An essay is a short piece of writing on a particular subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative or interpretative that gives the author’s own argument. These are written composition about anything.
It takes discipline, foresight, research, strategy and if done right, ends in total victory. In terms of ‘writing’ you need to create a handful of original sentences for the entire content; a thesis, a theme, a mini-thesis that begins each paragraph and a concluding sentence that says all.
How to Write an Essay for UPSC?
Writing an essay often seems a dreaded task among students. The idea behind is to make it easier for the reader to navigate the ideas put forth in a content.
For all those who are confused about how to write an essay for UPSC, here is the detailed guide on what you must write in every essay:
Introduction is an Important Part of Essay Writing in UPSC
The introductory paragraph should have an attention-grabbing hook. It should describe your content topic/ question. One can also include good proverb related to the topic of the content. This should not be more than one paragraph.
Body
Body paragraph supports your introductory paragraph and must include all supporting details. It is advisable to support your explanations on the topic with good examples/ facts/ Govt schemes/ data/ statistics/ proverbs. This can be more than one paragraph until you reach your word limit.
Conclusion
No matter on which UPSC essay writing topic you are working on, conclusion plays a significant role. The conclusion should rephrase the main topic and subtopics and should carry a call to action. A concluding proverb will always be a good way to end a content. It will be good to not conclude the writing by providing your personal opinion on the topic unless specified in the question. This should not be more than one paragraph.
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Tips to Score Better on UPSC Essay Writing Topics
With a little planning and a lot of hard work, you can write an essay for UPSC that’s good enough in a short time. Following pointers will help you to develop a writing framework:
Essay Question
Selecting a UPSC essay writing topic is the most important and critical task. Choose a topic for which you have knowledge of enough content, examples, facts, data and proverbs. Once the right topic is chosen your half work is accomplished.
Develop a Plan
Planning helps to figure out how long to spend on each part of the text and will keep you on task. Develop a thesis- the main idea of your essay. It should be precise and short.
Jotting Down Pointers
These can include examples for your topic, important facts that support your reasons, data/statistics, proverbs. These pointers will help you develop your content in a better way.
Write Outline
The outline will guide you through the writing process of the content. Structure it in the same form as your text. This helps in identifying the areas that need better development.
Revision
Revision of your outline is as important as a revision of your writing. The revision will help you to analyse any errors/ spelling mistakes etc thus ensuring a better essay writing for UPSC.
Tips to Make Your Writing Suitable as per UPSC Essay Syllabus
Read Other Essays
Reading other people’s writings will help in building your own style for essay writing in the UPSC exam. Read contents on a wide range of subjects, different genres of fiction and nonfiction but try to keep the focus on the UPSC essay syllabus. The wider you read, more possible techniques will be available to pick up and use in essays of your own. Another good source is reading newspapers, specifically editorials!
Build Vocabulary and Use it Properly
This helps in expressing exactly what one means. A good vocabulary displays intelligence and allows being persuasive in your writing. Refer a dictionary, learn prefixes/ suffixes. Subscribe to a daily email that sends new words. Add variety to your knowledge of words, collect new words and find their meanings, also write their definitions and frame them in sentences. An economy with words is a characteristic of all good essays.
Grammar
Having a good command of grammar is the most important thing for essay writing in UPSC. Building up a sentence which is grammatically correct and right use of words will create an overall good impact of your text. While composing the content, it is important to make yourself easy for readers to understand.
The sentence structure shows how intelligent you sound. The reader should not read a sentence more than once to understand it. Correct use of punctuation and tone of voice is a must. Do not use passive voice or I/ my words, try to be more general and readers will remain hooked on.
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UPSC Essay Writing Topics
The best students enjoy creating essays. For many students, each topic brings with it the challenge of making a little better than last one. When one writes regularly, chances are less to get stuck and repeating the same thing each time. So, pick a UPSC essay writing topic each day and prepare an outline of your ideas and then write your thesis and frame up your content.
Let’s Wrap Up:
Essays are self-generating, self-reinforcing and self-fulfilling. These should be balanced so that one can learn from the best of the writers and be able to pick up techniques to help in shaping up a balanced piece.
Essays constitute a formal, academic context, but that does not mean they should be boring. Don’t use big words in an essay writing in UPSC just for the sake of it; it may have the opposite effect. Ultimately, the goal should be that the writing is clear and easy to understand so that it is a pleasure to read.
