Students need to know write an effective essay.
Writing a basic essay -- introductory statement, supporting paragraphs and conclusion -- is a necessary skill for high school and college students. Many classes use the essay format for midterm and final exams, and anyone hoping to get into graduate school will have to write an essay as part of the required Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Several components to an effective essay exist.
Strong Opening Paragraph
An effective essay starts with a well-written, defendable premise that you will explain and flesh out in the body of the essay. By the end of the first paragraph, your reader needs to know what the essay is about and how you will defend or refute the essay's premise. For example, if you are writing an essay about why you think online college courses are a good idea, you would say so and cite lower cost, freedom for the student to work on the course any time night or day and enhancement of computer skills as your reasons.
Clear Supporting Paragraphs
The supporting paragraphs must be clear and concise as you expand on and explain the points you mentioned in the opening paragraph. Use examples -- if this essay is part of a class exam, cite points your instructor made on the topic during lectures. Don't lose focus or wander off topic. Your reader will get lost; when that happens, your essay loses its effectiveness.
Concise Summation
Do not start your concluding paragraph with "In conclusion..." Your reader can see it's the last paragraph. Reiterate your original thought, state why the supporting points you made in the interim paragraphs support that thought, and your essay is finished. Keep the final paragraph short; your reader already knows everything you need to say, but you still need to say it for an effective essay.
Read Your Essay Out Loud
Your essay will lose a great deal of effectiveness if you misspell critical words, use poor grammar and make a lot of basic punctuation mistakes. Running your computer-composed essay through spell-check and grammar-check programs will find some of your mistakes, but not all; "through" and "threw" are both spelled correctly, but have very different meanings. Read the essay out loud, even if you read silently with your lips moving in an exam setting. This is the best way to find grammar and punctuation errors that could lower your score in addition to reducing the effectiveness of your writing.
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