Some Tips on How to Write an Effecive English Essay

Every so often I receive requests for general advice on writing English papers. I created this page to assist anyone interested in such general advice.

1) What's your purpose? A paper can be written for a variety of reasons:

• To inform: to tell your audience about something
  • To demonstrate: to tell your audience how to do something. Example: instruction manuals.
  • To update: to provide an unbiased accounting, like in a news story.
  • To describe: To tell your audience about an object, a person, or an experience. Example.
• To change opinions
  • To convince: to change your audience's opinion. Example.
  • To persuade: to convince your audience to take action.
• To explain: to tell why. Example. This is also common when discussing a work of literature.

A paper written to describe a spotted owl will be written differently from one designed to convince the audience to support efforts to save the spotted owl or a paper written to persuade your audience to call their Senator to ask him to save the spotted owl.

2) Who's your audience?

Consider your audience's knowledge of the topic and opinion of the topic.

Knowledge of the topic. You want to include as much information in your paper as your audience needs in order to understand your point. For example, a paper written about spotted owls to be read by forrest rangers would not need to explain that the owl is a large bird that lives in large, mature trees--forrest rangers already know that and would be insulted if you tried to tell them that. On the other hand, if you are trying to convince high school students to call their Senators to save the spotted owl, you ought to explain much more about the spotted owl. Students are not as familiar with spotted owls as forrest rangers, so they need more information.

Opinion of the topic.

• Is your audience supportive of your position? A supportive audience is easy: you need to inspire them to take action and show them why their conclusions are correct.
• Opposed? An audience that disagrees with your position must be handled cautiously. Perhaps you are trying to convince a lumber company not to cut down a section of rain forrest. You might first want to acknowledge their position:
  
  The sheer economics of your business suggest that it would be wise to cut this forrest, but these profit forecasts assume that the wood cut would be as valuable as other wood not taken from endangered rain forest areas. However, as we recently saw with protests and boycotts of Home Depot, consumers wish to avoid rain forest products whenever possible, which will lower your revenue to a point where it is more profitable not to cut...
  
  
• Mixed? If you don't know your audience's opinion, it is best both to inspire your supporters and disarm your opponents. Sometimes merely convincing your oponents to do nothing is victory enough.
  
  For example, in this speech I try to convince an audience of students to support a tax change. In doing so, I begin by showing how our having a large tax collection agency (the IRS) causes neglect in other areas (the Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Agency--DEA). Regardless of their opinion on the IRS, I assume that both my opponents and supporters probably support a stronger Border Patrol and DEA. In additio to attacking the IRS, the speech shows how changing the tax code will allow a stronger Border Patrol and DEA. My audience may support the Border Patrol and DEA more than they support the IRS, so they might agree with my position.
• Apathetic? An audience that doesn't care has to be inspired to care. Show how your topic affects their daily lives. In this scientific report on tests for E. coli bacteria, I explain why eliminating E. coli is important to my audience's well-being: a new variety of the bacterium may cause serious illness, so it is important to detect it if it's near your home.

3) Don't worry about grammar in your first draft. Just get your thoughts on paper. Then go back and correct any improper grammar before handing the paper to your professor. For grammar questions:

• Look the word up in the dictionary to get a feel for proper use
• Check the back of the dictionary for a usage guide for hypens, commas, etc.
• Diagram the clause, if you know how. (Most schools don't teach diagramming.)

4) Spend some time before sitting down to write the essay to organize your thoughts. It doesn't matter where, but the best places are in the shower, on the pot, or while mowing the lawn. I'm serious! The reason is that your mind is clear when doing these activities. Just start thinking about some aspect of the paper that interests you. If you take long showers, you'll have plenty of thoughts by the time you're done. Then dry yourself off and start jotting them down on paper or on the computer--as fast as you can before they slip your mind. This will become your paper's body.

Sometimes it's better to construct an outline first. For example, here's a copy of an outline for my China speech, where I attempt to convince my audience to support slight changes in the United States's policy towards China. The outline helps me to organize my thoughts before writing them into paragraphs.

I. Introduction: Quotation re: unequal treatment
II. Examples of unequal treatment of China by US
	A. Environment
	B. Wars
	C. Copyright Violations
	D. Human Rights
III. A "Creeping Cold War"?
	A. Foreign Policy Mistakes
		1. WTO Membership
			a) China makes large, risky concessions
			b) US still does not accept
		2. The Cox Report
			a) Accuses China of spying
			b) China believes US spies, too
		3. Bombing Embassy in Belgrade
			a) US underestimates Chinese anger
			b) Chinese see it as an attack			
			c) However, China distorts US statements
	B. Countries are reevaluating relationships
IV ...				

5) The intro is the hardest part, but it can also be the easiest. My favorite way to start is to use a quotation. There are big books in the library like Bartlett's that have lots of quotations on every subject imaginable. Use one of them to start the paper, like on my essay on The Black Album or Egypt. By the end of the first paragraph, you should have a point that the paper will prove. Each of the next paragraphs will then give reasons why you feel your point is valid. These will be summarized in the conclusion paragraph (the last paragraph).

6) Each time you start a major new thought, make it a new paragraph. Begin paragraphs with transitions like "To begin with," "Next," "Additionally," and "In conclusion." These tell your readers when you are moving to a new point. For example, look at how each paragraph starts in this paper.

7) Read a lot. This takes practice, but the best way to learn good writing is to read good writing. A newspaper (like the New York Times--www.nytimes.com) is best because it's articles are short, and good novels work too. When you don't understand something, get out your dictionary and look it up. Sometimes you might have to look at something 10 times before you "get" them. Try to figure out how the words are being used and what each word means. Yes, this takes time, although with practice, you will learn many new words and English constructions, all of which will help your writing.

8) The actual timing is important. What this means is that you are more productive and less productive at certain times of the day. I prefer to write in the mid to late evening because I find I write better then. In any event, block out a healthy chunk of time to write your paper and try to minimize distractions. Indeed, the worst thing you can do is to start writing the night before the paper is due and then expect to write even a C+ paper. A good paper is like a good wine: the longer you can let it sit before revising it, the better it becomes!