Writing improves with practice. It’s the same concept as playing the flute, competing in tennis, baking bread, etc. No one arrives on earth imbued with skills. We learn by studying the basics and then practicing, expanding our skill set, and practicing more.
Writing poetry or short stories or essays — all involve basic rules, then each genre has specific rules. This is very true of the essay form.
In high school, anything in excess of one paragraph is often called an “essay.” Then in college, the assumption is that you learned how to write an essay in high school. And to make matters worse, often any writing that exceeds one page is referred to as an “essay.”
Makes me crazy.
Learn the basic format: introduction, body paragraphs (one for each point you stated in the intro), and a conclusion, which restates your points and wraps it up.
After that it’s a case of “practice makes perfect,” which isn’t always true, but practice does in fact result in much better and far less stressful essay writing.
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