Essays
Essays
What is an Essay?
An essay is a focused piece of prose writing that presents an author's argument, analysis, or perspective on a specific topic. Commonly used in academics to test critical thinking, essays typically feature an introduction with a thesis statement, body paragraphs with evidence, and a conclusion. They can be persuasive, informative, or descriptive.
Key Components and Characteristics
- Purpose: To inform, persuade, analyze, or interpret a subject.
- Structure: Standard essays follow a clear structure: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
- Thesis-Driven: Most academic essays (especially at university level) are argumentative, requiring a clear, central claim (thesis) supported by evidence, as outlined in Scribbr's definition of an essay.
- Style: Essays can range from formal academic writing to informal, personal reflections.
- Preparation: Choosing a topic, conducting research, and creating an outline.
- Writing: Drafting the essay, ensuring a logical flow of ideas.
- Revision: Checking for structure, coherence, evidence, and grammatical correctness.
Types of Essays
While there are many variations, most essays fit into four primary categories based on what the writer is trying to achieve:- Narrative (The Storyteller): This is all about telling a story, often from a personal perspective. It has a plot, characters, and a climax, but it’s written to share a specific lesson or insight.
- Descriptive (The Painter): The goal here is to create a vivid picture in the reader's mind. It uses sensory details (sight, sound, smell) to describe a person, place, or object in great depth.
- Expository (The Teacher): This is purely informative. You aren't taking a side; you’re just explaining a process, defined concept, or set of facts in a clear, logical way.
- Persuasive/Argumentative (The Debater): This is the most common academic type. You take a firm stance on an issue and use evidence, logic, and reasoning to convince the reader that your position is correct.
Structure of an Essay
Fundamental Structure of an Essay
Today, we will talk about the universally accepted fundamental structure of the essays and why it is necessary to always follow this basic structure.What is the fundamental structure of the essay?
Essays are the extended but formal write-ups that attempt to define, describe, discuss, analyse or argue on a specific subject. Like every formal piece of prose, essays also follow a particular pattern.
The most common method followed around the world is the one that includes an introduction, body paragraph and a conclusion.
Although there are some deviations, such as writing the issue and its extent, those methods do not have universal acceptability. Therefore, one should stick to the age-old formula of IBC method.
Why is it necessary to follow a certain structure of the essay?
Following a particular structure gives the writer clarity of purpose. If the essayist jumps from one method to another, it would not only cause confusion with respect to the ideas, but the quality of the essay will also be marred by the disorganization of the idea.
Therefore, in order to keep the essay simple, organized and attractive, it is extremely important that a particular format of the essays is followed.
What is an introduction?
The introduction is the opening paragraph of the essay. Being the first paragraph, you can also call it the face of your essay which is the first identification.The introduction of the essay has three main parts. The first one is the background information. In this part, a writer is supposed to provide some relevant information related to the subject. But it is not necessary that each essay should require background information.
Mostly, the essays need a direct start from a particular point. This particular point from which a direct start is taken is the second part which is called the thesis statement.
The thesis statement is the main idea around which the essay revolves. The stronger the thesis statement, the more marks you will get in your essay. The thesis statement is the part which makes or breaks the essay.
The third part is the roadmap of how you will tackle the essay i.e. whether you will give comparison and contrast, the causes and effects, or you will discuss the process. You may also go on giving some hint about the main arguments of your essay if you are writing an argumentative essay.
What is the body paragraphs?
The body paragraphs make up around 80 per cent of your essay. This is where all the information, facts, analysis, or the arguments go. Each body paragraph is centred around an idea which supports the thesis statement.
While you outline the essay, look for the outlines of the body paragraph. If the idea for the body paragraph is not in consonance with the thesis statement, then you must strike it down.
While you write the body paragraph, you will have to follow this format.
How to write the body paragraphs?
First comes the topic sentence of the paragraph that supports the main idea or the thesis statement. This is followed by at least 5 other sentences that define, discuss or analyse the main idea.
These sentences must also include evidentiary support.
Without evidence which may be in the form of facts, figures, examples etc., the body paragraph will not have the desired impact. The last sentence is the concluding sentence or the transitional sentence. This sentence indicates the start of another body paragraph.
What is the conclusion?
