Essential Elements of Good Essay

General Guidelines

• Powerful writing includes clarity and simplicity that compels the attention of the reader.
• Compelling prose shares 2 fundamental attributes

1. Flow-Each previous sentence must be the foundation of the succeeding sentence you are going to make.
2. Coherence- Readers look for unifying ideas underlying themes in each paragraph. This unifying idea makes the paragraph coherent.
3. Coherent paragraph has 2 parts

• Starting sentence- That briefly introduces the key topic
• Body of sentence-Which discusses the topic mentioned in 1st sentence

Eliminate wordy sentence and paragraph

• The key to decrease wordiness is writing simply and directly.
• Each word should have a specific purpose: just get to the point and use as few words as possible to make your point.
• Write in active voice
• Use parallel writing- Means keeping things the same throughout the sentence. It means nouns, adjectives, adverbs,verbs must be in the same form.

Preparation before writing

Make an outline

1. make a rough structure of your essay- intro, body, and conclusion-along with subheadings. Fit in your ideas under this heads and weave your narratives
2. Outlines keep your idea organized, with no repetition.

How to achieve it?-

• List out all the points which you are going to make.
• After making those points, think about the proper order of these points.

Write a thesis sentence

• It explains the purpose of writing essay.
• It should guide your thinking about rest of essay.
• It should be broad enough to cover topics , but specific enough to give a sense of what essay is all about.
• Make it simple and to the point

Write a topic sentence for each paragraph

• Think about what kind of points you want to make in each of those paragraphs.

During Writing

Write an introduction that works

• Establish the context of your essay.
• Clearly state what the essay is all about.
• Give a reader sense of the point which you will be making.

Points to keep in mind

A well-crafted introduction creates urgency and curiosity in the mind of reader, a brief idea of what is coming ahead, and makes your audience waiting for more.

A good intro must

• Generate interest in the reader.
• Must be relevant to the question
• Must be concise

Body sentence

• The body paragraph should be focused.
• Don’t make the mistake of putting too many ideas in one paragraph.
• The paragraph needs to focus on only one topic
• The topic sentence clearly states that topic
• All other sentences in that paragraph support or explain that topic
• When you change to a new idea, begin a new paragraph.

2 Parts

• Elaboration- elaborate sentence in various contexts and amplify given sentence. Substantiating each context with examples will make the essay more persuasive
• Analysis- After elaboration, comes analysis-deals with what, when, and how of the topic.

Things you must consider

• Get to the point as soon as possible
• Elaborate on that point- you must fully explain/defend/support your topic sentence.
• Essays must have a smooth flow from one paragraph to the next.
• Capture the evolution of subject from its origin to its current status to the future roadmap

Transition between paragraph

• Through a link sentence- Write a sentence that signals to the reader what is coming next.
• Asking questions, which will be explained in the next sentence.
• Signaling the shift at the start of the next paragraph.

Conclusion

• Be sure the conclusion connects to your introduction
• Don’t introduce new information or new detail
• a conclusion should address your entire argument, not elaborate specific points.

Write Powerful final sentence

It can either

• Leave the reader with something to think about.
• Reiterate a point.
• Try to persuade the reader.