Essay in a sentence

To save this word, you'll need to log in. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'essay. Send us feedback. See more words from the same century From the Editors at Merriam-Webster.

Writing Effective Sentences in Your English Essay

Virginia has been a university English instructor for over 20 years. She specializes in helping people write essays faster and easier. Students often ask me how they can become better writers.

In one word: practice. Writing effectively is an art and a discipline. When you play a sport, you become better the more you practice. The same is true about writing. However, just as a coach can give you hints to make your practice more effective, a writing instructor can fill you in on the hints about how to write more effectively.

There are some rules you can learn about how to make your sentences emphasize the ideas you think are most important. Here are a few of the best hints. If you memorize them and use these ideas as you revise the sentences in your essay, your writing will be more effective. Effective writers use a variety of types of sentences to keep the reader interested in what they are reading.

Here are some of the different ways to write English sentences:. Use Transition Words to connect ideas in sentences. Pay attention to how you begin and end your sentences.

Use sentence beginnings and endings to cue readers about your most important point. Readers expect what they already know to be at the beginning of a sentence and new information at the end. Everyone knows that teachers earn low wages. In spite of meager salaries , most teachers report great satisfaction with their jobs; however , most teachers quit after five years. Is this high turnover rate caused by the fact that the profession is dominated by women?

No one knows for sure but statistics indicate Use Cumulative sentences: start with the main idea and then add modifiers to amplify or illustrate it. Use Periodic sentences: start with the modifiers and put the main idea at the end.

Use Balanced Sentences: two main clauses which are parallel in their structure are put together. This often works is the two clauses have a contrasting meaning.

Use different lengths of sentences. Most English sentences are times of printed type. Make your sentences more interesting by having some sentences which are very short, and a few that are longer. Use Occasional Questions? Don't overdo this one, but it can be very effective to occasionally use one of these sorts of sentences to speak more directly to your reader.

When you start to write longer sentences, you often run into the problem of how to write a long list of items. To make your sentences effective, you need to make sure you keep the items in the list in the same form.

That is called "parallelism," like when two lines run next to each other without crossing. Here is what you need to remember:. The information is listed in either chronological order, like in the horse example, or in topical order, from least to most important. Effective sentences are careful to use the right conjunction to show whether you mean to add an idea and , contrast an idea but, or, yet , or show cause or comparison so, for, as. Here is a list of the most common conjunctions and their meanings:.

A semi-colon combines to separate sentences into one. Using a semicolon emphasizes the importance of that sentence, so use a semi-colon sentence sparingly because it makes a sentence seem more important. I often suggest my students use a semi-colon sentence in their thesis. Many students don't know how to use a semi-colon correctly, but it is actually very easy.

Here are the two main ways to use it:. Semicolon using a transition word. The advantage of using this form of the semi-colon sentence is that the transition word explains the relationship between the two parts of the sentence:. Along with showing how ideas relate, you also need to show which ideas are the most important. That is where "subordination" comes in. Subordination shows:. Subordinate clauses may be a main clause which starts with a word which turns it into an incomplete phrase.

They might also start with a relative pronoun which, that, what, whatever, who, whoever Subordinate clauses are longer and more important than the other types. If you want some examples of good writing, you can look at any of the sample essays that I provide, or the examples of sentences in my article. However, I do not provide sentences that you can use in your essay because then you would not learn how to write correctly in English.

An effective sentence is one that conveys the point you want to make clearly and persuasively to your reader. A sentence is clear if it does not have grammar and spelling errors. Additionally, clarity means the sentence uses the most precise words possible and doesn't have unnecessary wordiness. Paragraphs and whole essays are clear if they have topic sentences which tell the main idea and if the examples and reasons are explained logically.

Many of the examples in this article are not only about making your sentences clear; they are about making your sentences more persuasive. Writing effective persuasive sentences is a more subtle writing skill that involves tone, language choice, and sentence structure. In general, you are more persuasive when your sentences are professional, logical and varied. The first person is when you are talking about yourself I, me, mine. The second person is when you are speaking to someone you, your. The third person is when you are talking about someone that isn't you or the person you are talking to he, she, his, her, they, them.

In fact "ing" verb forms called gerunds are a great way to start a sentence and an alternative way of making your sentences more interesting. Here are some examples:. Running to the office, I swept inside, only to discover the meeting I thought I was missing had been canceled two days ago.

Crunching numbers, she discovered that their payments could be handled by their current budget. Discovering quickly that they are less prepared to study than they expected, many college students don't do as well their first semester as they had expected. There is not just one good starting sentence for your essay. However, there are some easy, good ideas for a starting sentence. I usually suggest that students start with one of the following:.

Follow up this specific example with an indication of how this applies to a broader audience. Then give the topic question and thesis answer.

Sign in or sign up and post using a HubPages Network account. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites. Thank you so much Ms. Kearney for the valuable article.

Even people from any part of the world, who are not majored in English can improve their writing skills by following brilliant stuff like this. Aesta--Writing effective sentences is a continuing project for all writers, no matter what level of ability. They say that James Joyce would sometimes spend a whole day working on 7 words of his novel! Of course the rest of us can spend that much time trying to figure out what those 7 words mean, so perhaps that isn't the most effective way to reach an audience!

However, continually trying new patterns, and learning more about how sentences are put together creatively can help any writer get better. Writing effective sentences is at the core of writing an excellent article. How clearly the ideas are expressed when sentences are well put together. I wish I have mastery of the use of conjunctions. Given that I like to write, I need to hone my skills in its use. Great article! I can definitely put some of these tips to use I do try! Thanks for this and voting UP.

This article was very informative! Thanks for the great tips and I will definitely keep these in mind when writing my next essay! Definitely going to keep these tips in mind while writing an essay for you! I mean if I do the things you say in here, I can't possibly fail! I have always wondered how I could better improve my writing, I will for sure be using all these tips on my essays this year.

Thank you Mrs. Kearney for the advice. All of this information is very helpful and useful! I didn't realize how thought provocative the process of forming a well written sentence is. I really enjoyed the section about semi-colons because I know I do not use them correctly.

Another section that really stuck out to me was having the main idea stick out.

How to use essay in a sentence. Example sentences with the word essay. essay example sentences. I have to write an essay. CK 1 I had to work on an essay. CK 1 Tom had Mary correct his essay. CK 1 Write an essay on.

Virginia has been a university English instructor for over 20 years. She specializes in helping people write essays faster and easier. Students often ask me how they can become better writers. In one word: practice. Writing effectively is an art and a discipline.

Hi, I'm Liz. Hi guys, here are model answer introductions and essential tips for Tuesdays lesson on writing task 2 introduction paragraphs.

Stir-crazy and climbing the walls Life during lockdown. Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Click on the arrows to change the translation direction.

The Introductory Paragraph: Start Your Paper Off Right

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10 English Phrases to Express Your Opinion in an Essay

CK 1 I had to work on an essay. CK 1 Tom had Mary correct his essay. CK 1 Write an essay on "Friendship". CM 1 I know you have an essay to write. CK 1 His essay was concise and to the point. CM 1 I have a few essays to write by tomorrow. CK 1 She spent a lot of time writing her essay. CK 1 When I was in school, I really hated writing essays.

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Introduction: Introductory Paragraph See, first, Writing Introductory Paragraphs for different ways of getting your reader involved in your essay. The introductory paragraph should also include the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline for the paper: it tells the reader what the essay is about. The last sentence of this paragraph must also contain a transitional "hook" which moves the reader to the first paragraph of the body of the paper. The first paragraph of the body should contain the strongest argument, most significant example, cleverest illustration, or an obvious beginning point.

40 Useful Words and Phrases for Top-Notch Essays

The introductory paragraph of any paper, long or short, should start with a sentence that piques the interest of your readers. Writing a good thesis statement is the subject of much instruction and training, as it's the driver of your research and the subject of your paper. The entirety of your paper hangs on that sentence, which is generally the last sentence of your introductory paragraph and is refined throughout your research and drafting phases. It's often easier to write the introductory paragraph after you've written the first draft of the main part of the paper or at least sketched out a detailed outline, section by section or paragraph by paragraph. After the drafting stage, your research and main points are fresh in your mind, and your thesis statement has been polished to gleaming. It's typically honed during the drafting stage, as research may have necessitated its adjustment. At the start of a large writing project, it can also be intimidating to put those first words down, so it's often easier to begin composing in the middle of the paper and work on the introduction and conclusion after the meat of the report has been organized, compiled, and drafted. This is exactly the sort of thing you should use for an engaging introduction. Surprising fact: The Pentagon has twice as many bathrooms as are necessary. The famous government building was constructed in the s when segregation laws required that separate bathrooms be installed for people of African descent. Across the United States, there are many examples of leftover laws and customs that reflect the racism that once permeated American society. Perhaps it was the warmth of the day and the joy of eating Easter roast while Tommy contemplated his actions that make my memories of Easter so sweet. Whatever the true reason, the fact remains that my favorite holiday of the year is Easter Sunday.

To be truly brilliant, an essay needs to utilise the right language. In other words, they live on the land and in the water. To put it another way, they will die without the sun. That is to say, they must breathe air. To that end, a new study has been launched that looks at elephant sounds and their possible meanings. Here are some cleverer ways of doing this.