The College Essay
1 The Writing Process
Andrew Gurevich
In this chapter, we will begin our discussion of the methods of academic writing by looking at how the essay writing process itself works, with particular attention paid to the various elements of the format and stages of the process. Return here as you need for tips on all aspects of the college essay writing experience. Remember, an essay is an attempt to understand something more deeply. When we write an essay, we are opening ourselves up to the full spectrum of human knowledge and wisdom while simultaneously reaching for new understandings of the truth and its relevance to our lives. It is a sacred, scientific, and self-empowering process. One that we continue to perfect as long as we are alive and curious. While no essay can be reduced to a simple series of steps or formulas, we will see that the essay format does provide a coherent template, an ancient and powerful structure, through which we can engage the world of ideas and communicate our discoveries in meaningful and academically productive ways. Remember this is a process. There is an old saying, “writing is rewriting.” We never really arrive at a perfect piece of writing, as much as we edge closer to engaging the spectacular and complex world around us with increasing clarity of thought and vision. And, hopefully, we also develop a sharpened sense of the importance of inquiry, evaluation, and synthesis as vital steps on any path towards greater understanding.
The English word “essay” originally comes from the French “essai,” meaning “an attempt.” An attempt to do what, exactly? Well, that is a question this text hopes to answer. Secondarily, this text will examine the layers of the critical and creative thinking processes to explore how they can help us better understand the nature, function, and purpose of academic argument. But before we get to that, we must return to the original question. What, exactly, is an essay “attempting” to do? Well, first, it is an attempt to understand a concept more deeply. It is an attempt to ask, and answer, a series of questions to help you get closer to the core of an idea or an experience. Or perhaps both. And, finally, it is an attempt to explore, and communicate, the larger implications and results of our targeted curiosity to an interested audience.
The methods for creating a successful college essay are not the same for everyone. Some writers require complete silence with no distractions, while others crave noise and social interaction while they work. Some are writing in their own native language, and others in a second, or even third, language. Some of us are very political and feel comfortable challenging authority and the status quo. Others feel more comfortable trusting and respecting authorities and following instructions carefully. Many of us have little choice concerning how and when we get to write. We fit it in between life and work, marriage and children, and death and taxes. But a few questions remain, and even gain strength in this new and unpredictable world we live in: “Why bother? What practical reasons do we have for making students create these ancient documents?” The answer is both more complex and simple than we may imagine. The short answer is, because the essay writing process in one of the most effective ways for us to develop our skills in understanding, investigating, and collaborating with others on important topics and ideas. It is also one of the most potent self-education tools we have ever developed. The best way to learn more about a topic is to write an essay about it. So the purpose of the technology of essay writing is to learn, more than to teach. To explore, more than to explain. To generate a living bridge between knowledge and experience through a focused rhetorical process of investigation and curiosity. We do not engage the process to bludgeon others with our own opinions or isolated ideas of truth. To write a good essay, we must bring our ideas into meaningful dialogue with the thoughts and ideas of others, and in the process, we learn more about both the topic under consideration and our own ways of understanding and making sense of the world. Essay writing is most effective when we are not afraid of being wrong or of being right. It works best when we see it as a process of discovery. And it works best when we bring our full selves to the exercise.
The Process
While no guide can help you find what exact situations will work best for you, there are aspects of the process that, when basically followed, promote a cleaner, more stable final draft. These six general stages are: discovery & investigation, prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and formatting.
Discovery & Investigation
The first step in writing a successful college essay requires an active engagement with your sources. Simply reading a source for basic content is not quite enough. It is about asking the right questions. But the questions should not be simply “What does this say?” or “What happened?” but rather “Why did that happen?” “What does that say about the larger themes and ideas I am exploring?” and “How does this help advance my thinking into the deeper layers of this topic?” Does it challenge your thinking in relevant ways? If so, how might you need to adjust your thinking, your research, and possibly even your thesis, to accommodate this new information?
Make notes of your thoughts, ideas, and reactions as you read (and watch and listen). Research is about following the conversation into your sources and allowing your sources to “talk to one another” as you develop your own presence in the conversation. What new questions emerge as your initial questions are answered? How do your sources relate to one another as you dive deeper into a research topic? Have you checked into enough alternative views and perspectives to make sure you are not reaching a conclusion too quickly? As you become more informed on the topic, your voice will begin to emerge, and even direct the conversation. But now it will be a voice as rooted in authoritative research as it is in your own valid experience and perspective.
