.jpg)
Recommended Reading
With so many essays available for purchase at the touch of a button, you might wonder what the point is in learning how to write a great essay. Why should you waste your precious time when you could be hanging out with your friends or playing on your Xbox or Wii, you may be thinking. Well, the fact is that we live in a society where the ability to write fluently, coherently, cohesively and meaningfully is expected. It is just as important to be able to write well as it is to have the information you are writing about. By the time you are doing your GCSEs, if you can't write a good essay then you are doomed to C grade or below. This probably will not get you into any university worth its fees.
Plus, if you can write a good essay you will feel accomplished and that can't be a bad thing. Your confidence will soar when you know you have finally cracked the essay writing challenge.
So, first things first - how to start?
Everyone knows that all essays need an introduction, a "middle bit" and a conclusion. But what is supposed to go in the middle bit? How long should the introduction be? What is the point of rehashing everything in a conclusion? And worst of all for most students - how on earth do you start the essay?!
The easiest and most effective way of structuring an essay is to refer to the question in the introduction, introducing the subject and then mentioning briefly everything you intend to cover.
For example, for the following recent AQA GCSE exam question "How do Trailfinders use language to persuade you to book their trip to Antarctica" this would be a good introduction:
Trailfinders use several linguistic devices to persuade their target audience not only to go to Antarctica, but also to book with them. These devices include similes, metaphors and several adjectives, all of which have been chosen to make the reader feel that Antarctica is the only place to go on holiday and Trailfinders is the only agent worth booking with.
The "middle bit" is where you expand on each of the devices you mentioned in your introduction, in detail. For example:
The first device Trailfinders use is the simile "skies as clear as heaven". This gives the reader an instant sense of how beautifl Antarctica is. The word "heaven" also implies that a trip to Antarctica will be a spiritual experience. The metaphor "dinosaur" in "dinosaur watering holes" conveys the enormity of the frozen lakes. This also helps the reader to understand that Antarctica has barely changed since the ice age destroyed the dinosaurs, through the use of connotations. The adjectives "glorious", ice-blue", "clean" and "white" all work together to create an image of an absolutely beautiful place which is completely uncontaminated in any way by the rest of the world. This makes it feel as if going to Antarctica will cure any depression or any pessimism.
You would then continue in a similar vein, talking (I mean writing!) about the devices used to sell Trailfinders.
For your conclusion, you do not simply repeat what you have written. You don't want to waste your time writing it out again and the examiner definitely doesn't want to waste his or her time reading it all again! Instead, keep it short and sweet and say something like:
In conclusion, the Trailfinders advertorial is very effective because of the careful selection of linguistic devices mentioned above.
Of course, apart from a good, solid structure, you also need to be able to include wonderful vocabulary accurately, to use good grammar, to know what the terminology means (e.g. "connotations") and to be observant in your reading - but those are articles for another day.
