How to Teach Essay Writing (So the Thinking Finally Clicks)

Do your students groan at the thought of writing an essay? Maybe they stare at a blank page, complain that they don’t know what to write, or rush through assignments just to get them over with. It’s not that aren’t capable; they just haven't learned to organize their thoughts into a clear, structured piece.

Many students believe that good writers are born that way — some people have a natural gift for words, while others don’t. But, as you know, that’s a myth. Writing isn’t about talent; it’s a skill, just like playing an instrument or learning a sport. No one picks up a guitar for the first time and flawlessly plays a song. At first, it feels awkward. Your fingers miss the frets, and the notes sound off. But once you learn basic chords and how they fit together, you recognize patterns. It gets easier, not because of talent, but because you understand the structure. 

Essay writing works the same way. When students learn a system for brainstorming, structuring, and refining their ideas—like learning chords—they stop feeling lost and start recognizing the patterns that make essays work.

Here’s how to help your students see the system:

1. Start With Thinking—Not Writing

Students often jump straight into writing before they know exactly what they want to say. And when the initial burst of thoughts dies out, they freeze, ramble, or lose focus. Instead of starting with words, challenge them to start with fully fleshed-out and organized ideas that help their writing feel natural, not forced.

Help Students Clearly Understand Writing Prompts

Students need to identify key action words in writing prompts. If they don’t, their entire essay may go off track. 

For example, if a prompt asks students to "analyze" a topic, but they interpret it as "summarize," their response will lack critical depth. Similarly, if they are asked to "argue" a position but only describe both sides without taking a stance, they haven’t made a case. 

Provide a list of common action words with their meanings and the type of responses they require. A printed document or a downloadable file within Google Classroom can help. 

Here are a couple of examples of common action words in essay prompts:

Another effective strategy to help students understand writing prompts is annotation. Have students highlight key words in prompts and paraphrase them in their own words. To say something in your own words, you’d have to first understand it!

Teach Students How to Brainstorm

Brainstorming helps students generate ideas for their essay’s arguments and organize them more efficiently. When students have an initial idea about a concept, other ideas can come from it, which makes them more creative. 

Some of the best brainstorming tactics you can teach during the pre-writing process include:

T-charts

With T-charts, students compare two concepts side-by-side in table format. It helps them organize their ideas and clarify their understanding of a topic. 

For example, here’s how they use a t-chart to compare the differences and similarities between facts and opinions:

Follow these steps to teach this creative thinking technique to your class:

1. Have students draw a large “T” on the board or give them a blank T-chart template for brainstorming.
2. Ask them to personalize their T-charts based on the writing prompt you chose. Let's say they’re brainstorming for a persuasive essay: they must divide their t-charts into “pros” and “cons”. 
3. Give students around 10 - 15 minutes to fill out their T-charts. They shouldn't have to worry about writing complete sentences, just let them write their ideas freely.
4. Have your students share their ideas from their T-charts with the rest of the class. It helps students defend their opinions, get new perspectives on their arguments, and spot any weak points in their reasoning. 

The main points in the t-chart will serve as the base for your students’ key arguments in their essays. 

For example, let’s say they’re using a t-chart to brainstorm ideas for the essay topic “should schools assign less homework?”. They can list “more time for social activities" under pros and “students might fall behind on certain lessons” under cons. 

These points will then serve as the foundation for their essay arguments. 

Clustering

With clustering, students write the main topic in the center of a page and branch out related ideas. It sparks creativity by helping students categorize ideas and identify common patterns. 

The flexibility allows them to expand ideas easily. For example, here’s how they can cluster their ideas around the main topic of modern art:

Here’s how you can teach your students to cluster their thoughts:

1. Have students write the essay topic in a circle at the center of their page. For example, if you choose “What are the effects of pollution?”, have them write “pollution effects” in the center. 
2. Based on the central topic, have students draw branches for other main ideas around the central argument. For example, for "pollution effect,” branches can include “health issues,” “environmental damage,” and “economic impact.”
3. Students must write smaller branches for each branch to add extra details. For example, for the branch “health issues,” they can add the branches “water issues” and “breathing problems.” 
4. Finally, have students find connections between the branches. For example, they can link “water contamination” to both “health issues” and “environmental damage".

