How to Improve on Drafting an Essay Paper
Writing an essay means you need to take research you have done on a specific topic, then write a paper that explains, convinces or tells a story. Your first task is to figure out your point of view or what position you will use as you write the essay. Rather than taking random pieces of research and information and putting them into your essay with no thought to organization, you have to decide where each piece of information fits so the paper is well-organized and easy to understand.
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Instructions
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Outline
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Write up an outline for your essay. This should cover what your essay is about, give an idea of the topic sentence or introduction and help you formulate an introduction, body and conclusion.
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Write your topic down before you begin working on the outline. If your paper is about student plagiarism, for instance, list "Student Plagiarism at School." Brainstorm from three to six ideas or thoughts you have about student plagiarism and list them on your paper as "A," "B" and "C." Hang on to your outline because it is your essay's road map.
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List some thoughts under your A, B and C topics -- these become the support paragraphs for your paper. Keeping with the preceding example, define plagiarism, then write down your feelings about student plagiarism for your "A" paragraph. Use the notes you took from research you did before you started writing your outline.
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Write down your "B" topic, add the research your found and include your thoughts. This section can be about what plagiarism does and how it affects students and professionals. If you conducted a personal interview with a newspaper editor, include some quotes he gave you and cite him as your source.
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Use your outline to write about your "C" topic, using your notes and any interview material you may have. For this section, include the consequences of plagiarism.
Parallel Structure
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Draft your essay in parallel format. "Parallel structure" involves using the same word pattern, giving two or more items equal importance. Parallelism helps you craft concise statements and reduce the work readers have to do to understand what you mean.
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Write a thesis statement in active voice that puts the spotlight on the main people you are directing your essay toward -- in this case teachers, administrators and students. Using active voice will give you a strongly written statement for your paper. Using the plagiarism example, write: "Teachers should more strongly enforce school administration rules on student plagiarism, conduct and penalties for instances of student plagiarism."
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Direct each essay point toward your thesis -- teachers need to be more proactive about student plagiarism, conduct and penalties for student-committed plagiarism.
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Repeat the word "teachers" and other nouns in each paragraph of your essay. Use this tool only for your first draft -- relax the wording once you have the main points written down for your rough draft. Using this practice, your essay's rough draft looks like this: "Teachers have to become more proactive about student plagiarism. Teachers have to become more proactive about student conduct. Teachers have to become more proactive about enforcing penalties for student-committed plagiarism."
Using parallelism helps you stick to your main thesis. You don't have to use identical wording for each paragraph of your final draft, but using it in your rough draft helps you craft paragraphs that closely follow your thesis. Using parallelism by using all nouns or all adjectives also helps readers quickly understand your points.
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Stick with how or why teachers should become more proactive -- don't go back and forth between the two. Using either how or why makes your essay even stronger.
Maintaining parallelism in the "how" versus the "why" makes it easier for you to stay on-topic. If you write first about the how, then, in another section, change to the why, it forces your essay to drift away from parallel structure.
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Tips & Warnings
Write out some practice introductions. Make yours attention-grabbing with a clear statement of what your essay is about.
Use the introduction to move into your thesis statement, making each sentence progressively more specific.
Write your thesis statement to inform readers what your essay is about.
Don't forget to accurately cite your sources. Provide all information in a "Works Cited" or bibliography page so your teacher knows where you found your information.
References
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