Have you ever felt that there are some unwritten rules to essay writing that your teachers keep locked away somewhere? Have you felt like you are just supposed to guess these rules and pray that you get close enough?
 
Well, you are probably not too far from the truth. However, there is no lock box with a secret guide on essay writing. But there are generally unspoken rules to essay writing. Unfortunately, your teachers do not typically have the time to teach you these rules because they are too busy teaching you the subject material for the class you are writing. They often assume that you understand the rules, learned them somewhere else, or maybe they just think these rules are self-explanatory. After marking thousands of essays and private tutoring hundreds of students, I can confidently say that most students have no clue what these rules are; they typically just guess how they are supposed to write an essay and hope they generally get it written the right way.
 
Honestly, this whole ‘figure it out for yourself’ mindset is ridiculous and counterproductive. I would rather teach students how to write an essay and have them dedicate most of their brain power to writing that essay. No skill is self-explanatory, and academic writing is not an exception. It is difficult and takes a lot of practice. Most of your teachers have dedicated their careers to developing this skill and are still working on it. They have had mentors helping them learn how to write, and so should you.
 
This document is a rough guide to teaching you the basics of writing a university essay. It starts with some myths I have encountered as a private tutor, outlines
the 7-step process you need to master to write an amazing essay, and finishes with some frequently asked questions about essay writing.