basic essay skills

7/31/2019 Basic Essay Skills

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Teachers College

Department of English Education

Kyungpook National University


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Read the writing topic below and the

essay that follows it.


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Academic essay writing is an important skill for almost allpeople engaged in university level study. It is especiallyimportant for students who are pursuing advanced English

majors. However, good essay writing skills appear to besignificantly difficult for many students to master. One way tomake essay writing easier to understand and approach is tobreak it down into different fundamental skills. For thepurposes of this essay, I would like to present topicdevelopment, organization and progression, language use,and writing mechanics as the essential skills required to writegood academic essays in English.


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First of all, writers need to know how to present and develop a

general or specific topic. They need to state their topic clearly,and also clarify how they intend to break it down into smaller,interrelated ideas. Breaking a topic down in this way is a goodway to explore it from different angles and present acomprehensive and convincing approach. Looking at the

example of this essay, you will see that I am approaching thegeneral topic of essential skills required to write academicessays in Englishby presenting the sub-themes of topicdevelopment, organization and progression, language use, andwriting mechanics. However, each of these sub-topics also

needs to be developed and supported. After stating each as atopic sentence, I can provide additional details to explain them,and support them with clear examples. In fact, just by readingover this paragraph again, you will see that I have done exactlythose things for the main idea of topic development: I haveexplained what the idea means and given examples of it in use.


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Secondly, good essays need to exhibit careful organization andclear progression from one idea or argument to the next. Bythis I mean that each part of the essay should have a specificfocus that is clearly different from the parts that come beforeand after it. The first paragraph of this essay introduces thegeneral topic and how I intend to break it down. The secondparagraph explains the idea of topic development, while this the third paragraph deals with organization and progression.

In the same way, the following paragraphs will have differentfoci. The idea of progressionis also very important. The essay

needs to flow through a logical and convincing pattern ofintroducing the topic, presenting a body of ideas in support ofthat topic, and a clear conclusion to wrap up the ideas andpass on final unified thoughts to the reader.


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In addition to topic development and organization/progression,

a good essay in English does of course need to use goodlanguage. I use the broad term languageto refer to things likeword and sentence choice, and grammatical accuracy andeffectiveness. For example, we need to use words and termsto capture our ideas clearly. It is important to use a variety of

accurate sentence models to avoid boring the reader withrepetition, or else confusing them with sentences that areeither too drawn out or too crowded with detail. In addition,language use can affect the reader of an essay in other ways.Poor or very simple grammar could result in the reader not

respecting the writers general intelligence or becomingdistracted from the writers central message. For example, it

can be hard to respect a teachers recommendations about the

best ways to learn English if these ideas are presented in anessay full of grammatical mistakes and/or devoid of anyadvanced vocabulary or expressions.


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Last but certainly not least, good essays require carefulmechanics. These are the more technical aspects of the waywords and sentences actually appear on the page, but they arefundamentally important. Mechanics can cover things at wholetext level (like the ability to clearly separate paragraphs within

the text); paragraph level (capitalization and periods to indicateseparate sentences); sentence level (commas, dashes,brackets or semi-colons to link or extend ideas); or even wordlevel (for example apostrophes and basic spelling). Clearlythese mechanical aspects of written language have a major

impact on how easy it is to read, and how logically ideas

appear to be expressed and supported. An essay without clearline breaks, punctuation or accurate spelling can be very muchlike trying to negotiate a complex network of streets that haveno lanes indicated, no arrows, no stop signs, nor even streetnames!


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In conclusion, it would be fair to say that good essay writing inEnglish is a complex skill that can be broken down into avariety of equally important considerations. As writers, we needto be able to present and develop topics in ways that makes

them thorough and convincing. We also need to organize ourideas clearly and present them in a progressive fashion.Moreover, it is important to apply language accurately,efficiently, and effectively to convey our written messages.Finally, we need to master the mechanics of writing at text,

paragraph, sentence and word level to make reading smoothand easy for our readers. By paying careful attention to each ofthese aspects, students of English can ensure they expressthemselves effectively through the medium of academic essays.


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Read the writing topic below and the

essay that follows it.


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Academic essay writing is an important skill for almost allpeople engaged in university level study.It is especiallyimportant for students who are pursuing advanced English

majors. however good essay writing skills appear to besignificantly difficult for many students to master.Onewaytomake essay writing easier to understand and approach is tobreak it down into different fundamental skills For thepurposes of this essay,i would like to present topicdevelopment.organization and progression,language use,andwriting mechanics as the essential skills required to write goodacademic Essays in English


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Secondly, good essays need to exhibit careful organization and

clear progression from one idea or argument to the next.By this I mean that each part of the essay should have a specific focus that is clearly different from the parts that comebefore and after it.The first paragraph of this essay introduces the general topic

and how I intend to break it down.The second paragraph explains the idea of topic development,while this the third paragraph deals with organization and

progression.In the same way, the following paragraphs will have diffe

rent foci.The idea of progressionis also very important.The essay needs to flow through a logical and convincingpattern of introducing the topic, presenting a body of ideas insupport of that topic, and a clear conclusion to wrap up theideas and pass on final unified thoughts to the reader.

Secondly, good essays need to exhibit careful organization andclear progression from one idea or argument to the next. Bythis I mean that each part of the essay should have a specificfocus that is clearly different from the parts that come beforeand after it. The first paragraph of this essay introduces thegeneral topic and how I intend to break it down. The secondparagraph explains the idea of topic development, while this the third paragraph deals with organization and progression.

In the same way, the following paragraphs will have differentfoci. The idea of progressionis also very important. The essay

needs to flow through a logical and convincing pattern ofintroducing the topic, presenting a body of ideas in support ofthat topic, and a clear conclusion to wrap up the ideas andpass on final unified thoughts to the reader.


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Teachers College

Department of English Education

Kyungpook National University

basic essay skills

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