Introduction: What is a Formal Essay?
You will be required to write a formal essay at least once in your academic life. Therefore, you need to know the elements of a formal essay. We use formal essays to present arguments on specific issues in an objective fashion. The ideas you present in your essay are written with the purpose of informing or persuading readers on why they should care about your topic. This is why formal essays require you to use credible evidence, such as peer-reviewed articles, to support your arguments. In addition, you should always follow a well-defined structure that allows the reader to follow your argument. In this article, we will discuss the different elements of formal essays, including their structure, and steps to guide you through the writing process. We begin with a brief discussion that will help you distinguish formal and informal essays.
Formal Essay vs. Informal Essay
The distinction between the formal and informal essays is based on structure, vocabulary, formality, and tone. When writing informal essays, you can use slang terms, contractions (such as I’ll, you’ll, it’s), and first and second person pronouns (I, you, we, our) and language you use in everyday conversations. However, formal essays require the use of technical and objective language depending on the subject. Formal essays also discourage the use of contractions or phrasal words, and require you to maintain a professional tone. You should always use third-person pronouns when writing formal papers. For instance, you should not use “you” and “I” in formal essays. Pronouns such as they, she, he, and them should be used instead.
Apart from the vocabulary, informal and formal essays have different structures and requirements. Formal writing has a strict format that includes an introduction, body and conclusion, while informal essays are loosely structured. For example, informal writing may not require you to include a thesis statement or introduction. Additionally, informal essays allow you to utilize short and straightforward sentences, unlike formal writing, which requires longer sentences with more details about the topic. In most cases, evidence used in formal writing must be cited using different referencing styles, such as MLA, APA, and Harvard. The tone used in formal writing should be professional with an active voice to promote clarity and precision. However, you can use either passive or active voice for informal writing depending on your own preference. Therefore, as a writer, you should understand how these differences weave into your writing.
Characteristics of a formal essay
If you are writing an essay relating to technical fields such as computer science and engineering, you may also find it useful to familiarize with IEEE citation and referencing style. Check out our full guide on IEEE Format: Citation and Referencing.
Appropriate Structure for a Formal Essay
A well-structured formal essay consists of three key sections. These sections are an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. As a writer, you must ensure to include the correct information in each section to organize the paper as required. Before starting to write, you must create a title that reflects the general theme of the formal essay.
- Introduction
The introduction presents the topic to the audience. The main goal of the introduction section is to present your topic to the reader while capturing their attention to persuade them to read the rest of the essay. The introduction section consists of 2-4 short sentences that provide your reader with background information on the topic. You should start with a broad consideration of the topic to provide context. Additionally, you should include definitions of keywords (where appropriate) in this section. Finally, you should narrow your discussion to the topic you plan to address in your essay. The last sentence in the introduction section should include a thesis statement. A thesis statement is your main argument
- The Main Body
The main body provides your core arguments and analysis while providing evidence from quality sources using paragraphs. The number of paragraphs in the main body will depend on the length of your formal essay. Additionally, the nature of the essay will determine the ideas in the paragraphs and how you arrange them. For example, a compare and contrast essay requires you to analyze the similarities and differences between two things, ideas, people, or places. Therefore, some paragraphs should focus on the similarities, while others discuss the differences with sufficient evidence. The ideas and theories used should be adequately cited to avoid plagiarism claims and give credit to the originators of ideas. Every paragraph should describe a clear idea that helps support your topic. Additionally, every paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that provides the general idea that it discusses. It is crucial to ensure that the ideas you present in every paragraph relate to the thesis. You can use transitional phrases to help ideas flow between paragraphs and your essay. Transitional phrases include: therefore, thus, consequently, in addition, additionally, etc.
- Conclusion
The last section of a formal essay is the conclusion. You tie all the ideas you have discussed in the essay in this segment by referring to the broader ideas from your introduction and main body. You should restate your thesis using new wording in the conclusion. Depending on the type of paper, you may consider reflecting on the broader implications of your essay. For example, you could conclude your essay by posing a question to the readers that will allow them to reflect on the points you raised in the essay. However, depending on the type of essay, you may also provide solutions or recommendations to problems you have highlighted in the main body. For instance, you could conclude your essay investigating causes of poverty in rural areas with suggestions on mitigating these problems and providing better living conditions for the people involved.
You should also read A Guide To Writing A Research Paper as you learn on how to write a formal essay.
Steps for Writing a Formal Essay
Planning
The cognitive process theory of writing holds that planning is the first step to writing (Flower & Hayes, 1981). Writing a formal essay requires adequate planning and research to select a favorable topic that will be simple for you to complete. In a school setting, your instructor may assign you a topic, meaning you lack the freedom to select a topic by yourself. This should not worry you because you can still complete the essay by conducting a thorough research. However, you must first carefully analyze the professor’s instruction to ensure you understand the requirements before starting your research.
An in-depth research should be your next step after selecting a topic (Flower & Hayes, 1981). You should use available resources, such as online data bases, to perform a search for materials that you will use to compile your work. The internet gives you access to numerous quality and credible sources, such as scholarly articles and books, that you can use to complete your research. You should always take concise notes during your research process to arrange your ideas before you start writing.
Create a Thesis Statement
The thesis statement is meant to summarize your main argument in an essay. After completing your research, you must consider what you want to address in your paper. The specific idea you develop should form the basis of your thesis statement. For instance, if you are writing a formal essay on the causes of an increase in obesity rates in America, the following could be your thesis statement; “The increase of obesity cases in America can be attributed to a combination of factors, including sedentary lifestyles and poor access to healthy food.” The thesis statement provides an overview of the author’s opinion on the cause of obesity. As mentioned earlier, you should include the thesis statement towards the end of your introduction.
Write an Introduction
Following the guidelines in the introduction, you should provide brief background information about the topic. The introduction could also include a short description of your essay’s structure, detailing what the reader should expect from the paper. You should not forget to include the thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph to get the readers’ attention.
Write body paragraphs
As indicated earlier, every paragraph should discuss one idea, starting with a topic sentence that highlights a general idea. The main body should always address the thesis statement in the introduction. The last sentence of every paragraph should include a concluding sentence that helps transition from one idea to another.
Write a conclusion
The conclusion paragraph is a culmination of all the ideas you have discussed in the formal essay. The section should not introduce new information and should only restate critical ideas from the body of your essay. You should keep the conclusion brief. Therefore, it should be about 4-5 sentences long.
Review and Edit Your Essay
The final stage in writing a formal essay is reviewing and editing. Flower and Hayes (1981) recommend evaluating and revising the paper to correct errors. Some of the problems in the paper may include wordiness, poor explanation, or poor grammar. After editing these problems, you may need to proofread your essay one last time to correct minor issues, such as formatting problems.
Conclusion
We use formal and informal writing in different areas of writing. Understanding the differences between formal and informal essays allows you to produce quality work. Formal essays follow a rigid structure, specific vocabulary, evidence, and tone. Understanding the different referencing types is essential to ensure that all the evidence you provide in your work is cited. Understanding the audience and the topic will help you select the most appropriate writing style.if your overwhelmed and you need more guidance on essay writing you can seek our essay writing services online where you can get the best essay tutor to assist you.
Reference
Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), 365–387. https://doi.org/10.2307/356600