Dr. Ray's

Online Writing Assistance Center

Writing the Basic Essay

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Any essay you write can have many purposes, but the basic structure is the same regardless of purpose. You may be writing an expressive essay sharing a significant memory of a person, event or period of time in your life. You may be writing to inform an audience about some new idea or new way to view something. Finally, you may be writing an essay to argue for a particular point of view or to encourage your audience to take a particular action.

Whether expressive, informative, or argumentative, your essay will have the same basic format.

If you follow a few simple steps, you will probably find that the essay almost writes itself. Once you supply the ideas, which are the important part of the essay anyway, you will be well on the way to a successful writing project.

Don't let the thought of putting pen to paper or words on a computer screen keep you from being successful.

Get started!

These simple steps will guide you through the essay writing process:

	Decide on your topic.
	Prepare an outline or diagram of your ideas.
	Write your thesis statement.
	Write the body. Write the main points. Write the subpoints. Elaborate on the subpoints.
	Write the introduction.
	Write the conclusion.
	Add the finishing touches.

You may find that you have questions about writing an essay that this site does not answer. Many other sites have additional information about writing an essay, including information about more complex issues such as handling citations and bibliographies.

View links to additional essay resource sites.

If you have questions or comments about this page,
please email me.