How to Write an Essay: 4 Minute Step-by-step Guide | Scribbr 🎓
Summary
TLDRThis video offers a crash course on academic essay writing, covering the three main stages: Preparation, Writing, and Revision. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the assignment, choosing a topic, and formulating a clear thesis. The script guides viewers on crafting an engaging introduction, organizing the body with focused paragraphs, and concluding effectively. It also stresses the need for thorough revision, including grammar, spelling, and plagiarism checks, to ensure a polished final submission.
Takeaways
- 📚 The main goal of an academic essay is to persuade readers through informed arguments backed by evidence and analysis.
- 🎯 The essay writing process consists of three main stages: Preparation, Writing, and Revision.
- 🤔 In the Preparation stage, understanding the assignment and choosing a topic are crucial first steps.
- 💭 Developing an initial thesis statement is important to establish the main point or position you will argue in the essay.
- 📝 Creating an outline and planning the essay structure helps kickstart the writing process and maintain focus.
- 📖 The introduction should grab the reader's interest and provide context for the essay's argument.
- 📝 The thesis statement, presented in the introduction, is a central argument that drives the entire essay.
- 🔍 The body of the essay, which makes up 60-80% of the content, is where arguments supporting the thesis are developed with evidence.
- 📑 Using clear topic sentences in each paragraph helps to structure the essay and guide the reader through the arguments.
- ✍️ The conclusion should summarize the essay's main points, show the outcome of the arguments, and emphasize the importance of the thesis.
- 🔧 After writing, revising and polishing the essay is essential, including checking arguments, grammar, spelling, and formatting.
Q & A
What is the main goal of an academic essay?
-The main goal of an academic essay is to persuade readers of a position or perspective through informed arguments supported with evidence and analysis.
How many main stages are there in writing an essay according to the script?
-There are three main stages in writing an essay: Preparation, Writing, and Revision.
What is the first step in the preparation stage of essay writing?
-The first step in the preparation stage is to understand the assignment and choose a topic.
What is the purpose of a thesis statement in an essay?
-The purpose of a thesis statement is to present the main point or the central argument that the essay will make.
What should be included in the introduction of an essay?
-The introduction should include a hook to grab the reader's interest, context to help the reader understand the argument, and the thesis statement.
What is the function of the body section in an essay?
-The body section is where arguments supporting the thesis are made, evidence is provided, and ideas are developed.
Why is it important to use paragraphs in the body section of an essay?
-Using paragraphs in the body section helps give the essay a clear structure and allows each argument or idea to be centered around one topic sentence.
What should a topic sentence in an essay paragraph do?
-A topic sentence should introduce the purpose of the paragraph, making a transition from the previous paragraph and presenting the argument to be made.
What are the three things that should be done in the conclusion of an essay?
-In the conclusion, one should summarize and tie together the points made in the essay's body, show the outcome of the arguments, and emphasize why the argument matters.
What is the final step before submitting an essay after it's been written?
-The final step before submitting an essay is to revise and polish the writing, double-check arguments, and ensure grammar, spelling, and formatting are correct, including checking for plagiarism if sources were cited.
What is the next step recommended after understanding the stages of essay writing?
-The next step recommended is to create an outline for the essay.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Essay Writing
This paragraph introduces the video series on essay writing, emphasizing the goal of persuading readers through informed arguments supported by evidence and analysis. It outlines the three main stages of essay writing: Preparation, Writing, and Revision. The speaker, Jessica from Scribbr, provides an overview of what will be covered in the series, including detailed steps and examples in upcoming videos.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Academic Essay
💡Persuasion
💡Informed Arguments
💡Evidence
💡Analysis
💡Preparation
💡Outline
💡Introduction
💡Thesis Statement
💡Body Section
💡Conclusion
💡Revision
Highlights
The goal of an academic essay is to persuade readers through informed arguments supported with evidence and analysis.
There are three main stages to writing an essay: Preparation, Writing, and Revision.
Understanding the assignment and choosing a topic is the first step in the preparation stage.
