How to Write a Perfect Essay: Strategy to Impress Your Professor

Want to ensure a seamless admission into your dream college? Need to keep your grades and overall GPA high? Or maybe you just have an idea that you want to share with others? In each of these (and many other) cases, writing a solid essay could be a brilliant solution.

An essay is a widespread form of writing used in the academic field and beyond. It is a short piece of prose that showcases the author’s opinion on a specific topic and has the purpose of informing the reader about it, persuading them of something, etc. 

In today’s world, knowing how to make the perfect essay is a must for success in school, college, and maybe even your professional life. But how should you approach this task?

While there are many ways to approach it, there is one universal framework that can help you ace your essay. Read on, and we will tell you how to write it with ease!

How to Make a Perfect Essay: Top Steps and Tips for Success

Before we delve into detail, let’s quickly define the basic steps for writing a perfect essay:

1. Selecting the type of essay you want to write or carefully studying the guidelines provided by your professor;
2. Brainstorming ideas and identifying the perfect topic for your paper (unless you were assigned to write on a specific topic);
3. Researching the topic, analyzing sources of information, and collecting supporting data and arguments;
4. Making a detailed outline of your future piece;
5. Writing a rough first draft based on your outline ‒ at this stage, you should not worry about details, such as word choice, grammar, and others;
6. Rigorous editing of the rough draft;
7. Revision of the final draft to ensure accuracy, relevancy, and compliance with the given instructions.

These are the core steps that will let you craft an A-grade paper without a hassle. Now that you know the basics, let’s delve into the details of the key steps and review some core tips for success.

Plan Your Paper Effectively

To many students, planning their papers sounds like too time-consuming and tedious a process to waste their time on. Nevertheless, if you are wondering how to write the perfect essay, thorough planning is one of the answers to this question. 

A good plan will help you add more structure and logic to your paper. Besides, it will let you save plenty of time when it comes to writing. So, you should take enough time to handle this stage of the process.

Before you start, be sure to study all task specs, instructions, and additional materials provided to you. This will help you identify the right direction for your planning. After this, start brainstorming.

Don’t worry if the brainstorming process makes you feel overwhelmed. Often, coming up with the first few ideas is the toughest part. But once you come up with them, the rest of the ideas will flow naturally.

To simplify the process, try different brainstorming techniques. Some of the most effective strategies include:

• Mind mapping;
• SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis;
• Free writing;
• Reverse brainstorming;
• The five “whys”, etc.

By trying different techniques, you should be able to come up with brilliant ideas for your paper that you can elaborate on further in your outline. Moreover utilizing tools like paper typer can aid students in organizing their thoughts and streamlining the writing process, allowing them to focus more on the content and structure of their papers.

Follow the Right Structure

Every good piece of writing should have a logical structure to stay clear and easy to read for the audience. This is something you should think about while outlining your paper.

To structure your paper perfectly, pick several primary claims (ideas) that will build up the paragraphs of your essay. The golden rule is to have three body paragraphs. So, you will need three core claims.

Approach the claims’ organization in the following pattern.

If you agree with the main assignment question:

• Yes – an argument that supports the question;
• And – another argument that supports the question;
• But – a disagreement, complication, or opposing point of view.

If you disagree with the main assignment question:

• Yes;
• But;
• And – here, it should be the second argument opposing the main question.

If you are working on a longer essay, you can add more points. However, be sure to stick to the same pattern.

These patterns will help you craft an in-depth piece that reviews the question from different angles. At the same time, they will help you ensure that you always stay on the right track with your topic. You can look up “how to write a perfect essay examples” on the web before working on your assignment to see how this structure is implemented in them.

Substantiate Every Idea You Bring Up

A great academic paper is never complete without clear and accurate evidence that supports your ideas. The same is true for an essay. So, you should focus on substantiating all ideas in your work.

