Organizing a Long Essay
Monday, April 12th, 2010Long essays require a proper organization
When it is up to essays, most of the times students don’t get to choose the extension of their works. It is up to the teacher to decide the essay word count. And many times, as students we may need to deal with the challenge of writing a really long essay. Even if at first the number of required words or pages frighten you, don’t panic. Actually, sometimes the real challenge is writing a significant short essay. In fact, long essays allow you more freedom and extended quotations: you may write many words without actually having to think them!
How long should your “long essay” really be?
Well, let’s just say that you shouldn’t write less words than required by the teacher. If you think about it from the examiner’s point of view, a student who writes less than required has very little to say. And that won’t really get your mark any higher. It doesn’t matter if you really wrote your best. An essay word count below required always leaves a bad impression.
On the other hand, if you have been requested to write an already long essay –let’s just say, 3000 words- it’s not very good either to write 4000. The teacher is not only going to read your work but also many others, one from every one of your classmates. So try not to bore him or her with an essay way too long.
Organizing your work
A proper organization is a must for successful long essays –as well as for very short ones, in which you have to say a lot with few words-. Organizing your work means writing an essay sketch or plan. But even before that you need to establish the topic (what are you going to write about). Sometimes is the teacher who can provide the students with some topics ideas, but if that’s not the situation you may read some of the recommended bibliography in order to find a topic you find interesting.
Once you get to write, remember you should always start your essay (and your plan) with an introduction, in where you delimit your field, establish your hypothesis and write about your research methodology. Once you have it ready, you may start the plan by writing subtitles. Another good idea at this stage of the task is planning is the bibliography. Search through every article and find appropriate quotations you may want to include in your essay (and always remember to quote their author).
Our professional services include designing a perfect essay plan as well.
Start to write!
Once you have the long essay already planned, it is time to start writing it. Consider how many words you need to write and fill in the subtitles, completing them with information. Always keep in mind is that any good essay should close with a conclusion, so save some words for it.
In case you have finished writing but your essay word count is not enough, you may extend your essay by writing a longer introduction or conclusion, extending your quotations or adding secondary information you left aside in your original plan.
