The Basic, No-Frills Essay: How to Get an "A" on an Academic Essay

-- by Rosemary Dibben

Why a basic, no-frills essay?

Think about what happens to your essay once it leaves your hands and joins a pile of other essays written by your classmates. Every essay in that pile will be read, probably re-read, possibly re-read again, commented upon, and graded before it is returned to its author. Multiply this by the number of people in your class, and this pile becomes quite a daunting task. All of this will be accomplished--in less than a week, if you please--by your human teacher who also happens to have a real, non-academic life.

Different teachers attack these piles of joy in different ways. The truly obsessive attack the essays immediately, trying to finish them before they go home that evening. A few organizationally inclined control freaks divvy up the essays and spread them out over the next few days so that, with no last-minute panic, the grading will be finished in time to meet the administration's deadline or before the students complain. Normal teachers, however, function pretty much as most students do when faced with a deadline: they wait until the very last minute. Regardless of teachers' grading habits, however, assessing essays is always a task that teachers want to finish quickly.

You can use this desire for speed and efficiency to your advantage. The essays that are easy to read and understand get "A" grades, and the essays that teachers have to plow through laboriously don't. The obvious implication of this basic fact of academic life will surely be missed only by the brain-dead:

Help your teachers give you good grades! Because teachers can only find errors in your papers while actually reading them, do everything within your power to make sure that they find your essays so quick and easy to read that they slide right through them and on to the next. Remember: the more time spent in a paper, the more time to find errors!

So how do you write an essay that's quick and easy to read? Simple. The winning academic essay style is carefully structured around a clear thesis, hangs together logically, contains only information needed to support the thesis, and is meticulously proofread. Academic English in a nutshell!

Let's get organized.

The basic, academic essay follows an easy-to-understand pattern. As the authors of Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT remind their readers, this formula

is one that is organized just like an old-fashioned first date. Not a modern first date, which takes place in a mosh pit, but the kind you see in an old movie. An old-fashioned date has 3 parts: the introduction, the meal, and the goodnight.(*)

How does this translate into practice? Write an interesting, concise introduction that ends with a thesis statement. In the body of the essay, break the thesis idea into several manageable subtopics, arrange them logically, and discuss one in each paragraph. Then add a concluding sentence or two to neatly finish things off. That's all!

Now let's take a closer look at the thesis statement.

The best thesis statement states the main point of the essay and expresses an opinion. Signal term is a fancy name for the way you indicate your opinion in a thesis statement. The signal terms are underlined in the following examples.

I have found that contemporary churches are more fun, inclusive, energized, happy, and spirit-filled than most traditional churches. (J.G.)

In a similar vein, your opinion may be that you disagree with an idea commonly accepted. By using an appropriate signal term, you can express this:

Those who enjoy surfing know California and Florida both have great surf. However, I think California has better surfing because of the variety of breaks, the waves, and nearly a year-round surfing season. (J.R.)

In a class where the required information for the essay does not come from your personal experience, there may be times when you don't think you can muster an opinion on a subject. Or, because of the nature of an essay question, it may seem that the teacher cares more about whether you know the subject than what your opinion is. (It happens!) In either situation, whatever you do, don't make the mistake of responding with an essay that has no thesis statement! [See "No Opinion?"] Remember, however, that the BEST thesis statement expresses the author's opinion on the subject.

After a great thesis you need a carefully organized essay body.

Even the best thesis will fall flat on its face if it is not followed by a carefully organized essay body. How do you organize an essay to effectively develop a great thesis? Divide the subject into its natural subtopics, assign one to each paragraph, and arrange the paragraphs so that they build rationally toward a conclusion consistent with the thesis. Your reader should be swept logically through the material.

Fortunately, this is not a complex task. Maybe your subject divides neatly into three subtopics. Great! You can write an essay that has an introduction, three body paragraphs (arranged logically), and a concluding paragraph. Maybe the subject really divides into two parts, or six parts. Fine! Develop one in each paragraph and arrange those paragraphs in a logical order.

Now develop these logically arranged ideas.

