Essay Writing

An essay is an analytic, interpretative, or critical literary production that is much shorter, less systematic, and less formal than a dissertation or thesis, and usually deals with its subject from a limited and often personal point of view. 

Writing an essay demands the writer to put out his thoughts on the give subject with maturity and clarity. He/she needs to weave together all the ideas that are running in his/head at the moment of writing into a unified thread. This task, though challenging, is not impossible to crack.  

Stages of Essay Writing:

Brainstorming

A well-written essay is the result of extensive research. As a result, before writing an essay on a particular topic, we must gather the necessary research material so that the essay we write is authentic, substantial, and convincing. We are likely to produce a subjective, trivial, and prejudiced perspective if we lack proper data and understanding of the relevant details.  

Brainstorming is the first step before we start writing in which the ideas that come to our mind on the topic are jotted down, even if they are only tangentially related to your topic. The goal here isn’t to produce a coherent piece of writing; rather, it’s to pave the way for your writing. 

Brainstorming is about determining the most effective way to present your information to your intended audience, not just developing a clear topic and set of supporting content to cover. Consider the type of writing you’re doing and for whom you’re writing. It is also very important for us to define the scope of the topic, which has to be clearly comprehended so that our presentation of the topic does not go all over the place.  

Making an Outline

An essay’s outline refers to its skeletal structure. At this point, you’re organizing all of the ideas, connections, and conclusions that came up during your brainstorming session into an outline. It contains our essay’s main and sub-points. An outline is always useful because it keeps us focused and systematic as we tackle the various issues in an essay. A good outline allows us to express ourselves in a logical manner. We can certainly avoid the danger of writing something redundant and missing out on an important aspect related to the issue if we have selected or rejected certain ideas at the stage of preparing an outline. 

This is also the stage at which you define the tone of your work. Usually, determining the appropriate tone for your writing is simple—if it’s an essay or another piece of academic writing, it requires a formal tone. If you’re writing a promotional piece, your tone should be engaging and emphasize the benefits of whatever you’re promoting. When you’re not sure what tone to use or how to achieve it, do an internet search for examples of the type of writing you’re doing and become familiar with the structure, vocabulary, and overall tones used. 

Writing the First Draft

Finally, we are ready to do some actual writing. 

Since an essay is such a detailed composition, it is usually best written after revision and editing. As a result, it is frequently observed that essays submitted after revision and editing are far superior to those submitted without these. However, in competitive exams, we won’t be able to complete the draft and provide the final version after revision. Even so, it is always useful to jot down the order in which we intend to take up the various ideas that will form the fulcrum of our essay. It will be impossible to maintain coherence and unity in the ideas expressed unless we have the main points in mind or in front of us.  

Here’s a fact that many writers are unaware of: you don’t have to write your rough draft from beginning to end. If you know exactly what you want to say in your third supporting paragraph but aren’t sure how to hook readers in your intro, write that third supporting paragraph first and then return to the intro. When you reach a difficult point in your writing, it’s easy to become stuck and waste a lot of time trying to figure out what to write next. Save time and stress by writing the easiest parts first, then moving on to the more difficult parts. As a result, if not the entire first draft, it is well worth preparing a brief rough sketch before diving into the actual process of writing an essay. 

Revising and Editing

Allow your work to “cool off” before editing. In other words, unless you’re pressed for time and absolutely must, don’t jump from writing the first draught to editing it. You can get some distance from your work by taking a break between writing and editing. This allows you to look at it with “fresh eyes,” allowing you to spot mistakes and areas for improvement more easily than you would if you hadn’t created that distance. 

It is critical to re-read the first draught before submitting the essays for final consideration. We must pay close attention while revising our essay to ensure that the logical development of the idea is maintained throughout our effort. The natural evolution of a thesis, in addition to the content and style, is what makes an essay eminently readable. As a result, we must ruthlessly edit essays, looking for logical inconsistencies that may exist. While reshaping the matter, a great deal of revision occurs. While editing an essay, any lopsided views and subjective ideas must be trimmed down to ensure that it is free of affectations, exaggerations, and prejudices. Remember that any ambiguity in style or substance is likely to diminish the overall impact of the presentation, so it must be side-stepped at all costs. 

Example: 

The Effect of Junk Foods 

The term junk food says a lot about its destructive tendency to one’s health. Junk foods are bad for your health since they are heavy in calories, fat, cholesterol, sugar, and salt. Nowadays, children and teenagers are more likely to consume large amounts of junk food on a daily basis. They are putting their lives in jeopardy by living an unhealthy lifestyle. When they’re hungry, they’ll consume chips, french fries, crackers, snacks, burger, pizza, pasta, and other junk foods. No junk food is healthy and has no nutritional value. 

It has an impact on the health of people of various ages, weights, and health conditions. Junk foods are high in calories, yet those who eat them quickly become fatigued and require more food. Junk food does not supply an adequate quantity of energy; thus, the eater develops a tendency to crave additional food on a regular basis. What we typically obtain from junk foods are bad fats and unhealthful substances, resulting in a shortage of oxygen and impaired brain functioning. 

We absorb a lot of cholesterol from these foods, which leads to plaque formation in the arteries and makes it difficult for the heart to pump a proper amount of blood. That is why we are experiencing significant levels of weariness. A high level of harmful cholesterol kills our liver while also causing us to gain weight. According to a study, children who eat more junk food on a regular basis are more likely to be overweight and obese, as well as to have heart and liver problems. Because of the elevated sugar levels in their bodies at such young ages, these children are more likely to develop diabetes and become lethargic. They develop high blood pressure as a result of the high salt mineral content of junk meals. Parents should instill in their children healthy eating habits as early as possible.