Once you have completed an active reading of a primary source, it will often be necessary to obtain secondary sources to back up your thesis. Peer-reviewed journals available online through the college databases will be your most commonly used secondary resources. But remember that other search engines, such as Google Scholar, can yield strong results too. Also, don’t forget to look to your own life, your own connections, your own family, friends, and colleagues, as potential sources on a given topic. There is more wisdom in our communities than we often realize.
Prewriting
Prewriting is the step in which tools such as free writing, brainstorming, outlining, or clustering are used. In prewriting, no idea is too off-topic or too strange to pursue. It is these very “outlier” ideas that sometimes can lead you to an essay topic or thesis that you never would have considered otherwise. There will be time to eliminate and consolidate later. For now, cast the net as wide as you can. Let your curiosity guide and motivate you here. Again, you will have time to tailor and sculpt your prewriting ideas to fit the parameters of your given assignment later. For now, just let your mind wander. Be open, curious, and attentive to where your questions lead you.
Though the common perception is that there is nothing that hasn’t been written about before, if you allow yourself to “think outside the box,” you can usually find a way of looking at an “old” topic through “new” eyes. Or a new topic through wise and measured perspectives. Perspectives that my have been misrepresented, or even not included, in previous considerations of the topic. Even if it has been covered by another writer, you will be able to bring your unique perspective and relevant experiences to the larger discussion through initially casting a wide net to pull in potential new ideas and relevant associations.
It is also during prewriting that the writer needs to make a decision about audience. Asking questions like: “Who is going to read my essay?” “What is the deeper purpose of this essay?” and “Why are they going to read my essay?” will help you set your primary audience. The simple answers to these questions are “My professor” and “Because they assigned it.” But these are not the true answers. It could be that your essay needs to be geared towards peers and fellow students, participants in a seminar, colleagues at a conference, or your family and neighbors. Regardless, consideration of audience is crucial for setting tone, voice, and perspective in a developing essay. The language and tone for each of these possible audiences would be very different. Sometimes slightly, sometimes considerably. Considering this also helps you set your relationship to the topic and to the audience in ways that will make the essay more readable and accessible to that actual or potential audience.
Drafting
Drafting is the beginning of “writing” your essay. It is important to remember that in drafting you should already have at least a general thesis to guide your writing. Without a thesis, your writing will be prone to drift, making it harder to structure after the fact. In drafting, the writer should use materials created in the prewriting stage and any notes taken in discovery and investigation to frame and build body paragraphs. You may, however, change your thesis as you go. In the beginning, it is only advisable to have a general idea of where you are going regarding thesis. Of course, the more clarity here, the better. But don’t let an unfocused or underdeveloped thesis stop you from getting started. You can always return to it and sharpen it as you go deeper into the essay.
Many writers will tackle their body paragraphs first instead of beginning with an introduction (especially if you are not sure of the exact direction of your paper). This is a process often called “writing from the middle.” Beginning with the body paragraphs will allow you to work through your ideas without feeling restricted by a specific thesis. You can get down the basic structure and main points you know you want to cover before you sculpt the more difficult opening and closing paragraphs. But be prepared to delete or alter paragraphs that don’t fit your eventual big idea. Also be prepared to move body paragraphs around, if necessary, to better fit your pattern of development and thesis. Afterwards, create opening and concluding paragraphs (with an appropriately revised thesis) that properly reflect the body of your essay.
Revising
There are three different lenses of revision: global, regional, and local.
Global revision involves looking for issues like cohesion of your main idea(s) and the overall progression of your essay. If your essay has paragraphs that do not flow into each other, but rather change topics abruptly only to return to a previous thought later, your essay has poor cohesion. If your thesis is too generic or is not sufficiently developed and supported in the body of the essay, you need to explore this level of revision. If your topics change too drastically from paragraph to paragraph, it is necessary to consider altering the order of your paragraphs and/or revising your writing by either adding to existing paragraphs or creating new ones that explain your change in topic. An essay with a logical flow and smooth transitions is significantly easier to read and understand. These are the bones of the essay.
