Fortunately, a good plan will help you to comfortably gauge ACT essay prompts and create an idea coherent with the presented perspectives. If you are preparing for your ACT writing test, read on for various tips that will help you write a great paper. 

How to write the ACT essay

Your writing approach greatly determines the final quality of your essay. The following steps should come in handy to help you manage a logical essay within the stipulated time.

1. Read the essay prompt

Take the first three to five minutes to read the ACT essay question and note the ideas in the essay. Next, gauge your stance on the topic and organize your thoughts regarding the topic. 

2. Gauge the perspectives

ACT writing prompts usually feature three perspectives. When writing, you should support or refute at least one or all of the claims. As such, you must gauge the perspectives and gauge their standpoints.

Compare your ideas from the earlier step and select those that relate to one of the perspectives. 

3. Brainstorm

After choosing to support/ refute a claim, think of all viable arguments that would serve your stance towards an argument. In the opening essay paragraph, personal experiences and popular statistics serve as great sources for various arguments. 

Before you start writing, prepare the support and evidence for logical arguments. If possible, sort the ideas in the order they will appear in your paper. 

4. Organize your ideas

Highlight all the relevant ideas yielded during your research and sort them in the order they will appear in your body paragraphs. When doing this, ensure that you have a thesis for your ACT essay topic. 

Like all argumentative essays, the ACT paper requires you to highlight your stance on a given subject matter. this step will allow you to gauge the logical progression of ideas and also help you to write your essay without disruption from conflicting ideas.

When planning your paper, you may dedicate your first body paragraph to supporting your thesis and the second to compare your stance with one of the provided perspectives. Afterward, consider discussing the shortcomings of other perspectives as you would counterarguments in an argumentative essay.

5. Write

After developing a plan, write your paper using simple, precise language. Unlike creative writing, argumentative essays are gauged by the quality of claims made within the essay. As such, fill your essay with logical, insightful arguments concerning various perspectives. 

When possible, use logical transitions to show the correlation between various ideas within your paper. 

ACT essay tips

1. Don’t lose yourself in jargon and excessive explanations. These approaches may exhaust your time and limit the quality of arguments contained within your paper. Ideally, be precise in your writing to communicate all your claims and support in a manner that’s easy for the reader to comprehend.
2. Sort your ideas to ensure the logical progression of your argument and use transitions to show how various ideas fit into your argument.
3. Check the ACT essay rubric to familiarize yourself with the examination criteria, overcoming various errors that could compromise your performance.
4. Outline your essay before you start writing to overcome any confusion as you write your essay. This will save you time and ensure a logical flow of arguments within your essay.
5. Feel free to make up realistic examples and cite them as evidence for various claims.
6. When using complex words, be keen to ensure that they are used appropriately. Avoid words you are unsure of as they may result in ambiguity and hint at poor language mastery.

This article will discuss various tips and tricks to ease your opinion essay writing experience and secure a decent score. 

What is an opinion essay?

Put simply, an opinion essay is a piece of writing purposed to express your opinions regarding a topic. For this, you should defend your standpoint with ample support, making your stand clear to the reader. 

The essay may also address opposing opinions and show their inconsistencies, expelling any doubts a reader may have regarding a topic. 

How to write an opinion essay

Writing opinion essays should not be a cause for anxiety. Taking a proper approach to opinion essay writing helps prepare an outstanding paper without compromising your comfort. When going about your opinion essay:

1. Brainstorm

After receiving your essay prompt, think about your stand on the topic. For instance, if you were dealing with the topic: Is homework necessary for students? start by thinking of your standpoint concerning the topic. 

Why do you believe that it is necessary? Jot down the ideas you have to justify your stand and use these ideas as inspiration for your research efforts. This helps ensure the originality of your paper while giving you an easier time expressing your ideas. 

2. Research

After jotting down your essay questions, research various arguments that have been made regarding your topic. Equivalently, search for credible sources that support your opinions. 

Research not only yields support for your claims but also exposes you to various opposing arguments you should address. This allows you to plan the structure of your paper and show a reader that your opinion is well-informed and free of bias. 

