How To Write a Good Economics Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide

How To Write a Good Economics Essay

The focus of this discourse is going to be on how to write an economics essay. When you are tasked with writing an economics essay, you are expected to present a clear argument and substantiate it with solid evidence that you reference properly. And to excel at this, you will first have to conduct a thorough research, formulate the main thesis of your essay, and put together a detailed outline that you will follow throughout your work on the essay.

A clear outline is of great help regardless of the discipline in which you are to write an essay. However, it is especially essential when talking about economics, because an economics essay must stick to facts and not be distracted from the main argument, leaving little room for creativity in the conventional understanding of the word. Here is a step-by-step guide on writing an economics essay to land an A+ grade.

A Step-by-Step Guide on Writing a Good Economics Essay

• Make sure you understand exactly what is required of you

Economics essay topics often come in the form of questions. As soon as you have your topic, read it several times to make sure that you fully understand it. If you have any doubts, do not hesitate to clarify them with your professor. Once you are positive that you understand the question, write it down on a piece of paper and put it somewhere in your room where you can always see it. It is helpful to highlight the keywords or phrases you find in the prompt, as it is necessary for ensuring that you always stick to this question throughout your writing and don’t get distracted.

• Do your research

You can only start the research for your essay after you have clarified the question that you are to investigate. For some essay topics, your textbooks will provide enough material for your research. So, they are your first most obvious source. If you find this material insufficient, you can always check out the textbooks’ references section and look up some potential sources there. Besides, your professor is always there for you, only waiting for you to ask for a piece of advice.

During your research, you may stumble upon some unfamiliar terms. Do not disregard them; be sure to clarify their meanings. Also, when reading your source materials, always keep in mind your main question and don’t hesitate to skip the sections that are not related to it.

• Plan your writing

After conducting profound research and having sufficient material at hand, you should start thinking about what exactly you are to write in your economics essay. It is worth repeating that in an economics essay, it is especially critical to always stick to your essay’s main question throughout the course of your writing. This is considerably easier when you have a concise plan. Please do not confuse an essay plan with an outline, writing an outline for your essay is a bit too early at this stage. A plan connotes a rough enumeration of the most interesting points that you have stumbled upon during your research and you would like to talk about in your essay. Putting them together in a list will help you to determine whether they directly relate to your topic.

• Arrange your material

Now that you have determined what information you are going to put in your economics essay, it is time to put all these bits of information in a logical order to ensure smooth narration in your essay. As you know, any essay consists of an introduction, main body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You present the information from your research in the main body of your essay. So, when planning your main body paragraphs, be sure to consider the volume of your essay. Don’t try to squeeze into every single point that you find relevant and interesting, it is much better to focus on several issues and give them proper attention.

• Introduce your essay

Once you have all your research materials at hand and a clear understanding of what you are going to write about in mind, you can proceed to writing. Arguably the hardest part of any writing is the beginning, and economics essays are no exception. This is exactly why it is an excellent idea to begin writing your essay with the introduction and get it over with as soon as possible.

As the name implies, the function of an introduction is to introduce the reader to your writing and to give them a brief overview of what they are about to read. In an economics essay, the introduction will represent an expanded version of your main argument that you have formulated earlier.

• Outline your main body paragraphs

Now that you have briefly expanded the main argument of your economics essay in its introduction, you have set the tone for the rest of your writing. It should make it considerably easier for you to stick to your topic.

What you should do now is put together a more detailed outline of your main body paragraphs. Now, having your main argument in the forefront of your mind, you should put all these bits of information in a logical order to ensure the smooth narration in your essay. Each point should be given its own paragraph. In the outline, it should look like one main sentence of each paragraph, complemented with references to the materials that you are going to use in this section.

• Write main body paragraphs

Once you have a clear outline for the main body of your essay, writing your main body paragraphs should not pose any problem. All you need to do is expand upon the point from your main body outline and present evidence from your research materials to support it. In other words, each body paragraph will consist of its main sentence that you take from your essay outline and the evidence from your research materials to substantiate it.

Note, it is crucial to ensure that the narration in your essay flows smoothly and logically. To do that, feel free to use transition sentences at the end of each paragraph to connect it logically to the following paragraph in a way that this logical connection is evident to your reader.

• Make sure that your evidence is convincing

The defining characteristic of an economics essay is that it is more about facts and data than essays in most other disciplines. This means that unlike with most other disciplines, it will not be enough to quote another author that you are referencing. You should give some relevant and compelling statistics, facts and figures. There is no gainsaying, that the factual evidence is the soul of any economics essay, the very reason why it is written and why anyone should read it. Therefore, it is important that you ensure that every single claim you make in the main sentences of your body paragraphs is well substantiated with facts and figures.

• Conclude your essay

When you have written the main body paragraphs of your economics essay, you can consider that the main part of writing is done. However, this doesn’t imply that you should relax and expect any conclusion that you come up with to go well with your essay. It is dangerous to underestimate the importance of a solid conclusion of any paper, including economics essays. A conclusion is the part of your essay that contributes most to your reader’s general impression of your writing.

You can think of a conclusion as a wrapped-up version of your entire essay. This is what you leave your reader with when s/he has read your paper and moves on to whatever else s/he must do. A fine and proven way to wrap up your essay is to restate your main argument that you have presented in the introduction.

• Go over your draft

It is quite naive to assume that if you have written your essay, your job is done, and you are ready to submit it. You should know that this stage is only a draft which demands some polishing before you submit.

After your conclusion, re-read your text to make sure that all your main body paragraphs and all the evidence presented is in line with your essay’s topic and your main argument. If you spot any inconsistency, do not hesitate to get rid of all the irrelevant information.

• Double-check the consistency of your writing

Once you have made sure that all the information you present in your essay is directly and evidently relevant to your main argument. First off, the main argument itself must be clear to your reader. You should double-check that it can only be understood the way you intend it to. If there is any possible ambiguity of perception, it should be eliminated.

Secondly, the same principle applies to the rest of your essay, and not only in terms of grammar and phrasing etc. Your reader should not have any questions about why a particular piece of information is there.

• Check the spelling and grammar

Now is the time to polish your essay. Here, make sure that your essay does not have any spelling, punctuation, grammar and other minor errors that may leave your reader with a dose of disappointment or even irritation.