how to write a middle school essay

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The Ultimate Guide to Middle School Essays

Why are middle school essays such a chore? Is there a way to make them more manageable? To teach the planning, organizing, writing and editing in a way that is simpler but more effective? We think so.

Below you’ll find our complete guide to middle school essay writing. The resources mentioned below can be found on TPT.

Want a sneak peak first? Check out the preview below (preview does not include full resource).

Before You Write: Taking Notes & Brainstorming

Taking notes for middle school essays.

Often middle school essays begin with taking notes. There are dozens of quality notetaking methods out there, from Cornell Notes to Sketch Notes and more. We don’t necessarily recommend a single notetaking system, given that some students are linear learners while others are visual, etc. Whatever notetaking method you use in your own room is fine.

What our resources focus on is the fundamentals of notetaking. What does it mean to take notes in the first place?

At it’s core taking notes is about noticing something within a text and then thinking about what you noticed.

This is what we try to get across to middle school students.

What you notice is not actually as important as the fact that you noticed it in the first place. And no matter what you did notice, it is the thinking that is most important of all.

Noticing…thinking…noticing…thinking. Back and forth.

But aren’t there questions students can ask? Guides that can direct them to the kinds of deeper level noticing that we want them to aspire to.

Indeed there are.

Which is why we have created just such a list.

We recommend modeling notetaking as a whole class. It can often be helpful to assign different types of questions to different students to track. So one student might be responsible for tracking images, another for looking out for foreshadowing, another for pondering why the writer chose a particular title, etc. Then you as the teacher can model how you take notes, what you notice and think, while at the same time getting input from students as you go.

No matter what system of notetaking you use with your students, it is an endeavor that requires lots of practice. But the more you do it together as a class, the more students will start to understand what to look for in the first place.

Image Boards & Quote Boards

So you’ve got a decent set of notes. Now what? How do you use those notes to write a compelling essay?

This is the step that many middle school students get bogged down on. Many either can’t come up with anything at all or just want to dive directly into the writing (which can be fine for the students who are great writers, but is often a disaster for everyone else).

Image Boards and Quote Boards are two methods for mining the notes students have taken and pulling out ideas to build an essay around. And what’s great about both is that they are very visual.

To make either, the first step is for students to review their notes and identify major ideas, concepts or themes that stand out (hopefully something stands out).

For example, a student reading Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart may have noticed that there is a lot of references to eyes and seeing. Poe repeats words related to sight multiple times throughout the story, and the old man’s eye is central to the plot. Jumping off from there, a student could create an Image Board that focuses on this theme.

Or perhaps a student has noticed that Poe never names the narrator of the story. In fact, there are no details about the narrator at all, nothing that reveals the narrator’s identity in any way. A savvy student might then ask: what if the narrator is a woman?

Image Boards do not have to be overly complicated. The purpose is simply to identity major themes and ideas that could be explored in an essay. Image Boards work best when students stick to broader concepts (which, after all, are what essays will likely be crafted around).

A Quote Board is in the same vein. The difference is that instead of looking for images, students will search for quotes from other writers that relate to the theme or idea they want to write about.

For example, Ray Bradbury’s story All Summer in a Day revolves around the idea of memory. In the story, it is Margot’s memory of the sun that separates her from the other students on Venus, who cannot recall the sunshine they experienced when they were little.

Quote Boards and Image Boards can easily be combined by simply requiring students to make an Image Board that includes so many quotes.

Both boards can be easily made in Canva (which offers free versions for students).

Claim Station

Once students have started to get an idea of what they want to write about, it’s time to start crafting claims. A claim is the central argument or idea that students will explore in the essay. It is the essay’s central thesis statement.

There are lots of ways to work with students to create claims for their essays. We like creating a Claim Station: a tag board or area in the classroom where students can write out claim sentences on sticky notes and hang them for everyone to see. We recommend having each student write multiple claims and post them (this encourages students to think about a range of different essays that can be written from the same text).

As students post claims, give them time to review all the different claims that their classmates have come up with. Then tell students that any claim at the station is up for grabs. You don’t have to write about the claim you came up with if a different claim is more compelling.