The conclusion is the last part of the essay, it is the climax or the pinnacle of your piece of writing. The main purpose of writing the conclusion is to reach the logical end of the arguments or the discussion in the body paragraphs.
In other words, it is the distilled summary of the preceding ideas and the pinnacle of the thesis statement.
How to write a conclusion:
Most people think that the conclusion of the essay is just a reworded introduction. IT IS NOT!
The purpose of the introduction is to introduce the topic; hence you start with the background, thesis and the roadmap.
However, in conclusion, you always invariable start with the position that you took and take the reader through what you have written in support of that position along with an ending note which should generally be positive.
Also, keep in mind that the conclusion should NEVER include any new evidence or piece of information. If it contains something new, it would be considered a new body paragraph because that would not be the logical end of the arguments, then.
Summary
I hope that by now you are familiar with the basic structure of the essay, and you will be feeling more confident about writing essays. So, do not wait for another moment, just take a pen and paper and start writing your first short essay.
As Julia Carney is said to have said:
Little drops of water, little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.
So, the little minutes, humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages of eternity.
Generate Ideas For Essay
How To Generate Ideas For Essay
I have known a number of students who often go blank when they see the topic. To tell you the truth, I also have faced the issue at a number of occasions.
But, let me assure you that this problem can be overcome very easily. All you need is a little practice at thinking. In this post, I am going to tell you strategies to get the right ideas for any topic that you want to write on.
But first, remember that if you want your ideas to be powerful, you need to read a lot first. If you don’t have the habit of reading, you won’t be able to generate quality ideas.
There are a lot of strategies which people use to generate ideas for their essays. For instance, freewriting, brainstorming, mind-mapping and questioning.
All of these methods work, but they work differently for different people. Therefore, I would suggest you try each of these for yourself and once you find one of them to match your way, stick to it and improve it over time with consistent practice.
Free Writing
The first strategy is called Free-Writing. This can also be called mind-dumping since you get to write without stopping whatever that comes to your mind. In this strategy, you are not concerned with the correctness of the ideas, but the flow of ideas.
You should start by setting a timer of let’s say 10-15 minutes, and then keep writing stuff about the topic. Do not stop if you are stuck anywhere, write something that comes to mind, however irrelevant or non-sensical it might look. At the end of your time, you will surely find a few insights into the topic.
Brainstorming
The second strategy is called brainstorming. This strategy begins by thinking about the topic and then jotting down every single idea or a piece of information on the paper.
In this method, you should give yourself a time of 10-15 minutes and then think about every possible linkage that your topic might have with any other subject.
Let’s say the topic is about Democracy, then you should consider what sociologists, philosophers or political scientists have to say about it. Any quote that you remember, any democrats or examples of the countries where democracy is the form of governance would be handy.
You might also think about the differences, similarities, characteristics of democracy, their economies and institutions as well. Whatever that comes to mind, note it down on the paper. This is brainstorming.
Mind-mapping
The third strategy is called mind-mapping. In this strategy again, you start by allocating yourself a good amount of time; whatever that you consider sufficient. For me, 10-15 minutes should be the standard.
Once you have set the time, begin by writing the topic or the central theme on the centre of a blank page and then try to break it into smaller parts. Each smaller part should then be addressed separately. Keep the facts, figures, sub-ideas come until exhausted.
Questioning
The final strategy is the questioning trick. In this method, you ask yourself questions about the topic.
Who, What, How, When, Why are some of the questions you would normally resort to. This strategy, however, is not suitable since it covers only a few aspects of the topic.
So, my favourite one is mind-mapping. In my case, this is the best strategy as it allows you to address all the major parts of your essay in a very structured and efficient way.
I use brainstorming when I prepare the topics in advance and in group study sessions. Free-writing is time-consuming, so I do not usually follow that. As I said earlier, try all of them until you find one that works best for you.
But you can also use all of them simultaneously as well. Mixing them up will also help you generate good ideas.
Some major points to keep in mind:
Once you are done with idea generation sessions, please take your time to sort out the relevant and irrelevant things.
Please do not write everything you have jotted down already. Your ideas should have relevance, clarity, and must be coherence.
Remember, it is not the number of your ideas, but the quality that would make it stand out.
Also keep in mind that the quality of ideas improves with observing the world around you, discussing the ideas with others, reading the books and listening to others.
