Writing Good Essays

This is where most people start. Don't. If you start here, you're likely to find the process hard and the result mediocre. Instead, do the other steps first. Come to the writing stage with a pile of notes and a clear sense of your focus regarding the work. Then start your essay with a clearly defined introduction that hooks your readers' interest and ends with a clearly stated thesis. Write three or more body paragraphs, each of which makes points that support your thesis, points that you illustrate with specific evidence from the work itself and your outside research. Provide transitions between each paragraph that guide your readers to a conclusion that sums up the essay, expresses what you learned by writing the essay, and, in the best possible world, rewards readers for reading your essay by teaching them something new. However, before you give the essay to them, review it. Make sure it completes its functions.