The purpose of a claim station is for students to see that there are a lot of different ideas out there, and thus a lot of different possible essays. It can also help those students who still feel lost in trying to connect their notes to an actual argument to build an essay around.

Structuring Your Essay

Structure cards.

Once students have a solid claim, they can begin structuring their essays. This is another area middle school students often struggle with. Which is why Structure Cards can be particularly helpful.

Structure Cards are color-coded cards for each of the following:

• Claim/Thesis Card
• Opening & Closing Paragraph Cards
• Topic Sentence Cards
• Evidence Cards

Each card requires students to get specific: what is your thesis sentence? What evidence supports this sentence? What sentence opens your closing paragraph? Etc.

Because the cards are color-coded, students can visually see the way their essay’s structure works. They can visualize the connections between the different parts of their essay.

Structure Cards a great way to help visual learners understand essay structure.

Visual Essays

Once students have worked out the structure of their essays, they can now craft Visual Essays. This is the last step before sitting down to pound out the first full draft.

A Visual Essay is another scaffolding piece between brainstorming and writing. It allows students to build from their Structure Cards and fully visualize each section of their essay.

To create a Visual Essay, students must create either a slide or a PNG image (we recommend using Canva) for each paragraph in their essay. For each slide/image, students must take a picture or upload an image of the text they read (you can have students take pictures with their phones and upload them, or do this yourself and supply the images in a shared drive). These pictures are used as the main section of the image/slide.

Students must identify and highlight in the text the evidence they will be citing for each paragraph. This forces students to get very specific and connect the ideas they are writing about to the text they read.

Then students must add the following:

• Their thesis/topic sentence
• An Evidence Sentence that points to the evidence in the text
• A Justification Sentence that explains how the evidence supports the thesis/topic sentence

Visual Essays are also great for peer feedback. They are much easier for students to read and review and provide criticism for. And they provide an excellent space for feedback before students go through the laborious process of writing the entire essay.

Writing & Revising Your Essay

Brain dumping.

We work with a lot of visual-spatial students. Many of these students struggle to write at all and especially struggle to write by hand. Their minds are often filled with dozens and dozens of ideas, all of which are vying for attention right this second .

One way to help students put aside all the ideas buzzing inside their heads and focus on the single idea of their essay is to have them do a Brain Dump before they get to work.

A Brain Dump is simply a bullet list. It doesn’t have to be complete sentences (although it can be). Give students five minutes to write down every single idea that they have in their heads right now. Tell them to jot the ideas down quickly and succinctly.

And then, at the end of five minutes, tell students to review their Brain Dump. These are all the ideas that they must now shelve to Think About Later. For some students, it may actually help to cross each idea out to reinforce this concept visually.

Once this is complete, have the Brain Dumps put aside, and students can begin to write.

Sentence Starters

Once students get going on writing a first draft, it can be helpful for them to have access to sentence starters and transitions they can utilize to move their essays forward. In our resource, we include handouts with all the various sentence starters below.

Check out our full resource for middle school essays .

Topic Sentence Starters

A topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph or essay. It informs the reader of the subject of the essay or the paragraph.

• This essay discusses…
• This essay explores…
• This essay outlines…
• This essay examines…
• This essay analyzes…
• This essay explains…
• This essay evaluates…
• This essay describes…
• This essay illustrates…
• In this essay we will discuss…
• In this essay we will explore…
• In this essay we will outline…
• In this essay we will examine…
• In this essay we will analyze…
• In this essay we will explain…
• In this essay we will evaluate…
• In this essay we will describe…
• In this essay we will illustrate…

Conclusion Sentence Starters

A conclusion sentence is a sentence where you make a final point by wrapping up or summarizing what you have been explaining to your reader.

• In summary…
• In brief…
• Thus…
• Ultimately…
• As a result…
• As I see it…
• Accordingly…
• Finally…
• To review…
• Hence…
• Given these points…
• Considering these facts…
• Put simply…
• In a nutshell…
• Consequently…
• Therefore…
• In conclusion…
• In short…
• In general…
• After all…
• To reiterate…
• In effect…
• Essentially…
• Undoubtedly…

Evidence Sentence Starters

An evidence sentence is a sentence where you support a claim or argument that you have made by providing evidence to your reader.

