What is a concept essay and how do you write one?
A concept paper is an academic assignment that asks students to think critically about the topic at hand. It requires them to use their analytical skills, as well as their ability to interpret information in order to make an argument.
We’ve put together this guide for writing your own great concept paper. If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to come up with ideas, develop your thesis statement, and then present it all in a convincing way! Let’s get started!
What is a concept essay?
A concept essay is a form of writing where the author presents and discusses a principle or idea. It does not focus on conveying an exact story but rather on presenting broad ideas, concepts and theories. As such it is also called a “theoretical” or “philosophical” essay.
Concept essays usually require more research than narrative essays as they need to back up what they say with evidence from existing literature on the topic. Concept essays do not always follow the standard intro-body-conclusion structure but frequently have multiple body paragraphs that each make one point about the subject.
Why should you write one?
Writing a concept essay will help you develop your ability to critically read, analyze and understand existing sources on a topic. This is useful because it means that when you’re reading for class you can find what the author is actually saying rather than simply accepting an argument at face value.
Although writing concept essays may require more research than writing most other forms of essays, it does not have to be boring or tedious. If you are interested in the topic it becomes much easier to absorb the information you need from textbooks and articles.
How to write one?
1.Find a Subject
Decide what you are going to write your essay about. Ideally this should be an issue that interests you, but it can also be something that has been presented in class or anything else you find interesting.
Make a list of all the things you know about the topic and any questions you may have. If there is not much information out there about your subject make sure you do some research on it before starting your essay so that by the time you start writing, at least some sources are available to back up what you are saying.
2.Research the topic
There are many different resources you can use to research your topic. These include both printed sources such as textbooks and journal articles, but also the internet. When doing your research it’s important to be able to evaluate whether or not what you are reading is reputable or accurate. This requires being able to recognize unreliable sources of information that have no scientific basis, are only opinion pieces (biased writing) or simply repeat what other people have said without adding any new ideas or evidence themselves. What distinguishes these sources is that they don’t back up their claims with reliable evidence from peer-reviewed literature (a way of assessing if something is scientifically accurate).
3.Audience for your paper
Just as with any other type of essay you need to make sure that your writing is tailored to your audience. In the case of a concept paper this means tailoring your language and style to what would be appropriate for an expert in your topic area.
For example, if you are talking about how a certain species has evolved over time then talk about it as a biologist or a scientist studying evolution might.
4.Write an Outline
An outline is a way of organizing your thoughts about the topic you are writing about. It becomes the skeleton of your essay and will help you to make sure that all of your ideas fit together in an orderly fashion.
Start with an Introduction. The introduction should state what it is that you are going to discuss in the body, why it is important or interesting and what interpretation or discussion your paper offers on this issue. This section needs to come right at the beginning before any other sections to grab the reader’s attention.
The Body should contain three parts:
- A statement of one key idea
- Evidence for this key idea
- How this evidence shows up within existing literature on your subject area (peer-reviewed articles).
These sections need to be clearly delineated in your draft with each part starting on a new line.
The Conclusion should summarize the main points you have made, highlight any areas of controversy or questions that remain open, and give suggestions for further reading (if applicable). An interesting conclusion can sometimes stand alone as an argumentative essay by itself which is useful if you are pressed for time.
5.Editing and Revising
Make sure your work stays on topic from start to finish by checking for grammatical errors in each paragraph. Verify that you are presented with a logical flow when editing, as well-organized information is more easily digestible than sprawling sentences full of detail scattered across various pages. Make edits accordingly; if an idea doesn’t connect or make sense somewhere down the road then go back and fix it!
Follow these steps and keep at it until you get what you want!
Examples of essays written in this style:
Title: Educating the Public on Scientific Facts
1. The topic for this essay is educating people about scientific facts through means such as direct information from scientists and other experts, news sources, media outlets and social media.