Depending on the type of task, its purpose, and your professor’s requirements, you may try different approaches to justifying your statements. Some of the most common types of evidence include:

• Direct quotes, summaries, and paraphrases from literature and other people’s works;
• Examples from history, literature, or real life;
• Facts, statistics, figures, etc.

When selecting factual evidence for your paper, pay the most attention to its relevance, accuracy, and value. Carefully analyze the sources you use and collect evidence only from reputable ones.

When writing papers on literature, pay special attention to different literary techniques used by authors. For example, analyzing their rhetorical questions and answers to them can help you in crafting a solid paper. Some other devices to look out for include:

• Tricolon – a persuasive rhetoric device that groups three words or phrases in the text for larger emphasis.
• Tautology – the use of same-meaning words and phrases to emphasize their correctness.
• Parallelism – the use of the ABAB construction that emphasizes the shift from one concept to another.
• And others.

Be Innovative

The previous tips all help anyone craft a good paper. But what really makes a perfect essay is innovation and your unique stance on the topic. So, our final tip is to be innovative.

While brainstorming ideas and researching the topic, keep your focus on things that interest, intrigue, and shock you in particular. When you notice such things, note them down, and don’t hesitate to include them in your paper.

By doing so, you will be able to develop your unique stance on the subject matter and create your own line of argumentation. This will indicate to your audience that you are genuinely interested in the subject you are discussing. Eventually, this will help you make your paper stand out and grab the readers’ attention.

To use this to your benefit, pay special attention to the introduction and the conclusion of your piece. An introduction is a place where you should outline your firm stance on the topic and complete it with an innovative thesis. A conclusion is a place where you should repeat your main arguments and restate your thesis. 

These two elements of your paper should be logically linked. A good tip for aligning them is to write your introduction and conclusion last when the rest of the paper is written.

FAQ

How to write a perfect essay?

Essay writing is a complex, multi-stage process that requires a lot of analysis, brainstorming, and planning.

Regardless of the assignment type and purpose, you should start by reviewing and analyzing your instructions. Read the task multiple times and highlight the key requirements that you should keep in mind, such as the word limit, structure, main question, etc.

When getting started, take enough time to brainstorm and plan your work. Use common brainstorming techniques to come up with winning ideas for your paper and make a thorough plan based on your ideas and research. Finally, write your work based on the outline.

What are the main steps for crafting a good essay?

If we delve into the process, writing the perfect essay consists of the following steps:

1. Analyze the task and guidelines (or select the type of paper you want to work on).
2. Generate ideas and pick the best topic (or use the one offered by your professor).
3. Conduct in-depth research and collect valid evidence.
4. Make an outline following the proper structure and including the materials from your research.
5. Make the first draft.
6. Give your draft several rounds of proofreading and editing to polish it to perfection.

These are the main steps that should help you handle this task like a pro.

What makes a perfect essay?

There are several qualities that distinguish a perfect paper from just a good one. Things like compliance with the provided guidelines and adherence to the logical structure should go without saying. These are the basics.

Additionally, a perfect paper should be:

• Clear;
• Authentic;
• Attention-grabbing;
• In-depth.

Most importantly, as stated in our tips, a perfect essay requires you to substantiate all ideas you provide with valuable and accurate evidence. And it also requires you to be innovative and demonstrate your unique stance on the issue.

If your piece has all these qualities, it can be deservedly called perfect. So, keep these things in mind while working on your task.

Conclusion

Whether for admission, during your exam, or just for a class, writing an essay is a challenge. Although it’s short and one of the most common types of academic papers, it’s also one of the most complex ones.

This type of paper requires having your own stance on the topic, conducting in-depth research, and demonstrating your ideas to the readers, supporting them with valid evidence. Often, students struggle with this task. Luckily, though it sounds tough, there is an easy way to handle this challenge.

After reading this guide, you have a detailed, step-by-step framework for crafting a brilliant essay. Use the steps and tips we shared with you here to ace your paper and achieve your goals without a hassle.

‍