• According to the text…
• According to the author…
• The text states…
• The author states…
• The study notes…
• The study demonstrates…
• The evidence shows…
• An example can be seen…
• This clearly shows…
• Another reason…
• I observed…
• The research concluded…
• The author describes…
• One example of this…
• According to the passage…
• I think this because…
• The graphic shows…
• The statistics prove…
• The illustration demonstrates…
• This explains…
• This demonstrates…
• This confirms…
• According to the research…
• What the authors discovered…

Transition Sentence Starters: Contrast

When you contrast between two different ideas or pieces of evidence, you may want to use a transition sentence starter that cues your reader.

• However…
• Nevertheless…
• On the one hand…
• On the other hand…
• Alternatively…
• Apart from…
• Contrarily…
• Despite this…
• Whereas…
• Even so…
• In spite of…

Transition Sentence Starters: Order

Many times you need to make distinct to your reader the the information you are giving them comes in a specific order.

• Following…
• First/firstly…
• Second/secondly…
• Third/thirdly…
• At this time…
• Previously…
• Last/lastly…
• Subsequently…
• Before…
• Next…
• Above all…
• Only then…

Reading Your Essay Aloud

Middle schoolers should be encouraged to read their essays aloud to a partner both during the writing process and once their drafts are finished. The ear is almost always a better editor than the eye, and the process of reading aloud often draws a student writer’s attention to problem areas they would have otherwise overlooked.

To make peer review a bit less laborious, we have students find different partners for each paragraph of their essays. This breaks the editing process up and ensures that students hear from a range of different editors.

Paragraph Cut Apart

Another fun (and visual) way to edit essays is to have students cut their paragraphs apart into their component sentences. Then give those cut-apart sentences to a partner and have the partner try and put the paragraph back together in the proper order.

This exercise is useful for both partners. It can reveal structural and transitional problems for the writer, and it is good practice for the partner who is trying to reconstruct the paragraph. Well-written paragraphs have a flow to them. Their ideas progress in a logical order. Identifying and understanding that order is something that requires practice.

1,029 Writing Prompts for Middle School

In addition to the middle school essay resources mentioned above, our Ultimate Guide also includes another resource we use regularly for bellringers and fun writing exercises: 1,029 Writing Prompts for Middle School.

This massive collection of writing prompts is perfect for short writing assignments but is also a goldmine for ideas for larger essays. It is broken down into 20 different prompt categories:

There are dozens upon dozens of prompts for each category. Some are serious and thoughtful. Others are comical and amusing. Many are designed to get students to reflect upon their own ideas and place in the world.

Our 1,029 Writing Prompts for Middle School can be used throughout the year and for every subject, with prompts that cover a wide array of topics and subject matter.

Interested in just the writing prompts guide? Check it out here .

Using ChatGPT in the Classroom

Many school districts and educators have taken a stand against ChatGPT and other AI programs. We have no problem with that. But we were also curious if ChatGPT could be used effectively in the modern classroom, and we set out to create an in-depth guide on how to use ChatGPT to enhance student writing.

Since ChatGPT is most effective in the planning and organizing of student essays, we have included this resource as well in our Ultimate Guide to Middle School Essays.

Our ChatGPT guide ( learn more about it here ) examines how AI can be used at every stage of the writing process: idea generation, outlining, writing topic sentences, editing, making citations, etc. But at each stage, our guide focuses on the thinking process that students must engage with if they are to use AI as something other than just a crutch.

The trick is to leverage AI in a way that keeps the critical analysis and thought process squarely with the student. And our guide provides a roadmap for how to do that.

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How to Write a Good 5-Paragraph Essay: A Guide for Middle School Students and Their Parents

Writing essays might not be your favorite thing in the world, but guess what? It’s a super important skill that you’re going to use for a long time—like in high school, college, and maybe even your future job! So let’s dive into how to nail a 5-paragraph essay and impress your teachers. We’ll walk through some cool frameworks like the Aristotelian Argument, PEEL, OREO, and TIDE to make your writing shine.

