How to write a great essay

Dividing an essay into manageable chunks makes it a straightforward task. I don’t write papers in one day. In fact, it takes me three days to a week to complete one paper. Why? I write a couple hundred words a day. For the example I am using today, that paper was 3,487 words and some days I wrote 500 words, other days I wrote a thousand. Some people can crank out thousands of words and finish a whole paper in two hours. Unfortunately, my brain doesn’t operate that way. I l enjoy creative writing, but I have a strong dislike for essays. Whether you can crank out those words or not, my method can be a viable alternative to use.

As an example, I will refer to a paper I wrote for my Popular Music of the world class. We had to analyze at least two non-western songs and connect it to the topics we covered in class. I copied the Paper prompt and pasted it into Microsoft Word to create an outline. Here are four key things to successfully plan out your essay for easy writing.

1. Answer specific questions/directions in the prompt. By doing this, you won’t miss adding something important for your topic. I recommend copying and pasting the prompt in Word or Google docs.                    


2. Find sources to include and organize it under questions/directions from the prompt that correspond with it. 
a. The bold parts are what were necessary to include in the paper. I used bullet points underneath each piece of direction for the research aka websites and scholarly journals.

​3. Organize everything you have into an outline

4. Proofread! As you finish each section, proofread it before you move on.

Extra tips: Once you have a strong outline, assign each paragraph topic a day. Example
Saturday: Intro; 
Sunday: Country background for Ghana;
Monday: Country background for Nigeria; 
Tuesday: Genre background for Highlife; 
Wednesday: Genre background for Afrobeats; 
Thursday: Highlife song analysis; 
Friday: Afrobeat song analysis and conclusion

Once you've finished, send a draft to a friend or if your school offers tutoring, use that option. Another pair of eyes may detect an issue with the topic or a grammatical error.

Using this method has improved my grades when it comes to essays and I hope it does the same for you!

*Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash.com