An Essay Is

It's important that you learn early on how to write effective essays that communicate clearly and accomplish specific objectives.

When you first start writing essays in school, it's not uncommon to have a topic assigned to you.

However, as you progress in grade level, you'll increasingly be given the opportunity to choose the topic of your essays.

If you've already selected an essay topic, and developed an outline or diagram, you now can decide what points you want to communicate through your essay. The first component is the topic, and the second is the point(s) of the essay.

The following is an example of an expository (explanatory) thesis statement: The life of a child raised in Pena Blanca is characterized by little playing, a lot of hard work and extreme poverty.

A thesis statement states or outlines what you intend to prove in your essay.

A good thesis statement should be clear, concise, specific, and takes a position.You'll need to narrow down your topic to something like "Russian Politics: Past, Present and Future" or "Racial Diversity in the Former USSR". Or to education about a person, place, thing or idea?If you're expected to choose your own topic, then the first step is to define the purpose of your essay. The topic you choose needs to support the purpose of your essay.Get out a piece of paper and make a list of all the different topics that fit the purpose of your essay.Once they're all down on paper, start by eliminating those topics that are difficult or not as relevant as others topics.However, if you're expected to write a specific analysis, then you're topic should be fairly specific.For example, lets assume the objective of your essay is to write an overview. However, if the objective or your essay is to write a specific analysis, then "RUSSIA" would be far too general a topic.Remember, you should not hand in any of these essays as your own work, as we do not condone plagiarism!If you use any of these free essays as source material for your own work, then remember to reference them correctly.Others like the rigid and logical structure of an outline.Don't fret, once you get started, you can always change formats if the format you chose isn't working out for you.