When it comes to academic writing, there are many different types of essay assignments. Some professors may ask you to respond to a reading with a brief summary. Others may want you to analyze a book with several paragraphs of commentary. Still others might ask you to write a response paper exploring an argument or topic. While the details of your various essay assignments may vary, the general process for writing an essay stays the same across all types of essays. In this post, we’ll break down the 10 stages of essay writing and explain why it’s so important in ensuring your final product is both organized and effective.
Contents
Stage 1: Know Your Assignment
Essay writing, at its core, is a process of communicating ideas. That means the first step in writing an effective essay is to understand what you are expected to communicate. The professor will have provided you with some general instructions that will let you know what kind of essay you need to write. You’ll also want to take a look at the course syllabus to see if there are any special instructions that apply to this specific essay assignment.
Stage 2: Choose a Topic and Argument
Essay assignments usually give you a specific topic or prompt to write about. If your instructor hasn’t given you a topic, you may want to brainstorm some ideas and see if any of them would work for the assignment. When choosing a topic, you’ll want to select something that is both interesting to you and relevant to the course material. This will help you stay motivated and engaged as you write. The next step in writing an essay is deciding on an argument, or thesis, that you will make as you write your paper. It should also be something that you can back up with evidence from your research.
Stage 3: Do Research
The best essays are informed by research, not personal experience. The best way to approach this step is to first identify your topic and thesis. Next, you’ll want to brainstorm potential sources for information. Most college research papers will require you to use scholarly sources, not just Wikipedia. You also want to make sure not to plagiarize by citing all of your sources. To help you follow these steps, you may want to consider using an online essay writing service such as SmartWritingService. These essay writing companies allow students to hire professional academic writers who can help you conduct research and craft strong arguments for your essay.
Stage 4: Write an Outline
At some point in the process, you’ll want to create an outline for your essay. An outline is a roadmap for the rest of your writing process. It will help you organize your thoughts and create a logical flow for your paper. You may want to write your outline first and then write your essay, or you may want to write your outline in parts, stage by stage, as you go along. In either case, an outline will help you stay focused and ensure your essay is structured and systematic.
Stage 5: Develop Your Thesis
With your outline written, you can now focus on developing your thesis. Your thesis should be the main point you want to communicate in your essay. It should be specific and should focus on the topic you’ve been assigned. Your thesis should be debatable, meaning other people would find your thesis to make a valid and logical argument. You also want to make sure your thesis is not too general. The best theses are specific and focused on the topic at hand.
Stage 6: Draft Your Essay
With your thesis and outline in place, you can now start drafting your essay. Your essay is where all of your hard work comes together. It’s where you put all the pieces together to create a single, cohesive paper. Your first step in drafting your essay should be to read through your outline and mark each section with a number corresponding to where it should go in your essay. This will help you stay organized and make sure you don’t leave any parts out.
Stage 7: Revise and Edit for Accuracy and Precision
As you go through the drafting process, you’ll undoubtedly make mistakes. Now is the time to go back through your essay and make any corrections or edits that are needed. Once you’ve corrected any errors, you want to spend some time reviewing your essay for style and precision.
Stage 8: Final Editing for Style and Accuracy
You’ll want to spend some time tweaking the style of your essay. This includes everything from the punctuation to the tone of your writing. You’ll also want to read through your essay and make any final edits for accuracy. This means you’ll want to comb through your essay one last time to make sure you’ve cited all of your sources and your essay accurately reflects the ideas you’re trying to communicate.
Stage 9: Wrapping Up
Once you’ve finished editing and revising your essay, the final step is to wrap it up. You’ll want to end your essay on a strong note by tying your thesis back into the essay and making sure your essay as a whole is cohesive. You’ll also want to make sure to use proper formatting and include any required citations and other necessary elements that will help your essay earn a good grade from your professor.
Stage 10: Reflect
Finally, make sure you spend some time reflecting on your essay-writing process. What could you do better next time? Did you feel like the essay flowed well? Did it present your arguments in a logical, easy-to-follow way? These questions will help you improve your essay-writing process for future assignments. And with practice, you can build a strong, successful academic writing process that will help you succeed in any class.