Writing an essay

Abstract

AN essay is a piece of writing where you put forward an argument about how you see a particular issue or topic in a play. It should be the place where all your hard work on the text pays off, but often students find it difficult to organise their thoughts and to organise their material in a clear, logical way. One reason for this lies in the mistaken assumption that an essay has to be a very long, elaborate piece of writing, full of complicated sentences, where you try to make complex points that you don’t fully understand. It is much more sensible to take a practical view of essay writing, and see that it is far more important to put your views across clearly than to get tangled up, not really knowing what you are saying or where your essay is going next. What follows here are some basic guidelines which should help you avoid the common errors of essay writing and also help you argue your case in a logical way. Far too many candidates go into examinations with the mistaken belief that a good essay is the result of a mixture of luck and inspiration. The truth, however, is that you can learn the skills necessary for producing a good essay. And these skills are simple and straightforward. Above all else, what you need for an essay is a clear idea of what you are trying to do and a clear idea of how to present your material in an effective and convincing way. This means thinking both about the question and also about your answer.