How to Do Research for an Excellent Essay

Introduction:

Too many students come to me asking for the specific steps in writing a high quality essay. The following is an abbreviated version of essay writer?response which should be enough to get most people started:

Some of you may find this guide redundant or obvious. However, as I have taught English at myriad levels and in different places, I know that many students receive little direct instruction on how to write well (and some are even encouraged not to do so!). This handbook is intended for those students who want to learn more than "just the basics."

The process I lay out here can be used by advanced ESL/EFL learners as well as native speakers with varying degrees of proficiency; just bear in mind if you are at a low level, you may need supplementary materials (see "studying" section below).

With that said, let's begin:

Step 1: Designing the Essay

Nearly all good essays have three things in common: an opening hook or grabber, transitional devices throughout and a closing argument. In other words, your essay should start strong to capture your reader's attention; it should lead into and out of different points smoothly and finally end with some kind of summary statement or shrug. I am going to refer to these elements as hooks , transitions and conclusions.

?

Openings Hooks

What makes an opening strong? It should be short (most are one sentence long), interesting/relevant/compelling for your reader and start with a topic sentence that immediately draws the reader in.

Here are some examples of strong openings:

"When I was ten years old, my father took me to see Star Wars , a film that would change my life forever."

(implies something interesting happened and piques curiosity)

"I will never forget the first time I saw Star Wars . It changed my life." (the second is overly sentimental - but you get the idea...)

Transitions Transitional devices appear throughout your essay. They help organize ideas and create smooth transitions from one point to another. Think of these as "signposts" on your way to an overall conclusion. There are three main kinds of transitions - summary, cause and comparison. We'll start with write my essay:

Summary Transitions - these appear in the first or second sentence of a paragraph. They help us "sum up" what we have been saying thus far: For example, suppose you were writing about how reading helps increase vocabulary (something I am sure we can all agree on!). The first few sentences might read as follows:

"It is well established that literacy has significant social, cultural and economic benefits . As most educators know, one of the main reasons to become literate is so that people can find better paying, more complex jobs."

In this case, I could end this paragraph with any of three things: 1) A general remark such as "So it makes sense that people who are more literate make better employees." 2) A general remark and then a specific example: "So it makes sense that people who are more literate, have wider vocabularies and read more often have an easier time finding jobs. A study by the OECD, shows that on average, college graduates with low literacy skills earn 40% less than those with high literacy skills." 3) A general statement followed by a specific example cited from another source: "The government provides tax credits to businesses which hire workers from low-income areas where the rate of illiteracy is high..."

Cause & Comparison Transitions - cause/comparison transitions appear at the beginning of paragraphs that describe causes or effects of something else. These transitions include "because," "since" and "similar to."

"Because of this..." or "...given this fact, it's no wonder that..."

There are also a series of transition words called particles (e.g. however, furthermore, furthermore...) that may be used in a sentence with any other kind of word - nouns, verbs etc... In your essay you'll want to make sure you don't overuse these: essay writing service?can make your writing seem dull and uninformed! These transitions are quick so they are perfect for connecting ideas within sentences as opposed to paragraphs; they should not be used in the first few lines of a paragraph. The most important thing about these is to use them sparingly!