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So, you've written a bunch of words, and that paper isn't even close to where you need it to be. Don't worry. DHWH has some tips you can use to reach that goal.
Research your topic. When you're doing research, take notes and cite your sources. Summarize your notes into important points. To start working on your essay, you need a thesis statement.
Make a rough draft using your ideas that you brainstormed. Organize those ideas, don't worry about messing up, crossing things out, spelling mistakes and punctuation; it's called a rough draft for a reason.
Revise your paper. Make sure you have the Who, What, When, Why, and How about your topic. A standard essay has about 5 paragraphs, 6 sentences per paragraph. Add sentences and words (add more details), change the placement of sentences and words, and elevate your writing by substituting common words.
Ask yourself: Is the topic of your paper clear? Do you provide a bit of background? Do you identify your position clearly? What can you do to make it better? Do you rephrase your thesis? Did you include a closing sentence? What part(s) of your paper is written the best? What part needs more help? What errors do you seem to repeat? Overall impression of your paper?
Check grammar, capitalization, and spelling. Finally, after you checked the draft and it looks good, make the final copy. Congratulations!
What is Informative Writing?
Informative writing is writing to inform the readers about a certain topic, NOT TO PERSUADE. The main objective of every informative essay is to educate your reader on a specific topic by providing a how-to, analyzing data, and comparing controversial viewpoints about a certain topic.
Choosing Your Topic
The best topics are neither too wide-reaching nor too limited. You should be able to source enough information about your selected topic to write an informative paper. The topic you choose should be interesting and appropriate. Consider who your target audience is and what is important or valid to them. Consider what they will want to know – and what they may not already know about the topic. Preferably, you should choose to write about something that interests you. This will help you to create a finished paper that not only reads enthusiastically but also engages your readers.
Research
Remember to find & use facts alone. To provide evidence in the context of your informative essay, insert either a direct or indirect quote with the help of quotation marks and narrowed reference in your works cited. Write down notes highlighting the main ideas.
Introduction
Focus on using jokes, statistics, facts, famous quotes, anecdotes, similes, and metaphors to hook your audience. Introduce the topic with its background in a couple of sentences. End up with a powerful thesis statement, which points to the necessity of topic research.
Body Paragraphs
Share some interesting facts, go into the possibly unknown details, or reflect common knowledge in a new light to make readers intrigued. The three integral elements of each body paragraph are the claim, supporting evidence, and explanation. You may provide your personal opinions unless specified otherwise.
Conclusion
End up the paper by providing a summary of the main points listed in the body of your informative essay. Avoid adding any new information and questions. Finish the paper while maintaining the reading audience’s interest in the offered topic/research problem.
In an argumentative essay, the writer presents an argument by supporting it with facts, statistics, and evidence. The writer has to understand his or her views and counter-arguments right from the start and have to present his or her point of view in such a way that the readers believe the writer is right.
The purpose of persuasive writing is, quite obviously, to persuade or convince. Keep in mind you are not writing an argument, you are simply stating your position and persuading someone why your position is right.
Your goal is to convince or encourage the reader to accept a particular viewpoint or act in a particular way. Nod to the opposing point of view but don't analyze much of it. A persuasive essay must be based on sound logic and must contain factual evidence to support your position. The use of emotions is much more important than statistics in this type of essay.
Choosing a Topic
It should be contradictory enough, with more than one point of view possible. Ensure that your topic is something specific. If your stance on the issue can be answered by a simple yes or no, you won’t have much to talk about.
Research
Find solid evidence that supports your position. It might be facts, logical arguments, or statements from experts. Inserting fragments of your personal experiences can be helpful. In order to avoid plagiarism, you must cite your sources. You should always use verifiable statistics. It is important to be able to back up your position with data. In order to further strengthen your persuasive essay, try using one or two direct quotes from experts on the topic.
Start with a good hook to capture your reader. Provide background information about your subject. It should end with a clear statement of your thesis that reveals the position to be argued.
In this paper you will establish your position in a topic and refute an opposing opinion.
Explain the subject, the controversy, and end with your thesis.
Explain the reasons your audience should agree with your thesis. You should have three or more reasons why the reader should accept your position. These will be your topic sentences. Go into more detail about the two sides of your topic and state the strongest point(s) of the counter-side of your issue. After describing the other side, choose your strongest evidence and present your points one by one. Use a mix of evidence, from statistics to other studies, to show why your position is the correct one. Work to discredit the other side using the information you discovered in your research.
Do not introduce any new information in the conclusion. Summarize the points that were presented in the body of the essay. Restate why the topic is important and review your thesis.
Descriptive essays can be written about many topics. One very common topic is writing about a place.
The more you can remember about a place, the better your descriptive paper is likely to be. Look at the scenery, what does it look like? Include color and describe objects. What sounds do you hear? What’s the temperature? What do you smell? If you could taste something what would it be like? How do you feel being there? Describe your feelings.
• Sprinkle metaphors and similes, personification and hyperbole•
Introduction
Use anecdotes to grab your reader's attention. Anecdotes are short stories that can be used literally or metaphorically to help readers relate to what you’re going to write about. Make sure to include what is the purpose of your place, and any first impressions.
Body
One way to start is by free-flow writing. This means that you simply start writing your detailed description of the place you’re writing about, without editing or analyzing as you write. Write without end! Later you can edit, cut-down, elaborate/emphasize, or add something.
Conclusion
Explain how the place impacted you and why you believe it’s important.
