Write an essay • Instructions for the perfect essay - how to write an essay

 

Essay writing

Important content

 

What is an essay?
Essay writing - preparation
Essay writing - structure
Essay writing - revision

In this article we explain what an essay is and how to write it. We will show you what types of school essays there are with tips and examples.

To get an even better overview of the topic, just watch our video now!
Content overview
What is an essay?

An essay is a text on a certain topic, usually given to you by your teacher. All essays consist of an introduction, body and conclusion.

How exactly the essay is structured and what writing style you should use always depends on the essay type. 

Essay writing - preparation

To be able to write a good essay, it is very important to prepare well for it:

    Assignment: read carefully what is required of you. Find out what type of essay you are supposed to write.
    Materials: Most of the time, you will be given additional materials along with your assignment. This can be a poem or a newspaper article, but also an excerpt from a longer text. You should read the materials carefully several times.
    Marking: Then you mark important parts of the text and conspicuous features in color.
    Collecting: You can take notes while reading. Afterwards, collect ideas about the topic again.
    Organize: To get an overview of your notes, you should organize them afterwards. For example, you can create a list or a mind map.
    Outline: Think about what you want to write in which part of your essay.

Tip: Take your time when preparing your essay. If you work thoroughly, the writing will go much faster.
Essay writing - structure


Here we will show you a general structure that you can use for all types of essays. However, the details depend on the essay type and the assignment.
Essay structure, essay outline, essay parts, essay parts
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The structure of an essay
Writing an essay - introduction

When you write an introduction, you want to introduce your reader to the topic. You want him to know what type of essay it is. If you have a text as a basis, you provide all the important information about it:

    Author: Who wrote the text?
    Title: What is the name of the text?
    Date and/or year of publication: When was the text published?
    Place of publication: Where was the text published?
    Content: What is the text about?

Be brief! The introduction should be only about 5-10 percent of your essay. That is, if your essay is five pages long, it would be half a page at most.
Essay writing - main part

The most important part of your essay is the main body. The exact content depends on the form of the essay. In any case, you will deal intensively with your topic or question.

    Logic: You should put your thoughts in a logical order. For example, you can proceed chronologically - that is, you put them in chronological order. Alternatively, you can arrange the points thematically.
    Transitions: Make sure that you establish a connection between the different points.
    "Red thread": Never lose sight of the big picture. Use your outline and notes as a guide when writing.

The body is the longest part of your essay. It should make up 80-90 percent of your entire essay.
Essay Writing - Conclusion

The conclusion is about briefly summarizing the results of the main body and drawing a conclusion from it. Depending on the type of essay, you may sometimes express your own opinion on the topic. However, you should not introduce any more new results, but round off your essay well.

Like the introduction, the conclusion covers only a small part of your essay. It should not be more than 10 percent of the total length. 

Essay writing - revision

When you're done writing your essay, take some time to read through it again. In your revision, you can stick to the following points:

    Errors: pay attention to spelling and grammar mistakes.
    Repetitions: Do not use the same words over and over. Do not start successive sentences with the same phrase, but write in a varied way.
    Sentence length: Your sentences should not be too long. You will easily miss some mistakes in nested sentences. They are also difficult to read.

Tip: When you write your essay at home, read it aloud to yourself at the end. When you read it aloud, you will quickly notice if something sounds funny.