How to Write an Essay
Checklist | Essay
O Catchy Title
O Thesis
O Topic Sentences
O Citations (in-text + biblio)
O Good vocabulary
O Proper MLA Format
O Essay is in Chronological Order
O Essay Follows Essay Format
O 2-3 Quotes per Body Paragraph
O Is it logical?
O Is the arguement supported?
O is it submitted to turnitin?
Start off your essay with a universal statement or truth. This should be a statement that does not state anything about the works and does not argue anything. Typically this is somethig relateable that most agree with.
Introdue your author and works, and give a brief summary of what the work is about. allow this to be 3-4 sentences
the most important part of the essay is your thesis. It is the main arguement for your essay and gives purpose for every topic sentece with poof provided in your essay. If you have been given a topic, The thesis will usually argue the why factor in the topic. An example of this may be the topic: Macbeth ends the play alone, provide deatils and reasons for this. An arguement one may provide would be: Macbeth ends the play alone because he pushes away all of the loving people in his life. From there you would have to provide examples of how he pushed them away.
I would suggest that you make the Introduction very interesting and catchy. Use a thesaurus to help your vocabulary.
Start off your Body Paragraphs with a topic sentence. The topic sentence should support your thesis. allow this to be anywhere from 1-3 sentences
Give context, a quote and the value of the quote as proof. The value of the quote is the most important, this explains why the quote you chose is important to the topic sentence. Repeat this process 2-3 times.
The last part of a body Paragraph is connecting your proof (e.i quotes) and your topic sentence to your thesis. This is important to the reader knows why the peice of information is relevent to the arguement. You may also leave a sentence for transition to the next paragraph. Essays should flow and have meaningful proof to elicit feelings or create a better understanding of a topic for a reader.
As always, cite your work, use academic style words and refrain from rambling or restating proof.
Start of your Conclusion by restating your thesis in different words from the introduction.
Fill the middle of your Conclusion by briefly touching on each of the topic sentences. This is to give the reader a refresher of what you talked about throught your essay. Do not just state the topic sentences, let if flow like a story. (E.i. : Macbeth pushed away his wife, his loyal friend Banquo, and all of the good people in Scotland.)
End off your Conclusion by restating your universal truth. Rephrase and acknowledge how this universal truth is demonstated in the works.
Checklist | MLA Format
O Name, Teacher, Course Code, Date
O Double Spaced
O No extra spaces between lines of different type
O Indented paragraphs (tab button)
O Times New Roman
O Pages numbered starting on second page.
O Works Cited
O Hanging Citation
O Citations from A-Z (alphbetized)
O Catchy Title
O In-text citations
O Remove hyperlinks for cites.
Chronological Order in your essay is key. To make the reader understand your arguement better, you must first establish a stories beginning before you talk about the end.
An example of this may be Lady Macbeth's tranistion from malevolent to niave and mentally ill. First, one would need to establish why she was so villianous and evil, before one can say that she was niave and scared.
Having a back story in your essay shows that you know your audience as well. Your teacher is your audience in this case, but he or she will want you to give them a summary of the story to get a better idea of what the story is.
Remember to change the style of cite to APA 6th edition
For when your Essay is complete
Enhance your vocabulary