English essay writing tips very effective and essential are here. These tips help you to write an essay for all academic and degree class.Now you can writer consistently impressive essays.. Simple,practical tips and techniques help to write an essay for CSS, ILETS, TOFLE etc test preparation.
An Introduction
The term essay for examination purposes can be applied to a composition in which the writer states his knowledge of, and gives his opinions about, a certain topic. An essay, in this sense, will contain narrative and descriptive elements as well as comments and criticism representing the writer’s own point of view. Thus, an essay becomes a test, not only of knowledge, but of thought and imagination. It reflects the writer’s personality as well as his or her ability to weave disintegrated bits of information into a thread of unity
Essentials of a good Essay
- An essay must be a unity, developing one theme with a definite purpose.
- The essay should follow a certain ordered line of thought and come to a definite conclusion. The matter, the ideas/facts, should be arranged into an attractive design.
- The presentation of the matter should be clear. Language and sentence construction should be simple and lucid.
- An essay should reveal the personal feelings and opinions of the writer. However, idiosyncrasies had better not be expressed. Nor should extreme or dangerous opinions be expressed.
Stages in Essay Writing
It is undeniable that an important component of an essay is matter. Each subject requires something to be said about it. Lack of matter is a serious difficulty, and you must prepare yourself well before the examination to overcome it. Extensive reading is essential for you to become competent in writing essays. Books and articles on history, travel, biography, science and current social/ political/ economic issues are good sources of facts and ideas. You should develop a keen sense of observation. The life around you — what you see and hear and experience — is a valuable source material for essays. Conversation with friends will further help enrich your mind with ideas and knowledge. The general preparation, thus, involves broadening your mental horizons and cultivating the ability to think. Now we come to the actual work of writing the essay. This involves a number of steps, which are discussed below.
Define the scope of the subject
Read the title and think about the subject you have chosen. Ask yourself what the topic demands. Do not be misled by any one word in the title. The scope of an essay on “Pakistani Films.” is essentially different from the scope of an essay on “The Influence of Pakistani Films on |he Young”. Your essay will have to be of the prescribed, and there is no place in it for irrelevant matter. Having understood the revise scope of the subject, you must decide upon the point of view from which it is to be treated. It may be helpful to jot down the ideas, facts and .illustrations that pass through your mind as you think over the subject.
Make an outline
Arrange the facts and ideas according to some consistent principle of organization. You may go from the general to the specific or from the specific to the general, or you may develop your Say alone chronological lines. Your organization of ideas will, to a large extent, depend upon the subject of the essay. An outline will help you identify ideas which must be grouped together and those that must be rejected as irrelevant or repetitious. The outline will also give you an idea of what to develop in different paragraphs in the body of the essay.
Writing the Essay
An essay at the simplest level has three parts — the beginning, the middle (or the body), and the conclusion.
(a) The beginning or introduction must be effective, but brief. The first line should be explanatory of the idea without the heading’s help. Avoid beginnings which have nothing to do with the actual topic of the essay. The beginning may be a statement of a fact, a definition or explanation of the title, some unusual detail (which, however, is related to the subject) some incident leading up to the main topic, a firm statement of opinion, a quotation illustrating or leading to the main topic.
(b) The Body of the Essay or Development of Thought should consist of paragraphs dealing with the different aspects of the topic as jotted down in your outline. Due weight should be given to each part, in order to avoid an unbalanced effect. Generally, a paragraph may deal with one aspect; however, some aspects may require more than one paragraph. The essay will be written well if the paragraphs are well constructed and related to one another according to the direction of your outline. Construct a paragraph around a topic sentence. Avoid excessively long and excessively short paragraphs. Generally, a paragraph should not have less than four or more than eight sentences. Each paragraph should have unity and coherence; and the paragraphs in combination Should contribute to the effect of unity and coherence of the essay as a whole. In order to achieve unity; you must have a clear purpose. The first line may sum up the topic, or the Topic may be’ strongly implied through details in the entire paragraph — as in one of narrative or descriptive nature. Sentences should deal with details and ides relevant to the paragraph topic. As for coherence, it implies a logical arrangement of the details and ideas so that the reader knows how they are relevant to the topic. You must maintain a consistent point of view, and avoid unnecessary shifts in person, tense or number within a paragraph. Use a parallel grammatical structure. Repeat key words and phrases, with slight Modification to emphasize the major idea. Make use of various transitional phrases/words (such as again, furthermore, etc.) at or near the beginning of a sentence, to indicate its relation to the preceding one.
(c) The conclusion of an essay must be effective. An abrupt or feeble ending may mar the effect of the essay. Apologetic endings are to be avoided. Above all, the ending should not men on start upon some new aspect of the topic. In the conclusion, you may restate in a striking manner the mam point you want to drive home, or you may use a quotation to round off in cases this device essays, the ending may easily be a Logical conclusion drawn from the facts presented.
Style in writing in matter of style, it is practice. Grammatical knowledge is essential. Reading is bound to improve your vocabulary. You must develop the art of using the right word in the right place. Clarity in writing is a reflection of clarity in thinking; so be perfectly clear about what you want to say. Be sincere and simple in what you express; avoid bombastic language and elaborate metaphors. Use short sentences which are clear, compact and effective- However, do not become monotonous; vary the length and structure of the sentences now and again. You may begin sentences variously — with a verbal phrase, a prepositional phrase, a subordinate clause, for instance. You may occasionally vary the normal subject/verb/object pattern of sentences: instead of writing “The man jumped over the hedge” you may put, “Over the hedge, jumped the man”, if it is suitable in the context, of course. Interrogative or imperative sentences may be used at some places to be more effective than the usual statement. Avoid the temptation of loading your essays with statistics.
“If you wish to be a writer, write,” said Epictetus. “Anyone who wishes to become a good writer should endeavor to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid,” said W. H. Fowler. An examination essay further demands that you express yourself well within the limitations of space and time.
Some Do’s
Below are given a few useful, positive hints for the students to try to follow, before and while they write an essay.
(a) Put down as many points as you can, touching the different sides of a given subject. Let each Such point carries a new idea. This will help you in being sure that you have left out nothing important about it.
(b) Arrange those points in their regular order. You may or you may not actually write all the points in the body of the essay.
(c) For every essay that you try, have a sort of an introduction at the beginning of the essay and also a brief conclusion at its end. I had call
(d) Build a paragraph on each point. At times a point may have only one sentence. It is yet a paragraph. But do not use this device too often.
(e) Try to touch the subject proper of an essay at the earliest possible stage, if not in the very beginning. To linger long in the introduction is not helpful. The reader or the examiner may lose his patience otherwise.
(f) Begin every new paragraph a little on the right side of the page.
(g) Every new sentence must begin with a capital first letter and end with a full point.
(h) Every common noun in the singular must have an article.
Some Don’ts
Similarly, there are certain “don’ts” which the students may advantageously remember while writing an essay.
(a) Don’t write a very lengthy introduction. .
(b) Don’t lose sight of the subject of your essay. Every new sentence that you write must be concerning your subject.
(c) Don’t use a phrase or an idiom about whose correctness and utility you are not sure.
(d) Don’t use any uncommon or difficult word the meaning of which you do not know.
(e) Don’t use the same word both in the Singular and Plural in the same sentence.
(f) Don’t be afraid of writing a few words more or less than the number required by the examiner. What is important is your sincere attempt made to discuss the subject in all possible ways. No sensible examiner would care for the exact number of words set down.
(g) Don’t refer to a fact or an event unless you are sure of it.
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