Regional revision involves reworking or reshaping the connections and transitions of the essay. This second level of revising means that you’re satisfied with what you are saying (or trying to say), but not with how you’ve said it. Working on “how” tends to mean thinking more about readers: thinking about how your thoughts will be read or understood by people other than yourself. Thus, feedback from readers is particularly useful for this level of revising. One of the most common kinds of reworking is to improve clarity. Perhaps you realize you need to change the order you present things in; or you need a stronger introduction, conclusion, and transitions; or you’ve implied ideas or suggested attitudes that you don’t want there. Most common of all, you simply need to leave out parts that may be OK in themselves (or even precious to you) but that don’t quite belong now that you’ve finally figured out what the piece of writing is really saying. These passages clog the flow of your essay, reduce clarity, and ultimately will distract your readers. These are the muscles of the essay
Local revision involves looking for clarity in sentences, ensuring coherence within your body paragraphs, and addressing grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, and formatting issues. This should be done after you are comfortable with the larger issues addressed in global and regional revision. This is akin to copyediting the essay and is the skin of the essay.
A great trick avoid having to fix too many local issues is to use varied sentence structure, and to avoid using the same words repeatedly. Repeating the same sentence structure can make your paper feel mechanical and make an interesting topic feel boring. Also, if you can, have someone else read a draft of your essay to help catch the many small mistakes our eyes can miss when looking at the same essay for too long. Reading your essay out loud, slowly, to yourself may also be helpful at this stage.
Final Editing
The final stage in writing a strong college essay requires a review of what you have written. In this last read of your essay, you should look for any grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors that have slipped through the cracks during the revising stage, or that were introduced in your revisions.
Reading your essay aloud, or asking a friend to read your essay back to you, are good ways to catch errors. Often if you read your own essay, especially out loud, you can catch errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation that can be missed in a silent reading. Though this step seems minor within the process of writing, it is an easy way to prevent the loss of points over simple mistakes.
Formatting, In-text citation, and Works Cited
The formatting required for your paper will change depending on the field of study and academic discipline. Generally, the sciences and business and economics use APA or CSE formatting. English and other humanities will use MLA, and History uses Chicago. The appearance of the first page of the essay, in-text citations, and the Works Cited page will all be affected by these different formats.
Consult your syllabus or ask your professor to learn what format you should use. Guides for MLA are available later in this guide. Guides for APA, Chicago, CSE and ASA are available here.
The Format
As we have already seen, the college essay process is a matter of answering a series of questions, of following a sequence of steps, towards creating a coherent written document that explores a topic for greater insight and understanding. It is a time-tested rhetorical technology meant to focus the writer’s inquisitive and curious mind towards an engaging, rational, and academically-sound discussion.
Now, we will also explore the six basic elements of this very specific, yet adaptive, format:
- Thesis driven
- Primary pattern of development
- Coherent, unified paragraphs
- Strong, clear introductions and conclusions
- Proper use of relevant, authoritative sources
- Properly formatted (MLA format)
Thesis-Driven Essays
- A strong thesis does not just state your topic, but your perspective or feeling on the topic as well. And it does so in a single, focused sentence. Two at the most.
- A strong, clear thesis tells the reader clearly what the essay is all about and engages them in the big idea of the entire essay.
- Consult this link to the OWL thesis statements discussion.
BEST: A thesis is strongest when the writer uses knowledge of the specific topic, their educated opinion on it, and their own experiences to present a detailed and clear main point.
- Thesis statements are usually found at the end of the introduction. Seasoned authors may play with this structure, but it is often better to learn the form before deviating from it.
- Thesis statements are almost always a single sentence long, two tops.
- Thesis statements often reveal the primary pattern of development of the essay.
- Watch this video on writing a “Killer” Thesis Statement
- Watch this video on writing an effective Academic Thesis Statement
Primary Pattern of Development
- Many college essays follow a primary pattern of development for laying out their ideas and expressing their primary thesis.
- A pattern of development is the way the essay is organized, from one paragraph to the next, in order to present it’s main point and support for it.
- Your reader will be experiencing your essay in time. That is, they will read it starting in paragraph one and then two, three, four, five, six… This may seem obvious but we need to consider how the reader will experience the essay in time and in relation to our thesis statement. Thus, we will need to organize the essay into a coherent pattern which allows the reader to easily follow our logic through the essay and fully relate it back to our central theme(s).
