Essay Writing Guidelines

Step One: Make sure that you understand what the question is asking. What is the scope of the question? How much background is required?

Step Two: Determine the main topics that will need to be covered in the answer. Make sure that each topic relates directly to the question.

Step Three: Determine the overall focus of your essay. What is the point that you are trying to get across? This becomes your thesis statement. Your thesis statement should always be in your introduction.

Step Four: Write your topic sentence for each paragraph. The topic sentence should clearly relate to the thesis and should allow you to develop additional evidence to elaborate on the topic sentence.

Step Five: Develop each paragraph. An historical essay should do this through additional evidence. Evidence may include examples, statistics, or quotations. Write from the general to the specific. Begin with your main point and then use the paragraph to develop the idea. Constantly ask yourself: “How does this relate to my thesis?”

Step Six: Prepare a conclusion. A good conclusion should further support the thesis. It should never introduce new topics or evidence. As the last word in your essay, it should reinforce the reader’s understanding of your arguments.

As you progress through each step, you often need to go back and revise previous steps. In developing evidence, you may find that your thesis needs to be rewritten to fit your evidence. If you alter your thesis, then your topic sentences may need to be revised.

In preparing for an essay, you should do an outline that:

States your thesis

Includes your topic sentences

Outlines your development of each main point.

Writing Reminders:

1. Write in third person past tense.

2. Do not start sentences with but, and, however, so, etc.

3. The first time that you refer to a person, use their first and last name. Subsequent references can be by last name only. Lengthy terms that will be used repeatedly can be abbreviated. Include the abbreviation in parenthesis after its first use.

Sample Question:

Describe the contributions that Francis Cabot Lowell made to the industrial revolution in the United States.

Introduction: (thesis underlined)

Francis Cabot Lowell played a vital role in the industrial development of the United States. Lowell formed the first large American industrial enterprise, the Boston Manufacturing Company (BMC), in 1813. His company was not only the first large-scale effort at manufacturing in the United States but it also established practices that many other American companies would copy and previewed the enormous changes that the industrial revolution would bring to America. With the development of the BMC, the United States began the important transformation from a purely agricultural country to an industrialized one.

Topic Sentences:

I. Before Lowell, textile manufacturing in the United States was a small-scale enterprise, unable to compete with Great Britain.

II. Lowell visited Britain to learn the latest textile manufacturing technology.

III. The sale of shares in the Boston Manufacturing Company allowed Lowell to raise the large sum of money necessary for building his first factory.

IV. Lowell ensured adequate inexpensive labor for his company by employing young “mill girls” to work in his factory.

V. The success of Lowell’s mill greatly changed the town of Waltham until the demands of the company required it to relocate.

Conclusion:

Francis Cabot Lowell’s establishment of the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813 began the transformation of the United States into an industrial country. By bringing the latest textile technology from Britain, Lowell made it possible to manufacture high-quality, low-cost cloth in America. In the course of the development of his company, he helped transform New England from a rural agricultural region to one with rapidly growing industrial cities. Although some of his ideas, such as providing housing and supervision for his laborers, did not continue with other companies, almost every major American company has copied his key innovation, the development of a corporation owned by stockholders. This made it possible to raise the investment capital necessary for the development of increasingly larger manufacturing companies.