3. Outline

An opinion essay outline is a great tool that helps develop your arguments. After research, sort your ideas and group those that are related to each other. 

Next, plan how you will present your ideas within various paragraphs to have a smooth flow. When writing your draft, reference claims properly to gauge the arguments that could use extra research. 

4. Draft

Finally, write your paper with the guidance of your outline. Be keen to express opinions confidently. Also, ensure that your paper has all essential essay parts and communicates your thoughts. 

5. Edit

Before turning your paper in, check for various errors which could limit the readability of your work or dilute your opinions. You may consider using expert services to ensure a quality paper worthy of a good grade. 

How to state your opinion in an essay

Some of the phrases to use when stating your opinion in an essay include:

• In my opinion… 
• I believe that…
• In my mind…
• Although (opposing opinion), I believe that (your opinion)
• It is known that…
• Although… 
• To sum up…

Structure of an opinion essay

What are the key elements of opinion writing? The opinion essay follows the standard 5-paragraph essay format comprising an introduction, the body, and a conclusion. 

The introduction should carry a hook to grab a reader’s attention and highlight the relevance of your opinion. An opinion essay introduction should also present some background information and carry a thesis statement. This statement gives the reader a gist of your stand concerning a topic.

The body section carries three or more paragraphs carrying an individual opinion. Your ideas should be connected and highlight your key standpoint. Also, use ample transitions within your paragraphs to guide the reader through your arguments. 

Your conclusion finally gives a summary of your standpoint. You may also show how various counterarguments are misplaced and recommend various changes based on your opinion. 

Tips for writing an opinion essay

1. Avoid unnecessary phrases as these may dilute the point you wish to pass along. Ideally, your paper should highlight your arguments in a manner that a reader can easily follow and confirm your opinions.
2. Prepare an outline of your arguments to gauge the completeness of your paper and reshuffle various paragraphs for the optimal flow of your ideas. 
3. Reference various statistics and quotes used within your work, allowing your reader to gauge the credibility of various claims within your essay
4. Sort your opinions out in a logical sequence to guide a reader through your logic and ensure that they clearly understand the basis of your opinion.
5. Be confident in your writing. By this, we mean that you don’t make excuses for your opinion but rather argue your stand out based on the available sources. Also, avoid arguing the weaknesses of opposing arguments and instead show the strengths of your standpoint. This approach helps overcome criticism as a reader can better gauge the logic behind your opinions and check for weaknesses. 
6. Use expressions when stating your opinions to achieve a smooth transition between arguments and differentiate facts from claims. 
7. Do ample research to gain an understanding of various forces that influence your topic. This will help you align your arguments to the relevant facts and to justify various claims you’ve made within your paper.
8. Present your opinions on a topic within the body. Refrain from the urge to share facts in the body and close off with the opinion in the conclusion as this defies the whole purpose of your paper. 
9. Avoid passionate arguments as these may weaken your argument making your paper appear biased. 

Proper mastery of the structure and approach of writing a causal essay ensures an enjoyable writing process and also that you ace your paper. This article will discuss the structure of causal essays and highlight tips for writing an outstanding causal analysis essay. 

What is a causal analysis essay?

It is great to discuss the causal analysis definition to establish its purpose and the steps for writing your essay. Put simply, a causal analysis essay is a paper that explores the possible causes of events, relationships between various phenomena, and the consequences of identified causes and effects.

For this, the essay highlights the connections between a series of events, to show how various phenomena occur. The essay may also recommend various steps to manoeuvre unpleasant effects or amplify the positive outcomes from various processes. 

How to write a causal analysis essay

Mindlessly keying words into your essay is an approach bound to yield a mediocre paper. Owing to the objective nature of causal essays, you must follow a procedure that allows you to examine various ideas and piece up your paper for a smooth flow of causes and effects. 

Some of the key steps for writing a causal essay are:

1. Come up with a thesis statement

There is a myriad of causal analysis essay topics you could opt to write on. However, selecting an overly broad/narrow topic may limit your analysis, resulting in a shallow paper that falls below/ exceeds your stipulated word count.

