Overview of an Essay for College
In college, essay writing is a norm. You are bound to come across an essay when writing an assignment for college.
In some cases, you will even be required to write an essay before you join college.
Examples of essay writing assignments for college include:
1. An essay describing yourself
2. An essay for college scholarship
3. An essay for college application
Steps to essay writing encompass the procedure for writing college essays.
Whether it’s an essay about friendship or an essay about my school, you should closely follow these steps.
Further, besides understanding these steps, you are required to exhibit some key skills.
Demonstrating these skills requires that you ask several questions that usually act a guide on the various areas and parts to cover in your essay.
Such questions are discussed below.
What is an Essay for College?
Before you start writing an essay for college, it is important to understand what in entails.
Per se, an essay can be described as:
“An intellectual examination of a particular topic that involves investigating different arguments and their respective evidence in order to develop a specific perspective”.
Generally, an essay is more discursive, with its points being extra astute and language used sometimes being less concise.
An essay usually ranges between 500 words and 5000 words.
When writing an essay for college, one of the key elements to consider is parts to an essay. This looks to important areas of an essay, including:
1. Introduction for an essay
2. Body of an essay and
3. Conclusion to an essay
That said, you need to appreciate the fact that in most cases, an essay is not broken into different subheadings.
All the above considered, writing an essay for college requires you effectively hone your writing skills.
What is the Purpose of Writing an Essay for College?
This is another important question to ask when it comes to how to write an essay for college.
Generally, essays are learning tools. They are therefore meant to help you acquire some knowledge and skills.
That said, essays are usually intended to accord you the opportunity to demonstrate written evidence of your numerous abilities, including:
1. How to research a topic,
2. How to organize your thoughts,
3. How to weigh arguments,
4. How to articulate your thoughts in a consistent and coherent manner, and
5. How to arrive at conclusions derived from presented evidence and arguments.
Besides the above abilities, you also need to demonstrate knowledge and skills in other areas like an understanding of parts to an essay, developing an introduction for an essay, and crafting a conclusion to an essay.
When such knowledge and skills are put together, essays should effectively piece ideas together into a coherent argument.
In so doing, they present relevant thoughts in a linear format; that is, one idea after another.
What are the Parts to an Essay for College?
When writing an essay for college, you have to cover the different parts to an essay. These parts pertain to the structure of an essay.
This structure has a major influence on how entailed ideas flow, coherency of arguments, and the general attitude of the reader.
Per se, an essay usually encompasses three main parts, including:
1. Introduction,
2. Body, and
3. Conclusion.
1. Introduction
The introduction for an essay presents the topic. Customarily, it should inform the reader about the context to the topic under discussion.
This is usually done by providing information on the topic’s background.
Good approaches on how to write an essay for college requires you to ensure that the introduction is catchy enough to seize the interest of the reader.
To be catchy, it should have a standing out statement usually referred to as a hook for an essay.
Creating a good hook for an essay can be realized by using a quotation, a direct announcement, a definition, a question, a controversial position, or an unusual comparison.
Further, the introduction should include the thesis statement where it should stipulate the main idea in the essay.
As well, the introduction should state the essay’s purpose. This could be done using sentences with statements like:
1. Will argue,
2. Will inform,
3. Will persuade,
4. Will narrate,
5. Will describe,
6. Will classify, etc.
2. Body
This is another of the important parts to an essay. It usually requires the most time when writing an essay for college.
Principally, the body explores the main points supporting the thesis.
Respective points are expressed within a paragraph(s) and are backed with evidence, either personal experiences or research results.
The points should be summed up by specific conclusions that are aligned to the essay’s thesis.
Markedly, the body encompasses different paragraphs that utilize proof generated from the literature to support the entailed arguments.
Each paragraph in this part should encompass 3 different sections that include:
1. Topic sentence,
2. Explanation and proof, and
3. Summary statement.
Each of the section should be as illustrated below.
1. Topic Sentence
This is the first sentence and should introduce what will be discussed in the paragraph. It should be precise and expansive enough at the same time.
2. Explanation and Proof
This is very important when writing an essay for college and entails the sentences or quotations that follow your topic sentence.
They are intended to provide evidence that your thesis is accurate.
In doing so, you are required to draw conclusions that relate to the thesis deriving from the quotation.
3. Summary Statement
This is the final part of the body paragraph and should conclude the point being put forward.
3. Conclusion
Conclusion is also one of the key parts to an essay. It entails the summation of the essay’s points.
It encompasses the final thought in regard to the argument being advanced.
Notably, just like the body paragraphs, it consists of 3 key parts that encompass:
1. Thesis statement that has been creatively recreated,
2. A summary of the proofs, and
3. A general ending statement.
4. Citations
These are critical elements on how to write an essay for college.
Citations involve giving credit to all the works that have utilized in developing the essay.
In most cases, they follow common formats such as APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago.
What are the key Elements to Writing an Essay for College?
There are various elements that you should factor in when writing an essay for college.
This is for all essays whether it is an essay describing yourself, an essay for college scholarship, an essay for college application, an essay about friendship or an essay about my school.
Accordingly, to make your essay outstanding, you must ensure that it has the various elements of a good essay.
Some of these elements include:
1. Appropriate introduction,
2. Thesis statement,
3. Topic sentences, and
4. Transitions.
1. Appropriate introduction
Introduction for an essay is important in setting the tone and capturing the attention of the reader.
An appropriate sentence is essential in explaining to the reader what the essence of the essay is and why it is worth reading.
It has to consider all the factors highlighted above. In general, the introduction should be in line with the topic, argument (s), and conclusion (s).
2. Thesis statement
This is very essential when writing an essay for college.
The thesis statement must state the argument/idea in a concise manner. Usually, it should appear in the last part/sentence of the introduction paragraph (s).
The thesis statement entails your argument that has been consolidated into a single arguable statement. Coming up with the thesis would therefore require you to
1. Carefully read the essay question and clarify the requirements, or what you are required to prove, and
2. Find out what is inherent in the question.
3. Topic sentence
A good essay must have topic sentences in each paragraph.
Sentences without topic sentences do not only depict images of incompetence, but also creates confusion on the point being put forward.
Per se, topic sentences should identify the main idea in every paragraph. Typically, they are the first sentence in a paragraph.
4. Transitions
Proper skills in writing an essay for college requires the use of transitions.
Transitions are words and phrases that connect paragraphs and their respective ideas.
Note that the essay could use different types of transitions, may it be a single word or a several words phrase.
They are essential and must be well utilized to ensure that the essay is fluid.
In this, they are usually used at the beginning or the middle of a sentence to connect two similar ideas or even contrast one idea from another.
5. Formatting
Formatting is a very essential part of a good essay. This is because it determines the first impression about your essay.
Obviously, well-formatted work reflects a competent and confident writer.
Seeking Help when Writing an Essay for College
When writing an essay for college, it is necessary to seek help in areas that you do not fully understand or those that are not clear enough.
To ensure quality work, you are encouraged to seek professional writing help from extensively experienced experts.
You can always consult with for all types of essay writing may it be an essay describing yourself, an essay for college scholarship, an essay for college application, an essay about friendship, an essay about my school, etc.
