SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips, steps to writing a good essay.

If you don't care about your topic, it will be hard to convince your readers to care about it either. You can't write a revealing essay about yourself unless you write about a topic that is truly important to you.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

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Your essay should ultimately have a very narrow focus. 650 words may seem like a lot, but you can fill it up very quickly. This means you either need to have a very specific topic from the beginning or find a specific aspect of a broader topic to focus on.

Consideration 1: Does It Matter to You?

Even though she's only applying to four schools, Eva has a lot to do: two essays for UW, four for the UC application, and one for the Common App (or the Coalition App), plus the supplements for Reed and Emory. Many students will have fewer requirements to complete, but those who are applying to very selective schools or a number of schools on different applications will have as many or even more responses to write.

The essay questions can make a great jumping off point, but don't feel married to them. Most prompts are general enough that you can come up with an idea and then fit it to the question.

"I strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arm slung over my Fender Stratocaster guitar—it actually belonged to my mother—and launched into the first few chords of Nirvana's 'Lithium.'"

• America Needs Better Health Care Now
• The Use of the Mentor Archetype in _____
• Who Is the She-Conomy?
• Why DJ Is the Queen of Pedicures
• Melanoma: Is It or Isn't It?
• How to Achieve Natural Balance in Your Garden
• Expect to Be Changed by Reading _____

You've almost finished. The last paragraph of your essay is your conclusion. It, too, can be short, and it must tie back to your introduction.

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1. Purpose and Thesis
2. Title
3. Introduction
4. Body of Information
5. Conclusion

Title

Put your idea into a single sentence. This is your thesis statement, your main idea.

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In your introduction, you stated the reason for your paper. In your conclusion, you should summarize how your key points support your thesis. Here's an example:

How you present your argument is nearly as important as the argument itself, which is why it is imperative that your essay follows a logical structure. A classic piece of advice is to "tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, and tell them what you told them". This, in essence, summarises the core introduction, main body, and conclusion structure of your essay.

Instead, you should exchange essays with each other once you are both done with the first draft. It is immensely difficult to proofread your own work – one goes blind to minor grammatical issues in a text after reading it repeatedly for days on end. It is similarly easy to overlook gaps in flow and logic of argument. Having a friend read through the work will address both of these issues, assuming that they, too, are high achieving.

In case you are unsure about the difference between quoting and paraphrasing, we’ve included an example below:

These are some of the common phrases found in essay questions, and each indicates a different set of expectations. If you are asked to critically evaluate a particular theoretical approach, for instance, you have to gain an understanding not only of said theory, but also other common approaches. They must all be weighed against each other, highlighting the relative strengths and weaknesses of each theory and, importantly, you must come to a well-justified and confident conclusion. Is the theory good? What are its flaws? How can it be improved?

4. Be critical

If you are still not a hundred percent sure, it is usually a good idea to skip to the conclusion – this usually contains a detailed summary of the study, which will help determine whether you should read the article as a whole. You don’t want to waste time reading through and endless number of articles simply to find that they aren’t actually relevant. Once you have identified a few solid articles, you should (a) go through their bibliographies and take note of who they are citing, as these articles will likely be of value for your own research

This may, at the face of it, sound like somewhat banal advice – but fact of the matter is that failing to properly understand the question set is one of, if not the most common reason behind a disappointing grade when it comes to essay writing. Are you being asked to critically evaluate something? Compare and contrast? Analyse a particular circumstance? Evaluate the usefulness of a particular concept?

Examples such as the above are unfortunately rather common, and should give you a good idea of what to avoid. The sentiment behind the text is good, but it reads more like a second-rate blog post than an academic essay. Academic writing should be more formal, concise, unbiased and include good use of rhetoric. As for the above example, an academic might instead write:

Revisit the main idea. At the end, you want to tie everything together by revisiting the main idea or object and showing how your relationship to it has shaped or affected you. Ideally, you'll also hint at how this thing will be important to you going forward.

You also shouldn't pick a topic you aren't actually comfortable talking about. Some students are excited to write essays about very personal topics, like their mother's bipolar disorder or their family's financial struggles, but others dislike sharing details about these kinds of experiences. If you're a member of the latter group, that's totally okay, just don't write about one of these sensitive topics.

"I strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arm slung over my Fender Stratocaster guitar—it actually belonged to my mother—and launched into the first few chords of Nirvana's 'Lithium.'"

I wouldn't recommend this intro—it's a bit of a cliche.

Develop a Structure

Neither asks about your interest in a specific school or program.

I would also recommend starting with a longer personal statement before moving on to shorter supplementary essays, since the 500-700 word essays tend to take quite a bit longer than 100-250 word short responses. The brainstorming you do for the long essay may help you come up with ideas you like for the shorter ones as well.

However, if your first draft is more than twice the word limit and you don't have a clear idea of what needs to be cut out, you may need to reconsider your focus—your topic is likely too broad. You may also need to reconsider your topic or approach if you find yourself struggling to fill space, since this usually indicates a topic that lacks a specific focus.

8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

SOAPSTone is a very handy tool to help you understand the text you are dealing with. The following questions allow you to gather all the information you will need for future analysis.

Introduction, main body, and conclusion create the basic layout of any essay. The main body of the paper includes at least three paragraphs. The rhetorical analysis essay outline also fits this rule.

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Ethos is related to the speaker’s credibility. Mentioning some impressive qualifications or years of practice reassures the reader of the speaker’s reliability and trustworthiness. It helps to persuade the audience.

Step #1: Identify the SOAPSTone of the Text

Carefully go through all the notes you’ve made and mark the main points you want to include in your essay. Think about the evidence you have to support them. Along with the thesis statement, write it all down in a format of a list. When you are done with it, you may use it as a cheat sheet during the next steps of the writing process.

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You want to include everything you found out about the chosen text in this single sentence. If you didn’t skip the first two steps, it shouldn’t be a problem! A decent thesis statement would look like this: