The Process of Writing an Essay

The Process of Writing An Essay

Do you know how to write an essay? Writing an essay could be easy or hard. Some students cannot do it well and that is why they hate it. You can find the writing as something interesting and important for your own future. If you do not know how to write an essay, there are several steps that you can follow. There are three basic steps to write an essay; discovering a topic, supporting the thesis, and editing the essay. Through these steps, you can write an effective and clear essay.

First of all, you need to get some information and materials to discover a thesis and a topic sentence. For example, you can use prewriting, which can be freewriting, making a list, and questioning (Langan 23-32). The freewriting technique is to help you write sentences or phrases without worrying about spelling or grammar mistakes. Freewriting is a good way to overcome mental blocks about writing. You can also learn the habit of thinking how to start writing a rough draft. Another helpful technique is making a list, also known as brainstorming. You start writing ideas and details that relate to your subject. Brainstorming can help you put the ideas in chronological order. Questioning is also a good method to find ideas and details. For example, questioning yourself such questions include Why? When? Who? And How? (Langan 23-32). Asking these questions can be an effective way of getting yourself to think about specific topics.

Secondly, the next step is supporting the thesis. Usually, you need three supporting paragraphs and those can be the body parts of the essay. You should organize adequate and specific details. Supporting paragraphs consist of concrete evidence such as giving examples, getting direct quotes, and personal experiences (Langan 55). Each one has the importance of making the essay clearer. Now you have an outline of the essay. Then you arrange an introductory and concluding paragraph based on the thesis. On the other hand, using opposing ideas or questions in the introduction is one way to make the essay more interesting, because it gets the interest of the reader (Langan 87-89).

Finally, you should edit your essay for its contents and style. Editing is one of the important stages of the writing process. It is as important as prewriting, outlining, and drafting. Revising includes checking the structure, the grammatical accuracy, and the contents of the paper (Langan