The process shows students how all of these ideas go together and guides them in constructing their ideas. They can organize their cluster’s main branches into arguments and use the smaller branches as supporting details.

Venn Diagrams

Venn diagrams help students identify common patterns and differences between ideas through overlapping circles. For example, here’s a Venn diagram that compares the behaviorist and humanist teaching styles together:

Here’s how to teach your students to use Venn diagrams to brainstorm:

1. Say your students are writing about “Online learning vs. in-person learning: Which is better?”. Have students create two overlapping circles on a piece of paper, with one circle representing Topic A (“online learning”) and the other Topic B (“in-person learning”). 
2. In the overlapping circle, have your students identify the similarities between both different ideas. For example, both online learning and in-person learning require effort, deadlines, and provide education.

Lastly, connect essay writing and Venn diagrams by showing students how the various parts of the diagram impact their thinking. The differences in each circle can become arguments for body paragraphs, and the points of similarity in the overlapping area are strong counterarguments.

For example, if a student wants to argue for online learning, they can use 'flexibility' from its circle as an argument. They can also talk about 'deadlines' from the overlapping section to show that both types of learning need discipline. 

Teach Students to Craft Strong Thesis Statements

Students will feel stuck in their writing without a focused argument to defend, so a strong thesis is the backbone of a well-structured essay. To help students develop strong thesis statements, guide them through the thinking process behind a solid argument:

1. Determine the key issue: For example, "Artificial Intelligence’s impact on the job market.” 
2. Choose a clear position: A position your student could take on the topic is "AI will create more jobs in the future than it will eliminate.” 
3. Give reasons to support your stance: In this case, "AI will create new industries in which human workers need to oversee and develop AI systems while increasing productivity and efficiency in existing industries.”
4. Refine the statement to make it clear and concise: A solid final thesis statement could be “Artificial intelligence will increase job growth in the future by creating new industries and increasing human productivity.”

You can also use mentor texts to compare strong and weak thesis statements to show what works and doesn’t. 

For example, “social media is bad for mental health” is a weak thesis because it’s too vague and doesn’t present any clear arguments. Instead, here’s how we can make it stronger:

“Excessive social media use correlates with the rise in depression, low self-confidence, and anxiety in teenagers. Therefore, it’s necessary to limit its use as well as generate awareness about its mental health risks.”

Another effective strategy is to have students pick a topic and write five or six different thesis statements about it. This exercise pushes them to think critically, experiment with different angles, and refine their arguments until they land on a statement that is both clear and strong.

Encourage Discussion Between Students

Conversations with other classmates might lead to new perspectives your students might not have considered by themselves.

Discussions also make students test their arguments before committing to them in writing. By talking through their ideas, they can question each others’ view points and offer alternative perspectives, which improves their critical thinking skills and reasoning.

Clear communication is another key benefit. To express their ideas effectively in a discussion, students must organize their thoughts and structure them logically. 

And if they can articulate their points clearly in conversation, translating them into writing becomes much easier.

2. Fix Choppy, Confusing Sentences First—Then Teach Paragraphs

Good essays start with clear sentences. If students struggle with sentence structure, chances are they’ll also have a hard time structuring paragraphs. 

