writing good essays...?

Question

what is a sure way to get a good grade on an essay?

Answer 1

Know what your teacher requires and then produce it. If you are not sure ask then do the assignment otherwise you will be just speculating. You could also read over examples that have got the highest grade and see what features they had.

Answer 2

There are a number of things to consider when writing an essay which will make it more appealing to the reader. While these points will not guarantee a good grade, they will help you compose a better paper by ensuring that it is formatted correctly.

The first thing to think about is the topic of your essay. What exactly are you writing about, and what point do you intend to make? It doesn't matter what the subject is or what stance you take, as long as you understand the direction you want to go. Then you have to think about your audience. Who will read this essay? Why will they be interested in the topic you're writing about? This will influence your choice of words -- if you intend to write an essay about the benefits of vegetarianism and intend for it to be published in the American Cattlemen's Association quarterly newsletter, you will need to be more convincing in your arguments and probably use more hard data to support them than you would if your essay will be published in a magazine called Vegan Weekly.

Notice that you haven't even started writing the essay yet; proper preparation for essay writing gives you a foundation that almost allows the essay to write itself. Make sure you actually have an argument, and I would recommend making some notes about the topic and your views on it, if you have time -- obviously, for Academic Decathlon or the essay portion of the SAT, you might not have a whole lot of time for preparation, and you just have to work with the facts that are already in your head. If it's assigned as part of classwork, I'll assume you have at least a few days, which means you have time to research the topic and come up with references that support the main argument of your essay.

The basic format of an essay (in case you hadn't figured it out, this is where you actually start writing) is a heading or introduction, the body and the conclusion. The worst essays either do not have all three of these or (worse) have a conclusion that does not relate to the body (e.g. you use 20th Century demographics to prove your argument that Julius Caesar was, in fact, Hungarian and not Roman)

In the introductory paragraph, you state your argument and set the tone of the essay. Most essays that you'll write for a class will be informative in nature, or possibly persuasive (if you take a particular side of an argument rather than just explaining something), so depending on the type of essay you're writing, the introductory paragraph will either make a strong statement for or against something (persuasive), or tell the reader why the topic is important for them to know about (informative).

The body of the essay will include all the facts or bullet points that support the main argument or statement. You've told the reader that the topic is important; here's where you show them why that is so. If you have points to make, you can enumerate them: Paragraph I can begin, "Firstly...", Paragraph II is "Secondly..." and so forth until you reach "Finally." If the essay is more a narrative (let's say it's an essay documenting Abraham Lincoln's battle with chronic depression throughout his lifetime), obviously the paragraphs will describe your subject in a more or less chronological order.

Finally, the conclusion paragraph draws all those points together and makes the statement that because of A, B, C, and D, the opening statement or theme of the essay can be shown to be true. Just as you should open the essay with strong statement, you should end it with a strong conclusion that let's the reader know that you're done. This is not as obvious as it may sound; while the reader understands that there are no more words on the page to read, it is possible for a weak writer to leave the reader hanging with the last sentence, as though the writer might have had more to say and either ran out of time or just couldn't quite put it into words. Choose your words carefully and end with a bang.

Something that most teachers won't acknowledge is the proper length of an essay, because it all depends on the topic, how much time you're given to write it, and the audience it's intended for. A scholarly paper meant for publication in a trade journal or professional periodical can and should be quite long, because it's expected that the author would have researched every aspect to ensure a comprehensive study was performed before typing a single word. For most essays written for primary and secondary school, seven paragraphs totalling 300-500 words is acceptable, but I wouldn't go on for more than 1000 unless a more detailed analysis of your subject is specifically called for; let's face it, your teacher has to read twenty or thirty of these things from your class alone, and unless you're a really riveting writer or have chosen a topic that the teacher feels really strongly about, he or she isn't going to want to have to slog through thirty pages.

Finally, effective essays are often described in the following way: you tell your readers what you're going to tell them, then tell them what you want to tell them, and then tell them what you told them. In other words, you make a statement that tells them the topic and what you plan to say about it, then write all the details that support the statement, and then recap to ensure they remember what you've written about and what your original point was (especially since they'll remember best what they read last)

So, to review: 1) Carefully consider your topic and do the necessary research and notetaking, if you're able 2) Construct your essay with an argument or opening statement, facts or details that support that statement, and finish with a concluding statement that ties it all together 3) Don't write too long or too short, and finally, 4) Make sure your introduction, body and conclusion are consistent and that they support each other (don't be too repetitious, but make sure your reader knows where you've been and where you're going). Keeping these things in mind will ensure that your essay is formatted correctly, and has the best chance of making an impact on your reader. What remains are word choice, grammar and spelling, and strength of argument, things that will come more through experience than anything I can suggest here. But with proper organization and a methodical approach to your writing, you should produce essays with which you can feel pride.

Answer 3

Be factual, use correct English, adhere flawlessly to the rules of grammar, don't use any of these cutesy little abbreviations that kids are so fond of these days, and make it interesting by making it flow. And turn it in on time without any stupid, age old dishonest excuses.

Answer 4

good description.

Answer 5

wikipedia.com. Then copy and paste.