Essay Writing

Hopefully, you've come to this blog by seeing this video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1016416/how_to_write_an_essay_in_short/. If not, go to the site and give it a look see.

Alright now to the business of essay writing. Don't crawl up my ass about how this is not in essay format I prefer to feel like I'm just talking to you so enjoy. The first thing you want to do is internalize the essay a question before you start researching your paper. After you get this question inside your mind jump into your books and try to answer the question. While you are reading answer the question constantly and try relate everything you see in someway to your answer and the question and any aspect of your life that you feel appropriate the more cross association you can do the better you can internalize the information and format an answer to your question. While you are reading you may find it helpful to make notes in the margins of any thoughts you may have. Even if you don't look at them again you will probably remember something about the thought. I also found that writing facts from every page into a notebook and making note of the page helps when it comes time to finding tidbits of information
and citing them quickly. It may feel like you are re-writing the entire book but if you have the time this technique is infinitely usefule.

After you have done your research and you have an idea of what you want to say its time to write your thesis. A thesis will direct the entire direction of your essay and allows the reader to know what you will be talking about. A thesis is for the most part simply the question in statement form. Break the question down into sections and work it into a statement. The thesis will vary depending on your question and the various things you intend to bring into the essay. For example:
Question:Read The Myth of Ethnic War and State-Building; and considering Otto von
Bismark’s remark in 1867 that “politics is the art of the possible,” answer the question:
Was it possible for the people of Yugoslavia to emerge from the fall of the Soviet Union in
a better position than they are now? If not, why not?

Thesis:
Several factors must be examined in order to understand what this improved position would look like, how it could have been conceived, what the reality on the ground was and how those involved could have improved the situation of the peoples of Yugoslavia; as well as the role of the people of Yugoslavia, and the international community and what they needed to know and do to better the position of Yugoslavia.

After the question the professor made several strong suggestions of things to consider when answering the question. Its important to look out for these hints and incorporate them into your thesis and essay; professors really like that.Some educators are not very good at making crystal clear what they want; usually this is done 
in an effort to encourage a wide range of responses. When in doubt ask your educator what they are looking for not only do you score points for showing interest in the class you also get a better idea of what the educator expects from the essay.

After you've done all you fact finding and house cleaning it comes time write right?. No now is the time you outline. Many people skip this step or wait until the essay is written so as they line up. I cannot stress enough how useful the outline is in the writing process so get off your lazy ass and do it. The ouline typically has the intro, body, and conclusion. I usually just throw my thesis into the intro and call it a day. However, the intro is also used to define the terms you will be using in the essay this keeps your reader up to speed; we wouldn't want anyone getting lost now would we. When writing the points of the body break apart your thesis and break it down. Take the words you used and list them and underneath them just list the things you will be discussing about each one. Your conclusion will be a rewording of your thesis and your personal thoughts on whatever you're writing about; make sure your comments are scholarly in nature and relate it back to something current in your world or life; they're suckers for this when you do literature.

After you've done the outline now comes the writing. This is actually the easiest part of the assignment. Take your outline and just fill in the blanks with the intent to execute this little diddy. Inform,summarize,analyze,apply,defend. Informing and summarizing are almost the same thing just give your reader some context about the thing you're writing about and present your facts and assertions. Next analyze your facts and sources be sure to determine a source's bias and how it affects your essay.Apply your facts and make your arguments and then use your sources to defend your arguments. Your essay shouldn't nessacarily follow that order specifically but be sure to incorporate them into your essay for a well rounded essay. Be sure you cite as you go this saves you headaches later.

After you've put everything together read it over and look for glaring errors or hand it off to a friend, an intelligent one if you have one, and get a new set of eyes on it. After that put your name on it and turn it in.

::Some random tips for you::

It helps to have a decent vocabulary hopefully you've been reading since you were a kid and will have no trouble coming up with alternate ways of saying the same thing. Its just a style point, but no one likes it when you repeat yourself again lol. I recommend  reading Calvin and Hobbes or letting your kids read them these comics are great for vocab.
:Use the language that you encountered in the readings. It makes the person reading your essay believe you have absorbed the material better, and really you have.

In the post prior you can see the essay from which the above thesis came from its long, but I got an A so enjoy it, comment and watch my videos.