Here’s how to teach your students to write more engaging and clear sentences: 

Help Students Master Sentence Combining

Use sentence-combining exercises to teach students how to create fluid, engaging sentences:

• Simple to compound sentences: Start with having students combine two sentences with a coordinating conjunction like "for," "and," "nor," "but," "or," "yet," or "so." For example, they can turn the sentence “The sun rises. The sky turns orange” into “The sun rises, and the sky turns orange.” 
• Simple to complex sentences: In this second exercise, have students merge two sentences using a subordinating conjunction. Words like 'after,' 'although,' 'because,' and 'even though' can help add more detail to their writing. For example, they can combine “She went to the pharmacy. She needed medicine to heal her headache” into “She went to the pharmacy because she needed medicine to heal her headache”.
• Combining sentences with multiple clauses: Lastly, make students put sentences with more than one clause together using both a subordinating and coordinating conjunction. For example, “She studied all night. She was tired. She still aced the exam.” becomes “She was tired because she studied all night, but she still aced the exam.”

Provide Students With Sentence Starters & Frames

Sentence starters show struggling students simple ways to structure their sentences. For example, a sentence starter such as “the data indicates that..” helps students clearly present analysis to make their writing easier to follow. 

Here are some examples they can use:

Provide a List of Analytical Verbs & Transition Words

Academy verbs help students improve clarity and connect ideas more logically in their essays. Transition words that could be useful to your students include:

3. Use Simple, Visual Scaffolding to Teach Paragraphs That Make Sense

Scaffolding breaks paragraphs into key parts before students begin writing. That way, students can orderly organize each point into strong paragraphs that support their ideas, improving the flow of their writing.

Here are some of the most effective scaffolding techniques. We included some example writing prompts to show how these methods work in action:

The Hamburger Method for Paragraphs

The Hamburger Method is a fun and visual way to help students organize their ideas for paragraphs. It follows this format:

• Top bun: The top bun represents the main point your students want to defend in their essays.
• Filling: Think of this as the "meat" of the paragraph. It's where students need to include evidence, examples, or explanations that back their main argument. Ideally, they’ll add 2 to 3 pieces of evidence to make their point stronger.
• Bottom bun: Finally, the bottom bun wraps up the paragraph and helps transition to the next idea.

Example Writing Prompt: “Why Is It Important to Exercise?”

• Top bun: "Exercise is essential for maintaining good health and staying in shape."
• Filling: "It boosts energy, improves mood, and strengthens the heart."
• Bottom bun: "In conclusion, regular exercise plays a vital role in leading a healthy lifestyle."

Color-Coded Writing for Organization

The color-coded writing method helps students visually organize their writing with colors representing key parts of a paragraph. This approach makes it easy to structure ideas so they flow logically.

Here’s how you can teach students to decompose their writing with color-coding:

• Pink: The topic sentence or central idea of the paragraph. 
• Orange: Transitions into the essay's evidence.
• Green: Evidence, examples, or elaborations that support the topic sentence
• Blue: Explanation of the key points.

Example Writing Prompt: “Why Is Reading Important?”

• Pink (Topic Sentence): Reading is important because it improves vocabulary and comprehension.
• Orange (Transition): For example, reading exposes you to new words and ideas.
• Green (Evidence): Studies show that regular readers have larger vocabularies and better comprehension skills.
• Blue (Explanation): This helps people express themselves more clearly and understand complex texts better.

TEEL Paragraphs for Coherence

The TEEL method helps students create compelling, well-structured paragraphs with the following structure:

• Topic Sentence: Your students start their paragraph by stating their central idea. 
• Evidence: Students must clarify the topic sentence by providing evidence or examples to support their main idea.
• Explanation: Students must explain how the evidence supports their view. 
• Linking Sentence: Students must connect the paragraph to the next idea or summarize the point.

Example Writing Prompt: “Why Is Recycling Important?

• Topic Sentence: "Recycling is important for reducing waste."
• Evidence: "For example, studies show that recycling aluminum saves up to 95% of the energy to make new aluminum."
• Explanation: "It helps conserve natural resources and decreases landfill use."
• Link: "In conclusion, recycling plays a crucial role in environmental conservation."

