One more way to generate your essay ideas is probably the most commonly taught way to do so. It is called mapping or branching. This method is great for visual learners because you are setting up a blue print of your essay on a piece of paper. How you set up the branching/mapping style is take a sheet of paper and write your topic in the center of the page. From the center separate your supporting ideas far enough apart so you can write the supporting evidence near the ideas. Using the mapping/branching method will help you figure out where the supporting evidence should go and show you how the ideas are related to one another. Aside from your outline or rough draft this will be the closest thing to a complete essay. Generating ideas is one step in how to write an essay, but even after you complete this step there is still more to take into consideration before you start typing a final draft.
The next step in your discovery process is the organization of the structure of your essay. One step you may begin on right away is arranging your ideas. Arranging your ideas will benefit the structure of your essay because you will achieve coherence. If your essay is coherent, you will develop a logical set up and a stronger composition. Your ideas in one paragraph should all function as a unit. To work this out, the ideas must relate to one another and have a transitional flow that the reader can understand. If you were to explain to a reader how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich, you wouldn’t say,” grill the bread…oh and by the way before you grill the bread, butter it first.” This will frustrate the reader and on top of that they would have to cook another grilled cheese sandwich.
To take the transitional flow to a higher level, an important rule in an essay is to have time order. This is basically chronological order. This works best in all essays but, most importantly in narrative essays because in order to tell a story, it is best to recall your story in the series of events that happened in order. Chronological order is also important in an expository essay because if there is a case where in order to know one idea, you must know the other, then the initial ideas would have to come first. For example, we’ll get into chemistry again; if you were writing an expository essay on polymers and how their structure affects their texture, you would talk about what makes up polymers first before you begin to talk about their texture as a result of their structure. By using time order you make your essay readable and you progress the reader to your thoughts which can ultimately benefit if you are trying to have them stay on your side of an opinion.
Another way to arrange your essay is by the order of importance. Depending on how you wanted to approach your essay, you would either arrange the order from least important to most or vice versa. If you go from least important to the most, you will build your reader up to a climax, which is the typical essay structure and leaves the reader with the most impact. If you are to go from the most important to the least, then you get your reader intrigued at the very beginning and can close the essay leaving them satisfied as long as you can pull it off with an excellent conclusion. The preparation for your essay is almost accomplished, and soon you can begin to write or type the first draft of your essay. These initial steps are important because they make creation of the essay convenient for the final draft. Before you write the final draft many people do a practice run. The rough draft is next step in writing an essay. One way to cover this step is by writing an out line. By constructing an outline as your rough draft you are organizing your ideas, with all the information you have gathered. Now, just as branching/mapping, you can visualize how your essay will be formed. From here you can take a look at it and ask yourself if it is transitional, is there time order etc…This also will help you start ideas on what your topic sentence will be. Just like in your introduction paragraph you will have to develop a thesis, in your body paragraphs you will have to develop topic sentences that guide you on what that one paragraph will be about. By looking at your outline, you should be able to distinguish what is a necessary topic sentence for your body paragraphs. Also in your out line, a good suggestion is to write a rough draft of your introduction and you conclusion. These two paragraphs are very important in your essay and will need revision probably almost immediately. In your introduction you must include a thesis, your main points and a conclusion to your topic. It will need some fine tuning, but introduction is important for the formation of your whole essay. On the other hand, a conclusion is just as important because you are wrapping up your essay and your reader’s thoughts. You must have a catchy transition into the closing, restate your ideas without repeating them verbatim, and an ending that will let your reader be at rest will the moral to the story or the opinion you wanted to express.
Teachers often express the importance of getting your idea or opinion known in the introduction of your essay. The statement that expresses your opinion or idea on your topic is your thesis. To write an essay, you need to know how to write an accomplished thesis. A thesis statement is generally only one sentence long with a the point presented in a clear, concise manner and it is more general than a topic sentence in a body paragraph because it is making a point for the overall essay. The thesis is your most important part of the essay because it is the guideline for you to refer to so you do not get off track and it is the sentence that separates your topic from a pile of information to something distinct. In this effect, it is what controls your idea by tying together everything you prepared for to write your final draft. Knowing what a thesis is essential but, it is also vital for you to know what makes a good thesis.
