How to Write the Perfect Essay
A critical part of succeeding in undergrad and law school is the quality of essays you produce. Essays consisted of about 60% of my university assessments either through essays that had to be submitted as a part of the final grade or short essays on exams.
I am a strong believer that essays which produce original ideas that are supported by strong arguments and resources produce the best results.
There are two main types of essays you will encounter in law school that I like to summarize as: (1) expository, and (2) conceptual. Expository essays are those that require you to write about a specific topic and outline the main arguments, to explain it. Conceptual essays enable you to develop a thesis and argue it in accordance with the course materials.
When an essay is assigned as part of your final grade, it is more often than not the case that your professor will give you the option on what to write about as it relates to the course – and your choice of topic alone will account for nearly 20% of your grade.
Choose your essay type based on your personality
By the time we enter college, most people have a decent grasp of their personality type. If not, I suggest you play around with some tests such as the Myber-Briggs or DiSC profile to get a better understanding.
The correlation between your personality and essay writing is important because you are going to write better based on your interests and tendencies.
For example, I am an introvert who is high in openness which means that I enjoy pursuing original ideas. As a result, I always wrote conceptual essays in school where I could develop an original thesis.
On the other hand, I know many people who do not like pursuing originality and find comfort in following the proven established systems and norms. These personalities are better suited to write expository as they are more systematic and structured.
I cannot speak to the success of others that prefer to write expository essays, but I believe that conceptual essays should always be pursued when given the option because of the increased likelihood to yield higher grades due to more opportunity to impress professors with original thinking.
Why you should choose conceptual essays
The entire purpose of essay writing is to show your prof you know the course materials. However, this is only the basic aspect of essay writing because if you put yourself in a prof’s position, they are reading the same essays on the same materials over and over again. The best essays stand out from the crowd.
When your final is an essay or research paper, profs will typically assign one or two questions you may choose from to answer or give you free reign to discuss whatever you want as it relates to the course. The latter is always more appealing due to the opportunity it grants to stand out from the crowd.
The perfect essay formula
The more you write essays, the formulaic they become. Everyone knows the basic formula of an introduction followed by supporting paragraphs and a summarizing conclusion; but this is nothing special. To write the perfect essay there are four essentials that must be executed.
First, you must show the prof that you understand the topic and its core principles. No prof is going to award a high mark if you fail establish the baseline knowledge for the course. To show you know what you are talking about, consider the first few paragraphs of your paper as setting the foundation of core concepts that will then lead to the eventual deeper dive and finish with your original solution.
Second, you must identify the areas of contention within the topic. There is a popular concept known as the Pareto principle (i.e. 80/20 rule) that posits 80% of outcomes result from 20% of the all causes. For example, 20% of salespeople make 80% of the sale. This principle applies the same to essays because 80% of your grade will be based on your core understanding of the course materials, which may make up only 20% of your essay.
The 80/20 principle shows why expository essays can still produce a high grade for you but limits your ability to impress the prof with the other 20% that skyrockets your grade.
Third, apply your original thesis to the area of contention to serve as a solution to the issue. At this point you are bound to get marks just for thinking outside the box on such a narrow issue because it highlights a deep understanding of the material.
The better you can support your original thesis through academic literature and simple logic, the higher your grade will be. It is important that whatever original solution you argue that it is based in logic. No prof is going to award marks for an idea that is original just for the sake of originality; there must be some connection to the topic.
The best way to argue a good original thesis is to align it with your prof’s views. This may seem controversial and even contrary to your own opinion on any given topic, but you need to determine for yourself if you want to diverge over the infinitesimal details or if you want to secure a good grade appealing to your prof’s human biases to agree with common lines of thought.
To find where your prof aligns on any given topic, you must do some additional research. Read their published works to get a sense of where they may fall within the argument, check out their twitter feed, actually pay attention in class, or set up an appointment and run your thesis by them during office hours.