4. Guide Students to Create Logical, Well-Structured Essays

Now that your students have solid foundations, it’s time to teach them how to structure their essays effectively and present arguments logically. Lack of coherence makes understanding your student’s main points difficult and weakens readability. 

There are two effective techniques to guide students into writing clear and coherent essays:

Model the Writing Process ("I Do, We Do, You Do")

The "I Do, We Do, You Do" method is a teaching strategy where students learn through observing, practicing together with you, and then writing independently. 

It's a great way to demonstrate what it's like to write A+ essays in front of your students by displaying the thesis, body paragraph, and format.

However, it's better to talk to your students through it rather than just handing them a sample to copy. Otherwise, they focus too much on mimicking instead of actually understanding the structure.

Here’s how to use the “I Do, We Do, You Do” method to teach essay writing at each stage:

“I Do” Phase

Start with the "I Do" phase, where you model the entire writing process step by step. Show them how to craft a strong thesis statement, organize body paragraphs, and structure the essay. 

It’s also important to walk them through outlining, drafting, and revising while explaining your thought process behind successful essays.

“We Do” Phase

We move to the "We Do" phase, where you guide the class through a group writing exercise. Start by choosing a topic and brainstorm ideas together. 

Next, help students create an outline, write a thesis, and develop body paragraphs as a class. You can also help them by suggesting evidence they can use to support their topic sentences.

“You Do” Phase

Finally, in the "You Do" phase, allow students to write independently. By this point, they should understand the complete writing process and structure. 

Allow them to write their essays on their own while offering support. You can also provide time for peer reviews to encourage self-reflection.

Use Previous High-Quality Student Essay Samples as Mentor Texts

Another effective way to teach students the expectations for writing is to show them examples of previous A+ essays. These "mentor texts" provide an ideal structure, strong arguments, and a proper writing style. 

Start by displaying a well-written essay to the class and walk them through each part of the essay, such as the thesis statement, topic sentences, and evidence. Explain why each part of the essay works well and contributes to a powerful argument. 

For example, your previous student used a clear thesis statement with a strong position to guide their essay. They made sure to use compelling evidence, such as expert opinions and facts to make a case for their argument.

After presenting the A+ essay, compare it with a poorly graded student essay. It will allow students to see how they differ in structure, clarity, and evidence use.   

Point specific areas the essay falls short, such as a vague thesis or poor support details. Students will understand what makes a strong essay and what mistakes they must avoid to get a good grade.

📝 Related read: Learn how to grade essays quickly with AI and save hours of valuable teaching time.

5. Make Writing Relevant to Spark Interest

Students engage more when essays relate to their interests. For example, if your essay is about video games, students who already have a passion for gaming will be more motivated to research and write about the topic. 

Here’s how to make writing more relevant to your students:

Connect Essay Topics to Students’ Lives & Interests

When students write about topics they care about, it makes the essay learning process feel more personal and meaningful, which increases engagement. Here are examples of essay writing prompts you can use that tie to your student’s interests:

6. Guide Self-Assessment for Consistent Writing Progress

Without proper self-assessment, students won’t have the skills to develop critical thinking and become independent writers. Here’s how you can teach students to review their writing and consistently improve:

Break Down the Revision Process

Your students need more than a quick read-through to ensure their essays are on the right track. They need a clear structure to independently review each aspect of their writing and ensure it meets your grading standards. 

Help them self-assess effectively by breaking the revision process into clear, easy-to-follow steps:

Step 1: Adopt Proper Structure & Clarity

Students must ensure that their essays follow a specific logic and that all their ideas flow clearly from paragraph to paragraph. Teach them to check for a clear thesis statement, strong sentences, and a logical structure of their ideas.

Your students must ask themselves: “Does this thesis statement make sense? Are all of my arguments easy to follow for the reader?”

Step 2: Provide Solid Evidence & Analysis

Teach students to check if they support their arguments with accurate evidence. Create a list of questions they can ask themselves during this process, such as “Do I have enough evidence to support my arguments?”

