How to Write a Short Essay on any Subject with Examples

How to Write a Short Essay on any Subject with Examples
Table of Contents
  1. How to Write a Short Essay on any Subject with Examples
  2. What are short essay components?
  3. Thesis
  4. Topic sentences
  5. Supporting evidence
  6. Introspection
  7. Conclusion
  8. Writing a short essay: effective strategies
  9. How to start big?
  10. Getting out a highlighter
  11. Condensing
  12. Making a necessity test
  13. Simplifying your argument
  14. Dos and don’ts of writing your short essay
  15. Don’ts
  16. A great short essay sample
  17. Concluding thoughts

If you wonder how to write a short essay, it’s similar to drafting other academic papers with one main difference. It should be about 1 page or 500 words. Because of its length, a short essay requires a catchy topic to attract a reader’s attention (don’t choose complex ideas due to limited space). If you find it hard to complete this assignment, create an outline of your future essay because it will help you organize all points and develop a strong argument.

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What are short essay components?

For some college students, a short essay is more difficult than long written assignments because they don’t have enough space to clarify and explain all thoughts. Include only the information necessary to make your point. Ensure that your essay contains these basic components:

  • Introduction with a thesis statement,
  • Body paragraphs with topic sentences, introspection, and supporting evidence,
  • Conclusion.

Thesis

Complexity and placement are key things to consider. The shorter your essay, the earlier a thesis should be. To make a strong thesis statement, which is one concise sentence in the introduction, make sure that it’s all-encapsulating and interesting because you don’t have any place for nonsense.

Take into account the complexity of your subject and look for the topics that have enough room to elaborate on them. Don’t cite many supporting facts in your thesis. Keep it short and limit supporting details because you need enough room in your short essay for introspection, which is quite an important part.

Topic sentences

To show the entirety of your argument at the beginning of each paragraph, make your key message accessible and snappy. Present each new point in a separate topic sentence. You need to present, support, and introspect it.

Supporting evidence

Limit the number of sentences where you provide supporting evidence, such as anecdotes, examples, stories, statistics, famous quotes, and others. This goal may seem hard to achieve. Share only the details necessary to understand your main point.

If you can’t find an effective way to fit all of your supporting facts into the required short essay length, use other examples. Some topics require a lot of space for their explanation, and that’s why you should stay away from the subjects that require many supporting facts. You don’t have enough room for them.

Introspection

It’s an important part of your short essay where you reflect on the chosen subject to show instructors how you think critically and present strong arguments. You may find out everything about a critical essay here. Keep your focus on essential details. Answer a particular assignment prompt and follow its instructions.

Although teachers usually advise not to sidetrack in a standard essay, it’s more important not to stray away from the main point when writing a short essay. Every sentence that is irrelevant to your thesis statement will weaken a major argument and take up its valuable space. Focus on your key idea.

Conclusion

To conclude your essay in a strong way, include a brief summary of your major argument and a statement that explains its implications in the future. This simple strategy will let you depict yourself as a forward-thinking and goal-oriented student without losing your focus on the main idea. Limit this paragraph to a few sentences. It plays an important role, but wasting time and space on rehashing the points that readers know is a bad idea.

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Writing a short essay: effective strategies

There are certain methods that can help you write a great essay, including:

  • Starting big,
  • Getting out a highlighter,
  • Condensing,
  • Making a necessity test,
  • Simplifying your argument.

How to start big?

Some students find it very difficult to write a short essay at once, and that’s why they prefer to draft a longer essay and include everything that comes to their mind. After that, they start trimming it down. If you choose this effective strategy, remember that it may be necessary to delete some important information to cut your word count.

Getting out a highlighter

If your essay is longer than the assigned word count, read it attentively and highlight every essential thought. Focus on supporting evidence and introspection. Ask other people to help you.

Condensing

Read your essay to ensure that each sentence has a unique and specific contribution to its quality and content. Combine the sentences that convey similar ideas. Use compound sentences and semi-colons if appropriate. Pay attention to all kinds of extraneous words that you can delete without affecting the meaning of your arguments or thoughts.

Making a necessity test

If you can’t find a good way to make your essay short, try making a necessity test because it helps even in the most difficult situations. Test every sentence. Determine whether your argument is weak without it. If you can’t see any noticeable difference in your essay after deleting it, this sentence isn’t integral to other parts and you can remove it.

Simplifying your argument

If there’s no possible way to both cut down your essay and keep your argument strong and clear, simplify the main idea. Why should you do that? In all short essays, it’s advisable to have a broad thesis that you can support with a few specific examples. Readers can infer crucial implications from your thesis statement. You don’t have to state them explicitly.

Dos and don’ts of writing your short essay

Follow these useful guidelines when composing this essay:

  • Make your essay concise and clear,
  • Include only the information necessary to let readers understand your key argument,
  • Address your prompt and follow its instructions,
  • Condense and use compound sentences or semi-colons where necessary,
  • Limit your supporting evidence to leave enough space for introspection.

Don’ts

What errors should you avoid? Don’t make these mistakes because they hinder the quality of your essay:

  • Choosing a complex topic (you don’t have enough space to elaborate on it),
  • Writing lengthy concluding and introductory paragraphs,
  • Assuming that longer is better (meet page length and word requirements),
  • Becoming attached to your points (be ready to cut unnecessary parts to fit a word count).

Short essays have the same components and long papers. Include your introspection without presenting many points. It’s better to have a few strong and well-articulated ideas than many good arguments that you can’t support within a given word count. Look at a sample below.

A great short essay sample

Protecting the environment is paramount to people who need to take such measures as recycling and creating less pollution. The way businesses operate may affect it.

McDonald’s is familiar with these concerns. That’s why the company sets new goals for social responsibility and sustainability by increasing in-restaurant recycling and serving more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and low-fat dairy. Some goals of this popular brand include buying fiber-based packaging from recycled or certified sources and supporting sustainable beef production.

A new business model comes with extra costs. The main target of McDonald’s is to offer affordable food. New goals with environmental concerns in mind are quite likely to make food prices increase, and it may deter some customers who like very low prices.

However, McDonald’s can economize through a new business model. The company understands that many consumers prefer the businesses that practice sustainable habits and it reflects these views to attract more visitors to its restaurants and increase potential profits.

Its new business model offers certain incentives. People who have similar environmental concerns will consider this move a good thing and they will go to McDonald’s regularly for this reason.

Many businesses are likely to follow the same footsteps because of their increasing emphasis on protecting the environment and sustainability. They will share success and attract new customers.

McDonald’s can increase profits through voluntary trading. Although the expenses of its new business model seem detrimental in comparison with the old one, the company understands that it will pay off. Consumers choose the business that matches their views.

This decision is a benefit for McDonald’s because people realize its importance due to an increasing focus on protecting the environment. The company will increase its customer base. Business will become sustainable in the future to stay profitable.

Concluding thoughts

Writing a short essay is easy if you know its basic components and effective strategies to complete this academic assignment. What if you’re in trouble? There are many reasons why you may fail to write a good essay, such as a lack of time or skills. You don’t need to worry about anything because qualified and skillful writers can help you solve any academic problem within your deadlines. Get their expert assistance online. Contact reputable professionals who will write a perfect essay for you.