Were you ever asked to write an essay, but you had no idea what the structure is?
Maybe you weren’t taught how to write one.
That’s why we’re here.
Hey everyone, you’re watching EssayPro, and in this video, our expert writers prepared
an in-depth explanation on how to write using essay form.
Essay Form is the basic structure of an essay, and there are several steps to writing one.
What is the point of knowing how to write in essay form in the first place?
Nowadays, the world works like this:
the faster you communicate an idea, the faster we can solve a problem.
And there are many problems to solve.
Knowing the structure of how to write a proper essay means you'll be able to explain things
better and faster.
Why?
It teaches you how to organize your thoughts, which is extremely important for many high-paying
jobs.
So, let's get started.
Step 1: Decide what you want to write about and then write it properly.
If you weren’t given a topic already, you have to make up your own.
To do this, you could sit around and brainstorm ideas, or you can look up topics on Wikipedia
or popular social media sites like Reddit (which has a subreddit, for almost any major topic).
Remember to think about how your readers will react to your topic.
The idea is to make your reader think, be informed, and have an emotional response, and
perhaps even change his or her mind.
In order to do this, you have to do your homework – that is, research as much as you can on the topic
so that your reader doesn’t ask him or herself,
“Well, wait a minute, why does X or Y happen?”
It’s like when you’re writing a screenplay for a film or TV series; you must try your
best not to have any holes in the plot.
The point is to build an idea, and much like the blueprints of a building, or the schematics
of a circuit board – everything has to work, otherwise the whole thing stalls or falls apart.
Usually, when a person reads something informative, they ask themselves questions while they read.
For example, if you’re writing about why cats are better than dogs, the question that
comes up is “Well, why?”.
That series of “Why?”s is something your essay should answer as best as you can.
Let’s say you know what to write about, and you’ve done your research.
Now what?
Now, you have to shrink that info down to the most important things you have to say
about your topic.
In fact, before you begin writing, you should narrow it down to one core message.
We call this the Thesis Statement.
It can be something as simple as “Motorcycles are more fun than cars.”
If you have the evidence to back it up, or at least the ability to persuade your reader
to agree with you, you have yourself a strong Thesis Statement.
So, let’s dive deeper into the dos and don’ts of the Thesis Statement.
Step 2: The Dos and Don’ts of the Thesis Statement
Well, if you’re still not sure what a Thesis Statement is, it’s the very core message
of your essay.
Your entire essay revolves around trying to prove what the thesis claims.
Don’t make your Thesis Statement be a neutral statement of fact.
Don’t say “People breathe air.”
Instead, argue that “Air should become a consumer product like bottled water.”
This shows you took a clear position, and especially one that’s controversial to those
who don’t like consumerism.
Don’t write your Thesis Statement with “I think…”, “In my opinion…”, or “I assume…”
My old high school English teacher said it best when he recommended avoiding statements
like that because, frankly, an essay is usually your opinion already.
Telling the reader that it’s your opinion is redundant.
Don’t be vague in your Thesis Statement.
“There are interesting things about doing stuff” would be a good example of what not to write.
More specific thesis statements are better, like: “Your time is best spent educating
yourself in skills most demanded by the current job market, such as big data processing, and
coding.”
Why?
Because it gives you something to work with.
Speaking of something to work with…
Step 3: The Essay Form Itself.
All essays have an Introduction, Body, and a Conclusion.
Start with an outline, which is like a battle-plan before writing your essay.
When you work with an outline, you’ll be able to organize your thoughts that will become
your first draft.
It can be: • formal, with plenty of detail and a professional
approach to plotting out the main points using Roman numerals for main ideas, capital letters
for supporting details, and Arabic numbers for points you’d want to go deeper into;
• or informal, with less constraint and less detail, and room for idea development as you go along.
Now that you have your outline, begin your introduction.
The introduction is written by hooking the reader’s attention, introducing the topic,
and presenting the thesis (main idea).
To hook the reader, you have to say something that sparks an emotional response.
This isn’t always something that makes them sad or anything like that.
If you talk about something that has always bothered them and you offer ideas on how to
solve it, you will at the very least intrigue the reader to continue.
Then, you introduce the topic.
If you’re arguing a point, the structure of the introduction paragraph is:
• Hook • Thesis
• The supporting arguments that will each be the main point of the body paragraphs.
Let’s get to the body.
In a 5-paragraph essay, the body is made up of 3 paragraphs.
Each of these three paragraphs begins with the topic sentence.
The topic sentence contains a supporting argument that is evidence for the thesis statement.
In each paragraph, you have to present at least two examples of proof that makes the
supporting arguments true.
If you say nighttime exists as your thesis statement, one of your supporting arguments
could be that: “it gets dark at night,” and your example (or “proof”) could be
that, over where you are now, “there is not enough light outside after certain hours”.
Do not make your paragraphs short.
At least have a topic sentence, and have at least one sentence for every example.
Do not start a brand new idea in the middle of your body paragraph.
That’s like starting a new essay in the middle of an essay, which is not cool.
Your reader will either be upset or inappropriately amused.
Do not simply reword the same idea multiple times to fill in space.
Do not insert more than one supporting argument in a single paragraph.
Reserve each body paragraph for each supporting argument.
Finally, we’re at the conclusion.
The paragraph we call the Conclusion does the following things:
• It restates the thesis statement – for instance, “Given the evidence that was presented,
we can infer that nighttime does indeed exist.”
• It offers a suggestion, opinion, or prediction. • and it creates something called a call
to action, which is where you convince someone to do something.
It could be as simple as convincing someone to go out and buy something, or to post about
a cause on social media (e.g. save the whales).
To Recap: Decide what you want to write about and then write it properly.
Be specific and on-topic with your Thesis Statement
Outline your essay with: An Introduction – 1 Paragraph, containing
your thesis and supporting arguments.
Body – 1 Paragraph for each supporting argument, and two examples for each one, for an average
total of 3 Body Paragraphs.
And Conclusion – 1 Paragraph summarizing the Thesis, as well as your commentary, and
a call to action.
If you follow all these instructions, you should have yourself an essay.
Be sure to check out our channel for more videos on proper writing.
For a more in-depth look at 4 types of essays you can write, check out our video titled:
“How to Write an Essay (4 Types)” If you enjoyed the video, hit subscribe and leave a like.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions, or want us to explain something in further detail.
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