1. The Descriptive Essay

Also known as descriptive writing, the descriptive essay is the most commonly-used essay format in schools. Taken simply, a descriptive essay is all about, well, describing – the who, what, when, where, and why of a particular topic and the relevant ideas connected to it. A descriptive essay is about telling something as it is, structuring it in such a way that would make sense to someone who’s reading it. Though descriptive, metaphors and analogies do figure in these types of essays, just that they are more devices of clarity than of literary merit.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: To write a good descriptive essay, be sure to write for simplicity rather than embellishment. It’s not the number of words you write but the clarity of the words that you’re using. As a rule of thumb, don’t use words you’re unfamiliar with. Speak from the heart, and you’ll be okay.

2. Persuasive or Argumentative Essay

Just as it’s description, a persuasive essay usually means that you’re siding with a particular opinion, and is writing to establish the evidences for or against it. As the principle of arguments usually allow, the essay is constructed so that each assumption is proved valid, and each point structure to lead to one’s conclusion.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: Arguing a point is hard when it’s something that you’re not familiar with, so be sure to do your research. When constructing your main thesis, be sure to pick out the strongest evidences that lead to it – 2 or 3 main points usually does the trick. After finishing your essay, be sure to review it with the objective of asking yourself and clarifying each sentence you wrote. You could also ask “Why” after each sentence so that you have a better vantage point for rewriting it.

3. Compare and Contrast Essay

When one is called upon to write a compare and contrast essay, it usually requires one to talk about two distinct points and expound upon the similarities and differences of each.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: Compare and contrast essays are usually the easiest to write, but sometimes one could go too far. Just pick the top 2 or 3 similarities and the same number of differences to point out. Remember: lesser is better.

4. Narrative Essay

A narrative essay usually tells a story and reflects the personal perspective of the author. It attempts to present ideas and topics via story-telling, mindful to expound on the main points of the article through the story itself.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: When writing a narrative essay, be sure draw your personal reflections on the subject. Find connections in which you can relate to.

5. Evaluation Essay

Evaluation essays are usually academic reviews of a particular idea or topic. Though you may right with an informal position, it’s usually done as an exposition of style rather than requirement.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: Evaluation essays are similar to persuasive essays in a sense that both presents a particular conclusion to the reader. Make sure that you present the criteria you used for your evaluation, and remember to check the evidences you gave.

General Format For An APA Paper

Guidelines

Your essay should:

• be typed
• be double-spaced
• standard sized, 8.5″ x 11″
• use 1″ margins on all sides
• use 10-12 pt. Times New Roman font or a similar font.
• include a page header at the top of every page.

Major Sections Of Your APA Paper

Your essay should include four major sections:

• The Title Page
• Abstract
• Main Body
• References.

Title Page

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author’s name, and the institutional affiliation. Include the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush right at the top of the page.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. APA recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in length and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should be double-spaced.

Beneath the title, type the author’s name: first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (Ph.D.).

Beneath the author’s name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the location where the author(s) conducted the research.

Abstract

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already include the page header. On the first line of the abstract page, center the word “Abstract” (no bold, formatting, italics, underlining, or quotation marks).

Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your research. (Do not indent.) Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph double-spaced. Your abstract should be between 150 and 250 words.

You may also want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this, center the text and type Keywords: (italicized) and then list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help researchers find your work in databases.

The Body – Citation

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, E.g., (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference.

Referencing

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page “References” centered at the top of the page (do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.

College Essay Writing Tip 1 – Research Is Important

Before you start writing an essay, it is important to fully understand the topic and conduct research. Research will give you an idea of what others are saying about the topic and for academic essay writing this is very important.  As tempting as Google might be, when writing an essay, do not limit your research to websites alone. Use books on the subject, peer reviewed journal articles, news articles and even audio and video sources to demonstrate you have read and researched widely on the subject.

College Essay Writing Tip 2 – Prepare Ahead

The most important tip to remember when learning how to write essays is that it requires time and hard work so do not leave it until the last minute. Give yourself enough time to research and prepare for the essay. If you are not sure what academic essay writing is all about, take a look at a few sample essays to give you an understanding of what is expected of you in terms of writing an essay.

Once you have finished researching and have an idea of what to write, just start writing. You do not need to worry about format and other technicalities at this stage of essay writing. Writing a draft is an important skill to learn for how to write essays as it will help you organize your thoughts. Once you have done so, you can fine tune your work, cut down unnecessary words and prepare a final draft. It is normal to have multiple drafts for academic essay writing so don’t worry if you have to make many revisions.

College Essay Writing Tip 3 – Never Plagiarize

Plagiarism is a serious offence as it qualifies as stealing someone else’s work and can have long term implications for your career. Most colleges and schools are very strict about this and if you are caught writing an essay that uses someone else’s material that you try to pass off as your own, it spells trouble for you. Colleges are increasingly using software that scans you work for plagiarized or duplicate content. Read the next essay writing tip about referencing to learn more about how to write essays that can help you avoid plagiarism.

College Essay Writing Tip 4 – Learn to Reference

Academic essay writing is all about good research and including opinions and comments by others who have discussed the same subject is definitely beneficial when writing an essay. However, make sure you use the appropriate essay writing referencing method. When learning how to write essays, referencing is a key skill as it will teach you how to quote other sources or paraphrase their ideas and the right way to attribute it. Different schools and different disciplines require different styles of referencing so find out from your department or your school what referencing style you should use. The three basic styles are:

• Harvard, which is used by Business subjects like MBA, Engineering & Science degrees and Social Sciences
• APA, which is used by Psychology and several other Health Care fields
• Oxford(also known as footnoting), which is mainly used by Law students

College Essay Writing Tip 5 – Think for Yourself

An academic essay is not just a matter of quoting several sources and telling your professor things about the topic that have already been discussed. It is important you think about the topic and form an opinion and this is the key skill to have if you want to learn how to write essays. The point of writing an essay is to show your professor you have understood the topic and after research, have formed your own opinion about the subject and your essay is a reflection of your opinion. Your academic essay writing must express originality of thought and while you must discuss other informed opinions, at the end, it is your point of view that the professor is interested in.

If you do not know how to write essays, do not panic because you have plenty of homework help and exam help available.. All you really have to do is understand your subject well enough and once you conduct your research you will find that writing an essay is not as hard as it seems and you might even have trouble sticking to the word limit! Write a few practice essays if necessary and once you have academic essay writing experience with one or two assignments, you won’t panic anymore!