Whenever your teacher tells you that you have to write an essay, it can fill a person with dread, the word itself is so daunting. You imagine having to write thousands of words, and that alone is enough to scare anyone. Having to do homework is hard enough without thinking of writing an extended piece of writing that you’ve never really done before.
During my time in education, including doing GCSE’s and A-levels where I took English Literature, I learnt how to structure my English essays, whilst ensuring the points were covered. Once, the structure is learnt, it will ensure you know how to write other types of essays for other subjects, or even if you take English as an A level.
Example Question:
How does Priestley explore responsibility in An Inspector Calls?
Start with a plan – sometimes people don’t plan what they’re going to write, and this can make it difficult for them to remember everything they’re going to write once they start writing. They just hope ideas will come to them. This isn’t exactly the best way to write an essay.
A plan doesn’t have to take a long time or have to have too many details. The main things which need to be included is the points you’re going to use, and even the quotes you may want to use with them, try to memorise short ones, which you can analyse.
First, you start with an introduction:
Write a few sentences about what you’re going to talk about in your essay in a general manner.
In the main body of the essay, that’s when you would start to write your points, pick at least two or three.
Point – Priestley explores responsibility in An Inspector Calls through …
Evidence – This is shown through [insert quote]
Explanation – Explain what the quote means
Analysis and Link – Analyse how the author uses the quote to explore responsibility
Conclusion – this is where you summarise the points of your essay in link with the essay question.
Following these guidelines are a good starting point when writing your essay and so it shouldn’t seem so daunting when you have to write one.
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