Do you enjoy writing essays? I bloody well hope not… If you do, please teach me to be like you. The fact of the matter is, we all have to write an essay at some point in school and then a bunch more throughout uni.
So, why not go into those essays with 100% confidence that you’ll do better than just pass?
That’s the goal for this blog post! We’re talking essay structure, keywords to use, key places to put quotes, how to reference and everything in between.
If you’re about to start your HSC, currently doing your HSC, about to start Uni, or currently doing Uni, this post is for you! (If you’re not within those boundaries, share this with someone who is)
Table of Contents
What is an essay?
Basically, for all intents and purposes, an essay is an extended piece of writing that aims to prove some sort of point.
We use essays as a form of persuasive writing throughout high school and university as a way to express 2 things to our teachers/academics:
- That we understand the course content.
- Our ability to apply our learnings to practical situations and scenarios.
An essay will typically be longer than 800 words, and consist of an introduction, some body paragraphs, and a conclusion (at a minimum).
During your HSC, essays are used in most subjects (English, Business Studies, Economics, Geography, Legal, CAFS, Dance, etc.) so it’s super important to have a grasp on what a good essay looks like.
After the HSC, uni essays take on a slightly more formal approach. The structure and the end goal are still the same, but we now have to worry about referencing, word choice and all that jazz!
Main Point: You’re about to learn how to write a banging essay, regardless of whether you’re at school or uni.
The Introduction
The intro is the first thing every reader will see (including the person marking the essay). So, you want to start out with a bang!
Remember, the goal here is to show the marker two things:
- That you understand the content
- You can apply the learnings to practical examples
The marker is probably going to be reading upwards of 50 papers each day, and studies show that your mark is pretty much already determined before the end of your intro.
Main Point: Make the intro absolutely perfect in every way so it stands out from the 49 others…
How it should look
- Broad statement that addresses the themes in the question, and introduces the main ideas. (No mention of the text yet)
- Thesis statement that highlights your answer to the question, along with your opinion in a very detailed way. (Mention the text here)
- The thesis is your main argument for the essay. This is what you’ll keep coming back to in every paragraph.
- Summary of what’s to come in the following paragraphs
- Aim for around 125-175 words
Here’s an example introduction:
Because you’re reading me, check out these other posts:
The Body
After the intro comes the body. This is where the bulk of the essay will live and this is where the marks truly come from.
When an essay is marked, the person doing it is generally looking at length (average words per line x number of pages) and sentence structure. This means you want to be writing the first few lines of every paragraph with smaller handwriting to fit more words on each line. You also want every sentence to sound nice, with full stops in the right place and no grammar errors.
I recommend 3-4 body paragraphs for an essay of between 800-1200 words. My body paragraphs tend to be around 250-300 words depending on how many I’m doing and what my word limit is. Time to get that laptop out and start typing…
Main Point: Show the marker that you know your stuff by writing small and sounding legit.
How it should look
Each body paragraph should have a very distinct structure:
- Topic Sentence – this is where you create a mini-thesis that addresses the question and your answer to it, in relation to the theme of this particular paragraph.
- Orientation Sentence – back up your topic sentence with a quick explanation of what you mean
- Example – this is where you’ll add a quote that highlights your main point, or a business example, or a particular theory, or something that isn’t written by you, but proves what you’re trying to say.
- Explain – now your job is to explain that example and how it links to the theme of this paragraph, the topic sentence, and the essay as a whole.
- Repeat 3 and 4 at least another two times
- Link – this is CRUCIAL. Always finish a paragraph with one small sentence that links the examples back to the topic sentence, and the topic sentence back to the thesis statement and question.
Here’s an example body paragraph:
Bonus: How to add an example and explanation
There is a super simple structure that I was taught in school and use each time I want to add an example to my body paragraphs. It’s as simple as:
Technique – “EXAMPLE” – ‘s’ verb – meaning within the example (significance to the reader) – ‘ing’ verb – meaning outside the example (significance to greater society)
That’s all there is to it! This is easiest to spot in the last example of the above paragraph…
The Conclusion
Now that you’ve got an essay, it would be such a waste to leave the marker wondering…
The conclusion is quite possibly the most important part of any essay!
Think of it as the end of a movie to which there is no possible sequel. You’d be pretty pissed off if the movie left you hanging, so don’t do it to the marker.
Most essay marking guidelines have a specific section that basically caps you at a 14 or 15 out of 20 if you don’t have some form of conclusion. It’s usually masked by the words “coherent” or “cohesive”.
The conclusion is often hard to write because it seems so simple but yet, so hard to keep short.
Think of it like rewriting your intro, but with a slight sense of hindsight. Try to keep the conclusion around 100-150 words.
Main Point: Even if you run out of time on your body paragraphs, skip to the end and write a damn conclusion!
How it should look
The conclusion has a pretty straight forward structure:
- Restate your thesis statement (in slightly different words).
- Highlight the main themes of your paragraphs.
- Briefly remind the reader of how those themes (and their examples) link to your thesis and answer the question.
Here’s an example conclusion:
How it Should Look from an Analytical Standpoint
I really don’t know how to explain this in words, so I’ll use a cute lil graphic to show you how I break down every essay I’ve ever written…
Basically, we have the thesis as an overarching thing and each individual topic sentence adds up to equal that thesis. Within each body paragraph, we have 3 examples that add up to equal the topic sentence of that paragraph and the link rounds it all out.
Here’s a visual representation with arrows:
And for all of you who prefer numbers over arrows, here’s your version:
Referencing
Sometimes at school, and all the time at uni we have to reference where our ideas are coming from.
This process is quite frankly a pain in the ass, extremely time-consuming, very tedious, and super easy to mess up.
Here are some of the cheat codes I’ve discovered for referencing during Uni:
- The UTS Library has some awesome resources on APA referencing and Harvard referencing
- Google Scholar has a little button on every published article that literally gives you the citation…
The main thing with referencing is to know what type of resource you’re trying to cite (i.e. article, book, website, video, etc.) and know what referencing style your school or university uses. Then it’s just a matter of making sure all of the grammar and punctuation is correct.
Final Word
And there you have it. The only guide you’ll ever need for essay writing during school and after.
I hope you’ve learnt a lot today! I know I did just from writing this post…
If you found value today, I’d really appreciate it if you would leave a comment down below to let everyone else know! You can also share the post with your friends using the links at the top of the page.
Oh, and these are pretty cool too. Have a read:
- Uni: How to be a pro from day 1
- How to improve your marks by studying less
- How to plan out your life after school
Catch you next week,
Uncle N.