Writing Academic Essay

In writing an academic essay, a writer must know how to use cohesive devices in order to create coherence. Besides, the right paragraph structure will also bring the essay into a logical order that results in a good essay.

The first thing a writer needs to consider once he/ she writes academic Essay is the structure. Generally, the writer needs to start off the essay by writing an introductory paragraph which consists of a brief and general explanation about the entire essay. An introductory paragraph highlights important points to be discussed in the essay; thus, it contains general idea.

Then, after the introductory paragraph explains the upcoming topic, more detail explanation will be presented in the next body paragraphs (the number of the body paragraphs vary according to the topic). Body paragraphs must also be started with the right topic sentence followed by related supporting sentences and ended with an example to support the topic sentence. A conclusion itself appears at the last paragraph of the essay and it only repeats the idea of either topic sentences or supporting sentences by avoiding new ideas.

For example, when a writer would like to write an essay regarding advantages and disadvantages of renting a house, the essay must be started with an introduction showing quick statements about advantages and disadvantages of renting a house. In the introductory paragraph, no details presented such as prices, locations, or future prospects of the houses; instead, there will only be sentences representing the general idea benefits and drawbacks of renting a house such as lower monthly payments and restrictions imposed by landlords. Then, when it comes to body paragraphs, details in regards to lower monthly payments and restrictions imposed by landlords along with their examples must be added.

In addition to writing a good academic essay, a writer must first have right understanding towards paragraph structure. A paragraph always contains three things: topic sentences, supporting sentences, and concluding sentences. Topic sentence states the main idea of the paragraph. A good topic sentence must include a topic to be discussed in that paragraph and a controlling idea that limit the discussion of the paragraph. This controlling idea then practically tells both reader and writer what to discuss in the entire paragraph; thus, it must not be too general or to specific.

When the controlling idea is to general, the paragraph cannot focus only on one topic; in contrast, when it is too specific, it will be difficult to seek for the supporting sentences. After deciding what the controlling idea is, the writer can write supporting sentences based on the controlling idea. Supporting sentences develop the main idea, in this case the topic sentence by giving more explanation and information about the topic.  

Take as an example, an essay about the benefits of renting a house, it is good to start off the body paragraph by writing, “One advantage of renting a house is a low monthly payment”. The topic is renting a house and the controlling idea is a low monthly payment. Therefore, the supporting sentences may be explaining why monthly payment become lower as a result of renting a house. Since a paragraph must only be limited to one topic, so the disadvantages of renting a house will be explained in the next body paragraph.

As the last part, conclusion comes up as a signal of the end of the paragraph and remind the readers the most important part of the paragraph as well. One thing that is important to be noted is never introduce a new idea in the concluding sentence. Even when the writer would like to add his/ her own opinion, it must be something related with what have been discussed previously.

In addition to creating a good paragraph, a writer needs to consider unity and coherence. When a paragraph has these elements, the readers will find it easy to understand what topic is being discussed and what the focus of the paragraph is; or in other words, there will be no sudden jump that end up in confusion. To achieve unity, a paragraph must contain only one topic so avoid adding lots of ideas all at once.

For example, when the paragraph talks about the advantage and disadvantage of renting a house, discuss them in a separated paragraph. One paragraph talks about the advantage and another paragraph talks about the disadvantage.

Another indication of a good paragraph is coherence (the logical order, understanding, and idea development) which can be achieved through cohesion (small elements that unify the paragraphs internally). There are two types of cohesion namely grammatical and lexical cohesion. However, in general, cohesion can be detected by the usage of cohesive devices, words used to connect sentences and paragraphs; thus, the paragraph can be hold together (cohere= hold together).

Cohesive devices can be in a form of repetitive, synonym, antonym words or even transitional devices. Furthermore, some features can also give cohesion to a text such as conjunction, chaining, morphological order, and semantic domain. Take as an example, when the writer continues the writing from advantage to disadvantage, use cohesive devices like ‘on the other hand’ or ‘in contrast’ to give signal to the reader that the paragraph will discuss contrast idea.

Another example, repeating the keyword can also be applied; when the paragraph discusses about restriction imposed by landlords, repeat the word ‘restriction’ or pronouns ‘it’. Meanwhile, examples of a semantic domain are land, property, estate, building site, landlord, real estate agent; whereas, all of these refer to the same domain (or in other words, they have certain semantic components in common)

All in all, to create a good academic essay. A writer must understand essay structure from beginning to the end and consider unity as well as cohesion and coherence in each of the paragraph. These elements will bring the readers a good understanding towards the essay. [T]

References

Alice Oshima, Ann Hogue. 1991. Writing Academic English. Pearson: Longman.

Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. 1976.Cohesion in English. Harlow: Longman.

Larson, M.J. 1998. Meaning-Based Translation Studies. London, New York: Routledge.

Tanskanen, S.K. 2006.Collaborating towards Coherence. Philadelphia: John Benjamins B.V.