What’s a 5-Paragraph Essay Anyway?

So, what’s this whole 5-paragraph essay thing about? Think of it like a sandwich:

• Top Bun (Introduction) : This is where you introduce your main idea—your thesis statement.
• The Filling (Body Paragraphs) : Here’s where you get into the good stuff! You’ll have three paragraphs, each with a different point that supports your main idea.
• Bottom Bun (Conclusion) : Finally, you wrap it all up by summarizing your main points and giving one last punch to your argument.

It’s like a recipe for writing, and once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy!

Meet the Aristotelian Argument (AKA the Classic Sandwich)

The Aristotelian Argument is like the classic PB&J of essay writing. It’s one of the oldest ways to argue a point and it works like a charm:

• Introduction : Start with a bang! Introduce your topic and state your main argument—this is your thesis.
• Exposition : Here, you explain what you think. Make sure to define any tricky words or ideas your reader needs to know.
• Argument : Now it’s time to get into your groove. Lay out your reasons for why you’re right. Make it convincing!
• Objection : Surely there would be someone out there who disagrees with you.  Don’t worry—bring up a counter-argument and show you’ve thought about it.  Arguing against objections is an important element that make syour essay more convincing.
• Response : Finally, crush that counter-argument and explain why your original point still stands strong.

The PEEL Method: Keep It Simple, Smartie!

PEEL is like the building blocks of your essay paragraphs. It’s super simple:

• P for Point : Start your paragraph with your main idea.
• E for Evidence : Back it up with some facts or examples.
• E for Explanation : Connect the dots—explain how your evidence supports your point.
• L for Link : Wrap it up by linking back to your main argument or setting up the next paragraph.

It’s easy to remember and makes your writing super clear!

OREO Method: Twist, Lick, Dunk, Write!

OREO isn’t just a tasty cookie; it’s also a sweet way to structure your essay, especially when you’re trying to convince someone of something:

• O for Opinion : Say what you think!
• R for Reason : Why do you think that? Give a good reason.
• E for Evidence : Prove it with facts, examples, or something cool you learned.
• O for Opinion (Restated) : Remind your reader of your opinion to make sure they don’t forget.

Just like dunking an OREO, this method makes everything taste—uh, I mean, read better!

TIDE Strategy: Surf Through Your Essay!

The TIDE strategy is like catching the perfect wave when you’re writing an expository essay (that’s when you’re explaining something):

• T for Topic Introduction : Introduce your topic and tell your reader what to expect.
• I for Important Evidence : Share the most important facts or examples to explain your topic.
• D for Detailed Explanation : Dive deep! Explain how your evidence supports what you’re saying.
• E for Ending : Finish strong with a conclusion that wraps everything up nicely.

TIDE helps you keep your writing organized and makes sure you cover all the bases.

Step-by-Step: Let’s Write This Thing!

Step 1: understand the prompt.

Before you start, make sure you get what the essay is asking. It’s like reading the instructions before starting a video game—super important if you want to win!

• Read the prompt a couple of times.
• Highlight key words like “explain,” “compare,” or “describe.”
• If something’s confusing, ask for help or think it through.

Step 2: Brainstorming and Planning

Now, time to think! Jot down all your ideas and choose the best ones.

Create an Outline :

• Thesis Statement : This is your main idea, your big argument.
• Main Points : Pick three strong points to support your thesis. These will be your body paragraphs.
• Evidence : Find some cool facts or examples to back up each point.

An outline is like a map—it shows you where you’re going and keeps you from getting lost.

Step 3: Writing the Introduction

Start with a hook that grabs your reader’s attention—like a great opening scene in a movie.

Hook : Make it interesting! Maybe a quote, a question, or a surprising fact. Background Info : Give a little context so your reader knows what’s up. Thesis Statement : Finish your intro by clearly stating your main idea.

Step 4: Body Paragraphs with PEEL, OREO, or TIDE

Now, it’s time to dive into your body paragraphs. Depending on what kind of essay you’re writing, you can use PEEL, OREO, or TIDE to structure your paragraphs.

