Writing an essay is an integral part of your learning process. At Harvard, or the beginning of your professional life, you are supposed to write essays on topics which apply to your course work. But how do you set about it? This blog will explain how to write an essay in simple terms. It follows the Harvard College Essay Writing Center. Let’s begin your journey to learn to write essays. We’ll follow the Harvard College essay writing center. This pattern is also used by one of the well-known top essay writing services in the United Kingdom.
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Examine the essay question with attention.
The most crucial thing one does when writing an essay is analyzing the question in close detail; failure to do so often means that you will also fail in your essay as you won’t know what your professor wants. Read the instructions before beginning work on any paper. This will tell you whether your topic meets its expectations for content and style.
Check if there are any requirements for formatting or length. If so, you should follow them exactly as instructed.
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Do proper research.
Writing an essay calls for proper research. You have got to know what you are talking about. Researchers should use a good number of reliable sources in their work. A good research paper will rely on facts, not assumptions or personal experience. Research is fundamental to writing a great essay. The more information you explore and find about your topic. The better your essay will be. If you are not sure where to start, ask yourself these following questions:
What are my topic and essay requirements? Why does this subject matter affect me? What do I already know about this topic? How can I use what I already know in my paper?
Once you’ve answered those questions and know what to write, take the time to learn about your topic.
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Map Your Essay to Help Stimulate Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking means looking at a problem from many angles. Map the points or arguments in your essay so you can see the logical connections between them. Mapping allows you to see where various parts of your argument fit together. It helps keep them focused on specific topics. It does this by structuring what may be a disorganized mess of ideas (or a vague outline).
Essay maps plan your essay. They focus on its major sections, not small paragraphs. They help you expect the points that an essay needs to make for it to succeed. They also worry about the major arguments our essays should make. Previous assignments and research form the basis for this. It’s important to make sure that the essay map is clear and easy for you to navigate through as the writing goes on.
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Create a thesis statement.
A thesis statement is the essential part of a Harvard College essay. Since it contains main argument of your essay, it must be clear, concise, and persuasive. Use the present tense while writing. It sounds like you are discussing something happening now. You must back it with evidence from your primary sources. It should also reflect your essay’s title.
The thesis statement should be brief, but not too narrow or too broad. A thesis sentence is a topic sentence. It should summarize what you will say in each paragraph or section of this paper. A thesis statement is the central idea of an argument or point one seeks to prove. It must be clear and concise and at the same time, it should summarize your argument in one sentence. In other words we may say, it should explain what you are trying to prove and why it is so important.
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Summarizing Your Main Arguments and Writing an Introduction
The introduction is your paper’s first paragraph. It should provide a clear and concise summary of your main arguments. Make it interesting and engaging. It must be relevant to the essay question and audience, and also realistic.
Your intro should state who the audience is. Then, explain why they should care about your essay. It should have enough detail for readers to know what to expect.
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Begin with the body and work paragraph by paragraph.
You should organize the body of your essay around a series of points. Each point has evidence. An explanation or conclusion follows each point. This brings the reader back to the introduction.
The first step to a great essay is to ensure you have enough evidence for every point in your argument. You can do this by writing what you know about the topic. Then, go find more information about it!
Craft a strong body paragraph that centers on a single main idea or perspective. A good body paragraph should summarize your introduction’s first main point. And then go on to explain or expand upon it in more detail and with examples from your research.
Introduce an issue or problem in the body paragraph and explain it. Then analyze possible solutions that could help solve this problem. Ensure that your research supports all these ideas with facts! Don’t forget about formatting references (and citations) either. These are crucial for helping readers understand how credible your sources are!
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Write a comparative analysis.
Comparative analysis is a type of academic writing. It compares two or more pieces of information to understand their relationships. To write an essay for Harvard College, you must know how to write a comparative analysis. Use this type of essay when you are comparing two things or people.
Start by finding the similarities between your topic and the topic you are analyzing.
- List those similarities in a table.
- Write a short introduction that explains why your topic is important and what it adds to the world.
Then, compare your topics in a paragraph. Explain how they differ or are similar. Also, discuss what those differences mean for society, culture, or humanity.
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Conclude by restating your thesis.
The final step of writing an essay is to restate your thesis and conclusions clearly and memorably. The best way to do this is to summarize your main arguments. Then, add a conclusion that summarizes the essay’s key points.
Your conclusion should explain how your evidence supports your thesis. It should also explain why it does and if there are gaps in your argument, use spaces to explain. You can also address any weak arguments.
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Edit your writing to check spelling and grammar.
Now it’s time to edit, once you have finished writing your essay. Editing your work is vital. It makes the writing error-free and coherent. This process will upgrade your essay-writing skills.
When editing, there are some simple rules that you should follow:
- Spell check
- Grammar check (this includes capital letters, punctuation marks, and italics).
- Be consistent with tense (i.e., past or present tense).
- Be consistent with spelling and grammar used throughout the entire document (e.g., use ‘and’ not ‘an’).
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End Note
In conclusion, students must know that college success hinges on writing quality essays. The essay should be informative, detailed, and also well-organized. It should cover all the parameters of writing: grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure. To do so, take your time and conduct some research before you have even begun to write anything. Once you have an outline of your essay, all else will fall into place. Good luck!