This one is for you if you write essays as a part of your schooling.

Writing a good essay can really improve your marks ✅✅✅.

Conversely, if you write really bad essays they can drop your marks significantly ❎❎❎.

So you definitely want to make sure that you can write a good essay. 👀

This the FoondaMate guide to essay writing📝

Firstly, there are probably two types of essays that you are writing in school:

1. 🎨Creative writing essay🎨 - this is usually for languages, and only in a "creative writing" setting - this is not the type of essay that I am going to focus on today. ❎ (if you want to learn about creative writing check out this post)
2. 📚Argumentative essays📚 - this is an essay where you will be given a question that you need to respond to in your essay. This is the type of essay I am going to focus on today. ✅

You will notice these essays because they usually have a ✨call to action✨ in them asking you to:

• describe
• contrast
• compare
• evaluate
• explain
• state
• or sometimes you will be given a statement and asked to what extent you agree or disagree with the statement

These types of essays usually come up in subjects like History, Economics, Art History, Languages, Religion Studies etc. However, depending on your teacher and education system you may come across essay writing in other subjects too.

1. Signposting 🚦🚦🚦

Paragraph 1 should provide a reader with sign posts for your essay. 📃📃📃 This means you should be using using phrases and words to guide the reader through the content of your essay. So your first paragraph should describe what you will be writing about, and what order you will write it in.

Let's imagine a silly example where I am writing about why fruit is great. 🍌🍏🍊 My first paragraph might look something like this 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

In the following essay I will explain why fruit is great. I will begin by discussing the nutritional benefits of fruit, followed by a discussion of how delicious fruit is. I will then argue that fruit is one of the most delicious ways to eat healthy and natural food. I will substantiate this argument by discussing bananas, oranges and apples - which are all examples of delicious and nutritious fruit. Finally, I will explain that in addition to being great for consumers, fruit is also great for the environment - as it it does not require farming methods that are as harmful to the environment as livestock farming.

Now, this is obviously all 🍌complete nonsense🍌 - but it gives you an idea of what a good signposting paragraph should look like in an essay about a less ridiculous topic than great fruit. 🤷🏿🤷🏿🤷🏿

2. Follow the sign posts! 🏃🏽‍♂️🏃🏽‍♂️🏃🏽‍♂️

Once you have written the signposting paragraph things get quite a lot easier - because for the rest of the essay you just need to follow your sign posts. ✏️✏️✏️

So if we go back to the silly fruit example 🍌🍏🍊, the next paragraphs in my essay will look something like this:

• Paragraph 1: talk about the nutritional value of fruits
• Paragraph 2: explain why fruit is delicious
• Paragraph 3: make argument that fruit is most delicious way to eat nutritious food
• Paragraph 4: discuss bananas
• Paragraph 5: discuss oranges
• Paragraph 6: discuss apples
• Paragraph 7: explain that fruit is also great for the environment

You can definitely take more than one paragraph to discuss each topic - and I would advise going for more paragraphs rather than less! ⭐⭐⭐

There is nothing more 😠frustrating😠 to markers than a sea of messy writing that hasn't been sensibly divided up into lots of different paragraphs. The general rule is ✨✨one idea, one paragraph✨✨. Do your best to follow this, and your markers will appreciate it. 💖💖💖

The reason a lot of people don't use enough paragraphs is because they don't know how to link them. So here are some linking words that you can use 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

• Furthermore
• In addition / additionally
• It is also worth noting / it is also important to know
• However
• In contrast to the above / Supporting the above
• We can also see that
• Therefore
• Similarly

Once you have written all of your amazing paragraphs and laid out your argument, it's time to conclude.👀

3. Conclude 🚀🚀🚀

In your conclusion you should 🌱🌱summarise the main points🌱🌱 made in your essay. This is different from creating a map of your essay - instead you are showing why all the things you wrote about support the initial statement. 🤔🤔🤔

So in my silly example about fruit , my conclusion will need to recap everything I've said and show how it all supports the idea that fruit is great. 🍌🍏🍊 So my conclusion might look like this 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

In this essay I have explain that fruit is great. I have explained this by referencing how fruit is both nutritious and delicious, and providing three examples of nutritious and delicious fruits: bananas, oranges and apples. The substantiate the claim that fruit is nutritious and delicious, and therefore great. Furthermore, I have shown that fruit is more environmentally friendly than livestock farming, and is therefore another reason why fruit is great.

This will help you write essay for assignments and exams, and following this formula will work for most courses. Good luck with your essays! 🌼🌼🌼