- Some essays use a combination of patterns to communicate their ideas but usually a primary pattern is established to present the overall structure of the essay.
- Patterns, or modes as they are sometimes called, are only one way to organize an essay. Genre is another common organizational structure that emphasizes audience over the relationship between thesis and topic that is emphasized in the patterns structure. Common genres are: essay, blog post, open letter, fiction, creative nonfiction, Op/Ed, Summary/Response, etc.)
BEST: Patterns of Development work best when they are used consistently and in conjunction with the structure and theme of the primary thesis statement.
- Patterns include:
- Narration & Description
- Exemplification
- Cause & Effect
- Comparison & Contrast
- There are several more variations of patterns of development but these are the most common and the ones we will be exploring this term.
- Consult this chapter from a different OER text on how to construct and use patterns of development in your own writing process.
Coherent, Unified Paragraphs
- Strong essays are built with solid, coherent, and unified paragraphs. They should be digestible units of thought that have similar structure to the essay itself: a topic sentence, a body of support, and a concluding or transitional statement to help the reader move through the essay with clarity and focus; building from, and towards, your big idea.
- Body paragraphs need to be arranged according to your primary pattern of development.
BEST: When the writer uses paragraphs to present a single, coherent, and well-developed thought in support of their overall thesis.
- A body paragraph is a developed, single thought that is laid out according to a specific logical structure.
- A body paragraph should begin with a strong, clear topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph (which will likely be a sub-point that is helping you to develop and explore your thesis).
- A strong, clear body paragraph will include several (two-four) sentences of development and support of your topic sentence: including quotes, summaries, and paraphrases of your relevant sources and substantive responses to the source material.
- A strong paragraph will have a closing sentence of summary and transition into the next paragraph (unless it is the end of a section or the conclusion of the essay).
- Consult this chapter from another OER on how to construct coherent, engaging, and unified paragraphs or click on this link to the OWL Website.
- Watch this video on Writing Effective Paragraphs
Strong, Clear Introductions and Conclusions
- The beginning and the ending of any communication event, studies show, provide the best opportunities to speak to any audience when their attention is the highest and most focused on the communication. Something about our species pays special attention to the way things start and the way they end. We should use this to our advantage as writers.
- Consult this chapter from a different OER on how to most effectively construct engaging introductions and conclusions.
- The introduction should grab your reader’s attention, focus it on your general topic, and move towards your specific, engaging thesis.
- The conclusion should provide a restatement of your main idea, provide a sense of finality or closure, and possibly challenge the reader with a “so what?” moment.
- In communication theory, there is a saying, “Tell them what you are going to tell them (introduction), tell them (body), then tell them what you just told them (conclusion).” While this seems a redundant structure, it is useful to be reminded of the need to build a logical and self-supporting flow into your academic writing. Clear intent and focus helps your reader concentrate on the major ideas you are trying to communicate and it helps you be disciplined and calculated in how you structure the essay to establish, highlight, and support those very ideas.
BEST: When the writer uses both the introduction and the conclusion to grab and focus the reader’s attention on the main point of their essay.
- Both should clearly state the main point of the essay (thesis).
- Both should grab and focus the reader’s attention on the greater topic and larger significance of the thesis.
- Both should provide a sense of momentum for the reader to move through the essay with clarity, confidence, and full awareness of the essay’s main point.
- Watch this video on writing effective introductions and conclusions
- Here’s another video on Effective Introductions and Conclusions
Proper Use of Relevant, Authoritative Sources
The discovery, analysis, and integration of relevant source material into an essay or research project can be referred to as a “research methodology.” This can be a daunting, frustrating, and sometimes scary process. It takes a lot of discipline and courage to boldly go into the world of a given topic to check our ideas against those of authoritative, current, and reliable source material. It can also expose us to the reality that most topics are far more complicated than they originally appear. This is an essential component of college writing. It is important to get our thoughts and ideas down on paper in clear, disciplined, confident, and understandable ways. But it is equally important to verify, challenge, and expand those ideas by juxtaposing them with the most reliable information we can find on our chosen topic. We do not research just to verify what we already believe about a topic, but to sometimes challenge our previously held ideas and, hopefully, move beyond the echo chamber of our own thoughts into a meaningful, substantive dialogue with others who have relevant experience and expertise on the topic. Doing this will help us to generate a depth of knowledge that goes beyond the superficial and into the real mechanics of knowing. The result will be an essay, and a way of life, that is engaging, grounded, and integrative. It will yield a life of dialogue, curiosity, and wisdom.
