Are you an aspiring author? Imagine yourself starting out in college? You likely want to be a successful writer. Now, check out some tips and teaching ideas to help you learn how to write an effective essay!

1. Start with a clear purpose. Before you even get started, make sure you have a clear focus. Write what your essay is about and say what point it is trying to help you get across. When you have a clear purpose and a clear focus, it will be easy to switch gears if needed.

2. Write down your vocabulary and the examples of verbs that use it. I personally only use grammar, but I’ve made the mistake of writing "he asked/he kneeled." What is the meaning of this word? It’s a little weird, but it could be important in your essay. Make a list of the verbs that are important to you.

3. Break up the writer. The first thing to do when preparing your essay is to build a case of your reasoning. Your essay will always become more difficult when it’s one man’s opinion over another. If you start by reading their essay, you will find that your classmates will get distracted. Also, you wouldn’t have to answer a lot of questions if you had some sort of logical justification to prove your point.

4. Organize your chapters into an agenda. Make a list of the categories of the essay and arrange them in a logical way. You need three sections, so which sections are these? Which sections do they align with? If they don’t, focus on different ones. Make a list of phrases you have been working on and put them in order of importance in your chapter.

5. Explain your reasons for choosing your major. Did you find yourself thinking, “Okay, I don’t really want to study that this. I don’t think my professor is going to understand it. I won’t like it”? I almost asked this question on this assignment, but I realized I didn’t know the right answer. I chose a major that I liked and I felt like I knew the definition of what a major was. Please know that college may confuse you, but it will also strengthen your writing skills.

6. Explain why you chose your thesis statement. If you haven’t decided on your thesis statement already, this helps. Writers are majorly known for their work on the majority of their university experience. If a professor spends hours discussing your thesis, then maybe you picked the right one. For example, I spend an hour a day writing my essay and then spend another couple of hours thinking about it. The first chapter of my book is almost done and I’m still working on the third. Both of these don’t have a thesis statement. I chose to write my chapter one way so I wouldn’t have to think about it. If I had to write it two ways, I would be distracted from my writing for an hour in the morning and another two hours in the evening.

7. Review your facts, the things you know, and often say. Make sure your facts are correct and backed up. If they aren’t, for example if you write that a professor wore “a little black dress”, but she was wearing a peach dress, it won’t make any sense. I’ve developed bad habits of forgetting facts that my friends have learned, for example, I forget to wear sunscreen in the summer.