leave your other points to your later paragraphs.
Once you have worked out your essay structure, stick to it like a limpet! If you feel yourself discussing something that isn’t in your plan, cross it out immediately – as it will only end up losing you marks for weak structure.
The Ideal Paragraph Structure
If you want a detailed dive into how to structure a paragraph, have a look at this article:
However, I will give you a few tips on structuring a paragraph here, as this is a key part of essay-writing.
Essentially, each paragraph should be a mini essay, beginning with an introductory sentence, establishing your key topic, and ending with concluding sentence, summing up your overall argument. Here’s an example of an introductory sentence, or a lead point:
It is arguable that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the most significant cause of World War I.
And here’s a concluding sentence:
Overall, it seems clear that the assissination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a key cause of World War I.
Note that they are VERY similar – the only differences are that I began my paragraph with the vague ‘arguable’ and ended it with the confident ‘it seems clear that’, and that a lessened the ‘most significant cause’ comment to ‘a key cause’, reflecting the fact that I don’t believe it was the most significant cause.
Fill out the rest of your paragraph with repeated PEE structures, which stands for Point, Evidence, Explain. The most important part of the PEE structure is the final E, Explain – make sure you do this for every single point you make!
The Ideal Introduction
You DO NOT need to stress about introductions and conclusions – they’re a lot easier than you might think. Here’s an example of an introduction based on my essay plan above.
It is arguable that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the most significant cause of World War I, triggering the crisis. However, rampant nationalism and the alliance system were also key long-term causes in heightening tension and widening the scope of the conflict, suggesting these were also significant causes of World War I.
Here’s a breakdown of what I have done in this introduction:
Words in red show ambiguity and that I recognise this isn’t clear-cut.
Blue shows my three paragraphs in the order I’ll be addressing them in my main body.
Green shows where I have referenced the question.
Purple shows my brief analytical comment, which gives a vague indication of what my argument in each paragraph will be.
The Ideal Conclusion
And here’s how I would write a conclusion to that essay question.
Overall, it is clear that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the trigger cause of World War I. However, it seems that nationalism was a more significant root cause of tension, whilst the alliance system widened the scope of the conflict beyond a regional war, suggesting that these two causes were more significant in causing World War I.
Same colour scheme as above, which will hopefully help you see the similarities between them. Only two changes:
Dark blue shows that I am summing up my argument and having a clear viewpoint.
Purple is now a little longer and more detailed, reflecting the increased detail I have now explored.
And there we have it! This is the ideal method for writing essays, from how to plan your answer, to building your main body, to the ideal introduction and conclusion. I hope it serves you well!
This article was all about how to write an essay.
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