Key Points.

We’re finally at the end of our essay-writing process! A lot of work goes into writing a quality piece. In the prewriting stage, we began by:

1. Figuring out what to write about,
2. Gathering information,
3. Brainstorming,
4. Drafting your thesis statement, and
5. Creating an outline.

Then, while writing, we paid careful attention to the content of each paragraph:

     VI.   Drafting

1. Introduction

   i.   Background and context

   ii.   Thesis statement

2. Body Paragraphs – (Each body paragraph should have all of these parts!)

   i.   Topic sentence

   ii.   Details

   iii.   Analysis

   iv.   Concluding sentence

3. Conclusion

   i.   Restate the main point

   ii.   Leave your reader with something to chew on.

Finally, after completing a draft, we spent some time making sure everything really said what we wanted to say by carefully Revising the essay’s content:

1. Content and organization – Take a look at what’s really on the page. Ask yourself: Are you answering the prompt? Are you saying what you meant to say? Can your reader follow your ideas easily?
2. Sentence and word-level revisions – Clean up your writing for clarity. Make sure your transitions, grammar, word choice, and sentence structure are all easily understandable. Make sure your citations and formatting are correct.

 

And you’re finished!

Writing an essay doesn’t have to be a chore. It does take time and effort, but at the heart of it, an essay is your chance to make a contribution to the academic body of knowledge as a whole.

Try not to think of it as cruel and unusual punishment—it’s your time to show off what you know, what you’ve discovered through research and analysis. It’s your chance to choose exactly the words you want to use and organize them just how you want to.

It’s not easy, no. But if it were, it wouldn’t be worth much.

And by the end of this whole process, you’ve got a piece of scholarship you can be proud of creating.