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    • How To Write An Essay

    How to Write an Essay

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    Essay writing is an essential skill you will need all your life, not only in school. This week’s picks are for students from grade six through college, and cover not only report writing, but also answering essay questions.

    		How to Write an Essay Resource Handout for Classroom or Homeschool: Just $2.00

    Capital Community College: The Five-Paragraph Essay5 stars

    "A classic format for compositions is the five-paragraph essay. It is not the only format for writing an essay, of course, but it is a useful model for you to keep in mind, especially as you begin to develop your composition skills." This online lesson includes a sample essay, where each of the paragraphs is described and analyzed.



    Basic Guide to Essay Writing5 stars

    "Don't let the thought of putting pen to paper daunt you. Get started!" Homeschooling mom Kathy Livingston includes sample essays in her eight-step approach to essay writing for middle-school students. She advocates a diagram (or mind map) to organize ideas that becomes the basic structure for your essay and will lead you into the creation of your thesis statement. "The thesis statement tells the reader what the essay will be about, and what point you, the author, will be making."

    Harvard College Writing Center: Strategies for Essay Writing5 stars

    For college students, and advanced high schoolers, Harvard College Writing Center explains how to structure an essay so that it answers the what, how and why of your subject matter. "Structuring your essay according to a reader's logic means examining your thesis and anticipating what a reader needs to know, and in what sequence, in order to grasp and be convinced by your argument as it unfolds. The easiest way to do this is to map the essay's ideas via a written narrative."

    Online Writing Lab: Writing Essays for Exams5 stars

    Brought to you by Purdue University Online Writing Lab, this lesson starts with a question. "What is a well-written answer to an essay question?" A well-written exam essay is well focused, well organized, well supported and well packaged. It then continues with dozens of essay writing tips such as how to use common writing devices including providing details, examples, comparisons, classification, or examination of cause or effect. It even lists useful transition words such as: yet, similarly, though, despite, however, conversely, next, subsequently, and so on.

    Writing Den: Essays5 stars

    Designed for students in grades six through twelve, this section of the Writing Den introduces parts of an essay, how to write an essay, and eight kinds of essays: definition, classification, description, compare/contrast, sequence, choice, explanation, and evaluation. "In a compare and contrast essay, you write about the similarities and differences between two or more people, places, or things. You can organize the essay by writing about one subject first and then comparing it with the second subject. A more effective way is to organize the essay by comparing each subject by category."

    		How to Write an Essay Resource Handout for Classroom or Homeschool: Just $2.00



    Honorable Mentions

    The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!

    CUNY WriteSite

    How to Write an Essay

    Writing in College

    Writing a Research Paper


    Cite This Page

    Feldman, Barbara. "How to Write an Essay." Surfnetkids. Feldman Publishing. 27 Sep. 2016. Web. 6 Dec. 2025. <https://www.surfnetkids.com/resources/how-to-write-an-essay/ >.


    About This Page

    By . Originally published September 27, 2016. Last modified September 20, 2016.

    Filed Under: Language Arts, Reference, Writing

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