Writing a Good Essay: General Principles for Beginners

Writing a good essay is a goal, which is largely determined through the definition of what constitutes a good essay. It is unlikely that writing a good essay will have vague criteria of assessment, as there are common accepted norms of what a good essay should contain.

Writing a good essay is about having a set of skills and techniques, the development of which is the task of the learning process you are going through in school and university.  In that regard, teaching students of the principles of writing a good essay, the general marking criteria might include the following:

• Organization - writing a good essay implies that you are organizing your ideas in the paper, so that they have a distinguished pattern, which is easy to follow.
• Clarity – clarity implies the usage of simple and accessible language, suited to the target audience of the essay. Writing a good essay is about transferring the ideas with consideration to the reader.
• Purpose – a purpose implies that there is an objective behind your words; otherwise it is not an essay, but rather a diary. Writing a good essay implies having a message, an opinion or a point of view on a particular subject, which you are trying to prove, support, and deliver.

In addition to the aforementioned, there are aspects such as being free of grammatical mistakes, the existence of which can negate the aforementioned marking criteria. Thus, important rules of writing a good essay are proofreading and revision, where checking is the best prevention of mistakes.

Finally, experience is the best teacher, and there is no better way to learn than constantly practicing. We will add that writing a good essay is about creativity and originality, rather than writing about standard topics repeated every year.