Make it easy for your teacher to understand your main points by following two basic rules as you write the essay body paragraphs:

1. Make sure that each paragraph has a topic sentence that supports and harmonizes with the essay thesis.
2. Clearly illustrate each point with concrete evidence and/or persuasive examples from the selection you are discussing.

Notice the clear topic sentence and specific examples in this paragraph taken from the body of an essay:

I felt this trip to be the dawning of my independence. My cousins and I were actually allowed to walk a quarter of a mile down the road all by ourselves to those cute little gift shops in the middle of the tourist trap. But instead of souvenirs, the other girls and I looked for long, showy earrings and purple nail polish. After we were through at the shops, we would hit the candy store and purchase all the licorice and gum balls we were able to sneak back. Then we were ready to get back and put our feet in the sand. (J.S.)

Next, write the conclusion.

Happily, an academic essay exam doesn't usually require a fancy conclusion. Often two or three sentences will do the trick. You merely want to draw your essay to a close in a way that complements and harmonizes with the thesis and doesn't leave your teacher searching the backs of your essay pages in an effort to find the ending. (Remember, NOTHING good ever happens when a teacher gets stuck in an essay hunting for something!) Check out this one-sentence wonder:

That afternoon I stayed on the greens by myself. [S.M.]

Of course, teachers aren't allergic to long conclusions--unless they ramble all over the place. If a longer conclusion works for your essay, go for it! Here's a good example:

Soon after I returned to camp, we took down our tents, buried the campfire that had been dead since the night before, and, without a bath, rode back to school. Finding a blood-thirsty tick attached to the inside of my leg seemed a fitting way to top off the whole experience. At that very moment, I resolved never to go camping again, and, to this day, I haven't. I discovered the hard way that first-time camping experiences are not always the dreamy adventures some of us expect them to be. (fmr. std.)

Coherence and unity are your friends!

OK, you've got a great thesis, the essay body is organized well, each paragraph is developed with beautiful examples, and you've concluded the masterpiece. However, before you hand off your essay you must consider its coherence and unity. When you're writing under the time constraints of an essay exam, you have to keep them in mind as you quickly organize and write because you don't have the luxury of being able to substantially revise. Whatever your writing situation, though, don't forget about them. Coherence and unity are crucial to your goal of getting your teacher through your paper and on to the next student's paper quickly.

Coherence is a fancy word that means that your essay hangs together. As silly or frivolous as the concept may sound, if your essay doesn't flow smoothly and logically, it won't ever see an "A" grade.

There are three important characteristics of an essay demonstrating great coherence:

• An introduction that leads the reader to the thesis smoothly and naturally.
• The paragraphs arranged in an order that builds logically toward a conclusion consistent with the thesis.
• Transitions that identify and justify your train of thought, step by step, within and between the paragraphs.

Unity is another important aspect of making sure that the teacher whips through your paper and moves on to the next one--pronto! This term just means that your essay develops only the subject expressed in your thesis (and nothing else). Your topic sentences support and harmonize with the thesis, and each paragraph only contains ideas and examples that have a direct connection to its topic sentence and, also, the essay thesis. In other words, if it doesn't directly support your thesis, LEAVE IT OUT!!! The example provided above with the discussion on Developing Ideas is a good example of a unified paragraph--topic sentence supports essay thesis, paragraph examples support topic sentence, and there is nothing unrelated to the thesis in the paragraph.

For some people, unity is pretty easy to violate. Here are some really effective ways to mess up your essay's unity to make sure that you never earn an "A" grade.

• Launch into your essay with no thesis. Result? There's no thesis for everything to be unified with, and the teacher is left hunting and guessing all the way through the essay.
• Write paragraphs that jump straight into their examples without topic sentences and/or transitions. This is a good way to confuse and/or startle your reader (who happens to be the teacher giving you a grade!).
• Write topic sentences that have nothing to do with the main thesis. Go ahead and develop the unrelated idea, too. This makes sure your teacher gets stuck in your paper, looping around and around trying to figure out what you are talking about and (finding more and more errors as s/he goes)!
• Write paragraphs that include several topics. Scramble the topics for further effect. A teacher might become entangled in your essay for hours trying to figure out what in the world you are talking about! Imagine your grade!
• Introduce a new concept in the conclusion. This always makes things exciting and assures the teacher that you have absolutely no idea how to arrange an essay.

