Writing School Essays

If yours is much longer you might want to consider editing it down a bit!

The famed American inventor rose to prominence in the late 19th century because of his successes, yes, but even he felt that these successes were the result of his many failures.

He did not succeed in his work on one of his most famous inventions, the lightbulb, on his first try nor even on his hundred and first try.

A one sentence body paragraph that simply cites the example of "George Washington" or "Le Bron James" is not enough, however.

No, following this an effective essay will follow up on this topic sentence by explaining to the reader, in detail, who or what an example is and, more importantly, why that example is relevant. For example, George Washington’s life was extremely complex – by using him as an example, do you intend to refer to his honesty, bravery, or maybe even his wooden teeth?

Active voice, wherein the subjects direct actions rather than let the actions "happen to" them – "he scored a 97%" instead of "he was given a 97%" – is a much more powerful and attention-grabbing way to write.

At the same time, unless it is a personal narrative, avoid personal pronouns like I, My, or Me.

In fact, it took him more than 1,000 attempts to make the first incandescent bulb but, along the way, he learned quite a deal.

As he himself said, "I did not fail a thousand times but instead succeeded in finding a thousand ways it would not work." Thus Edison demonstrated both in thought and action how instructive mistakes can be.

Before you even get to this thesis statement, for example, the essay should begin with a "hook" that grabs the reader’s attention and makes them want to read on.

Examples of effective hooks include relevant quotations ("no man is an island") or surprising statistics ("three out of four doctors report that…").