Sometimes the most difficult part of writing an essay is getting started. And I don’t even mean getting started with writing once you’ve gathered together all your thoughts and ideas. I mean getting started – picking an idea. You might have strict guidelines from a professor as to what he/she expects you to write, but more likely you’ll be given a piece of literature to comment on, an era in history, or even just the assignment, “Write an essay that shows your thoughts.” But thoughts on what?
Picking a topic is tricky at times, but not impossible. One great way to narrow down your thoughts and ideas is to look at famous quotes. The great thinkers of our times had a great way of stating their thoughts. And the messages they convey are often quite broad. Think of Ghandi’s quote, “Be the change you want to be in the world.” A wealth of topics can spark off of that one quote. You can relate it to history, literature, society, anthropology, politics… and so on.
Another idea to help narrow down essay ideas into specific topics is to think about the different styles of essays. There are many, but here are six examples. Descriptive essays are one type, and they are essays where the author describes a setting, character or society. There are persuasive essays – very popular in the political field – where the author writes about their feelings on an issue and tries to persuade the reader that their position on the issue is correct. (This is backed up by statistics and information). Narrative essays are less commonly found, but they are essays where an experience or event is described for the reader. Process essays explain how to do something, or how something works. Process essays are used often in the fields of science. There are also comparison essays, which show the similarities and differences between objects and ideas. Lastly, there are cause and effect essays which show why something is, or how two things relate to one another. Of course, as I mentioned before, there are more types of essays, but these examples are a place to start.
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