Education is evolving and throughout your educational career you may have noticed a shift in focus for the standards of writing. Not sure how to write an “A” worthy essay anymore? Confused about all this talk about Common Core Standards? Have no fear! Keep reading to gain strategies and tips to help you get an A on your next essay and know how to meet all the standards. Whether you’re writing an argumentative essay, an informative essay, or a narrative this article has the key points to help you meet those standards with ease.

Argumentative Essay

The Common Core Standards outlines five direct standards that should be included in a great, “A” worthy argumentative essay. Before you get intimidated, just relax and keep reading. They aren’t that different from the way you’ve been writing all along.

1. Simply put, you need to start an argumentative essay with a claim. What is the issue and what is your stance? Remember, an argumentative essay means there are multiple sides or viewpoints. Where do you stand? How is it different from other opinions or stances on the argument? Then organize your thoughts, ideas and evidence into a logical order. Easy enough, right?
2. Next, you need to know your audience. How much do they know on the topic? How, in general, do they feel about the topic? Knowing these will help you to present your argument in the most clear and precise way. You also need to have evidence or sources to support both your argument and to negate the opposing arguments. This can easily be done by completing a little bit of research on the topic and presenting the facts clearly.
3. You need to make sure the article flows. Connect your thesis statement and topic sentences to your supports fluently. Vary the language used to help connect your ideas together. Keep things simple and to the point.
4. Although this essay is argumentative, you want to keep your personal opinions out of it. Why? Opinions are not evidence. Having evidence to back up your claim is much stronger than simply stating your opinion due to an experience or idea you had. The essay should be written in a formal voice and address your audience using the best evidence you have found through credible research.
5. Finally, make sure your conclusion supports the argument you are writing about. Wrap up your evidence in a way that ties your whole argument together.

Still unsure how to proceed with your argumentative essay? EssayHelp can offer more great tips on getting started, whether you’re looking for topics or help organizing your ideas.

Informative Essay

Obviously the purpose of this essay is to inform. When writing an informative essay you need to analyze the ideas and information by organizing and examining the content of the topic in order to give your audience the best and most organized information. The Common Core Standards break informative essays down into six steps:

1. Introduce your topic. Then, create the outline of the essay by coming up with topic sentences for subsequent paragraphs that continue to build on each idea. However, it’s not just about the writing. A good essay should include visual effects such as graphics, multimedia aids, and proper formatting in order to reach the audience.
2. Develop your topic by using the best resources possible. This includes examples, quotes and other concrete details found in your research (from credible sources, of course) that are relevant to your audience. Throwing a quote in your essay may mean something to you because you have become familiar with the topic. However, stop and think to make sure the quotes or graphics you are using can reach your audience at their level of understanding as well.
3. Make sure your essay is fluid. Use proper transition phrases to move from one idea to another. Be sure you are following a logical sequence that your readers can easily understand and follow. The relationships between information or paragraphs should be obvious to the readers and they should not be left guessing.
4. If the topic of your essay is complex and may go over your audience’s head, bring it down to their level. By including comparisons, similes, metaphors, etc. you can help your audience to better understand or relate to your topic.
5. Similar to the argumentative essay, keep a formal tone throughout the informative essay. You are not writing an email to your buddy, you’re still writing a formal essay. Keep that in mind when choosing your vocabulary, metaphors, etc. Also be sure to stay objective. Since you are writing to inform, your personal opinion and experiences do not belong anywhere in the essay.
6. Finally, your trusty conclusion should support the information presented. Go over the significance of the topic and make sure your finale wraps up your essay clearly and positively.

Still looking for help with topics and more clarification? Head on over to Study.com to get more information on writing an interesting informative essay.

Narrative Essay

The purpose of a narrative essay is to write about an experience using key details and a solid structure of events to help your reader feel like they are there. This can be a true story or imagined, but the reader shouldn’t necessarily be able to tell. Want to write a great narrative essay? Follow these five simple standards:

1. Get the reader excited by setting up the story with a problem or situation, setting up the point of view, and introducing the characters. Set yourself up to create a smooth progression of events.
2. Use techniques specific to narrative essays such as dialogue, reflection, descriptions and plot lines to help develop both your story and characters. This will help to keep your audience interested.
3. Obviously you will have a sequence of events but make sure you’re using a variety of techniques. You don’t want the story to become stagnant. Create suspense, character and plot growth and eventually resolution to connect the events in an exciting progression that will engage your readers.
4. Use words that connect the reader’s senses, or sensory language. You want the reader to be able to see, hear, smell, touch and imagine as much of your narrative as possible.
5. Once again, conclude your narrative essay with a reflection on the experiences, observations, and resolutions occurring throughout the narrative essay.

If you feel like you’re still needing more clarification, Wiki How breaks down narrative writing into 14 simple steps to help you achieve a great essay. Go on, you can do it!

Hopefully, by breaking down these standards you will realize that many of them have been a part of your essay writing all along. If you’ve ever used an essay writing service and wondered why they are so successful, it’s because they follow these standards in every essay they produce. Whether you’re writing an argumentative essay, an informative essay, or a narrative essay, these simple tips will help you meet those Common Core Standards and ensure an A on your next essay. And remember, essay writing services are also a great resource to help you with any essay whether you’re in a bind or just need some help getting started. Happy writing!