Creating an initial thesis is crucial for outlining the main point or position of the essay.
An outline and essay structure should be planned to kickstart writing and keep the writer on track.
The introduction should grab the reader's interest and inform them of what will be covered.
The thesis statement, one or two sentences long, drives the whole essay and should be well-crafted.
An overview of the essay structure should be provided at the end of the introduction.
The body section, making up 60-80% of the essay, is where arguments supporting the thesis are developed.
Each paragraph in the body should center around one argument or idea, introduced by a topic sentence.
Evidence should be presented with data, examples, or quotes, and interpreted to support the overall argument.
The conclusion summarizes points, shows the outcome of arguments, and emphasizes the importance of the thesis.
Revision involves checking arguments for completeness, restructuring if necessary, and proofreading for grammar and spelling.
Using a plagiarism checker is essential to ensure all sources are properly cited and to avoid academic dishonesty.
After completing the checklist, the essay is ready for submission.
Creating an outline is the next step after understanding the essay writing process.
Transcripts
Welcome to your crash course on essay writing, by the time you finish this series, you'll
be all set to ace your essay!
This is the first video of the playlist, in which you'll learn the basics.
In an academic essay, the goal is to persuade readers of a position or perspective through
informed arguments, supported with evidence and analysis.
There are 3 main stages to writing an essay: Preparation
Writing Revision
In this video, I will quickly go through all the stages and steps with you.
And in the next few videos in this playlist, we’ll go more into detail for each stage
with example sentences and paragraphs.
Can't wait?
Let's dive right in!
Hi, I’m Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals.
In the preparation stage, you first need to understand the assignment and choose a topic.
Once you've chosen your topic, you should come up with an initial thesis – this is
the main point you want to make in the essay, or the position you’re going to argue for.
At this stage, it doesn’t have to be perfectly phrased, but it’s important to start with
a clear idea of what you want to say.
Then you can start creating an outline and planning your essay’s structure.
This will kickstart your writing and keep you on track!
Preparation is done, and now we're moving onto writing.
Every essay starts off with an introduction.
It’s important to grab the reader’s interest right off the bat and inform them of what
will be covered in the essay.
Hook the reader in the first sentence, and then give context that will help your reader
understand your argument.
This might involve providing brief background information, giving an overview of important
academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms.
But don’t overdo it, just enough to give the reader a taste, you know?
Next, remember the thesis statement from before?
Present it here – tell the reader the central argument you’re going to make.
The thesis statement is usually one or two sentences long, and it drives the whole essay,
so make sure to spend some time on this part!
You can end your introduction section with an overview of the essay.
So basically signposting your essay’s structure.
Moving onto the body section, this is the longest part of your essay, usually around
60-80%.
Here is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop
your ideas.
It’s easy to get lost in a big chunk of text, to give your essay a clear structure,
it is important to make use of paragraphs.
Each paragraph should be centered around just one argument or idea.
Introduce the purpose of each paragraph using topic sentences.
A good topic sentence makes a transition from the previous paragraph and introduces the
argument to be made in this paragraph.
We elaborate more on forming clear topic sentences in this video!
After the topic sentence, present evidence by providing the reader with data, examples,
or quotes.
Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall
argument.
Alright, the hard work is done, and you’ve arrived at the last paragraph of your essay,
the conclusion.
Here are 3 things you should do: Summarize and tie together the points you
made in the essay’s body Show the outcome of your arguments - what
new insight have you provided?
Emphasize why your argument matters
After you're done writing, but before you submit your hard work, it’s important to
revise and polish your writing.
Double check your arguments: have you said everything you meant to say, or do some points
need restructuring?
Finally, make sure to check your grammar, spelling, and formatting.
And if you’ve cited sources in your paper, also use a plagiarism checker to make sure
everything is good to go!
Once you’ve checked everything off this checklist here, you’re ready to go!
When you're ready, your next step should be creating an outline for your essay!
Click this to learn how to do so, see you there.
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