5 Must-Dos For Outstanding Essay Writing
This post has become one of my most popular, which I think speaks to huge number of teens who struggle with essay writing and find the whole process completely daunting.
The process to write a robust essay eludes so many students, and frankly, it’s no wonder. Too often they are not given the tools they need to understand what the purpose of writing an essay is, or how to go about constructing one themselves.
The good news is that essay writing does not need to be a skill exclusive to those who read Shakespeare (which, for the record, I have never done). Particularly at high school, your teen can follow a formula that is as close as possible to guaranteeing good structure and clarity.
In saying that, a good essay requires more than just memorising facts. It requires students to understand what they’re talking about, and to know how to express themselves clearly and concisely.
I have written a lot about essay writing, but this one covers the fundamentals of structure and what’s required to go about writing a high school essay that at the very least covers all of the basic requirements.
Here are what I think are the 5 must-dos for a robust high school essay:
1. Proper Structure
This is number one on the list, because if an essay doesn’t have structure, it doesn’t matter how good the writing is.
Absolutely every essay needs an introduction, paragraphs (1 for each main point), and a conclusion.
An essay must be broken into paragraphs to make it readable. There is zero joy to be had reading pages of unbroken text. Breaking an essay down into different sections is what allows it to flow in a logical manner.
So what is the job of each part?
Introduction: Tell 'em what you’re gonna tell ‘em. Your teen needs to introduce the topic and briefly outline the points they are going to make in the essay in the order the are going to write about them. If the essay is meant to argue a point, your teen should make it clear in the introduction what their argument/point of view is.
Body Paragraphs: Tell ‘em. A typical high school essay might only be 3-5 paragraphs long (particularly in an exam). Each paragraph should be about ONE main point that contributes to the overall theme or argument of the essay.
Conclusion: Tell ‘em what you told ‘em. Sum up what the essay was about and any concluding observations and arguments.
2. Paragraph Structure
Not only does the essay as a whole need structure, each paragraph needs to have structure as well. You may have heard of this famous teaching acronym:
S = Statement: This is the opening sentence of the paragraph and it tells the reader what the main point about to be discussed is. It’s basically the headline of that paragraph.
E = Explanation: This part should make up the bulk of the paragraph. Your teen needs to explain what they have said in said in the opening Statement. They need to tell the reader why that Statement is true.
X = eXample Give an example! At least one is good. A quote, an example, a fact. Your teen needs to include something concrete that gives evidence to the proposition / assertions being made in the paragraph.
I = Importance Why is the point your teen has made in this paragraph important? What does it mean to the story, or the film, or the event? For extra brownie points (and extra actual marks) your teen needs to tell the reader why that point matters. This is the part where your teen can really show off their knowledge by demonstrating critical thinking / writing something that shows they really understand the topic / draws links between other paragraphs and / or the main topic of the essay.
3. Essay Plans
Before smart phones you wouldn’t go on a road trip without a map, and essays are the same. If you don’t have a plan for what you are going to write, it can easily become a confusing mess with way too many detours.
To avoid unnecessary and distracting detours and forgetting key locations, I strongly suggest that before your teen actually starts writing the essay, that they make a quick plan of what they’re going to write.
An Essay Plan does not have to be a big deal or take up tonnes of time. Not at all. It only takes a few minutes but will save your teen SO much time overall.
Essay Plans are frickin’ amazing. They:
instantly give an essay structure (both overall structure and S.E.X.I.);
prevent you from forgetting to include important points; and
prevent you from losing your way as you write.
In the pressure cooker environment of an exam, an Essay Plan can be quickly scribbled down on a page of the exam booklet (often students are given a space to make notes that isn’t marked).
Here is an example Essay Plan based on an essay I actually wrote at high school on the film The Matrix. The essay question asked us to discuss ‘the Setting’ of the film (i.e. the context / time in which the film is set).
Don’t worry at all if you haven’t seen The Matrix, that doesn’t matter.
What I want to point out is that I have jotted down the main point of each paragraph I am going to write in blue, and each of the three branches coming off each paragraph make up 'SEXI'. I haven't included the 'I' part, but within each paragraph I would try and emphasise why that particular point was important to the setting of the film.
The beauty of an Essay Plan is that it kind of writes the essay for you, because the essay is essentially a ‘filled-out’ version of the Essay Plan. An Essay Plan ensures that you don’t get half way though and go “oh no I’ve written about something pointless”, or, “oh no I don’t know what to write next”.
To be clear, I would not have written an Essay Plan as clearly and fully as this in the actual exam, but I definitely jotted down what each paragraph was going to be about and any points for S.E.X.I. that I thought I might forget while writing.
Every time your teen writes an essay, whether it's just for practice or in a real exam, I cannot over-emphasise the important and amazing benefits of jotting down at least a simple Essay Plan before they start writing.
This is a REAL Essay Plan I wrote for a real exam in high school. Clearly not a work of art, but enough to keep my essay on track and get a top grade.
4. Revise and Edit
This point depends on what situation the essay is being written in...
At home: If your teen is writing an essay at home for homework or an assignment and there isn’t the time pressure of an exam involved, I am a huge fan of writing a draft and then walking away from the essay for a bit.
When I was at school and uni I would always try and leave time to leave the essay and do something else before I finalised it. I found that when I came back to my essays I would notice things that weren’t quite right / didn’t make sense / silly little mistakes, and the overall product was much better off for having that fresh perspective upon a second or third read over.
In an exam: In an exam, your teen might be very short on time. They probably won’t have the luxury of time to revise and edit their essay in detail (which is why an Essay Plan is so, so important in an exam). But, I used to try and leave 5 or so minutes at the end of the exam to read over my essays and I would always find little things that I could quickly touch up.
At home and in an exam: Your teen should check that the paragraphs are written in a logical order and the essay reads well. Will it be easy for the examiner to read and make sense of? If your teen is at home, reading their essay aloud to themselves is a good way to test this.
5. Practice Makes Perfect
Like every part of studying, essay writing is a learnt skill. It must be practised in order to be mastered. Maybe 1 out of 1000 students are destined to write novels for a living and are inherently good writers, but the rest of us need to practice.
I think a lot of students get through the whole school year with only a handful of practice essays under their belt. Even if they have a decent grasp of the subject, if they don’t know how to write a good essay then that doesn’t really matter.
Your teen needs to get comfortable with the essay and S.E.X.I. structures discussed above so that it comes easily to them in their exams.
How You Can Help
You can make sure your teen includes practice essays as part of their exam preparation. Getting a hold of past exams and using them as a source of practice essay questions is one of the best types of exam preparation your teen can do.
Maybe you can have a read of their practice essays too (if your teen isn’t totally opposed to the idea). You might not have any clue about the subject matter, but you will be able to tell if it reads well / makes sense. Oftentimes teens make their essays more complicated than they need to be. Simple structure and simple language is all that is required, and in fact makes for a better essay.
You could also suggest to your teen they ask their teacher to mark a practice essay. I don’t think a good teacher could turn down such a pro-active move!
So there you have it. A roadmap for your teen to start writing solid essays with structure. I hope that this will show your teen that they don’t need to be a literary scholar to write a good essay. If they follow a process and have at least a few practice goes, they should see an immense improvement in their writing, and, their grades!
Thanks so much for reading.
Clare