Ideally, consult your tutor’s prompt and determine various perspectives from which your topic might be discussed. You could also use the emerging issues in your topic as inspiration for your thesis. 

2. Conduct extensive research

The causal analysis essay requires proper scientific backing when making various claims within your paper. Your paper should thus be backed by facts as opposed to biased opinions.

Before writing your paper, peruse various documents that have discussed ideas related to your topic. Alternatively, read various write-ups that explain how an event transpired and research how various steps could affect the outcome of an event.

Next, determine the effects of various steps and record your analysis of the subject under study. 

3. Preparing your causal analysis essay outline

You could easily get distracted by conflicting ideas when writing your causal essay. These distractions may weaken your arguments and yield incomplete cause-effect relationships.

Ideally, prepare an outline that highlights how various ideas within your paper are connected. The outline will allow you to gauge the completeness of your research and enable you to write your paper easily. 

4. Prepare your first draft

After outlining your paper, prepare your first draft. Afterward, edit your paper to ensure the coherence of your arguments. You may consider consulting peers or experts for editing help to rectify various errors which could compromise your performance. 

Causal essay ideas

Causal analysis essay topics

1. How social media affects personal safety. 
2. An increase in financial risks comes with online shopping. 
3. The impact of the IT job market on immigration. 
4. The causes of cyber bullying 
5. construction’s impact on earthquakes 
6. An examination of the causes of modern soil dehydration practices. 
7. The impact of social media presence on politics. 
8. Effects of the American Civil Rights Movement 
9. The effect of stress on college students 
10. Analysis of the causes and consequences of dropping out of school. 
11. The effects of domestic violence on children 

Easy causal analysis essay topics

12. What factors contribute to the development of phobias? 
13. Why do some people develop gambling addictions when others can gamble without becoming addicted? 
14. What leads to the waning of romantic arousal? 
15. Why do people become less able to recall things as they age? 
16. Why do some repetitive actions cause us to develop “muscle memory”? 
17. What distinguishes introverts from extroverts? 
18. Why are achievers more likely to be first-born children? 
19. Why don’t adolescent relationships last? 
20. Why do teenage girls require more iron than their male counterparts? 
21. What makes insects the most successful animals on the planet? 
22. What motivates terrorist organizations to target specific countries? 

Fun causal analysis essay topics

23. Society’s impact on a child’s development during the early stages of development 
24. How do social class and poverty impact a child’s psychology as they grow up? 
25. Why were the slaves of America dissatisfied with the abolition of slavery? 
26. Why do we perceive an object’s weight as being lower when it is submerged in the liquid? 
27. What causes mutations in the human chromosomal series, why do they cause cancer and other symptoms, and how do they occur? 
28. How does the high rate of crime in society primarily result from social media? 
29. Social media’s impact on fostering international trade, harmony, and peace between nations 
30. Why is it so important to forbid children under the age of majority from using social media? 
31. The goal of ransomware attacks on various business entities’ devices is to steal their private data. 
32. Why isn’t digital currency more widely used even though it doesn’t need an intermediary like a banking system? 
33. What are the causes of the increase in cardiovascular disease patients around the world? 

Good causal analysis essay topics

34. Why do some individuals dread the dark? 
35. What causes fashion trends to change? 
36. Why do wars occur?
37. What circumstances can result in birth defects? 
38. Why do good students start skipping class? 
39. How has technology changed popular music? 
40. How has the acceptance of diversity evolved? 
41. Why did electric vehicles at first fail? 
42. How do species of animals go extinct? 
43. What precipitated World War One? 
44. How did the criminal underworld grow? 

