Many students are faced with the need to write an essay when applying to college. This is a very important paper and it can determine the chance that a student will attend the college of his dreams. In this article, we will tell you how to write a great sat essay.
Topic of the essay
The topic of the essay can be free or suggested by the college. It is chosen so that the candidate shows through the text their personal qualities, ambitions, vision of themselves as a specialist, level of competence in a particular issue, creativity if it is about creative specialties, or other skills and abilities.
Structure of the essay
An essay consists of three parts – an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. An essay always contains a thesis – the main idea, the position of the author. The thesis can be in the beginning of the essay if the author already has a point of view on a given problem, or in the conclusion, if he comes to it as a result of reasoning. Any thesis should be supported by two or three arguments. The arguments, in turn, should be illustrated by two or three examples.
Introduction
The aim of the introduction is to capture the reader’s attention: to ask an exciting question, to confront him with a paradox, a contradiction. The introduction should intrigue the reader so that he or she cannot resist reading the rest of the text. Let’s consider an example of an introduction to an essay on “My Professional Path”: “I am a hereditary lawyer. My parents are lawyers and I want to dedicate my life to improving my professional skills”. This is a trivial and flat introduction that builds on cliches. It is also dry – it has bare facts and general words, but no interesting story or hero. The introduction should be like a puzzle which is missing a detail or something does not fit together, and you can only “collect” this puzzle if you finish reading the text to the end. Now you know how to start a 5-paragraph essay.
Stating the thesis
The thesis is the author’s main idea which is expressed in one or several sentences. Formulation of the thesis is the statement of the main idea of the text, which is consistent with the question posed or the theme set. If the examiner were to ask: “What is the main idea of this text?”, the answer would be the thesis. It is important to remember that a thesis is not an objective truth, not a proven fact, but a subjective opinion that can always be argued with.
Mistakes when making a thesis
- A thesis in the form of a question. Stating a thesis means taking a certain position. It is impossible to write an essay without it.
- A long volume. The thesis statement must be concise, but not occupy a lot of space: any idea can be expressed briefly and in simple words. One or two sentences will be enough.
- Stamps, cliches. You need to throw out of the text hackneyed phrases – they make the text unoriginal, stale.
Arguments
Any assertion must have a basis. The basis for a thesis is arguments. One paragraph should be allocated to one argument and its examples. Examples include personal experience and, if relevant, references to statistics, forecasts, studies. However, it is usually your own experience that should be the focus of the college admission essay. This way you can get a great cause and effect essay.
Conclusion
The purpose of the conclusion is to summarize the reasoning. To do this, it is necessary to briefly restate the thesis, if it was at the beginning of the paper or put it, if the author decided to place it after the arguments.
Mistakes in the conclusion
- New arguments. Conclusion sums up the reasoning, not develops it. There is no place for new information in the conclusion.
- Retelling of the text. There is no need to describe the structure of the written work and literally repeat what has been written above – if the reader has reached the conclusion, then he has already read it all.
List of sources
A list of references can be added to the essay – it is a list of materials to which the author refers in his work. Such a list will be appropriate in the essay, where the author often refers to various works, scientific studies, statistical data, and statements of authoritative experts. To format the source, it is necessary to specify the author’s surname and first name, the title of the source, the year of publication, and an electronic link, if necessary.
The essay, to be unique, should reveal the personality of the person – it is your personality that is the main trump card when all other stages of the competition have been passed, and you need to stand out from the mass of other good candidates. You should not be afraid to talk about your mistakes, your doubts, your failures, because they are formative experiences that some try to hide while others turn them into gold. You can also use specialized services such as on that website if you want to write the perfect essay.