• PEEL : Great for when you need clear, straightforward paragraphs.
• OREO : Perfect for persuading your reader that you’re right.
• TIDE : Awesome for explaining something in detail.

Each paragraph should stick to one main idea—just like each layer of a cake has its own flavor!

Step 5: Writing the Conclusion

You’re almost there! Time to wrap it up.

Restate Your Thesis : Remind your reader what your main point is, but say it in a new way. Summarize Main Points : Quickly go over your key points again. Final Thought : End with something to make your reader think—maybe a cool quote, a call to action, or a big idea.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

As you write your essay, here are some common pitfalls to watch out for:

• Overloading Paragraphs : Avoid cramming too many ideas into one paragraph. Each paragraph should focus on a single point.
• Ignoring the Chosen Structure : Stick to the Aristotelian Argument, PEEL, OREO, or TIDE structure to ensure your paragraphs are clear and cohesive.
• Weak Thesis Statements : Your thesis should be specific and arguable, not vague or general.
• Poor Transitions : Make sure there are smooth transitions between paragraphs to maintain the flow of your essay.

Practice Makes Perfect

Want to get better at writing essays? Practice with these prompts:

• What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in middle school? (Try using TIDE!)
• Why is teamwork important in school projects? (Give PEEL a shot!)
• How has technology changed the way students learn? (Test out the OREO method!)

Swap essays with a friend and give each other feedback—it’s like getting a power-up for your writing!

Final Thoughts

Writing a 5-paragraph essay doesn’t have to be boring or scary. With the right tools, like the Aristotelian Argument, PEEL, OREO, and TIDE, you can turn your ideas into awesome essays that will impress your teachers and maybe even your friends. So grab your pencil, fire up your brain, and get writing—your future self will thank you!

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Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

THE ULTIMATE NONFICTION WRITING TEACHING RESOURCE

• 270  pages of the most effective teaching strategies
• 50+   digital tools  ready right out of the box
• 75   editable resources  for student   differentiation  
• Loads of   tricks and tips  to add to your teaching tool bag
• All explanations are reinforced with  concrete examples.
• Links to  high-quality video  tutorials
• Clear objectives  easy to match to the demands of your curriculum

Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

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How to write a perfect essay

Need to write an essay? Does the assignment feel as big as climbing Mount Everest? Fear not. You’re up to the challenge! The following step-by step tips from the Nat Geo Kids Almanac will help you with this monumental task. 

Sometimes the subject matter of your essay is assigned to you, sometimes it’s not. Either way, you have to decide what you want to say. Start by brainstorming some ideas, writing down any thoughts you have about the subject. Then read over everything you’ve come up with and consider which idea you think is the strongest. Ask yourself what you want to write about the most. Keep in mind the goal of your essay. Can you achieve the goal of the assignment with this topic? If so, you’re good to go.

WRITE A TOPIC SENTENCE

This is the main idea of your essay, a statement of your thoughts on the subject. Again, consider the goal of your essay. Think of the topic sentence as an introduction that tells your reader what the rest of your essay will be about.

OUTLINE YOUR IDEAS

Once you have a good topic sentence, you then need to support that main idea with more detailed information, facts, thoughts, and examples. These supporting points answer one question about your topic sentence—“Why?” This is where research and perhaps more brainstorming come in. Then organize these points in the way you think makes the most sense, probably in order of importance. Now you have an outline for your essay.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, WRITE!

Follow your outline, using each of your supporting points as the topic sentence of its own paragraph. Use descriptive words to get your ideas across to the reader. Go into detail, using specific information to tell your story or make your point. Stay on track, making sure that everything you include is somehow related to the main idea of your essay. Use transitions to make your writing flow.

Finish your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your entire essay and 5 restates your main idea.

PROOFREAD AND REVISE

Check for errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Look for ways to make your writing clear, understandable, and interesting. Use descriptive verbs, adjectives, or adverbs when possible. It also helps to have someone else read your work to point out things you might have missed. Then make the necessary corrections and changes in a second draft. Repeat this revision process once more to make your final draft as good as you can.

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Homework help

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