How to Write a Diagnostic Essay

With school come many essays to write, and one popular format teachers love is the diagnostic essay, often your first essay of the year to evaluate your writing skills. Sometimes these are in-class essays, sometimes take home. This is your typical five paragraph essay that has a beginning, middle and end. Teachers will provide a topic for this essay, like a particular war or book, and students will come up with a theory to write about regarding the topic.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Pick your topic or thesis and come up with a thesis sentence. A diagnostic essay needs a thesis that you will be proving in the rest of your paragraphs. Your entire paper will discuss the thesis sentence you choose, so choose a topic you can write well on. Your thesis statement will make a bold assertion about the topic you've chosen and can be controversial, depending on the topic.

2. Write an outline for your paper. Most diagnostic essays have five paragraphs: one introduction, three main paragraphs and one concluding paragraph. Your three main paragraphs should be focused on three different ideas that all meld together in a progressive order. Write down these ideas and the order you want them to be in.

3. Write your introduction paragraph. This should talk about the basics of your topic (for example, the history of the witch hunts in Europe--what a witch hunt was and how it happened) and end with your thesis sentence. Use general information about the topic that is related to your thesis sentence.

4. Write your three main paragraphs. You should have already come up with three ideas to discuss in relation to your thesis sentence. Each paragraph should have a strong topic sentence that explains what the paragraph is about, and a concluding sentence that wraps the paragraph up at the end. Each paragraph should progress into the other to create a fluid overall essay.

5. Finish with your conclusion. This paragraph will tie up loose ends, restate your thesis in different words and basically summarize what your entire essay was about. The final sentence should be strong and convince the audience of your thesis and the theory you chose to write about.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you spell-check your essay before turning it in, and have a friend or parent read it to make sure you haven't missed any errors.
• Don't forget to look over the guidelines your teacher gave you. Every teacher has different requirements, so never assume that you know what to write before looking at the guidelines.

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