The server places the ice cream in your hands … without a flipping cone. You fumble with the cold, sloppy mess as you try to contain it or shove it quickly into your mouth, but it’s pretty hopeless.

So, uh, what does melted ice cream have to do with a thesis statement?

Well—aside from our love of both snacks and food-based metaphors—an essay without a solid thesis is a lot like that sad wreck of a dessert. It’s messy, it’s all over the place, and it has no point (ha). Without some direction, your reader is a lot like you with your drippy, ice-cream-coated elbows—confused and frustrated.

Enter your thesis statement. Your thesis statement is more than the last sentence of your introduction. It’s the road map for your entire essay.

Your thesis statement isn’t just the end of your intro. It’s the road map for your entire essay.
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As we’ve mentioned again and again and again, your thesis statement is super important, and for that reason, writing it probably has you scared out of your wits—but fear not!

I’ve created a helpful infographic that will help teach you how to make a thesis statement the quick and easy way. This graphic provides step-by-step guidance on

• choosing a topic
• narrowing your focus
• creating an argument

…and more!

Once your feel like your thesis has a fighting chance, feel free to run it (or your entire essay) past a talented Kibin editor for some helpful feedback and polishing.

How to Make a Thesis Statement the Easy Way (Infographic)

I don’t have a hook problem, aside from the sick pleasure I glean from mangling popular song lyrics to suit my purpose, nor does Jay Z, if all those platinum albums are to be believed.

But if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you are struggling to write a hook sentence. Luckily, I’m here to help you solve your problem.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. First of all, what is a hook sentence, and why does a good hook sentence matter so much?

A hook sentence is a meaty opening line (or two) that grabs your reader’s attention and makes the rest of your essay (or article or letter or any piece of writing) irresistible.

Let’s try a thought experiment: Pretend you’re introducing a friend to your favorite restaurant. Now imagine that the cool fountain out front is gone, all the decor has been stripped from the interior, and there are no enticing smells to greet you at the front door.

The experience of eating there is totally different — and I dare say a little boring — when there’s nothing appealing about the first impression, right? Your friend would probably be baffled by the appeal and may not even want to sit down, even if the grub itself is fantastic.

An essay without a good hook sentence, no matter how well-written, is kind of like that drab restaurant. No matter how good the rest of the essay is, it’s essential that the first line whets the reader’s appetite.

It’s essential that the first sentence of your essay whets the reader’s appetite
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So to help you understand what a hook sentence is and how to write one, I’ve created an infographic that is all about hook sentences. This handy guide includes loads of helpful information:

• Questions to help you identify your audience. Do they have to read your writing, or do you have to work extra-hard to convince them to read it?

• Questions about your purpose for writing. Are you trying to inform, motivate, or entertain your reader?

• Hook writing tips and approaches. This includes several hook writing strategies, so you can pick the right one to suit your audience and purpose.

• Hook sentence examples. Each type of hook sentence is accompanied by an example so that you can see how these sentences might look at the beginning of a real-life essay.
  

So without further ado, check out the “What Is a Hook Sentence?” infographic, and be sure to read How to Write Good Hook Sentences for additional guidance.

What Is a Hook Sentence? (Infographic)

D’oh!

Writing a research paper without providing appropriate citations is pretty similar, actually. Just as directions or an address would help your friends find the restaurant so that they can check it out, citations help your readers find the sources you consulted so that they can read them, too.

But citations serve one more important purpose, and that’s giving credit where credit is due. When you borrow an idea from someone else, you should always provide an appropriate citation to show that the idea is not your own.

There are lots of ways to cite sources, and how you handle it depends on your discipline — not your behavior, but your field of study. If you’re reading this post, your instructor has probably asked you to use the MLA citation format, and my crystal ball says that you’re probably writing a paper for English class — a literary analysis essay, perhaps? — or an essay for another course in the humanities.

Okay, okay, so I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do know that MLA, which stands for Modern Language Association, is the preferred citation format for papers related to language, literature, and related disciplines.

If you’ve never written MLA citations before, you’re probably feeling a little lost. Never fear! Like anything new, MLA citation format can be intimidating until you understand the system.

That’s why I’ve created this handy infographic to help you learn not only why MLA citation format matters, but also how to create MLA citations and where to put them. Best of all, it helps you knock out both parts of the citation — the Works Cited entry and the in-text citation — in just 4 quick steps.

Are you feeling ex-cited about MLA citation format? Well, probably not. But if you’re excited to cite your sources quickly and correctly so that you can get that paper off your plate and go hang out with your friends, then read on!

MLA Citation Format Made Easy (infographic)

Contrary to popular opinion, APA does NOT stand for A Pain in the A**. Though it may seem so.

Rather, APA stands for American Psychological Association. This group represents the largest professional organization of psychologists in North America with 137,000 members (or so says Wikipedia).

As a publisher of a multitude of scientific journals, the APA has developed a style guide that is used by researchers, academics, students, and publishers in the social sciences.

Since you’re reading this blog post, someone probably told you to use APA citation in your work too.

