How to Write a Scholarly Essay

While the essay format itself is highly intuitive, and many students learn the basics of the "five-paragraph essay" at a young age, writing a scholarly essay is an entirely different experience requiring specialized writing skills. Scholarly essays, as demanded in college, require extensive research and meticulous organization. While the task of writing an extended scholarly piece can appear daunting, even a novice essayist can write a good collegiate essay with the proper steps.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• MLA or APA handbook

1. Make sure you clearly understand the essay prompt and guidelines. When in doubt, ask the professor.

2. Research thoroughly using only credible sources. The research component of scholarly writing is very important, and the extra care and precision of scholarly fact-checking is what sets the modality apart from other essay types. Be careful when using web sources; many websites are not "credible sources." For modern point-and-click website editors, posting information on the web is easy; unfortunately, that information may not be filtered and fact-checked with the same editorial standards as print media. Sometimes, web info just isn't accurate, and many websites fail to cite their sources or identify authorship. You should use only websites created by experts in your field of study or backed by solid research and professional affiliations. While blogs and social network content is okay for getting some ideas, these sites are unreliable as a basis for research because they rarely have editorial fact-checking or professional sponsorship.

3. Write out citations as you take notes on your sources. Staying organized early on will help you in the long run; you don't want to be hastily creating your bibliography in the middle of drafting the essay. Scholarly essays mandate specific citation standards; the standards vary based on the field of study. Purdue University's Online Writing Lab explains that, among the two primary citation models, MLA is used mostly in the humanities, and APA is used in the natural and social sciences. If you are unsure which citation model to use, ask your professor.

4. Make sure your essay has an identifiable thesis statement in the first paragraph. The thesis should succinctly encapsulate your essay's main purpose, explaining your position or methodology in a few brief phrases. The thesis does not just state the topic; it states your attitudes toward or treatment of the topic.

5. Support all claims with evidence as you draft the essay. While scholarly essays are often used as vehicles for drawing new conclusions and advancing the field of study, those advancements must be based on prior knowledge and research. If you cannot cite support for your argument, the essay is not scholarly.

6. Edit carefully. Do not rely wholly on a computerized "spell checker." Spell checkers are not infallible; furthermore, your editing should do more than simply check for grammatical errors. To ensure your scholarly argument is well presented, you need to edit for overall content alongside grammatical concerns.

References

• Purdue University: Online Writing Lab, "Documenting Electronic Sources in Specific Disciplines."

Resources

• Capital Community College, "A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on MLA Documentation."
• Long Island University, "APA Citation Style."
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: The Writing Center, "Thesis Statements."

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