The essay...

What an essay is:
An essay is a written argument which consists of an introduction, a statement of a thesis, support for that thesis, and a conclusion. An analytical essay addresses an issue and employs a critical approach; to do this, it takes a stand on some issue and assesses strengths and weaknesses of the work or text under analysis.

The parts of an essay and their functions:

A thesis statement is a sentence which tells what you think about the topic of your essay. Your thesis statement should be a sentence that will prompt a response in a reader, or cause him/her to ask "why?" Your thesis sentence should also be a statement that contains the gist of your point of view on the subject you are going to write about.

Generally, a thesis statement will appear in the introduction to the essay, which is the first paragraph or section of the essay introducing your topic. Aim for a clear, strong introduction that sets out what you're going to say. Your introduction should be mainly the "explaining" part of your paper. You should be aiming to present your idea in the introduction (whatever it is, agreeing with an idea or disagreeing), and then explain how it generally works. You don't want to get into specifics yet; you just want to establish the direction in which your essay is going to go.
Support for your thesis will appear in the body of the essay, which is the "illustrating" part of your paper. In the body, you want to show how you know what you say you know, and to do this you are going to use examples. You should be as specific as possible. Give several carefully-chosen examples, or if you have few, provide very detailed accounts of them. If your examples are well-described, it will be clear to the reader that you have excellent reasons for believing as you do; thus you will have shown how you know what you say you know.
The essay will end with a conclusion, where you will "wrap up." In your conclusion, you are trying to show how what you have described and discussed is generally valid.

Checking the draft for completeness and high quality:

It is important to learn to edit your work; there are very few good writers who are not also good editors. Plan to spend some time checking your draft.
Check for clarity; you want to make sure everything you've written sounds like it makes sense and is reasonably correct. You should first read your essay over slowly to yourself (or even aloud) and catch any mistakes you see.
Edit out anything in your paper that seems to be going in a different direction to what you want to say. You don't want to contradict yourself.

Make sure there are smooth transitions between parts of your essay. You want each paragraph to follow from the previous one, so your whole essay flows along. There's a simple way to do this: make the last sentence in each paragraph reflect or echo the first sentence in the next. Try practicing this a few times.
Watch out for sentence fragments. Where sentences begin with If, Since, Although, When, etc., make sure that they are properly finished. For example, "Although my dog died. My cat is still alive." should be, "Although my dog died, my cat is still alive."
Divide up run-on sentences. Where you have two sentences run together, separate them with periods. For example, the sentence, "I go to The College of Staten Island I am thirty-three" should be "I go to The College of Staten Island. I am thirty-three."
Separate comma splices. When you have two complete sentences joined only by a comma, this is a comma splice error, as in the sentence, "I had no food for three days, I survived." Find ways to join the sentences in ways that show the relationship between them, such as, "I had no food for three days, but I survived."
Be sure that you don't end up with subject and verb disagreement. This happens when the subject and verb are in conflict, such as in the sentence, "The trees is beautiful." There is subject/verb disagreement between the subject (trees) and the verb (is) because where the subject "trees" is plural, the verb "is" is singular. It should read, instead, "the trees (plural) are (plural) beautiful."

Writing the Essay, Tips for Success

Even seemingly boring topics can be made into exceptional admissions essays with an innovative approach. In writing the essay you must bear in mind your two goals: to persuade the admissions officer that you are extremely worthy of admission and to make the admissions officer aware that you are more than a GPA and a standardized score, that you are a real-life, intriguing personality.

Unfortunately, there is no surefire step-by-step method to writing a good essay. EssayEdge editors at will remake your essay into an awesome, memorable masterpiece, but every topic requires a different treatment since no two essays are alike. However, we have compiled the following list of tips that you should find useful while writing your admissions essay.

1-Answer the question
You can follow the next 12 steps, but if you miss the question, you will not be admitted to any institution.

2- be original
Even seemingly boring essay topics can sound interesting if creatively approached. If writing about a gymnastics competition you trained for, do not start your essay: "I worked long hours for many weeks to train for XXX competition." Consider an opening like, "Every morning I awoke at 5:00 to sweat, tears, and blood as I trained on the uneven bars hoping to bring the state gymnastics trophy to my hometown."