Finally, proofread meticulously.

Your introduction may be enchanting, your thesis absolutely clear, your body paragraphs rationally organized and each beautifully developed with specific examples, and your conclusion may be a marvel of the writer's craft. Additionally, you may have made sure your essay is a model of coherence and unity, but if your proofreading is sloppy, you might as well have saved yourself the effort.

Interestingly enough, some teachers are pretty easy to trick, but not by sloppy proofreading. Just as a person may kiss someone who looks great but lacks substance or buy a car that looks wonderful but doesn't run well, so there are teachers who have given very good grades to essays that are perfect in structure, mechanics, and usage but demonstrate very little knowledge of the subject. Everyone knows the gimmicks: quality paper, no torn edges, neat type font, perfect title page, tidy margins, careful editing, etc. Content is so-so, but the paper looks terrific and the teacher (in a hurry, as all are!) falls for it.

But the opposite never happens. No living, breathing, thinking teacher is ever going to give an essay that looks messy and is littered with silly spelling, usage, and mechanical errors an "A" grade. Trying to push that over on a teacher is like getting ready for a hot date and forgetting to brush your teeth (after you ate garlic bread for supper). No one is going to kiss you! Or, imagine you have a car to sell. If you want to get a good price for it, won't you wash it, wax it, clean the interior, and get rid of the fast food wrappers in the back seat? Do your teachers the same sort of favor.

Always re-read what you have written--always, always, always! Catch the stupid mistakes before they catch your teacher's eyes and make them slow down. Just as garlic breath can dampen the ardor of an amorous date and a prospective buyer is put off by a dirty car with trash in it, so a teacher's appreciation for fine writing is obstructed by lazy proofreading. Make sure you earn the grade you deserve for your great content by making sure that its presentation is perfect.

Now, you've got an "A" essay!

But this isn't clever writing, I can hear some say. This is formula writing! (Recoil in horror.) It's unimaginative! There's no allowance for my creative genius; this kind of writing doesn't let me show off my writing virtuosity!

BINGO! You've got it!

This is an essay style designed specifically to demonstrate quickly and easily your understanding of a subject and get you an "A" grade. There are times and places for creative essays organized in original ways, but an academic essay is not one of those. Save your unusual and originally arranged writing for situations where creative writing is appreciated. In an academic essay you want your teacher to know very clearly and quickly that you know exactly what you are talking about. The best tool for this is "the basic, no-frills . . . essay."

*(Misty, et al, Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT, qtd. in genius tribe #3.)

Revised: January, 2007

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If you ever find yourself in a situation where you have no opinion or it seems that the teacher does not want your opinion, you really have two choices. If you truly don't have an opinion, you can write an essay with a preview thesis containing no opinion and, consequently, no signal term. If the teacher is asking you to demonstrate your understanding of certain material, a synopsis of the main points may be all that is needed:

The author Steven Pinker maintains that language is an instinct, innately acquired and developed; that languages are universally complex; and that our thoughts cannot possibly be controlled by our language. (R.A.)

Your other, much better, option is to generate an opinion that will make your essay really shine and stand out from the pack. This can be as simple as, "The author argues persuasively that . . . "--and spout the main points. In the essay you would demonstrate just how persuasive they are. However, an even better idea would be to say, "The author argues somewhat persuasively that. . . ." In this case, you could demonstrate in your essay that you know the topic by covering the main points, but then in the second-to-last paragraph you could explain what is not convincing about the author's argument. A response such as this really shows that you have thought about the subject . . . a scary concept, I know.

By generating an opinion in a situation where it seems that your teacher cares little about your opinion, you have, in a sense, one-upped the stodgy, old teacher. You've taken a boring question and made an essay that really sings--despite the teacher's apparent lack of interest. More significantly, you've made your essay stand out from the pack of other essays that only spout the same dry facts. Standing out from the pack--in a positive way--is always a good thing!