The first time you failed a test in high school, an estranged family member, a moral turning point you experienced as a teenager, an overseas war experience, surviving abuse, or a professor who changed the way you feel about literature are all examples of significant events shared in personal essays written in first-person. But simply recounting events isn't what personal essays are about; that belongs more in the category of memoir or autobiography. In addition to presenting some truth or insight that challenges the reader to form their own opinions, they frequently end with the author having learned, changed, or grown in some way. Personal essays captivate the reader because they are frequently written in a conversational tone. This kind of essay can uplift and inspire readers or it can serve as a warning to others to not make the same mistakes the author did.
What tends to work best is asking someone that knows you well to recount significant events that happened in your life. Another option would be to create a timeline of your life. Once you found something you would like to share, write down the basic facts of the story. A good way to jot down these facts is to create 6 columns and title each with the headings: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How did I feel? Answering these 6 questions will provide the basic info needed to write your personal essay.
Introduction
Your hook and opening paragraph should establish the topic of your essay (or at least allude to it) and set the scene and tone. Give a personal statement that you intend to support in the essay's body. When writing a college essay, stay away from clichés like beginning with a well-known quote and make an effort to connect with your audience in a special way. Explain the main goal of your story, your perspective on the issue, and the conclusions the reader can expect from the essay.
Introduction Examples:
Aside from Peter, who supposedly guards the gates of heaven and is a pivotal figure in any number of jokes, the only saint who’s ever remotely interested me is Francis of Assisi, who was friends with the animals.
—David Sedaris, “Untamed”
When I was young, my family didn’t go on outings to the circus or trips to Disneyland. We couldn’t afford them. Instead, we stayed in our small rural West Texas town, and my parents took us to cemeteries.
—Jenny Lawson, “Amelia and Me”
I underwent, during the summer that I became fourteen, a prolonged religious crisis.
—James Baldwin, “Letter from a Region in My Mind”
Body
Here, you will share how your personal experiences shaped your point of view and reflect on the knowledge gained.
First body paragraph
– Beginning of story
– Describe mood and attitude toward the event
– Any reflections
Second body paragraph
– Provide details of the story
– Follow a logical order
– Answer how, what, where, why
– Any reflections
Third body paragraph
– Describe the ending of the story
– Expand on feeling and attitude toward the event
– Any reflections
Conclusion
Your conclusion should summarize what you learned from your experience. It might be a difficult or unsettling revelation, but ending on a generally positive or hopeful note can help it feel more aspirational or uplifting. Review why this essay matters and sum up the things you want the reader to take away from this particular piece.
Don't tell the reader how to feel. The conclusion of a narrative essay should resonate rather than command. Consider a film about a character who overcomes adversity and triumphs at the end of the story. You will notice that nowhere does the screenwriter or director tell the reader to be happy at the end. Instead, the characters act out the ending in a setting; we watch them and are transported to happiness as a result.
– Repeat the main points of the story
– Reflect on the lesson or moral
– Prove that you have learned from your experiences or how previous events have changed your life
Conclusion Examples:
While at school, I received the worst news in my life. My grandmother’s condition had been unstable ever since I had left, but nothing had prepared me for the news of her death. I felt as if the air had been knocked out of me. I felt so guilty that I could taste it through my tears. I will never forget how vulnerable I felt and the feebleness within my legs. The news hit me so hard I thought I would not recover. I blamed myself for it and almost gave up on my aspirations to become a nurse. How could I thrive without the one person that helped me realize my passion for nursing? On the day of grandma’s burial, I remembered how she prided herself in my passion for medicine. My mother had always teased her that the way she bragged about it, it would be thought that we shared the dream, to which she would consent. I realized that though she was gone, our dream still lived on. Her inspiration still lived on; I had to spread the ‘compassion.” Grandma’s death may have blown the air out of me, but reflecting on our moments together made me stronger and more determined.
After grandma’s burial, that night I researched for Undergraduate Institutions for nursing where I found out about University. The university is well renowned for its nursing programs in area. Looking at the university’s cost, I felt assured that it was the place for me to pursue my longtime dream of becoming a nurse. I imagined my grandmother looking at the University and nodding her approval of the professional and homely aura reflected by the University’s complex. Overall, University has all the qualities that I consider robust for my achievement and excellence in the nursing profession.
—Example by essaypro.com
The turning point I reached of relinquishing my shyness and to talking to my classmates more frequently than I would do before; played a significant role in improving my overall confidence and personality. Then more than ever, I participated in class programs and other class leader positions that made me feel free with my friends and peers. Moreover, I take great pride in the things that changed my life and would give all the credit and honor to my grandfather who helped me overcome my fears. No matter the kind and the nature of the obstacle or challenge in life, I strived to improve myself citing the inspiration of my grandfather as the cornerstone to bravery. Indeed, I thanked my grandfather who became my role model because of the fight he put up in his last days with his family, and I hoped that sometime in the future he would say to me “proud of you kid; you fought tough and bold.” To date, I battle what life brings on the table with the primary anchor fighting tough and never give up.
—Example by essaypro.com
Popular Mistakes
No moral or lesson. A personal essay should teach the reader a specific lesson. That is why, in addition to telling the story, you must explain how it changed your personality and how this change of yours can benefit the reader.
Too many details. Remember that you cannot include everything in your narrative, even if it may be brief. If you cram in too many details that are not important to the moral or lesson you are trying to convey, the story may get boring. Resist adding them, kudos to you for remembering those details though!