3- be yourself
Admissions officers want to learn about you and your writing ability. Write about something meaningful and describe your feelings, not necessarily your actions. If you do this, your essay will be unique. Many people travel to foreign countries or win competitions, but your feelings during these events are unique to you. Unless a philosophy or societal problem has interested you intensely for years, stay away from grand themes that you have little personal experience with.

4-don’t “thesaurize” your composition
For some reason, students continue to think big words make good essays. Big words are fine, but only if they are used in the appropriate contexts with complex styles. Think Hemingway.

5- use image and clear, vivid prose
If you are not adept with imagery, you can write an excellent essay without it, but it's not easy. The application essay lends itself to imagery since the entire essay requires your experiences as supporting details. Appeal to the five senses of the admissions officers.

6- spend the most time on your introduction
Expect admissions officers to spend 1-2 minutes reading your essay. You must use your introduction to grab their interest from the beginning. You might even consider completely changing your introduction after writing your body paragraphs.
· Don't Summarize in your Introduction. Ask yourself why a reader would want to read your entire essay after reading your introduction. If you summarize, the admissions officer need not read the rest of your essay.
· Create Mystery or Intrigue in your Introduction. It is not necessary or recommended that your first sentence give away the subject matter. Raise questions in the minds of the admissions officers to force them to read on. Appeal to their emotions to make them relate to your subject matter.

7- body paragraphs must related to the introduction
Your introduction can be original, but cannot be silly. The paragraphs that follow must relate to your introduction.

8- use transition
Applicants continue to ignore transition to their own detriment. You must use transition within paragraphs and especially between paragraphs to preserve the logical flow of your essay. Transition is not limited to phrases like "as a result, in addition, while . . . , since . . . , etc." but includes repeating key words and progressing the idea. Transition provides the intellectual architecture to argument building.

9- conclusions are critical
The conclusion is your last chance to persuade the reader or impress upon them your qualifications. In the conclusion, avoid summary since the essay is rather short to begin with; the reader should not need to be reminded of what you wrote 300 words before. Also do not use stock phrases like "in conclusion, in summary, to conclude, etc." You should consider the following conclusions:
· Expand upon the broader implications of your discussion.
· Consider linking your conclusion to your introduction to establish a sense of balance by reiterating introductory phrases.
· Redefine a term used previously in your body paragraphs.
· End with a famous quote that is relevant to your argument. Do not try to do this, as this approach is overdone. This should come naturally.
· Frame your discussion within a larger context or show that your topic has widespread appeal.
· Remember, your essay need not be so tidy that you can answer why your little sister died or why people starve in Africa; you are not writing a "sit-com," but should forge some attempt at closure.

10- do something else
Spend a week or so away from your draft to decide if you still consider your topic and approach worthwhile.

11- give your draft to others
Ask editors to read with these questions in mind:
· WHAT is the essay about?
· Have I used active voice verbs wherever possible?
· Is my sentence structure varied or do I use all long or all short sentences?
· Do you detect any clich鳿
· Do I use transition appropriately?
· Do I use imagery often and does this make the essay clearer and more vivid?
· What's the best part of the essay?
· What about the essay is memorable?
· What's the worst part of the essay?
· What parts of the essay need elaboration or are unclear?
· What parts of the essay do not support your main argument or are immaterial to your case?
· Is every single sentence crucial to the essay? This MUST be the case.
· What does the essay reveal about your personality?
· Could anyone else have written this essay?
· How would you fill in the following blank based on the essay: "I want to accept you to this college because our college needs more ________."

12- revise,revise,revise and revise
Revise, Revise, Revise. You only are allowed so many words; use them wisely. If H.D. Thoreau couldn't write a good essay without revision, neither will you. Delete anything in the essay that does not relate to your main argument. Do you use transition? Are your introduction and conclusions more than summaries? Did you find every single grammatical error?

Allow for the evolution of your main topic. Do not assume your subject must remain fixed and that you can only tweak sentences.
Editing takes time. Consider reordering your supporting details, delete irrelevant sections, and make clear the broader implications of your experiences. Allow your more important arguments to come to the foreground. Take points that might only be implicit and make them explicit.