Have you ever wondered
why students fail English language? The reason is very simple. It is as a
result of their boring essays, spiced with wrong grammar and sentence
structure.
The essay section of the
different examination bodies in Nigeria (WAEC, NECO and NABTEB) carries the
highest mark (50 marks). However, it is very difficult to see a candidate score
25 out of the 50 marks awarded to the question. I am not threatening you.
It is a fact. I have marked WAEC and NECO twice, and the highest score I
recorded was 24. It is very rare, if not impossible, to see candidates
score 25 and above. This is really a problem, and I think there is something
the English teachers out there are not telling their students. Consequently, I will be
teaching you how you can write a very good, catchy and interesting essay.
Every essay consists of
four main elements:
1. The title
2. The introduction
3. The body
4. Concluding
paragraph/conclusion.
The title
This is the first thing your reader looks at. What are you actually writing on. Every good essay should have a title. e.g., The Effects of Air Pollution on the Masses. Do not underline if the title is written in capital letters.
The introduction/introductory paragraph
The introductory paragraph introduces your topic. It is an important element of any essay as it serves as the pilar of your essay. It determines whether your reader will continue or quit reading your essay. Therefore, your introduction must be catchy and captivating. A catchy introduction piques the interest of your reader or the examiner and hypnotizes him/her with the feeling of reading your essay to the end.
Unfortunately, this is
where most persons get it wrong. Most persons skip this part to the body of the
essay. My dear, it is very important you introduce the topic you are writing on, and it should be captivating and interesting.
Let's assume I am writing
on the topic, "My Most Memorable Day." This is a narrative essay, and
I will only make it boring if I fail to give it a captivating and interesting
introduction. Therefore, my introduction
could be something like this:
Life they say is not a bed of roses as it is spiced with sadness and baked with happiness, thereby creating a balance in the journey through life. The truth is that the sweet experiences will always gladden the heart whereas the bad experiences will wrinkle the face like the skin of an old woman who has lived for one hundred decades. For me, my most memorable day was a day characterized with extraordinary happiness that even caused the leaves in the forest to wave in unison.
The above introduction is
interesting and catchy and it will make your reader really want to know what
made the leaves in the forest to wave in unison.
What really makes the
introduction catchy is the use of figures of speech/figurative language. Can
you state the figures of speech in that introduction? Smiles. I leave that to
you, but try making your introduction catchy and interesting. One way you can achieve
this is through the use of figures of speech.
The Body
After the introductory
paragraph comes the body of your essay. This is where you develop the main
ideas related to the introduction. It is the lengthiest part and it consists of
different paragraphs. A paragraph is a group of related sentences which develops a unit of thought within an essay and is usually set off by indention in the
first line. A paragraph could be a
single sentence or between eight and ten or more sentences.
The number of paragraphs
that constitutes the body of your essay is determined by the number of points
you want to explain in the body of your essay. For instance, if you have five
points to explain in your essay, you will have to explain these five points in
five different paragraphs. This is because a paragraph explains a single
thought, which is the topic sentence. The topic sentence
usually states the major idea of the paragraph and it can occur anywhere - at
the beginning, middle or end. Every other sentence in a paragraph explains the
topic sentence.
Please, do not explain different thoughts in a paragraph. For instance, if you are discussing "unwanted pregnancy" in a paragraph as one of the problems of premarital
sex, do not discuss "untimely death" (which is another problem of
premarital sex) in the same paragraph. "Untimely death" should be
explained in a new paragraph.
The Conclusion
This is the end of your essay. It concludes the main points in the body of the essay. Your essay should always have a conclusion. If there must be an introduction, there must also be a conclusion.
Some of the transitional
markers used to show that you are concluding are: "in conclusion",
" in sum", "from the aforementioned", "from the
foregoing" etc.
If you take the aforementioned points into consideration while writing your essay, you will produce a wonderful essay.
READ A SAMPLE ESSAY HERE
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