You should not expect yourself to come up with brilliant ideas without having read about them first.
Therefore, enhance your knowledge base, only then will you be able to generate good ideas.
Paragraph Writing
Paragraph Writing, A strategy you can use to write every paragraph with ease
With this template, now you can write as many paragraphs as you want.
Have you always struggled with writing?
Do you ever feel that you do not know what is to be included, and what is not? Do you think you run short of ideas when you write essays? Do you want to know the method of writing paragraphs that you can apply in each paragraph?
If the answer to all of the above questions is yes, then this post is for you.
In this post, I am going to give you a template, or a sample, which can be replicated every time you write your paragraphs or essays. So, without any further wait, let’s get started. —————————————————————————————
Template for Paragraphs
First Sentence: What you want to write about
Second Sentence: What is your opinion on that thing, event or concept
Third sentence: Explain the reason for your opinion or why you think so.
Fourth sentence: Give any evidence (facts, figures, quotation etc.)
Fifth sentence: Give the sentence that summarises or ends your opinion
Sixth Sentence (optional): Give a hint for the next sentence ———————————————————————————
So, the paragraph is a piece of writing that consists of two or more than two sentences, revolving around a single idea, that is in proper order and is coherent.
In my opinion, an ideal paragraph should be around 5-7 sentences, not more than that.
Although in blog writing, this rule is not followed because of the technicalities, in the formal writings, however, you can not write single sentences and expect the checker to be generous in giving the score.
After explaining the six sentences, I will also write a sample paragraph and show you an example of how to use this template. So, let us begin writing a paragraph.
The topic I am taking is “the impact of global warming on food production”. It is the part of an extended essay on “Global Warming and its causes, impacts and solutions”. ———————————————————————————————————————————
First Sentence:
The first sentence should always begin a new point or argument. It would be best if you never carried an idea into the new paragraph because every paragraph is about a single idea. If you must write a new paragraph, then ensure to make it revolve around any other point.
In this sentence, you will introduce the topic of the new paragraph. For example
“The rise in global warming has caused severe food shortages, and has increased food insecurity in several countries over the world.”
Now, if you look at this sentence, it is the first sentence, and it states what you want to write about in the following paragraph.
Second Sentence:
The second sentence will be about your viewpoint on the topic. How should a viewpoint be formed? Just by asking a few simple questions from your first sentence. Why? How?
Now, look at the second sentence.
“These food shortages and deficits are the direct results of the lack of water availability, conversion of fertile land into arid zones, change in climatic patterns and the increase in the number of pests that destroy the crops over a particular area.”
Did you see, I just asked “how” from my first sentence, and I came up with this new sentence in which I have given the reasons of the food shortage which was an impact of global warming.
Third Sentence:
The third sentence would further explain my viewpoint on the impact of food shortage and insecurity.
“As a consequence, it leaves millions of people over the continents on the verge of disease and death due to malnutrition, stunting, hunger and poverty.”
This sentence further explains how food insecurity is harming people around the world.
Fourth sentence:
The fourth sentence will give evidence of your argument or viewpoint which will only lend credence to it. If you do not add the facts and figures, rest assured, your paragraph will remain an unimpressive collection of sweet-sounding words.
Your argument will gain credibility and hence marks only after it has been backed up by something concrete. It needs not to be very detailed; instead, any known and straightforward fact would do the needful.
For example:
According to the special report on climate change and land by the United Nations, if average global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, the risk of food supply instabilities are projected to be very high.
Or
As per Mercy Corps, an international aid agency, One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night, including 20 million people currently at risk of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria.
Fifth Sentence:
This sentence would be the sentence that will close the argument. It would most probably be the last sentence and hence should feel like one.
How does it give a sense of closure? It does when we use appropriate linking words such as thus, in short, therefore, to sum up, hence etc.
For instance
Thus, the impact of global warming over the food chain is not only alarming but threatening the very fabric of humanity across the world.
Or
Hence, it shows that the non-availability of food is one of the significant impacts of global warming that puts millions of people at various health risks.
These two sentences aptly sum up the whole discussion and simultaneously give a sense of closure, i.e. it feels like the paragraph has closed.
