Best Tips on How to Craft a Good Essay

Ivan Dimitrijevic
4 min readJul 30, 2015

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Knowing how to write a good essay is a skill that can truly come in handy, and a skill that can be monetized to some extent. You can write essays for your colleagues, work as a freelancer who offers writing services, start your own blog on some academic topics etc. Writing a good essay is not that challenging, all it takes is a little bit of talent and some practice, and you will get a hang of it rather quickly. Here is a quick guide on how to craft a good essay.

Structure

The majority of essays consist of a minimum of five paragraphs: an introduction, three supporting thesis and conclusion. Basically you pick a topic, introduce your readers in the first paragraph, elaborate your point of view in at least three paragraphs (you can use as many as you like), and then you sum up everything in the conclusion.

When you are writing supporting paragraphs, you need to focus on their structure as well. Essentially, each of the supporting thesis needs to have their own statement that clarifies your point, and each of these statements need to have one or two sentence that support it. Of course, there is no universal rule but as mentioned, the majority of essays have this type of template.

Essay type

There are a few types of essays, and I have found various sites that refer to them differently, but here are the ones I know:

  • Compare and Contrast — you compare two different items, point views, ideologies, perspectives etc. You state the advantages and disadvantages and add your personal opinion on which one is better, but allow your audience to decide for themselves.
  • Opinion essay — You state your own opinion and share your thoughts on a particular topic, but at least one paragraph should contain an opposing argument.
  • Narrative essay — this one is not guided by the structure mentioned in the first paragraph, since it is a narration of the story from personal experience.
  • Persuasive Essay — You try to persuade readers to adopt your point of view, you should use a lot of examples, research data, facts and logic.
  • Descriptive essay — Once again, feel free to deviate from the writing rules, since you are basically painting a picture using your words. You can describe a person, a place, a memory, an event etc.
  • Expository essay — similar to the persuasive type, only you do not state your opinion or try to persuade readers you simply state the facts, and scientific evidence. For example an essay on global warming should be expository, not persuasive.

These are some of the most well-known essay types so make sure you look into them further, for more elaborate definitions.

Writing style

When it comes to writing, make sure you use a variety of synonyms, for the sake of avoiding word repetition. Also avoid extensive use of the word “Very”(instead of saying very tired say exhausted, instead of very angry, use furious etc.). During our common conversations, we are rarely eloquent, so this is an amazing opportunity to show your peers just what kind of a wordsmith you can be.

When you begin your essay you can start with a good hook to grab reader’s attention. No one will find a narrative essay about a camping trip compelling if it starts with a sentence “ We decided to go camping one weekend”, however if you were to start the essay with “For the first time in my life I saw a gun”, readers will want to know how you got to that point. The story itself does not need to be truly exciting, but when you write it in this manner people will want to see what happened.

A good way to tackle the issue is to find a good examples of well written essays. This is especially useful if your essay needs to be graded. Outsource this first time job, to get a sample for yourself, and get a good grade in the process. Some great essay writers can be found on topaussiewriters.com, just make sure you order in advance to get a better price. Moreover, you can find an example of poorly written essay to compare it with good one and see what it lacks that way you will know which mistake to avoid.

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Ivan Dimitrijevic
Ivan Dimitrijevic

Written by Ivan Dimitrijevic

I help B2B companies in creating high-quality content that drives traffic, engagement, and conversions.

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