Best way to start an Essay

Question

My son needs to write an essay; how should he start? I'm not sure how to help him with this?

Answer 1

Essays are structurally specific ways to respond to prompts. Every essay has three major parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, with the body being the most flexible in terms of length and breadth, depending on the scope of the assignment.

For novice essay writers, using graphic organizers is really helpful, as the process of taking ideas and fitting them into this format can be challenging without the writer having experience with it. These organizers are most useful during the planning and drafting stages of the writing process, and they help during editing and revising as well, as they allow readers to refer back to them to best understand the writer's reasoning and intentions in the case that their draft is hard to follow or understand.

Once you find strong graphic organizers for planning and outlining (most tutors and teachers should ideally have various options on this front), the first step is to look at the prompt and gain a sense of what kinds of responses would work as the thesis statement, the sentence that provides an overarching, direct response to the prompt that the writer will then support using specific evidence and reasoning in the body.

From there, figuring out what kinds of evidence led the writer to this conclusion will provide guidance for the body paragraphs. The number and topics for body paragraphs is dependant on understanding and organizing this collection of evidence, in terms of the ways in which each piece supports the thesis. This will help with writing each body paragraph's topic sentence.

Finally, it's just a matter of filling in some additional details. For the introduction paragraph, these include a starter sentence, or hook, and some background information about the topic to come before the thesis statement. For the body paragraphs, this means the topic sentence and the reasoning as to why each piece of evidence supports the thesis. For the conclusion, at the early stages of essay writing, this usually means restating the thesis statement, summing up the body paragraphs, and providing some kind of context, in the form of a zoom-out "why is all of this meaningful" kind of statement.

This is certainly a lot, and it's very dependent on a student's level and the assessment expectations, but the process should always be collaborative, as the purpose of most essays is to communicate a writer's analytical position and the reasoning behind it, and this can only be confirmed and refined through sharing and reflecting on a draft, eventually making changes to enhance clarity and flow.

I hope this is helpful, but if it's not or if further clarification would help, please feel free to reach out. Best of luck to you and your son!

Answer 2

There are many ways to be successful in writing an essay. Here is how I find that students and I are able to do so.

I always start with writing my ideas down, then converting everything over into an outline.

Topic: Sports

Prompt: What is the best sport?

Thesis: Table pool is the greatest sport of all time.

Introduction: Should have a hook to grab the reader's attention. Should relay what the main idea of the essay is, and give the thesis statement. Should summarize the supportive evidence in a list. Have a good concluding sentence.

Body 1-3: Each should start with a good leading sentence that keeps the reader's attention, and provide supportive evidence for each main idea. There should be at least three statements per idea.

Body 1 idea: Table pool requires a lot of skill.

Evidence 1: Players must know how to hit the cue ball in order to successfully hit the numbered ball into a pocket.

Evidence 2: Trick shots such as jumps and bank shots take a lot of practice.

Evidence 3: Players must be able to predict the next move of the other player before taking their own shot. Play defense as much as offense.

Conclusion: Should reiterate the thesis as a truth and summarize the supportive evidence again.

You can highlight these statements as you put them into an essay to ensure you have all the information necessary to make a clear, well-written essay.

To proofread, I always read the essay backwards. Sentence by sentence. This helps in finding errors. The logic of the essay should work backwards as much as forwards. Can always have a family member or friend read the essay to help proofread and find any errors or to provide insights of questions they may have.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me to schedule if you would like a session for more in-depth assistance.

Answer 3

Teaching the hook (the first sentence of an essay, which should "hook" the reader) is difficult, because students are in many ways unlearning how they have approached the structure in elementary/middle school. Many students have been taught to create a hook by asking a question. This method needs to be changed for more advanced writing and research essays.

Here's an example: most students will approach a topic with something they find personally interesting, or a "provocative question", which may or may not directly relate to their argument. Something like: Did you know that whales can be found in every ocean on Earth? While the goal is to introduce the topic, this device often feels cliche and is not an effective hook, especially in a research essay where the main goal is simply to introduce the topic.

For academic essays, I advise students to succinctly introduce their topic by providing a logical argument; something that provokes thought. They will then provide the reader with the appropriate background context they will need to understand the writer's argument, which is the key point of any essay. The entire introducton paragraph should be clearly aligned with a thesis as the final sentence of the introduction, which states the main arguments the writer will use in their essay.

For the example above, we might approach it like: Whales are found in every ocean of the Earth, however, this may not always be the case if protections for endangered whale species are not followed.

I hope this example was helpful - please feel free to reach out.

Ryan

Answer 4

Starting any new piece of writing can be quite intimidating! But I'm sure you and your son are up for the task :)

Here is how I I like to start my essay writing process.

1. I write out the question my essay needs to answer. Perhaps the prompt is already a question, or perhaps you will need to rewrite it as a question. For instance, if the prompt is "write about how imagery strengthens the core themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God," this prompt could be rewritten as "how does imagery strengthen the core themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God?"
2. I then write out a bullet list of possible answers to the question without worrying about how good or bad those answers are.
3. I sit with this list and try to think of 1-3 pieces of evidence for each possible answer. This evidence can be from the text in question, independent research, or stories from my life (especially for personal essays).
4. I take my strongest possible answers (strongest meaning what most excites me and what has the best evidence) and outline a way to make these answers as compelling as possible. Often, one answer will build upon another, and this makes the ordering easy. This is where it becomes especially helpful to keep in mind that every essay is just making an argument, voicing an opinion. We voice opinions all the time! An essay is just another way to do this.
5. I write an introduction that provides the basic background info my reader would need, sets up the question, and offers my answers with a little information (very summarized) on why my answers are the right answer.
6. I follow my outline to write a first draft.

This is how I start practically all of my essays! I hope this is helpful. If you would like help at any point in this process, feel free to schedule with me! I have instant book appointments available all throughout this week :)