How to Write Better Essays

Introduction

As you’ve seen already, by breaking down essay writing into its stages

we have been able to isolate problems as they arise in each stage and

concentrate our efforts on tackling them. In this stage you will see the

same principle applied to breaking down the actual writing of the essay

into the framework and content of essays.

The framework

There are few of us who could confidently claim that we have never

had problems with the structural features of essays: introductions,

paragraphs and conclusions. At least part of the problem is a lack of

planning, which leaves us with no clear idea of the structure and

content of the essay. It’s impossible to write a good introduction, if you

don’t know what you’re introducing, and much the same can be said

for paragraphs and conclusions.

Nevertheless, even with a good plan, most of us still have problems,

because we’re unsure what we’re trying to achieve when we write

introductions, paragraphs and conclusions. To cope with this, you will

be shown a simple formula for each, which you can use as a model

each time you write them.

With introductions you will be shown how to use your interpretation

of the implications of the question and how to outline a map of the

essay, to make sure you don’t lose your readers as they try to follow

your arguments and ideas. With paragraphs you’ll be shown how to tie

them into the introduction with clear topic sentences and transitions

to create a taut, cohesive and tightly reasoned essay. You will also be

shown how to develop your arguments in the body of the paragraph

and support them with evidence. Similarly, with conclusions you’ll be

shown various ways of creating cohesion in your work by tying the

conclusion to the introduction.

The content

In the second half of this stage we will examine the problems we all

experience with our style. These can be difficult to pin down, particu-

larly when they’re bound up with the other problems we’ve examined

in previous stages. First we will look at the importance of simplicity, in

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