2. People may be informed by a variety of different sources, many of which are unreliable compared to scientifically-derived data that has been properly vetted by peers in the field.
3. Before starting your essay make sure you research the topic so that there are resources available to back up what you say; it’s important to know how to recognize reliable and unreliable sources and not simply repeat others’ work without adding any new evidence or ideas yourself.
4. Tailor your writing to the expertise of an expert in your subject area so that you are speaking the right language. Before writing an outline make sure to do your research so you can figure out what information is missing and where; this will help you to build a proper argument and give your essay structure.
5. The Introduction should state what it is that you are going to discuss, why it’s important or interesting and what interpretation or discussion of the topic your paper offers. This section needs to come at the beginning before any other sections in order to grab the reader’s attention.
6. The Body should contain three parts: A statement of one key idea Evidence for this key idea How this evidence shows up within existing literature on your subject (peer-reviewed articles) These sections need to be clearly delineated in your draft with each part starting on a new line.
7. The Conclusion should summarize the main points you have made, highlight any areas of controversy or questions that remain open, and give suggestions for further reading (if applicable). An interesting conclusion can sometimes stand alone as an argumentative essay by itself which is useful if you are pressed for time.
Common mistakes that students make when writing
- They don’t stay on topic – often times students will start writing about one thing and then veer off into another completely unrelated direction by the end of their paper. This can be confusing to read so it’s important not to lose your reader along the way!
- They focus too much on background information at the expense of their research – Remember this isn’t a paper about the history of your topic, it is an argumentative essay that analyzes current ideas related to it.
- They don’t use specific evidence – This is one of the most important things that you need to do! You can’t just write something like “beavers are mammals” (or anything that is simply an observation) you need to add concrete evidence such as “Behavioral observations show that beavers are solitary mammals” (or something like this). You might use personal experience or experiments in your work when appropriate, but make sure you provide specific examples when citing sources.
- They don’t refer explicitly to the literature – This is especially common when writing about something that hasn’t been researched very much yet. But, don’t fall into this trap! Make sure you are thinking of your work as being part of a conversation with other scholars so that you can mention specific names and articles throughout the paper to validate your ideas while also making clear where exactly they fit in.
- They use jargon – Sometimes students will try to make their work sound more impressive by using technical terms without definitions which is bad for two reasons: it doesn’t tell the reader what you are talking about and why they should care, the peer-review process is designed to catch this sort of thing! Keep your writing clear and readable.
- They don’t proofread/edit their work: This is a big one, and can be really frustrating for people who put in a great deal of effort to make sure that they’ve written something clear and concise only to receive a low grade because simple mistakes made it incomprehensible! Even if you feel like you’ve done all you can with the draft it’s a good idea to have another pair of eyes take a look at your work. That being said, people may not always be able to understand what you are trying to say if they haven’t put in the same amount of effort as you so don’t rely solely on their feedback either.
- They go off on a tangent – This is similar to going off topic, but sometimes students will begin writing about a certain aspect of their work without intending to make it the main focus of the paper. Sometimes this is fine and you can still write about it, but be careful that you don’t do this too much or else it will take over your entire argument and you won’t be able to fit your ideas into the structure that you originally laid out.
- They don’t cite their work – This goes back to making your arguments clear and understandable by including specific literature which supports them and referring to articles and papers that people can look up themselves. If you are using someone else’s ideas, it needs to be clear!
A concept essay is a traditional academic writing assignment. It usually involves the student developing an argument, analyzing evidence for that argument, and ultimately coming to some conclusion about whether or not their position holds water. The problem with this type of essay is that it can be difficult to determine what constitutes “evidence” – there are no hard-and-fast rules on how many sources you need, how scholarly they have to be, etc., which leaves students frustrated when trying to figure out what needs to go into their paper. One way around these difficulties might be outlining your thoughts before diving in too deep; if you know where you’re going from the beginning then figuring out which pieces of information will help illustrate those points becomes easier!