- The “essay” format itself is intended to get the writer to explore a topic by beginning with a question or idea and then going out into the world and finding relevant, authoritative sources to help develop, test, and explore that idea.
- Authoritative sources do more than just back up the ideas we have. They challenge us to dive deep into the topic we are exploring to get their full complexity and broad application.
- Consult this chapter from another OER for assistance on how to best find, analyze, and integrate relevant sources into your essay writing process.
BEST: When the writer uses relevant, authoritative sources to enhance a dialogue with the audience and themselves around the significant issues the essay addresses. Most effective when they are blended carefully and properly into an honest and focused exploration of the topic that is lead by the writer, but also open to where the relevant source material can take the discussion.
- A strong essay will include enough relevant, authoritative, and reliable sources to help develop and explore the topic and thesis. This level of what is “enough” will largely depend on the weight and scope of the thesis and the particulars of a given topic or assignment.
- A strong essay will comment effectively on sources by integrating them into the larger topic, making them “talk to one another” and commenting on them in ways that stay true to their original intent and blend them into the writer’s main point and primary pattern of development.
- A strong essay will include a variety of sources from various academic, professional, and popular institutions to provide a wide array of perspectives on the topic and thesis under discussion.
- Consult the Library Databases and our WR 122 Library Guide for help in finding and using relevant, authoritative sources.
- Watch this video on Searching the Databases
- Watch this video on Evaluating Sources
Properly Formatted (MLA)
- Essays in Humanities classes are formatted according to Modern Language Association (MLA) format.
- Formatting can be a frustrating and time-consuming process so we will work on it in sections throughout the term. Stay calm and focused and learn how to use the tools that will assist you in proper MLA formatting.
BEST: When an essay is properly crafted and formatted, the reader is able to clearly and easily follow the ideas and trace outside information to its original sources.
MLA involves three primary components when getting your essay into proper format:
- Formatting of the first page of your essay
- Proper use of “in-text” citations (citing sources you use in the body of the text of your essay)
- Properly formatted “Works Cited” or “Works Consulted” page.
- Consult the MLA Style Guides on the MHCC Library Website. Note that on the MLA Style Guides site there is a section called “Citation Builders” which will help put sources into proper format for you. Note also that in most newer versions of Microsoft Word there is an MLA template you can select to automatically put your document in MLA format. Lastly, sources taken from the MHCC Library databases will already be listed at the bottom of the article in MLA format. Simple copy and paste the citation from the database entry to your Works Cited page (making sure to the entry is: in proper alphabetical position, double-spaced and in proper “hanging” format”).
- Watch the following video on how to use MLA Format (9th Edition)
- Watch the following video: How to Use MLA Style
- Watch the following video: Creating the Works Cited Page in MLA 9th Edition
There are many other websites, nonprofits, and academic institutions who have published readily available materials on the academic writing process. Students and faculty should feel free to explore the options available to them and employ the ones that resonate the most. Here you can find most, if not all, of the technical material you will need to write competent, engaging college-level essays. But the content of your writing will be determined by the particular class or assignment, the special areas of interest that make you the person you are, and the ideas that contribute to the personal, social, vocational, and transformative nature of your education.
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL), for instance, is one of the oldest and most reputable college writing websites available to anyone with an internet connection. Our own MHCC Tutoring Center also has a number of great resources available. The point is not to follow one specific “Golden Road” to success in college writing. Rather, we hope to become aware of the purpose and relevant structures of the model and apply them to our own critical and creative thinking processes in ways that make writing assignments more productive, engaging, and fun. This will translate to your reader, improve the substance of your writing, and inevitably elevate your grades along the way.
Please return to this page throughout the term for assistance with any of the elements of writing the successful college essay. Remember, writing is a process of self-discovery. It is a means by which we can educate ourselves about any topic and learn more about each other along the way. Embrace it, be patient, disciplined, and focused and it can help open the world to you.
NOTE: As needed, this ebook will be updated with new materials and relevant links as the author continues to curate the collection.