Academic Writing Steps
- Step 1: Choose an essay topic
- Step 2: Dissect your essay topic
- Step 3: Rewrite the essay question
- Step 4: Begin gathering broad ideas
- Step 5: Brainstorm
- Step 6: Develop a thesis
- Step 7: Read to support your thesis
- Step 8: Draw a mind map
- Step 9: Write an essay proposal
- Step 10: Draft your introduction
- Step 11: Write the first draft of the essay
- Step 12: Check your draft for problems
- Step 13: Second draft
- Steps 14–16: Proofread and edit your essay
Some consider that happiness is about how a person feels right now. Others think happiness is about our long-term sense of meaning or purpose. Compare and contrast these two viewpoints. Explain which is more persuasive.
Rewrite the essay question in your own words to make sure you really understand it.
Once you’ve identified the task and limit words it’s worth spending a few minutes reflecting upon the topic question, and rewriting it in a way that helps clarify it for you.
It is helpful to write the essay question as a number of small questions to yourself. This can help to break it into bits that are easier to manage and it can help to find the logic you will need to use to answer the question.
Activity – Select Five
From the following select the five most relevant or useful questions to ask yourself:
Activity – Put in Order
Also put the questions in the order that you think they need in order to answer the question best.
- What are the arguments for happiness being a feeling a person has right now?
- What are the arguments for happiness being something about longer term meaning and purpose?
- What do these viewpoints have in common?
- What is different about these viewpoints?
- Which argument is more convincing and why?