At first, APA rules can seem cumbersome and confusing. However, learning how to use APA citation isn’t so bad once you get used to the basics.

This handy APA Citation Made Simple infographic can help you make sense of it all. The graphic covers the basic elements of writing APA in-text citations and corresponding reference list entries. We’ll cover the following information:

• Identify the source type. Is your source a book? a web page? a journal? a magazine? or something else entirely? You have to know this before you cite!
• Plug in your information. It’s important to know exactly what elements to include in your reference list, which words should be capitalized and italicized, and where to put your punctuation.
• Add to your reference list. Remember to build your references as you write, and always list them alphabetically by the first word in the entry.
• Create the in-text citation. It sounds more complicated than it is! Follow these simple steps to give credit where credit is due (no matter how many authors you have in your source!)
• Additional resources. There are several apps that help you build your reference list and generate citations. I give you the low-down.

For a more detailed explanation of this graphic, I recommend reading How to Write APA Citations in 4 Easy Steps.

And now, without further ado…

APA Citation Made Simple (Infographic)

Of course not! You weren’t raised in a barn, after all. (If you answered “yes” to any of the above, then, well, essay formatting might not be your biggest problem).

But if you’re turning in essays typed in Comic Sans or don’t know a style guide from an issue of Vogue or GQ, then you could probably use this primer on why essay formatting matters and some tips on improving your game when it comes to essay presentation.

So What Is Considered “Formatting,” Anyway?

Essay formatting is anything that has to do with the appearance, layout or even structure of your essay. Considerations that fall under the concept of formatting include

• font
• line spacing
• margin width
• paragraph indentation
• text justification

…and much, much more.

Ugh, you might say. Can’t I just open Word and start typing?

You can, of course. But if you want your essay to show up to the grading party (or beauty pageant, in the case of scholarship essays or other competitive endeavors) in its finest duds, then you need to pay a little attention to how you format and present your ideas.

Why Does Essay Formatting Matter?

Proper essay formatting is an essential part of essay writing. At its heart, an essay is an attempt to convince, inform, or move someone, and good formatting makes your audience more receptive to your message.

Here are four good reasons that you should care what your essay looks like:

-Proper essay formatting enhances readability.Your readers — whether that’s your instructor, your classmates, an admission committee, or your Kibin editors — will be able to evaluate and absorb your content much more readily if your essay has a consistent format and a tidy appearance.

I swoon when I edit an essay that’s been formatted well, because I can focus on the content rather than being distracted by poor spacing or other formatting errors that make documents difficult to read and follow.

-It demonstrates that you can follow instructions. Do you ever get the feeling that extensive essay formatting requirements are a test to see if you’ll jump through the hoops? Well, in some cases, they are. After all, it doesn’t affect your content if you indent four spaces at the beginning of a paragraph instead of ½ inch.

But if you want to pass that test, then it’s important that you demonstrate your ability to follow instructions. (I hate to tell you this, but this is one of those skills that you’ll need later in life when you’re building your first piece of IKEA furniture or trying to decipher line 45 of IRS form 584750B.)

-You practice being a member of a specific discipline. Formatting your essay according to a certain style guide or set of standards is not unlike playing dress-up. For example, if you write an essay for a psychology class, your instructor will likely request that you use the format prescribed by the American Psychological Association (APA), even if you’re nowhere near being an actual psychologist yourself.

When you do find yourself sitting in your own office under that framed diploma drafting an article for the Made-Up Journal of Unlikely Neuroses, though, you’ll be glad that you’ve had some practice with formatting your writing in your discipline’s preferred style.

-It enhances your credibility. First impressions matter. Just as a potential employer would make all kinds of (negative, I’m sorry to say) assumptions about you if you showed up to a job interview in jammies  — even if you were, on paper, the perfect candidate — your readers will do the same if you turn in a sloppy essay with no attempt at formatting — even if your content is knock-your-socks-off awesome.

In other words, proper essay formatting gives your audience the impression that you are competent and serious about your work, and it helps you practice skills that you’ll need later on in your personal and professional life.

If your essay is your product, then your formatting is the advertising that screams, “Take me seriously!”

Your essay formatting is the advertising that screams, “Take me seriously!”
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Now are you convinced that essay formatting matters? Great! Now, let’s look at some ways you can pull it off.

Essay Formatting Tips — The Dos and Don’ts

The following section will walk you through some of the most essential essay formatting considerations and provide guidance for executing them appropriately. I’ve included guidance from some of the most commonly prescribed style guides, including APA, MLA and the Chicago Manual of Style, as well as general advice that you can use when no style guide is specified.

Font

The font, or typeface, of your essay, is one of the most important elements of its overall presentation. Fonts are either serifed, meaning the characters have little ‘feet,’ or sans-serif, meaning they lack these feet.

Do: Pick a clean font that is easy to read both on the screen and on the printed page. The Modern Language Association, the Chicago Manual of Style and the American Psychological Association all recommend Times New Roman — 12 pt, please and thank you — because it is simple, readable and non-distracting. Georgia and Palatino are lovely serif fonts, too. If you want a sans-serif alternative, try Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica.

