Writing an academic essay is a sum of various elements. So, just what are you going to need?
Writing an essay is a challenge; there are no two ways about it. Not only because it requires thorough research; it also requires sheer focus. That’s why many writers struggle with writing such essays in today’s world.
However, you don’t have to overcomplicate the process to write an intriguing essay. Understanding a few key elements can help you write an academic paper with ease if you have writing skills. All you need to do is focus on the process.
However, a variety of necessary ingredients go into cooking a perfect essay. So, it’s essential to understand them all, then create a systematic process, which makes it easier for the writer to compose their content. So, let’s find out just how to do it.
7-Step Process Of Writing An Essay
Breaking a writing process into multiple phases is an ever-reliable tactic of making it easy. However, since an academic essay needs to be of top quality, we will focus on keeping the integrity and originality of the content intact.
Because making something easy doesn’t necessarily mean you need to compromise on the quality. The following process will make the process of writing an essay easy. Still, it will push you to make it better and ensure its optimal rate.
So, let’s break it into various steps, including gathering ideas, research material, using a tool to make it better and ensure readability. So, let’s begin.
1. Explore Your Ideas
The first thing we’re going to do is find the subject idea. You need to ensure your essay’s unique nature, but it also needs to be something that a reader can grasp. So, how do you go about finding ideas?
A common query on Google is “Travel experiences” for essay topics. However, we do need to make the idea unique. What we did here was search “travel experience essay” to find various ideas. Then, we scrolled all the way down, so let’s see what else Google has in store for us:
Just by searching a simple term, you can generate three different ideas:
- Green: You can write an essay about a personal travel experience
- Red: An essay regarding traveling to a specific location country—could be based on personal experience too
- Orange: A story you wish to tell from a time you traveled. Or, you can write multiple stories within an essay
A simple search on Google can help you generate an array of ideas. So, once you do search for something like this, explore your ideas. Try to personalize them and focus on how you can make them relatable.
2. Research The Subject
Pick a subject that you cannot write from experience or don’t necessarily have an opinion of. You will have to research the subject. So, just how will you go about doing that?
Let’s say our topic looks like this:
“Travel Experiences in the Philippines“
Then, you need to make sure you research the opinions of the people who have traveled there. So, you will gather necessary information, such as:
- Take Notes: You might find information on travel websites, blogs, etc. Take notes of what they say
- Save The Links: You might have to cite the sources for added credibility. So, save the links.
- Ask Someone Who Has Traveled There: The best way to write an essay about something you don’t have any personal experience with is by asking someone who does. So, ask someone who has traveled to the Philippines and note down what they say
These three essentials can assist you in writing unique essays each time. Moreover, they’ll help you find the substance for the essay’s main body.
Also Read: How Writers Can Compose Unique Articles For Blogs
3. Write An Outline
Before you start churning out words, you will have to create an outline. This outline will be your pathway that you’ll walk all the way to the essay’s conclusion. An outline is essential because it helps keep you on track and build a proper structure.
So, let’s start with the most obvious:
- Heading
The title or the heading of your article will be your lead. However, it does need to give your reader a glimpse of what you’re about to tell them. So, make sure it’s short, all-inclusive, but straightforward.
- Subheadings
To help your reader peruse the essay conveniently, it’s imperative that you focus on subheadings. Breaking down sections of your essay will help you immensely.
So, let’s say you write a travel blog; here’s how to do it:
- 2 – What Made Manila Special For Me In the Philippines
- 3 – Foods That I thoroughly Enjoyed In the Philippines
As you can see, these two subheadings are still about traveling. However, they both convey two very different experiences. So, try to break the subheadings like this.
4. Write The Essay
Now that your outline is ready, you will have to begin writing. However, a writer might start composing excessive content with any type of essay. Or something that’s not very precise or clear.
So, how do you ensure its clarity? Let’s break it down into three phases:
- Clear
The clarity of your sentences will help a reader understand what you’re trying to say. If you’re not very clear, then it’ll be a problem.
So, let’s say our sentence is something vague like this:
“My experience in Manila was the best because I was able to meet a lot of people and see many good places.”
This sentence has no structure, punctuations nor is it clear. However, you’re going to write a lot of sentences like that in a hurry. That’s why it’s okay to seek assistance from a tool. So, let’s use Essay Rewriter to try and make it clear:
As you can see, the right-side (rewritten content) is vastly different from the left-side (original content). This proves that using a tool can make your content clearer.
- Defined
Your content needs to be defined. In other words, leave nothing to the reader’s interpretation—you’re not writing a thriller story; you’re writing an essay.
So, an undefined sentence would be like this:
“The people there helped me through with this problem. That’s why I will gladly go back to this place.”
This sentence is very vague and has no context to it. Let’s try to fix that:
“The people of Manila helped me find a good hotel. Because of their kindness, I will gladly go back to the Philippines.”
You can see the underlined words in the above sentence make it much more precise and defined.
Also Read: Resolve Your Copywriting Challenges With Essay Rewriter
5. Work On Readability
You will have to work on the readability of your content. The easier your reader peruses your content, the better it will be.
So, let’s see what an unreadable sentence looks like:
“I was so tired and I was traveling for six days a week and that’s why it was important that I find a good hotel quickly but I didn’t know where to begin.”
This sentence is not readable at all. It has the same problem mentioned before—it’s not defined nor clear.
Let’s find Essay Rewriter’s assistance once more:
As you can notice, the readability in the rephrased section is much better. The sentence now has punctuations, the break at the right time, and an emphasis on the subject—finding a good hotel quickly.
6. Edit Your Draft – Proofread
Not everyone can write a perfect essay on their first try. That’s why many people draft different essays before submission, but it all depends on the importance. If you’re writing it for academic purposes, then you must fix any mistakes before that.
So, here are a few things you need to do:
- Proofread: Proofread thoroughly and make sure you find any unwanted errors.
- Fix Grammatical Errors: Grammatical or spelling errors will hinder the essay’s quality—get rid of them.
- Improve Structure: Improve the structure of the article. Switch subheadings if you have to, and make sure sentences aren’t long and no passages/paragraphs surpass three sentences.
7. Source Citation
Source citation is a necessity, especially since you need to avoid plagiarism. An opinion-based article seldom needs to do this since it stems out of personal experiences. However, research-based essays require citation of the sources—especially quotes, statistics, facts, etc.
So, make sure you learn citations such as MLA, Chicago, IEE, APA, etc. Or you can use citation machine to cite the original source. Doing this will help you avoid any plagiarism whatsoever. Moreover, it will also increase the legitimacy and informative value of your writing.
Final Words
These basic steps can help you write a good essay without any hindrance. All you have to do is focus on your subject and its clear-cut delivery. Then, make sure you keep it simple and cite your sources to avoid any plagiarism.