Sixth Sentence (Optional):
You can opt to write this sentence or not, that would entirely be up to you. Most people do not use this sentence, but if used appropriately, one can add extra weight to writing. But this comes with consistent practice and reading.
This transition sentence which hints at the beginning of the new sentence would look something like this.
“But this is not the only concerning aspect of global warming.”
This sentence keeps the checker hooked on to your write up. He will get interested in what is coming next. After this sentence, you will end the sentence, and begin the new one, with another impact.
Similarly, if the solutions will follow the impacts, then this should be like this.
“However, there is a hope that if an appropriate strategy is formulated and followed by the comity of nations, then the impacts of global warming can be mitigated, if not reversed.”
And after this, you should start your solutions.
So, here is what the whole paragraph should look.
“The rise in global warming has caused severe food shortages and has increased food insecurity in several countries around the world. These food shortages and deficits are direct results of the lack of water availability, conversion of fertile land into arid zones, changes in climatic patterns and increase in the number of pests. As a consequence, it leaves millions of people on the verge of disease and death due to malnutrition, stunting, hunger and poverty. According to the special report on climate change and land by the United Nations, if average global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, the risk of food supply instabilities are projected to be very high. Thus, the impact of global warming over the food chain is not only alarming but threatening the very fabric of humanity across the world. But this is not the only concerning aspect of global warming.”
Or
“The rise in global warming has caused severe food shortages and has increased food insecurity in several countries around the world. These food shortages and deficits are direct results of the lack of water availability, conversion of fertile land into arid zones, changes in climatic patterns and increase in the number of pests. As a consequence, it leaves millions of people on the verge of disease and death due to malnutrition, stunting, hunger and poverty. As per Mercy Corps, an international aid agency, One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night, including 20 million people currently at risk of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria. Hence, it shows that the non-availability of food is one of the significant impacts of global warming that puts millions of people at various health risks. However, there is a hope that if an appropriate strategy is formulated and followed by the comity of nations, then the impacts of global warming can be mitigated, if not reversed. ———————————————————————————
With the help of this template, I am sure you will be able to write more and more paragraphs. The only thing you need is consistent practice.
Five Elements of Paragraph Writing
Do you think your writing doesn’t have any weight? Does it look unimpressive?
Sometimes, you might also feel that the paragraphs or essays that you are writing still miss something.
What you are actually missing are the “ELEMENTS OF WRITING”. Well, what is that?
I will be conversing five elements of writing today.
1. Unity of Idea
Unity of ideas means following one main idea, the central theme of your paragraph.
An essay or a paragraph might contain a number of sub-ideas. However, the overall theme of the essay and the central idea of the paragraph would still be one.
This unity of ideas gives clarity to the paragraph. If more than one different ideas are jumbled up in one paragraph, it defeats the purpose of paragraph since it can only be about a single idea.
2. Order
Order means the natural logical sequence of the idea. For instance, introduction comes before the body which is followed by the conclusion in the end.
Similarly, a paragraph starts with the topic sentence on a particular point, which is followed by a few sentences of explanation, which is supplemented by the evidence afterwards.
In the same manner, it should be noted that the causes are discussed before the impacts, and solutions are discussed after the problems.
3. Coherence
I call it “the natural flow” between the sentences and paragraphs.
In very simple terms, coherence means that one sentence should generate the other. In other words, it should transition into another sentence without breaking the order or the idea.
Let’s look at the following example:
a. He was a reckless driver. He always got in trouble. He injured three pedestrians last summer.
b. Being a reckless driver, he always got in trouble. Moreover, he injured three pedestrians last summer.
Now the second sentence seems to have more flow between the two ideas. Two techniques have been used here.
One is joining the two sentences by making the first sentence a sub-clause, and secondly by using the linking word ‘moreover’ in the second sentence. Such words make transitioning easy and effective. You can google about more linking words later on.
Other techniques include parallelism, use of loose and periodic sentences, balanced use of active voice and passive voice, avoiding use of ‘not’ and using simple definite tenses.
4. Conciseness
People often think conciseness means making something short or brief. No, that is not conciseness.
Conciseness means saying something by using few words.
Do you know any friend of yours who is in the obnoxious habit of putting up a proposition and thereby transmitting the scheme by resorting to the flummoxing usage of ornate and embellished lexicon? He/She is verbose. Conciseness is its opposite.
