So: you have gathered the necessary material, read it, made notes, had ideas, written
them down on separate slips, headed and filed them. How do you write the essay?
You gather together all of the you information you have compiled on the topic of the
essay. You read through, writing new ones and rewriting old ones if more or different
ideas come to you, and making sure each of them is headed. You put the headings
together in a logical order (headings, sub-headings, sub-sub-headings) on a sheet of
paper in the form of an outline of the essay. You arrange the slips in order of the outline.
You assemble the pile of slips, the outline, and a blank word processor screen in front of
you. You write the essay, going from heading to heading and slip to slip. The essay writes
itself, because you already put many hours of thought in to your ideas. On the way, you
observe the following rules and wise bits of advice.
1. The outline
The plan you construct should be in the form of an indented outline. This is a series of
headings and subheadings, indented, like this:
- Main heading
- subheading 1
- notes on subheading 1
- subheading 2
- notes on subheading 2
and so on...
Behind every essay there must be a plan of that sort. This essay on essays is built from
such a plan, as you can see. If you remember any lectures that use outlines, you will
remember how useful it was to have it written out in front of you so that you knew where
you were in it. Now think of a professor or teacher who will examine your essay, having
to read up to a hundred student essays. A decent level of concentration is hard to
maintain. They get lost, and lose the thread, just as you do in lectures. It is essential
therefore that an outline like that must be obvious to him or her, clearly perceptible in the
way the essay is written. In order to achieve this effect the easiest way is to have one,
written out for your own benefit beforehand.
them down on separate slips, headed and filed them. How do you write the essay?
You gather together all of the you information you have compiled on the topic of the
essay. You read through, writing new ones and rewriting old ones if more or different
ideas come to you, and making sure each of them is headed. You put the headings
together in a logical order (headings, sub-headings, sub-sub-headings) on a sheet of
paper in the form of an outline of the essay. You arrange the slips in order of the outline.
You assemble the pile of slips, the outline, and a blank word processor screen in front of
you. You write the essay, going from heading to heading and slip to slip. The essay writes
itself, because you already put many hours of thought in to your ideas. On the way, you
observe the following rules and wise bits of advice.
1. The outline
The plan you construct should be in the form of an indented outline. This is a series of
headings and subheadings, indented, like this:
- Main heading
- subheading 1
- notes on subheading 1
- subheading 2
- notes on subheading 2
and so on...
Behind every essay there must be a plan of that sort. This essay on essays is built from
such a plan, as you can see. If you remember any lectures that use outlines, you will
remember how useful it was to have it written out in front of you so that you knew where
you were in it. Now think of a professor or teacher who will examine your essay, having
to read up to a hundred student essays. A decent level of concentration is hard to
maintain. They get lost, and lose the thread, just as you do in lectures. It is essential
therefore that an outline like that must be obvious to him or her, clearly perceptible in the
way the essay is written. In order to achieve this effect the easiest way is to have one,
written out for your own benefit beforehand.