Step 3: Check For Grammar Errors

Nothing ruins what could be the perfect essay more than grammar issues. Teach students multiple ways to pinpoint and eliminate any common errors in their writing.

For example, get them to read their essays out loud each time they finish writing. Or, teach them to focus on only one type of mistake during each self-assessment, such as sentence fragments or missing commas.  

Provide Students With Checklists & Rubrics for Self-Editing

Give students easy-to-follow checklists or rubrics that align with your grading criteria. These tools provide them with another way to assess their work against your criteria before submitting their essays.

For example, a checklist might include items like:

• Does my essay have a clear thesis?
• Do I support my arguments with strong evidence?
• Are there any grammatical errors?

Using these tools for self-assessment makes them more aware of the key elements of good writing and helps them eliminate bad habits over time.

You can also easily set up rubrics within EssayGrader that allow students to self-edit their essays. Students can then receive comprehensive feedback and suggestions based on the rubric you chose:

You have four ways to create your rubric within EssayGrader. You can build your own custom rubrics to match your grading criteria, upload an existing rubric, customize our own pre-set rubrics, or reuse rubrics from previous assignments. 

Use Peer Review with Clear Guidelines

Peer review can be a valuable part of the writing process. By reviewing others’ essays, students gain new views and insights to improve their writing. 

However, you need clear guidelines to ensure that feedback is both constructive and meaningful. Teach students to give actionable feedback on strengths (“I really liked the evidence you used to back your argument here”) and areas of improvement “ I feel like you could have explained the data a bit more here”). 

7. Teach Essays as a Lifelong Skill, Not Just an Assignment

A common misconception that students believe is that essay writing won’t matter outside of their academic career, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If you show students the real-world value that comes with being good at essays, they’ll have more motivation to engage in the learning process. 

Here’s how you can help them understand that writing has the power to shape their future:

Highlight the Importance of Critical Thinking and Communication Skills

During the essay writing teaching process, your students learn to think critically, build strong arguments, and communicate persuasively. 

Make sure that students understand that these skills don’t just improve essays. They’re useful in their everyday lives. This will help them see clearly how their new critical thinking and communication skills will help them overcome everyday challenges.

Let’s say your students get into a heated debate with friends about an issue. They need solid logic and the ability to challenge assumptions to win the argument. 

Or, if they plan to launch a business in the future, they’ll need to pitch their idea to investors. Strong persuasive arguments and confidence will be crucial for having others back up their ideas.

Recreate Real-World Situations With Students

Real-world scenarios are another way to show students how to apply the new skills they learn through essay writing outside the classroom. 

Try a lively debate where students argue for or against increasing school funding, where they'll have to build strong, persuasive arguments for how it benefits everyone.

Another example exercise is to have students write an essay for a fictional job application. They must use persuasive arguments to demonstrate why they're the best fit.

These activities will help them write better essays and prepare them for everyday life success. For example, the skills they learn with you may help them get their first summer job. 

Connect Essay Writing to Real-world Professions and Impact

Help your students see that essay writing is a valuable and necessary skill for many professions. Whether they dream of a career in law, marketing, or journalism, they’ll understand that the ability to write clearly and persuasively is the foundation of effective communication in almost every field.

To illustrate this, share examples of professional essays, opinion pieces, and editorials from credible sources. Show your students how writing shapes public discourse and influences critical decisions. 

If possible, invite someone from a profession outside of academia to talk to your students about how writing plays a critical role in their careers. When students see that even people like business owners or lawyers use writing as a real-world tool for success, they’ll understand its value beyond the classroom. 

It will inspire them to set up their writing skills and see them as essential to achieving their career goals.