Means putting up a few words to convey the idea.
Now, many writers use very difficult vocabulary just to sound excellent. But in my opinion, that approach is counterproductive.
5. Completeness
In order to make your paragraph complete, you need to fully develop your idea by providing enough information to support your take.
The topic sentence should be supported by two to three explanatory sentences and evidence. The paragraph may be closed at the fifth or sixth sentence which should summarise the paragraph with definite position on the main idea as well as the topic sentence of the paragraph.
Although there is no limit to the number of sentences, but roughly 6 to 7 sentences are enough for a balanced paragraph.
BOTTOMLINE: Keep these five things in mind while writing, and your paragraphs and essays will be fine.
How to Overcome Fear of Writing
How to overcome the fear of writing ... and it worked
1. Do not expect too much from yourself
The first steps of a child are never perfect. But every time the baby falls, she gets up. Her legs shake, but still, she tries.
Imagine if the baby didn’t take the steps out of fear. Would it ever be able to learn how to walk?
Achieving perfection should never be your goal. Even the great English novelists such as Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill had wrong spellings and lousy grammar despite being born and raised in English speaking countries.
Trying to do something should be the first goal. Therefore, keep trying. Do not worry about spellings, grammar, expression, vocabulary, et cetera. We can cover it later.
Never expect too much from yourself, just do your work and improve with consistency.
2. Overcome your fear of writing by writing a lot
I used to dread the blank pages. The hardest part of writing something, even today, is writing the first sentence. Will it strike the reader?
Will it help me grab their attention? Is it the right sentence to begin with? What if it looks unimpressive?
These are not the questions. These are the fears.
So, what is the way to deal with the fear?
My mentor told me the best way to overcome the fear of writing is to write.
Write, write and write. If you still feel afraid, take out a paper, grab a pen and write. Even if it doesn’t help, then write more. More and more. It is like building muscle: the more you work out, the more muscular you will be.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the only panacea for your writing troubles. There is no other way out.
Therefore, challenge yourself. Write about anything you like. You see a cow and love its brown spots, write about it.
You watched a drama, but you did not like it, write about it. If you are tired of working in the kitchen while your brothers are having fun with their friends, write about it.
If you are a married guy and your wife troubles you, write about it. If your husband is not cooperating in household matters, write about it.
Write about anything you find engaging and thought-provoking. But, please, keep writing.
3. Take Criticism Positively
We are a sensitive nation, as our feelings get hurt quite easily. One of the easiest job in the world is to offend a countrymen. We have so much offence to take, that we do not find time for anything productive.
Since it is in our nature, we do not like to take criticism. We often consider it to be something negative. It can be harmful sometimes, but mostly it is beneficial for us.
Therefore, never hesitate to take genuine criticism.
Show the work you have written to your mentor, friend or even someone preparing essay writing. Of course, not everyone will like it. In fact, only a few will like it. Everyone else has a thing or two to tell you.
But always approach this criticism with a bit of positivity, accept it wholeheartedly, follow the suggestions, and better yourself the next time. Always do if it comes from your mentor. You will go a long way.
4. Stop wasting Time Thinking about Writing
I have seen many students who have the potential of being a good writer, but they do not write. They procrastinate. They keep waiting, become lazy and waste their time. It might be either due to a sense of complacency that they are already good, or the fear of writing engulfs them.
Whatever the case, the sands of time slip quite fast. And you only have a few years to prepare for. And earlier, the better.
The best way to counter procrastination is to make a commitment to either yourself, a friend, or the public on social media.
5. Set yourself a small goal and build on it
Do not start with writing an essay at the outset. Never!
Start with something smaller. Start with a paragraph. Then move to two paragraphs. Then start writing idea expansion. Move from paragraph to idea expansion in 3 months, if you have doubts. But I am sure that you will find yourself writing idea expansion comfortably within a month if you start today.
Therefore, set some achievable goals. Do not shoot for the stars directly. Shoot for the nearby tree or a tall building first.
6. Learn How to Write
Like every skill, you need to learn writing from an expert.
Many people ask me, “Is it possible to learn this and that with self-study?”
Of course, it is. But it will take you a very long time. By then, someone with a mentor will surpass you in a relatively short time. Unless you are a genius or you already know how to write.