The fourth element is proposing next steps to progress or solve this controversial area of the topic based off your original thesis. These steps show that if you were a practioner in this area or an academic you would positively contribute to the field in theory and through practical steps.
Understanding of topics core principles
+
Identification and discussion of areas of contention
+
Original thesis supported by research and in line with prof’s views
+
Next steps for topic to progress or solve contested areas
=
Perfect Essay
Consider including diagrams or charts
One of the difficulties of writing essays based on original ideas is conveying those to the reader in an understandable manner. A simple way to overcome this is to sketch out a diagram of how your idea interacts with existing ones.
It may seem odd to put original diagrams or charts into essays, especially in law school but I think that the professors would rather see how your idea fits into the existing course concepts opposed to you writing several paragraphs trying to explain it while also eating up your word count – but hey maybe you have space to fill!
How to schedule your writing
To write the perfect essay it is crucial that you start a minimum of 2-3 weeks in advance of the deadline. It is impossible to develop an original thesis that can be well supported without understanding a) the core understanding of the materials and b) where academics diverge in opinion.
The one thing you can control in life is your effort, so if you choose to procrastinate or waste time in the library doing everything but studying then your grade will reflect that. Hard work is merely the admission fee.
Each paper will be different depending on your writing style and the required length of the paper but as a general guide to set yourself up to produce the best essay possible, I would recommend scheduling your time as follows:
Week 1: Researching and Original Thesis Development
The first week you should be reading as much material as possible relating to the topic. Get a thorough understanding of the core concepts and follow tangents in the materials that interest you. These interesting tangents can help inform your thesis. Be sure to take notes and reference every source.
I would recommend spending at least 4-5 hours Monday through Saturday researching depending on your class schedule and any employment commitments. Allocate these researching periods to the time of day you are most focused.
At the end of the session try to brainstorm ways you can bring an original thesis into what you read. We often come up with the best ideas when we are in a relaxed state. A good way to do this is to think about it while meditating, going for a walk, in the shower, or playing video games. The best method in my experience is to meditate for 10 minutes with a piece of paper beside you and then spend the next 10 minutes continuing to mediate but note down any ideas that you will inevitably receive.
Week 2: Narrow Researching and Outlines
In the second week you should begin to narrow down your research to support whatever your thesis is going to be. Always try to find sources that could negate your argument and try to account for those potential criticisms.
You should also begin to outline how your paper will progress. For example, you may want to identify the core concepts in earlier paragraphs that you want to discuss to show you understand the topic and then how you want to incorporate the original thesis into later paragraphs. This is also a good time to try and formulate a diagram to show how your original idea fits into the materials.
I cannot stress enough how important it is for to show how your originality fits into the course because without doing so it will appear misplaced and will cost you marks. The more original and bold the idea is, the more difficult it will be to show how it fits. Try sketching out multiple diagrams (at least for yourself) that you can refer back to because it will feel strange until it eventually does not. It will feel as if a puzzle begins to form and the original idea is the missing piece.
Week 3: Writing and Editing
You should begin writing the paper at least one week out from the deadline. Like researching, you should try to write at a time when you are the most focused.
A good way to ensure you stay on pace is to backtrack one week from the dealine in accordance with the required word count of the paper and see if you can write that many quality words per day. A good rule of thumb is 500-800 quality words per day.
Begin to edit your paper more thoroughly as you near the deadline. The last two days should essentially be full read throughs and applying the finishing touches.
Stand out from the crowd
Writing a good essay requires an understanding that your professor is going to be reading numerous papers on the same course and likely the same topic that discusses the same core concepts. They have a mental checklist in their mind of what they want to see – core concept understanding; identification of pithy areas; and good research – and the more or less they see of that in your paper will determine your grade.
The way to get outstanding marks is to hit all of those points in that are most likely in their mental checklist as well as surprising them with an original idea that is well supported. If that original idea aligns with their own views, then that is just the cherry on top.