15 Principles of Essay Writing

Among all types of essays, it is the essay that takes the most time and effort, while being a very interesting genre. Unlike an article, it is a tool for expressing the author's thoughts, but it must be clearly structured, based on information collected from various sources, and consist of theses and arguments. Also learn more about paper writing service. 

The following principles for writing an essay will facilitate the process, allow you to create a quality work that meets accepted standards.

The basic principles of working on an essay 
An essay is a philosophical genre aimed at reflection, argumentation and analysis. The classical structure consists of three parts (introduction, conclusion and main body). The number of pages has no clear limit, but it is a small work, averaging 15–25 pages.

Below are 15 principles to help beginners master this literary form:

It is necessary to distinguish an essay from an abstract and a term paper. This is a creative work that requires a person to express their opinion on a chosen issue. 
The essay should have a clear structure, be sure to set out the arguments and give an analysis. 
It is necessary to focus on something specific, and through this focus look at everything else. For example, in some story or poem, to analyze the image of death, and not the whole work. 
If it is possible to choose a topic, it is recommended that you choose not the simplest one, but the most interesting one. Then writing will not turn into a routine, but will become a study in pleasure. Topics like these always produce good results.
Having decided on the topic, you will have to start searching for materials. It is important here not to be limited to 1-2 sources, but to thoroughly study the issue. Then you need to select the most important. 
When working on the Internet, you should save links to the source. Supplementing the collected information with information from paper carriers, it is necessary to record the name of the author and the title of the book, magazine or brochure. For such purposes, it is worth taking a separate folder or text file. This will make it easier to compile a list of references used. 
Starting to write, you should correctly compose the content of the future work. The classical structure consists of an introduction, main body and conclusion.
The main part, when compiling the content, is divided into several branches for reasoning. 2-3 sections is enough. You can add specifics if needed. Then the sections are divided into subsections. 
The introduction should be short. You are given information about the relevance of the chosen topic, the tasks that the author set when writing. 
Getting to the main part, you should use all the selected materials. 
It is necessary to strictly adhere to the logical and chronological (especially in historical disciplines) sequence. 
Footnotes are necessarily put down, which makes it easier to compile a list of references with which the work should end.
The given opinions and quotes of famous people will show the student's ability to work with sources. You can use the usual introductory constructions “According to the expert”, “Scientist Ivanov said”, “As for ... the microbiologist Petrov thinks”. But do not get carried away with templates. 
To express an opinion, it is necessary, after analyzing the collected material, to form your point of view. That is, agree or disagree with the views of experts. 
Be sure to conclude all of the above at the end of the main part, taking personal opinion as a basis and arguing it. 
The final part summarizes the entire essay, based on the data and their analysis.
If an essay is written as a literary work, then there are no clear rules and guidelines. There is no need for research and argumentation, since the emphasis is on the writer's experience, his inner world, vision of the outer world.

The main thing is to distinguish this genre from the story and the essay. In the latter there is a plot, an event, there is a hero. And an essay is a reflection of a writer, his view of an event, a character, a feeling.

How to speed up the work process? 
If the topic is interesting, the essayist often "digs" into books and articles, strives for the ideal, which often slows down the work and does not even allow it to start.

If the topic chosen is not interesting, then the person does not want to take it on, to systematize what he read. Such a person does not know where to start, how to get a high-quality text that is interesting to the reader. In these cases, the following tips will help speed up the work.

Systematization 
Having dug into a pile of materials, a person convinces himself that by finding one more, and then another (and so on ad infinitum), he will be able to create an ideal essay. 
Here are a few tips to help make the process easier:

To avoid confusion, it is recommended to start with generic sources. In addition to key information, there are links to the highly specialized literature used. Having dealt with the general provisions, you can make a list of narrow-profile materials that are really needed. 
Even being an adherent of paper media, it is convenient to have all the materials at hand, that is, in a laptop and phone. Copying, photographing and screenshots will come to the rescue. This allows you to work outside the home, quickly find the desired fragment, book, article.
Prioritization helps to understand whether the essayist is ready to start writing. To understand whether it is time to stop digging into books and websites, you should write out the main provisions of the future essay, divide them into secondary and important ones. For important arguments, you need 2-3 sources, for auxiliary ones, one is enough. 
Quality is more important than quantity 
This applies not only to the argument that is put forward in the essay, but also to the sources. It is always better to write a few clearly structured pages with dense and verified information than a voluminous essay where nothing really is said.

A dubious argument can "kill" the entire text. It is also a waste of precious time. Quality can save time several times over!

Simplicity and brevity 
Ornate verbal constructions, which Marcel Proust and Honore de Balzac would envy, seem to many authors a sign of high intelligence. The same applies to "abstruse" words, specific terms. But the reader will drown in them without even understanding the meaning.

No need to write excessively beautiful, imitating the classics. It is necessary to write clearly and harmoniously. The purpose of the essay is to clearly and clearly convey the idea. But there is no way to create a philological jungle, from where the reader will dream of getting out as soon as possible.

But imitation of the classics has another disadvantage - attempts to do this take time and effort, and the result does not live up to expectations. Not to mention how difficult it is to clearly formulate a thought, wandering in the "thickets" of adverbial phrases.

The best is the enemy of the good 
Perfectionism first prevents you from starting, then slows down the process, then prevents you from showing your creation to the world. Trying to achieve the ideal, you can sit all your life over three paragraphs, without doing anything worthwhile from them. You need to strive for perfection, but do not get hung up on it.

It is better to start with the “body” of the composition. Introduction and conclusion - a summary of the main part. It is much easier to make them when the bulk of the text is already ready.

It is advisable to use the Internet as an assistant. There are many footnote generators on the web, most of them are free. This greatly simplifies, facilitates and speeds up the process. There you can also find ready-made phrases for an essay that will help you avoid a “creative stupor”, diversify the phrases used.

Essay writing is hard work. But having mastered the principles, you can learn a lot of useful things from this genre. It stimulates a detailed study of interesting issues, helps to develop creative thinking, teaches to form and express one's own opinion.