8. Improve Essay Lessons with Tools That Boost Interactivity

There are plenty of tools that can make teaching essays more efficient. Automating grading feedback, generating creative writing prompts, and adding a touch of gamification can make the process more interactive and enjoyable for students:

EssayGrader to Provide Instant Essay Feedback

EssayGrader uses AI to provide your students with detailed feedback on their essay writing. Our tool highlights grammar errors and sentence structure flaws, and provides suggestions on how to improve based on your rubric.

Key Features:

• AI-Driven Grading: Our tool’s AI provides you with a 90% grading accuracy on all essays without unconscious bias. It automates the repetitive tasks that come with grading, so you have more time to focus on the more creative and personalized aspects of teaching.
• Detailed Feedback: Provide your students with feedback on grammar, sentence structure, content, and overall coherence. Our tool also highlights areas of improvement, such as grammar errors, logical inconsistencies, and sentence flaws, based on a rubric that you can customize. Plus, it seamlessly integrates with your existing gradebook software to make tracking student progress even easier.

Before EssayGrader, Sammy Young, a teacher at La Vernia ISD in Texas, would give manual lists, cheatsheets, and rubrics documents to help students self-assess their essays. It was a very manual process, and students often had to go through back and forth with different documents, which would take up a great deal of time. 

Now? Students can just upload their essays into EssayGraderi and get instant feedback on how they improve their writing. It gives Young more time to offer better personal support to his students. 

"This is the first time that an innovation has directly impacted my ability to reach students at a higher level,” says Young. “EssayGrader helps me not to be bogged down by the tedious, albeit necessary, minutia of things like conventions and grammar which frees up my grading time for me to teach and evaluate the “art” of writing."

Writestyler to Make Essay Writing Fun Through Gamification

Writestyler comes with various online graphic organizers, video games, and quizzes to help your students improve their essay writing.

Key Features: 

• Gamified Learning: Writestyler incorporates video games and interactive quizzes to make learning fun and engaging while reinforcing writing skills.
• Interactive Writing Games: Improve your student’s learning process with educational games that engage students while practicing their writing and grammar.
• Animated Instructional Videos: Help your students better understand essay writing concepts and provide step-by-step explanations of the essay process and make complicated concepts easier to understand.

 Writestyler supports students of all ages and skill levels and is fairly easy to set up for teachers. 

CommonLit to Engage Students with Relevant Essay Prompts and Resources

CommonLit is a literacy program with various essay prompts on issues that students can relate to. These topics help your students stay engaged during their learning process with issues that are relevant to them.

Key Features:

• Engaging Essay Prompts: Get access to essay prompts on relevant topics that resonate with students, such as social media restrictions and voting for teenagers.
• Extensive Digital Library: Benefit from a diverse library of high-quality reading materials, including short stories, news articles, and historical documents you can use to make your essay teaching more engaging. 
• Actionable Data & Progress Tracking: Track student progress and set personalized learning goals for your class thanks to analytics on student performance. 

CommonLit comes with a free plan for teachers with basic access to the CommonLit Digital Library and CommonLit 360 Curriculum. However, for access to more exclusive features, you’ll need to upgrade to their paid plans, which start at $2,500.

Make Essay Writing Finally “Click”

Teaching essay writing doesn’t just help your students do better in school. It gives them real-world skills they’ll use in all parts of their lives.

When students learn to think critically, organize their ideas, and communicate clearly, they gain an advantage that extends far beyond the classroom.

The key is structure with flexibility. When students have a clear process—brainstorming, organizing, and refining ideas—writing becomes less stressful and more intuitive. They stop seeing it as a chore and start seeing it as a skill they can improve.

Begin your next lesson with a simple brainstorming technique from the list we’ve recommended. Watch how when their ideas start to grow, the quality of their writing improves as well. 

And if you want to free up more time for personalized support, technology can help. EssayGrader provides instant, detailed feedback on content, grammar, and structure—so you can focus on coaching students, not correcting commas.

Students simply upload their essays on EssayGrader, and within seconds, they have in-depth feedback on their essays.

Join free today, and see how much time you'll save grading!