stanford essay tips

stanford essay tips

Effective Essay Writing: Strategies and Tips for Success

1. Introduction to Essay Writing

Successful essay writing requires certain essay-writing skills. The student is actively involved in the learning and becomes a good writer through good writing. An important element of the skills developed during the essay writing process is the ability to write focused, concise, and coherent essays. While there is extensive guidance on writing for others, learning to write effectively is most successful and most rewarding when situated in genuine purposes for writing. Learners become writers by using their writing in situations that are relevant to everyday life. Writing becomes purposeful and enjoyable when it has an authentic audience and meaningful outcomes. The research is unequivocal: clarity, coherence, logic, depth, and overall appropriateness of essay structure greatly affect overall evaluation. Moreover, literature reviews show that effective essays tend to follow a systematic essay writing process and conform to an organized essay structure.

In this module, you will be working with the skills of writing an effective essay. The essay is a piece of writing which is written to a prompt that includes an introduction, thesis, body, and conclusion. An essay may have three or more body paragraphs. Although there are many help guides available to the student in the writing process, most teachers recognize the significance of a basic structure for successful essay writing. It starts with deciding what to write; it includes generating relevant ideas; structuring an essay to meet different purposes; it moves through drafting and revising; and it concludes with a polished final draft. Using essay organization strategies, such as discussing the order of importance and the use of sub details to support generalizations, will help to ensure that information is presented in an understandable and logical order.

2. Crafting a Strong Thesis Statement

Your essay must have a thesis because, one, many readers expect a specific type of paper; two, your “great idea” requires a big discovery, and three, it should stimulate the rest of your writing. If you do not have a solid, something-about-which-everyone-else-(people who still agree or disagree with you)-are-curious thesis statement to tell your reader to expect something exciting and informative claimed in the body of your essay, your earlier planned conclusion will, too, be structurally lacking.

All facts pertinent to the essay’s thesis or claim should present themselves in its body. If they don’t, they are irrelevant and their inclusion could confuse your reader. Each time your essay’s goal (establish a fact, make a claim, provide examples) changes, so should your plan, your argument, and eventually, your thesis. Your thesis should revise accordingly until your ultimate final draft.

The thesis statement should enhance your audience’s judgment of your paper. It should get them excited about your paper topic and inspire them to want to learn more about what you have to say. It should instill a great deal of confidence in your essay and your view of the topic. A solid thesis statement provides a convincing argument and is well argued. It gives you the rest of the essay structurally and thematically. If you have a solid thesis statement, you have a map.

History paper: The thesis statement is your key to developing a successful essay. Good thesis statements define your general idea and inform a targeted audience of your main point, theme, or claim. It is your strongest argument—your shiniest rhetorical archery. The rest of your essay should expand on and develop your primary claim.

3. Structuring Your Essay

Develop a strong, clear body. You may want to do this in many ways, depending on the topic of your essay. What’s important is to organize it logically and fully, and to provide plenty of evidence and support. In high school, you generally worked to the five-paragraph essay format, which generally gave you three body paragraphs. That structure can work fine for college essays, too, but college writing often requires more sustained work, whether that means further digging into your essay’s thesis and evidence or promoting some other, more subtle configuration. Keep it working toward your support of your overall argument. If a paragraph doesn’t do that work, you probably just don’t need it.

Start with a good introduction paragraph. Don’t fluff it up with “filler” that only serves to show off your vocabulary. Instead, provide a clear thesis statement in the first paragraph of your essay. This should tell your reader exactly what your paper is about (and often an essay prompt will explicitly tell you to include your thesis as at least the last sentence of your introduction, and maybe even point you toward a tone and style to use).

The general structure of an essay may seem familiar; teachers have certainly been instructing students in essay organization for generations. But the requirements for academic writing have changed. In college environments, students are typically encouraged to use a more formal essay structure patterned after the essay form. Here’s what students who work with me learn about how to structure an effective college essay to meet the complex criteria of a college assignment:

4. Developing Compelling Arguments and Evidence

You also have to consider which type of evidence is best for the type of essay you are writing. In general, there are two types of evidence, that is, primary and secondary. The best argumentative paper should also consider the views of the opposition. Besides, one should include only those arguments that can be directly countered. Ensure that any evidence presented is from credible sources, that is, from the most up-to-date databases and book collections. Furthermore, its accuracy should be highly evaluated before creation.

Regardless of the course or the assignment, you have to apply evidence-based information to support your arguments. Many students see it as a job – to cut and paste information from various sources. This is not to say that background information is not crucial, but it should not be so general that it does not effectively lead to the development and understanding of your thesis. When deciding on the type and amount of evidence to include, your major purpose should be to ensure that the reader can understand. Supporting evidence needs to be integrated, not presented as a list of “vendor” statements. This evidence usually involves the inclusion or integration of summaries, paraphrases, representative details, and direct quotation.

5. Polishing Your Essay: Editing and Revising Techniques

Pay attention to the introduction and conclusion. Review the opening statement of a body paragraph to make sure it adequately introduces the argument it covers. Remember that the introduction is a kind of “map” to the essay, letting readers know what your essay covers and how the information is arranged. Consider revising your introduction after finishing the body of the essay to make sure ideas and information are properly introduced. Then, look at the conclusion. Do you need to offer a meaningful closing statement?

Look at the overall organization. After you have organized your ideas and written them together within appropriate classification, make sure all the body paragraphs are in a logical order. Are your transitions clear and effective? The test of a good piece of work is whether the reader can move easily and logically from one idea or section to the next.

Be sure the topic is appropriate; check for unity. Read over your essay to see if the language, items, and supporting materials fit the assignment. Check to see that each of your body paragraphs is focused on one topic or argument.

The importance of a polished essay cannot be overemphasized. However, the process of drafting, writing, and revising an essay takes time. If you allow yourself enough time, the tasks of editing and revising will not seem quite so arduous. When you begin focusing on the final refinement, consider the following general suggestions: