So what should you know, to adequately prepare for a five-paragraphed essay exam? Most standardized essays focus on either literary or persuasive aspects in as much as different types of essays exist. In a persuasive essay, you will have to answer a query, while in a literary essay, you have to write something based on what you have read.

Further, a standardized essay will typically require you to write five paragraphs equating to about five to eight hundred words in length. As such, it will have an introduction, three body text paragraphs, and a conclusion.  

The Standardized Essay Sections

• Introduction. You have to introduce your subject in the first paragraph, which doubles up as the introduction. It has to give direction to the whole essay while grabbing the attention of the reader. Set the essay’s tone by making a clear description of your central idea in the form of a thesis statement. It can come in the form of an answer to the essay prompt that came in as a question. Further, list three arguments or points that can back your thesis statement in their order of significance. 
• Body text. It should have the three body paragraphs, namely, the second, third, plus the fourth paragraphs. Each paragraph should contain supporting details to the thesis statement, such as quotes, facts, statistics, and examples. Remember that each body paragraph should contain a single point stated in the introduction with clearly articulated transition words to ensure a smooth flow from one paragraph to the next. The points form the topic sentences that start every paragraph. It has to then, get followed by an argument that supports the main concept, before concluding with a presentation of evidence to back up the argument. 
  Ensure to repeat the process for the third and fourth paragraphs of the essay. With a proper introduction to the main point, you don’t necessarily need to use transitional words between the paragraphs. 
• The conclusion. It forms the essay’s fifth paragraph and should summarize the entire essay. Most people consider it as the most difficult section to write. Ensure that you restate the thesis besides linking it to the body text, and explaining how every point backs the thesis up. Finally, the last sentence should compellingly uphold your key idea without introducing new information. 
• In as much as that constitutes the farthest one can go concerning an essay’s components, try and ensure to proofread and edit your work if and when time allows it. 

Conclusion

It always proves useful, to outline your standardized essay exam to allow you to tackle the paragraphs quickly. You can think of it as the first rough draft, but it can prove useful in scoring more points compared to incomplete essays as such standardized exams have a time limit. By observing the outlined guidelines concerning the structure and what to incorporate in each section, you stand a better chance of completing, let alone write the essay and with quality.

So what does it all entail? An excellent informative essay aims at educating your audience about a specific subject through careful elaboration or analysis of a set of data. It’s about comparing controversial perspectives on specific subjects rather than the presentation of opinions.  

Guidelines to Writing an Excellent Informative Essay

• Develop a plan before you start writing your informative essay. It will permit you, to effectively organize the available information, and in turn, speed up your essay writing.
• Brainstorm ideas. It’s always crucial to pick an appropriate subject in scenarios where your tutors have entrusted you with choosing one. Pick an interesting field that excites you before brainstorming to get the best ideas to generate an outline that will assist you in organizing your thoughts. 
• Pick a subject. Narrowing down the options available will allow you to pick the right topic. Remember to select a subject that proves neither too broad nor too narrow. 
• Carry out extensive informative research. You have to collect all the information relevant to the subject you’ve picked by utilizing both secondary and primary sources of information.
• Use a diverse range of sources and ensure the validity of their reliability. Not everyone likes sites such as Wikipedia. As such, you should avoid citing it as much as possible, though checking out some of the links at each wiki page can prove effective in getting reliable sources easily. Further, ensure that you use varied source types to enable your essay to become all-rounded.

The Outline for a Brilliant Informative Essay

A good informative essay outline should have an introduction that contains a thesis statement. It has to present the main argument properly and interestingly. As with other standard essays, it should then have three body paragraphs that contain information that supports the thesis statement. Finally, the essay should have a conclusion that wraps up the essay’s message besides presenting its importance to the world.

• Introduction. It has to begin with a hook to grab the audience’s attention. Such can include a story, an anecdote, joke, shocking statistic, or rhetorical question, among others. You then have to include any background information to contextualize the whole piece before incorporating the thesis statement.
• Body paragraphs. The section aims to support the stated thesis statement by using evidence such as statistics, graphs, examples, etc. Every paragraph has to begin with a good topic sentence that smoothly transitions the thesis and your key point.
  It’s crucial to adhere to the three CCE steps in developing and concluding your body text. You have to write a sentence that displays assertiveness concerning your opinion. It will make your thesis or argument look sharp.
• Conclusion. It should summarize your essay efficiently by restating the thesis and giving final insights and thoughts on the subject.

Conclusion

The importance of writing an excellent informative essay cannot get stated enough. It ensures your personality shines through your writing, besides ensuring better grades. So, incorporate the guidelines issued in writing your informative essay to ensure its top-class. 

A Stepwise Guide to Writing an Excellent Compare and Contrast Essay

• Pick a subject. You have to pick two subjects that relate to each other but distinctly different for this type of essay. For instance, when a topic entails two diverse and historical figures, you have to go with two great politicians instead of a politician and an artist. A good example includes Totalities and Democracy, Catholicism and Orthodox, etc.
• Brainstorm on the similarities and the differences. You can effectively do this by coming up with two lists. One should contain the similarities while the other differences between the two subjects. Further, based on your strengths, such as visual strength, you can decide to use something like a Venn to facilitate the process. Overlapping circles based on similarities should make the comparisons while the different qualities between the two subjects should contrast the two. Such a methodology can help you structure your essay and ensure the flow of your ideas.
• Hone into your key argument. An excellent essay that contrasts and compares often goes beyond the difference and similarity listing to make more sense about the main subject. Ponder on the list you have created to note the striking aspect of the subjects so that you can develop your key argument.
• Settle on an organizational structure. Many possibilities exist when it comes to structuring such an essay. You can decide to write in detail about a particular subject before switching to another subject. Alternatively, you can settle on a pointwise method in comparing your subjects and similarly contrasting them at the same time.
• Create an outline. You have to develop an outline that can comfortably suit your chosen structure. For instance, an introduction, four body paragraphs, instead of three, and a conclusion, to give the whole piece some balance. 
• Incorporate the supporting evidence. It’s crucial to back your assertions using relevant research evidence or facts, personal experience, or items you have read. However, remember to explain the relevance of your included evidence concerning the context of your essay’s larger argument.
• Write using strong transitions to give your work a seamless flow as you move from statement to statement. Use words such as similarly, likewise, nonetheless, etc.
• Revise and proofread the essay carefully once you finish writing. It’s always crucial to read repeatedly to correct mistakes that accrue as a result of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. You can make good use of available grammar and spelling tools in processing your document. If possible, ask a friend to read your work as well to spot mistakes you can easily miss when you edit your work.

Conclusion

An excellent compare and contrast essay only requires you to adhere to the above-mentioned guidelines. You can never go wrong with such tips when writing your work.

An essay may be classified by tone and style as formal and informal.   The complete writing process consists of prewriting, drafting, editing, proofreading, and publishing the paper.

The most common topics describe a background, identity, interest, or talent in their application essay. Thus, an interesting story topic may be to write about the lessons we have learned from life obstacles, setbacks, or failures.

In certain colleges, there may be a task to reflect on a period that was of paramount importance for our personal development.

The essay structure

An essay is a writing task that usually has 5 or more paragraphs. It is written about one topic with several main points. The parts of the essay are the introduction paragraph, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

An introductory paragraph It contains 2 parts: general statement and a thesis statement.

The body consists of several paragraphs. Each paragraph restates the essay idea and breaks it down into small ideas or subtopics. Each body paragraph consists of a topic sentence and one or two supporting ones. A decent body will illustrate, explain, discuss, and provide evidence to support the essay’s main idea.

A conclusion sentence summarizes the paragraph together.  An effective conclusion should be brief, predicting an outcome to the main idea, giving an opinion and quotations.

The conclusion paragraph is the last in the essay. Thus, it states the final thesis in the form of a concluding sentence. The conclusion also may include an opinion, a prediction, or a solution to a problem.

Topic essay prompts

The frequent prompts are to share your story, learn from obstacles, challenge a belief, to solve a problem, and describe personal growth. How to succeed?  Well, explain your hobbies, personality, or experience of personal interest. In the admission process, the highest grades are usually given to the most honest essays.

While trying to solve a problem, present a situation or steps to solve the most common ones. 

Types of essay

The most common types of essays are descriptive essays, definitive essays, narrative essays, compare and contrast essays, persuasive essays, and argumentative essays.

A descriptive essay aims to provide a vivid picture of an object, person, event, location, or debate.

A definition essay aims to describe a notion or term by using some descriptions, facts, terms that a reader will understand. A narrative essay describes events. It’s written in the 1st-person present or first-person past tense.  In a persuasive essay, the writer’s goal is to persuade the reader.  An argumentative essay often explains controversial issues with supporting reasons.

Descriptions are words that provide to the listener or reader an idea of how something looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels.

The essay structure

The introduction paragraph consists of a hook or something that gets the audience interested. A hook may be in the form of a question, statement, suggestion, fact etc.

The connecting info from the hook to the main topic or background information is of great value. Thus, a clear thesis statement with 3 clear points of development is a must. A thesis statement is the main idea statement with the following three points of development.

The body paragraph has a clear topic sentence with the supporting details and a concluding sentence with added transition words.  The conclusion restates the thesis and summarizes the points of the development. It provides a suggestion, opinion or prediction.

A descriptive paper

Using the five stages of the writing process to create a descriptive piece is defined as prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.

Descriptive writing is the only type of writing which can be used in all other forms such as expository, narrative and persuasive.

Good descriptive writing includes vivid sensory details appearing to one or more of the five senses. A clear, consistent organization using either spatial, chronological or thematic order.

In the introduction, capture the reader’s attention and identify the subject. Make sure to provide adequate information. A hook should be an interesting introduction with a tangling sentence.  In the body paragraph, use a variety of details such as sensory, factual or figurative. In conclusion, summarize the most dominant statement.

Types of descriptive essays

There are several types of descriptive writing such as descriptions of people or places, remembrances, observations and vignettes.

Descriptions of people or places show  the physical appearance of an individual or place. Thus, it shows to the readers why the subject is important or special. Observations present an event that happened to the writer.

A good precise language uses precise language and specific words and phrases.  Good descriptive writing is organized with the chronological (time), spatial (location) and order importance.

Transitions used in descriptive writing varies depending on whether you are describing a person, a place or a thing.

Typically, a descriptive essay has one, clear and dominant expression. Overall, to write an impactful descriptive essay, apply the following: choose a specific topic, compile information, make an outline, write the introductory paragraph, write the body paragraphs and summarize the essay in the concluding paragraph. To ensure the high quality of your written work, it is recommended to hire an online essay proofreader and let the editing experts go through the paper before submitting it to your professor.