Don’t: Use decorative, elaborate or childish fonts (I’m looking at you, Comic Sans). A *~creative~* font will never make up for a lackluster paper and makes your essay more difficult to read.

Margins

The margins of your essay are the blank spaces that surround the text on all sides. You can think of the margin as a happy little fence that keeps your word-animals from straying. (No? Just me?)

Do: Leave enough space to allow the eyes to rest — 1 inch all the way around is a good standard recommended by most of the major style guides. This leaves an attractive amount of whitespace.

Don’t: Think your professor won’t notice if you increase the margins in an attempt to lengthen the page count of your essay. (No, really — they’re on to you.)  It actually doesn’t make a big difference in the long run, and your essay will stick out in a bad way if it has a four-lane highway running down each side of it.

Line Spacing

Line spacing refers to the amount of space between individual lines of text. Single-spacing means that there is no space between lines of text, while double-spacing leaves one full space between lines of text.

Do: Double-space essays unless otherwise specified. This enhances readability and leaves adequate space for corrections and comments when printed.

Don’t: Leave extra spaces between paragraphs that are already double-spaced. This leaves way too much white space and is totally unnecessary.

Paragraph Indentation

There are two possible ways to show paragraph breaks in essays. You can either indent the first line of the paragraph, or you can left-justify all of your text and leave a space between paragraphs. The rise of the Internet has made the latter more common, but most of the style guides used in the humanities and social sciences still prefer indented paragraphs.

Do: Indent paragraphs unless otherwise specified. The standard indent is ½ inch from the left margin or approximately 5-7 spaces.

Don’t: Mix styles. Leaving spaces between paragraphs is unnecessary if your paragraphs are indented.

Justification
Justification refers to how your text aligns with the margins. Left-aligned text means that it is all aligned with the left margin, and right-aligned text means that it is flush with the right margin. Justified text means that the text is flush along both margins.

You might assume that fully justified text — the style preferred by newspapers and magazines — creates the tidiest-looking page, but this isn’t always the case. It can leave unnatural and unsightly gaps between words as they s t r e t c h to fill the space.

Do: Left-align your text unless your style guide or instructor dictates otherwise.

Don’t: Fully justify your text unless you have a good reason to do so.

Bonus Essay Formatting Tip

Only use one space after a period (or exclamation mark, question mark, etc.) rather than two. Using two spaces was standard when documents were typed on typewriters, which left far more space between letters than digital fonts.

To help you remember and digest all of these essay formatting rules and suggestions, I’ve created a handy-dandy infographic for your viewing pleasure and future reference. You have my permission to frame it and hang it above your desk, in the bathroom…wherever you like to do your reading. I’m not judging.

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how to make your essay, well, pretty. It may seem superficial when it’s your ideas, man, that really matter, but proper essay formatting is like the bow on top of a gift, the real dishes you break out for guests, and the swanky suit that says “I mean business.” With these tips, you can ensure that your essay has the visual appeal to pull your reader in so they notice that fantastic hook or your clever commentary.

If you’re still not sure that you’re on the right track with your essay formatting, scope out some essay examples to see how other students have handled essays of the same type or within your discipline.

And if you need specific help with formatting in accordance with one of the major style guides, check with your university library, which likely has a complete style guide (or a subscription to the online version). You can also visit the FAQ section of the MLA Style Guide website, the APA Style Blog, or the Chicago Manual of Style Q & A page for free essay formatting tips without a subscription.

The best way to ensure that your essay puts its best foot forward, formatting-wise, is to let someone else see it. Whether you use a trusted advisor, a friend or a Kibin editor, another set of eyes will help you ensure that your essay steps out in style.

Well first things first. Before your coffee date, you need to complete that persuasive essay assignment. It’s the best way for you to polish your persuasive writing skills. In fact, persuasive writing is one of the most useful forms of writing you’ll ever learn.

With this in mind, I’ve created a fun and easy persuasive essay writing infographic to help you get going.

The infographic covers 4 critical elements of persuasion, 3 essential persuasive tools, and a brief lesson on the persuasive power of metaphor. It also reveals some of the many real life instances when you will need to persuade someone in writing.

Are you ready to hone your persuasive writing skills? Then read on.

Persuasive Essay Writing Made Simple! (Infographic)

Want to learn more about persuasive essay writing? Read How to Create a Persuasive Essay Outline and What Is a Persuasive Essay and How Can You Make Yours Good?

It’s such an important skill that I’ve blogged about writing an argumentative essay until I am blue in the face. (My face now matches the Kibin logo, that’s how blue it is!) I’ve written about making a strong argument, writing a thesis statement, and outlining your argumentative essay.

These are all helpful blog posts, and you should definitely read them–but as “they” say, a picture is worth a thousand words. (By the way, don’t write “they” without defining who “they” are in your essay, okay?) In any case, I’ve taken “their” advice to heart and put together an infographic to help you as you begin writing your argumentative essay.

So without further ado, check out writing an argumentative essay made easy–in infographic form!

Writing an Argumentative Essay Made Easy Infographic

(Click to enlarge)

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