Essay Writing
An essay is not a long paragraph. It is a small number of paragraphs, each doing a different job, arranged in an order you decided before you began.
Step 1 — Understand the task
Essay titles fall into a few types, and the type decides the shape of your answer. Identify it before you plan.
Essay types and their shapes
| Type | Example title | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptive | A rainy day in my village | Organised by place or by time, appealing to the senses |
| Narrative | An experience I shall never forget | Beginning, complication, climax, ending |
| Discursive | The advantages and disadvantages of social media | One side, the other side, then your judgement |
| Argumentative | Should homework be abolished? | Your position, your reasons, the opposing view answered, conclusion |
| Expository | How a bill becomes a law | Steps or aspects in a logical order |
The five-paragraph shape
For most examination essays this shape is reliable, and you can plan it in a minute.
The number of body paragraphs may be two, three or four. What must not change is that each body paragraph has one job.
- Introduction — say what the essay is about and, where relevant, what you will argue. Three or four sentences.
- Body paragraph 1 — the first main point, developed.
- Body paragraph 2 — the second main point, developed.
- Body paragraph 3 — the third main point, or the opposing view, developed.
- Conclusion — your judgement or final thought. Three or four sentences. No new information.
Step 2 — Study a model
Question: The mobile telephone has done more harm than good to school students. Do you agree?
Introduction
Few objects have entered our daily lives as quickly as the mobile telephone. In a single generation it has moved from a rare luxury to something almost every household owns, and school students are among its heaviest users. Whether this has helped or harmed them is now argued in staffrooms and at home. In my view the telephone itself is neither good nor harmful; what matters is whether a student controls it or is controlled by it.
Conclusion
The mobile telephone has therefore brought both real benefits and real dangers, and the balance between them is not decided by the instrument. A student who uses it to find a word, to send work to a teacher and to keep in touch with family gains from it; a student who cannot leave it alone during study loses far more than time. The task before parents and teachers is not to condemn the telephone but to teach the habits that make it useful.
Why this answer works
- The introduction begins with a general observation, narrows to the specific question, and ends with the writer's position. This funnel shape works for almost any essay title.
- The position stated at the end of the introduction is genuinely arguable, not a bland there are advantages and disadvantages.
- The conclusion answers the question directly. It does not introduce a new argument.
- It also does not simply repeat the introduction in other words. It carries the argument one step further, to what should be done.
- Both paragraphs are short. In an examination essay, length belongs in the body, not at the two ends.
Step 3 — Identify the structure
Take the model apart. The introduction does three things: a general opening, a narrowing to the question, a statement of position. The conclusion does three things: a summary judgement, a balancing of the two sides, a forward-looking closing sentence.
Practise those two paragraphs on their own. Students who can write a good introduction and a good conclusion under pressure are rarely the ones who run out of time.
Step 4 — Guided practice
Title: Should school uniforms be compulsory?
- Write a four-line plan — one line for each of the four paragraphs you will write. Nothing but the idea of each.
- Write the introduction only: one general sentence, one narrowing sentence, one sentence giving your position.
- Write body paragraph 1: topic sentence, two supporting sentences, one concrete detail.
- Write the topic sentence only of body paragraph 2, making sure it is a different idea from paragraph 1.
- Write the conclusion: your judgement, a balancing sentence, a closing thought.
- Now write body paragraph 2 in full, and read the whole essay aloud.
Step 5 — Write independently
Thirty-five minutes, by hand, with five minutes at the end reserved for checking. Choose one.
- The person I admire most
- Village life and city life
- The importance of learning English in Sri Lanka today
- Should students be given fewer examinations?
- A day that did not go as planned
- How our school could be improved
Step 6 — Correction checklist for essays
- Have I answered the title given, and not a similar title I would have preferred?
- Does the introduction narrow to the question and state a position?
- Does each body paragraph have one idea and a topic sentence?
- Have I given concrete detail — examples, not only generalisations?
- For a discursive or argumentative essay, have I acknowledged the other side?
- Does the conclusion answer the question and add no new information?
- Are the paragraphs clearly separated on the page?
- Are my linking words varied, and not repeated at the start of every paragraph?
- Is the essay near the required length?
- Have I left time to check the verbs, articles, plurals and spelling?
- Is the handwriting readable to the end?