Topics for causal analysis essay

45. Explain why America decided to drop atomic bombs on Japan to end the Second World War. 
46. Specifically, discuss how America’s educational system differs from that of Europe and the rest of the world. 
47. Describe the factors that make English the most widely used language in science and business worldwide. 
48. Consider the reasons terrorists favour using vehicles as weapons. 
49. Why have sporadic shootings increased so much in the United States? 
50. Why do scientists use animals in their research? 
51. How social media influenced American speech freedom 
52. What effect has COVID-19 had on global politics? 
53. Examine the reasons why younger people are more adept at learning new languages than older people. 
54. Describe the benefits of parents being more involved in their children’s academic lives. 
55. Describe how technology complicates our daily lives.

If you are struggling with your descriptive essay, this article will highlight the descriptive essay format and highlight tips to help you have an enjoyable writing experience. We will also highlight some descriptive essay topics to inspire your topic selection. 

What is the purpose of a descriptive essay?

Before discussing the process of writing a descriptive essay, it is crucial to establish the purpose of the essay. These essays usually target to describe a person, a place, an event, an animal, an event, or a behaviour.

Descriptive essays usually require various elements of language that highlight the features, emotions, and key details regarding your subject. Often, descriptive essays are assigned to gauge students’ capacity of expressing themselves, helping improve their narration and creativity. 

Format of a descriptive essay

the descriptive essay comprises the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. 

Introduction

The introduction of this essay usually serves to hook your reader, introduce the background of your topic, and share your thesis statement. For instance, if you were writing about a forest, you may share a fact that will reel your reader in, followed by a background discussion of the issues you might be touching on. 

You may mention how human interference is slowly ruining the population and diversity of the forest. Finally, share your thesis to give your reader a gist of the perspective you will take in your description of a subject. 

The body

This part comprises the paragraphs where you expound on various characteristics of the essay subject. When writing the body paragraphs, we recommend that:

• You use figurative language to paint a mental image of the subject. These tools of language include metaphors and similes.
• Use words that evoke the senses, immersing your reader into the scenario you are building through your narration. For this, you could start by listing all the sensory details you can recall about an experience.

For instance, what smells did you encounter, how did the chirping of birds sound, and how did you like the sound of the waves? All these details ensure that you create an immersive paper that grabs your reader’s attention throughout your narration. 

The descriptive essay conclusion

Finally, give a summary of your experience and share your parting shot. 

How to write a descriptive essay

The approach you take when writing your essay is equally definitive of the quality of your final paper. For a great result, we recommend the following steps for writing your essay.

1. Brainstorm

Before penning your essay, start by recalling all the details you can bring to mind regarding a subject. What did you like about it? What features did you dislike? How did you feel at various points of interaction? 

These details allow you to plan your story and also to spice up your narrative in a manner that appeals to the reader. 

2. Come up with a thesis

After brainstorming, create a statement of purpose that defines the relevance of your paper. For instance, highlight why your subject stands out, to give your reader a gist of what they expect in your paper. However, note that this statement should be limited to one sentence. 

3. Develop an outline

Making an outline of a descriptive essay is a great way to gauge the extent to which you have expounded various ideas. Your outline should highlight the key idea in each paragraph with some hints on the emotions you want to evoke in various sections. 

This outline makes it easy to write your paper as you can easily ensure flow without the influence of various conflicting ideas. 

4. Write

After preparing your outline, write your first draft. Here, use all elements and try to recreate your emotions and the subject using words. Here, don’t bother with grammar and structural issues. Instead, add meat to your outline to have a smooth transition between various ideas.

5. Edit

After drafting your paper, revise it to fix various errors. For this, you can consult your peers, and experts or use various editing tools. 

How to start a descriptive essay

Your introduction should grab your reader and set a platform for your entire paper. When you are writing your introduction, start by highlighting a fact or sharing imagery that hooks a reader to learn more about a subject.

Ideally, use a hook and a smooth transition to your thesis. Your thesis should highlight the reason why you find a subject intriguing to sustain your reader’s attention. where possible, close with a point that transitions to your first body paragraph to ensure flow within your work. 

Ideas for a descriptive essay

• My preferred location in my hometown
• My father is the most fascinating person I know
• How I learned to ride a horse for the first time
• This was the ideal date for me
• The activities I did while visiting my grandparents
• My favourite concert ever
• Something I enjoy doing in my spare time