Thursday, March 10, 2011

How do you write good English essays? I have trouble doing well on compositions.

The key to writing a good essay is to understand audience and purpose.  There are many types of essays.  If you keep in mind these two things, you will do well. 


The audience of your essay is important.  Is this an essay for class that only your teacher will read?  Are you writing an essay that is intended for public consumption, like a Letter to the Editor?  Is there another, wider audience for your essay?  You need to understand who will be reading your essay in order to gear your writing toward that person or group. 


The purpose of the essay is very important.  There are many different types of essays.  For example, if you are writing an autobiographical essay, you are writing about yourself.  This essay requires a lot of detail.  This kind of essay focuses on your experiences.  If you are writing a persuasive essay, you are writing to convince someone of your argument.  You need to back up your points with evidence.  A response to literature essay is written about a book, and you need to provide evidence from the book to support your points. 


When you write an essay of any kind, you need to know what you are supposed to be writing about.  You will be given a purpose, including a topic or a prompt.  Narrow topics are better as long as they do not get so specific that you have nothing to say.  It is best to read the prompt your teacher gives you very carefully.  Make sure that if the prompt has multiple parts you address all of the parts.


If you are writing an essay outside of school it is best to use a word processing program.  That way, you can easily check your work for mistakes.  Wherever you write your essay, always be sure to proofread.  Make sure your sentences make sense and you have no errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  If you cited sources, make sure you used the proper format and did not plagiarize anything.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What are hearing tests?

Indications and Procedures Hearing tests are done to establish the presence, type, and sever...