What if Madam Abida Parveen had no teacher? She would have been like Atif Aslam, with all those scattered notes and fluctuations. She is a legend of this sub-continent because she has learnt it.
Find someone who can teach you how to write correctly. Not only this, get your work assessed from the same mentor. You cannot learn from one and get evaluated by another.
7. Stay Confident
We all do have doubts about ourselves. We often think that we are not good at all. We consider ourselves to be ordinary. We are ordinaries. Not all of us are Jalal-ud-Din Rumi or Albert Einsteins. But, it is ordinary that makes up the world. And every ordinary has something special about her.
Whenever you write something, do not doubt it. It is a self-defeating, self-harming approach. Whatever you have written, embrace it, and own it. “Yes, I have written this. And I think it is good enough” should be your way to deal with it. Once you have owned it, now is the time to get assessed.
But do remember, confidence comes with consistency.
Conclusion
You are a writer already. It is only that the writer is fast asleep. Just disturb his/her sleep and shake the writer out of it.
Written Expression
7 Ways of Excellent Written Expression
1. Cover you Grammar Side
I have seen many students to be very poor at grammar and yet they start directly with learning how to write essay.
Therefore, the first thing for you would be to strengthen your grammar side.
I am not asking you to go into the details, just stick to 12 tenses, active voice and passive voice and a few modal verbs would be enough. But, do it today. Before jumping to essays, you should first correct your grammar.
2. Maintain Parallelism
The sentences are said to have parallel structure if they follow the same grammatical structure within the same sentence.
Look at this example for instance:
i. I love watching sports, playing piano and to read books.
Now if you look at the third clause i.e. ‘to read books’, it does not share the structure with ‘watching sports, playing piano’. In order to rectify this, it should either be ‘reading books’ or it should be ‘I love to watch sports, play piano and read books.’
Similarly, if one clause of the sentence has passive voice, the other should also be a passive voice. If one of them is active, the other should also be active.
For example
i. The professor was admired by his colleagues and the students also liked him.
This should be re-written to maintain parallelism as:
‘The professor’s colleagues admired him, and the students also liked him’
Or
‘The professor was admired by the colleagues and also liked by the students.’
3. Loose and Periodic Sentence
Normally we write loose sentences in the paragraphs. But if you want to put special emphasis on a paragraph, try periodic sentences.
Periodic sentences are those sentences which have the subclause in front. It creates a semblance of suspense within the sentence.
Let me give you an example of both the sentences here.
Loose sentence: She got the top position in the company despite a slanderous campaign, fierce opposition and non-cooperative boss.
Periodic sentence: Despite a slanderous campaign, fierce opposition and non-cooperative boss, she got the top position in the company.
In the second sentence, the main clause or the predicate is at the end. This gives the sentence more weight and suspense.
4. Write Short Sentences
Writing short sentences is an extremely powerful technique. Most people write long sentences which makes it hard for the readers to understand the core idea.
What you should do is to keep a strict between the two. 7 out of 10 sentences should be short, whereas only 3 can be long sentences.
If you are in the habit of writing long sentences, you should break them up into two or three depending on its length. Try it and you will see a lot of improvement.
5. Use active voice more than the passive voice
I have often noticed that some candidates are in the habit of writing sentences in passive voice more than they write in active voice. Avoid that.
Keep your sentences in active voice. Again, keep the ratio to 7:3.
Passive voice not only elongates the sentences and use up space and energy, it also does not convey the idea in active and direct form and thus, sometimes fails to engage the reader.
We often make passives where they should not be.
For instance, John eats an apple. An apple is being eaten by John. I have never heard any native speaker being so helpless before an apple.
6. Avoid verbosity and use appropriate vocabulary
Many students are obsessed with vocabulary. They keep on memorizing difficult words. Avoid writing sentences like this:
Some homo sapiens have the obnoxious habit of putting up a proposition and thereby transmitting the scheme by resorting to the flummoxing usage of ornate and embellished lexicon.
This could be written as:
Some people are verbose.
7. Avoid redundancy
Redundancy is when you use some expressions which are not required.
For example, she returned back from college. In this sentence, the word back is redundant since return already conveys the meaning of being back.
