How to Write a Formal Essay — Prepare a Perfect Writing

A process of writing any paper requires from you to follow a specific set of rules if you want to create a professional and proper paper. There are a few main stages, which you have to pass during the writing of the formal essay:

  1. Choosing a topic;
  2. Narrowing of your chosen theme;
  3. Creating a thesis statement;
  4. Creating the paragraphs of the essay;
  5. Writing a conclusion;
  6. Extending your essay, filling it with a wealth of information.

These stages look like absolutely obvious ones, but many scholars and even students mess up with them. Passing all these stages in the above-established order will help you to save your time and create a logical and consistent paper.

What Is a Formal Essay: Clear Definition

To write a formal essay, you need to understand what you are going to write about. To define formal essay, you need to analyze what is written in the paper. If an essay is about some fact/event/person and it is grounded on provable facts and examples without using any personal opinion, be sure that it is the formal essay.

Basically, a formal essay definition says that the formal essay is an academic level paper that informs the audience of some information. It is opposite to an argumentative essay where you need to choose a controversial topic, take your own position on this topic and prove it using the reasonable and reliable arguments.

From my point of view, formal essay writing process is much easier than the argumentative essay`s same process. But still, you have to follow the rules mentioned above, or you will definitely mess up with your formal essay.

Formal Essay Structure Basic Features

To create a right formal essay structure, you should keep in mind its most important constituents. For example, in the formal essay such obligatory constituents are heading, thesis statement, paragraphs, and conclusion. And for sure you should remember words that cannot be used in the formal essay. Let`s analyze every constituent one by one.

Formal Essay Heading

Essay heading is the title page that allows you to recognize this exactly paper among all the others. That is why in the formal essay heading there should be all the necessary information for recognition: a name of an author, a topic of the essay, date of issue, and university. As subsidiary information, you can mention your phone number and email.

Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement is an opening line of your work. It is very important to have a brilliant thesis statement as it will define the way of how to write a formal essay introduction. A statement should contain 1-2 sentences, in which you have to introduce your topic and your position about it.

Paragraphs

From the start, you have to know the approximate volume of your essay is and what points have to be described in your paper. Using such background information, you will be able to define how many paragraphs you need in your essay and therefore, what the volume of these paragraphs should be. The best way is to give one paragraph for every point that has to be described. In case some points do not need an extensive disclosure, you may connect 2-3 points into one paragraph.

Conclusion

A conclusion is the second most important part of the essay after the introduction. Basically, the entire essay should be built on the next rule: “Tell the people what you are going to tell them, tell them this and tell them what you have told them.” That is why in conclusion, you should summarize all the information mentioned above and actually draw conclusions.

Words Not To Use in a Formal Essay

And again, there is no strict rule exactly for the formal essay. You should follow the general rules for the essay writing. For example, it is unacceptable to use rude or rubbish words. Some old-fashioned and not commonly used words and terminology can spoil your essay as well. Examples of such words: damn, this is to inform you that, suc*s, therein, as**ole, whereby, etc. That is why you should be careful in using such words.

Formal Essay Format Tips

All the essential requirements for the formal essay were mentioned above in the text. Here are some basic ones:

  • Include heading (date, name, university, topic).
  • The whole text should be double-spaced.
  • Set 1-inch margins on the sides and choose a 12-point size for words.
  • Introduction, main body, and conclusion are mandatory.
  • Do not forget about the references.
  • Try to write using short paragraphs (5-6 lines maximum) as they are easier for focusing and understanding.

As you can see, the formal essay format is not something new or unique. You need to pay attention to these simple rules, and you will be able to complete a great assignment.

Conclusion

Formal essay is one of the most complex types of academic papers. Within a small volume of such a paper, you have to describe a broad topic using arguments, proofs, and other reliable materials. It should not become regular storytelling as well. And to find this “happy medium” is the biggest complexity of this type of work. All you need while writing a formal essay is to follow the right structure of the essay and find an interesting topic.