Define your topic. At this point, you can be broad. You will narrow your ideas later. Decide what the focus of your essay will be.
Brainstorm everything you know about the topic. Write down your ideas and don't limit. Make lists or diagrams with your thoughts. Everything is fair game. Once you have put all you ideas on paper, step back and look at them. Group them into similar topics, eliminate others, and decide what one piece of this topic you want to concentrate on for this particular essay.
Narrow your focus to one thought, idea, fact, or viewpoint. One mistake writers often make is being too broad and writing too much. Create a topic sentence that tells the reader exactly what this essay is about. This sentence should guide the rest of the essay and provide a slant for the writing.
Dig deeper. Find research that supports your idea, fact or viewpoint. Identify resources that can contribute to the essay. Interview experts to support your claim. Find the supporting evidence and cite your sources correctly.
Make a brief but concise outline of your essay. Structure your writing into three areas: the opening, middle and conclusion.
The opening should grab the reader's attention and pull them into the essay. Sometimes the opening may contain your topic sentence right up front. The opening should also provide you with an introduction to your topic, and perhaps your viewpoint on the subject.
The middle is the meat of your essay. In the middle you will stake your claim as to why this topic is important. This is where you support the writing with your facts, research and interviews. The middle may be several paragraphs in length, with each paragraph having a transition sentence from one to another.
The conclusion should do two things, summarize the content and provide a final comment to the reader. The summary should not merely repeat words from the body of the essay, but briefly summarize with different words. A final comment can bring the reader back full-circle to the topic sentence at the beginning, and also leave the reader with food for thought.