Let us look at another example:
He quickly ran from the office. Here the word quickly is redundant since running conveys the idea of being quick.
There are many other expressions like this. I woke up at 6.00 am in the morning. AM already has the meaning of morning in it.
Benefits of Idea Expansion
10 Benefits of Writing Idea Expansion
1. Since an idea expansion is on one central theme, you learn how to keep the unity of idea intact in the development without losing the argument.
2. Order is another thing that you learn while writing the idea expansion. Since you are supposed to write only a handful of paragraphs, you become very sharp in deciding the order of the sections.
3. Writing idea expansion also improves the usage of transitions between the sentences as well as the paragraphs. Since the limit of the words is short, one can only write quick and simple sentences which bring out the beauty in the write-ups.
4. Similarly, your writing becomes more precise and to the point. The words you use remain simple but appropriate. Simply put, it becomes more concise.
5. Idea expansion allows you to argue on a point and teaches you how to give complete information in 3 to 4 paragraphs and thereby teaches you the importance of completeness.
6. You could experiment with new styles of writing and use new expressions every day without any hassle.
7. Before writing idea expansion, one has to do some brainstorming; a habit that helps you in the examination hall as well.
8. Idea expansion will also strengthen your written expression. It starts and ends with an introduction and conclusion, respectively, just like an essay.
9. It will teach you how to develop an argument, a thesis and anti-thesis.
10. Overall, it is a great asset that you need to build before committing to writing a full-fledged essay.
Topic selection for Essay
Five Principles of Topic selection for Essay
Which topic should I choose in my paper?
How do I know if that is the right topic for me?
I have a feeling that I can write on this topic, but I am not sure. How to be sure about any topic?
Should we choose technical topic or the general ones?
I like to impress the checkers to get high marks, can I choose the topic that is not commonly picked up?
Do common topics get good marks?
These are some of the questions I am frequently asked. Let us deal with this once and for all.
Generally, in the competitive examination, the Essay paper consists of around 8 to 10 topics on a variety of subjects.
The topics may be about any philosophical concept, scientific advancement, religious discourse or political ideology. Sometimes, the topics are more complex and encompass two or more disciplines as well.
1. Find your Interest
The very first principle in choosing the topic is finding something that interests you.
If you start writing on something which looks boring, you will first lose your focus in the middle and then start writing irrelevant stuff which does not reflect good in your paper.
2. Analyze the topic
The second principle is to critically analyze the topic. Your topic should not be a generalized one. For example, the Socio-economic Problems of Our Society.
Although the topic seems to be easy and you might have good stuff on this, but the problem is that the scope of such general topics is too wide.
Because it does not ask for anything specific, you would remain unclear whether you have to write about all the social and economic problems of the society or a few specific ones.
But the narrow topics such as Pleasures of Reading, or The Global Rise of Nationalism provide a limited scope and hence provide exact hints at what is being asked and what you need to write.
The topics such as “Energy Crisis in Pakistan: Cause and Consequences” are the types of essays which you should choose immediately because their scope is too limited and you know exactly what to write.
3. Familiarity with the topic
The third principle is selection of a topic that you know about in a good detail. By this, I mean to say that you have enough material, about which you know well.
Being interesting is not the only factor you should consider.
For example, a person with no background in philosophy should never go into the topics like “Existentialism”, first for its general nature and second for being very obscure.
4. Avoid technical topics
Also, avoid the topic that is too technical, rather select the one that you can write freely about.
For instance, writing about the Economy is more difficult than writing about the problems of democracy.
5. Go for the Common topics
Some people have the tendency to attempt essay on a topic that sounds unique or extra-ordinary just to stand out.
This is not a good approach since more uncommon the topic, more difficult will it become for you to gather the material to write. And yes, common topics, if written on correctly, can fetch pretty decent score.
The Do’s and Don’ts:
- Always choose the topics that appeal your curiosity and Never go for the topics that do not interest you.
- Always try to limit the scope of your essay and avoid attempting to write an essay on too general a topic.
- Pick the topic that you know in pretty much detail because guesswork will not help you, hence avoid unfamiliar topics.
- Instead of going for essays on technical topics, write something on an essay which is comparatively easy.
- Try to avoid offbeat topics, and prefer writing on familiar topics with good material.
