Essay writing is a process that needs some thought and guidance. Hopefully the steps below can help guide you through the process with minimal stress or can serve as a guide as you go through the process with the essay writing service you subscribed to, making it an easier and less daunting process.

Planning Stage

1. Understand the Type of Essay Required
This initial stage of the essay writing stage is the most difficult but most necessary stage of the essay writing process. As a student the first task is to understand the type of essay required by your school or university and what guidelines govern this type of essay.

2. Determine Your Topic
The next stage involves the process of determining a topic to discuss in the body of the essay. It is generally advisable to select a topic that is of interest to you and depending on the type of essay, whether it is adequately researched enough to enable you to write about. In some cases, the essay topic is chosen by the teacher or tutor.

3. Research Your Topic
Once a topic has been determined the next stage is to gather literature and secondary data around your chosen topic. Take care to ensure that you keep your search focused on the topic. In cases where the topic is widely researched, it is very tempting to gather research outside the topic thereby making the topic too broad to adequately examine in your essay.

4. Create an Outline
The next stage involves determining a structure for your essay. If using an essay writing service, this stage could be discussed with your assigned helper. This will serve as a rough guide for you and keeps you on track to write an essay with paragraphs that flow well together.

5. Make the Thesis Statement Explicit
The thesis statement is the focus of the essay and should be constantly kept in focus throughout the essay writing process so as not to stray off track.

Writing stage

1. Introduce your topic
The introduction is an opportunity for you to hold the interest of your readers. You could achieve this by using a captivating statement or some statistics about your topic. This is the section that could also provide the reader a brief outline of what is to come.

2. Give a brief history of your topic
This section of the essay provides your readers with an understanding of the concept to be discussed. You may also define some of the unfamiliar terms you plan to use in the body of the essay. In some instances, these definitions may also be in the introduction. This will be determined by your university or school.

3. Write the body of the essay
The body of the essay should be written in clear and concise paragraphs with each paragraph flowing into each other.

4. Write up the conclusion
This section brings together the main arguments in the essay and explains to the reader what conclusions you as the writer have drawn from your writing.

5. Proofread
Last but not the least, go through the essay checking for grammatical errors, spelling errors and fix sentence structure as well as flow.

The amount of time spent on each stage is determined by the type of essay. Argumentative essays tend to require an extensive amount of time in the data gathering and research stage. This type of essay also requires time to think about and plan the argument to be expressed in the written essay. A narrative essay on the other hand requires the writer to determine what the central argument is before the writer begins writing the essay. In contrast, expository essays require the reader to expend effort in the writing stage itself. No matter what type of essay you are required to write, hopefully these steps will serve as an initial guide and propel you to success.