How to Write a Good Essay for UPSC? A Guide to Improve Your Writing Skills

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.

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.

Want to know more tips on how to write a good essay for UPSC, click here