If you need to write a 300-word essay, you’ve come to the right place. I’m Tutor Phil, and in this tutorial I’ll guide you through the process step by step.
We’ll write a complete essay together, so you’ll have an example of a 300-word essay, as well.
Writing a 300-word essay is a 5-step process.
Step 1. Plan the number of words in each paragraph.
Whenever you know an exact number of words you need to write, this makes your task so much easier. Because now you can plan out exactly how many words each paragraph will contain.
Typically, a 300-word essay consists of five paragraphs. This means that you will have:
- The introductory paragraph
- Three body paragraphs
- The concluding paragraph (conclusion)
How would you distribute 300 words across these five paragraphs? Well, let me give you a very simple way to do that:
If you add up these numbers, you’ll get 300. And that’s all you need – a short introduction and conclusion plus three brief and to the point body paragraphs.
Step 2. Decide on your main and supporting points.
Let’s say your instructor gives you this essay topic:
“How does playing video games affect adults?”
First, we should decide – are adults affected positively or negatively? This will give us a frame of reference for the rest of the essay.
And let’s just make a decision and say that video games affect adults negatively.
Don’t worry about making such decisions. Just decide, and you’ll see that you’ll always find plenty of ideas to support your point.
Next, let’s use the Power of Three to divide this topic and come up with three ways in which gaming affects adults.
The power of three is just a technique I use to divide the main idea into supporting ideas.
This means that your main point is true for three reasons or your process happens in three ways. Basically, it’s a three-part structure. It helps produce three body paragraphs.
And let’s do it. Let’s come up with three ways in which video games affect adults:
- Adults who play video games tend to spend too much time doing it.
- Adults often substitute virtual reality for real life experiences.
- Adult gamers often spend too much money on their virtual realities.
And now we have everything we need to begin writing out the essay. We’re ready for the next step.
Step 3. Write out the complete introductory paragraph.
Here’s the structure of an introductory paragraph in a 300-word essay:
The first sentence is the introduction. In it, your job is to pull the reader from his world into the world of your essay.
And the rest of the opening paragraph is the thesis statement. It includes your main point in one sentence and three supporting points.
A 300 word essay introductory paragraph example
“Whether and how video games affect adult gamers has been a subject of an ongoing debate. Playing video games harms adults in three ways. It wastes their valuable time. It often acts as a substitute for real life experiences. And it often wastes their money.”
Note how the first sentence is very general. It sets the context for the entire essay. The next sentence is the main point (thesis). And the final three sentences are the supporting points for the thesis.
Also note that we have exactly 45 words in this paragraph. So far so good.
Step 4. Write the body paragraphs.
The body of our essay will consist of three body paragraphs. Here is how to structure a body paragraph in a 300-word essay:
We know that each of our body paragraphs should contain roughly 70 words, and we can begin writing.
Paragraph 1.
“Time is precious for adults, and playing video games can be too time-consuming. Adults are burdened with such responsibilities as full-time work and various chores. Playing video games can sometimes so completely engross an adult that he can forget to attend to tasks every mature adult must do. My friend Andy has been an avid player of video games. But as an adult, he often forgets to do his laundry.”
In this paragraph, the first sentence is a lead sentence. It summarizes the paragraph perfectly. And it dictates the structure of the rest of the paragraph.
The second sentence is an explanation of why adults need to be concerned with wasting their time.
The third sentence explains how video games can steal time from adult gamers.
And the final two sentences illustrate the point by providing a specific example.
Paragraph 2.
“Adult gamers often substitute gaming for living real lives. Games provide them with a sense of adventure. They can slay dragons, conquer kingdoms, and fall in love virtually. But real life offers plenty of adventures to take on, and gamers miss out on them because they fulfill their needs by sitting at the computer. Andy often complains about his lack of personal life, and I know what is to blame.”
Note how this paragraph follows the exact same structure I outlined in the diagram above. It proceeds from general to specific:
- The lead sentence
- An explanation
- An example
Paragraph 3.
“Money is another concern with adult gaming because games cost money and often have ongoing costs. Expenses associated with gaming can add up, especially when playing games online. The gamer has all kinds of things to buy from game creators, such as life and energy points, weapons, and even living creatures. Andy told me that his last purchase was a dragon for one hundred dollars. I thought he was crazy.”
Again, this paragraph follows the basic body paragraph structure. It also contains 70 words, as planned.
And it’s time for the final step.
Step 5. Write the conclusion.
The easiest and most time-proven way to write a conclusion is to simply restate all the points using different words.
You can even copy your introductory paragraph and change all the wording.
I usually just write the conclusion while checking in with the thesis statement. I don’t copy and paste but just write the conclusion based on the introduction.
Let’s write it.
Conclusion
“Playing video games as an adult can be detrimental to time management, dealing with real life, and personal finances. Video games are notorious for wasting precious resources. Time tends to fly while gaming. Real life gives way to imaginary conquests. And money can dwindle fast.”
As you can tell, this conclusion paragraph simply restates the points we’ve already made in the essay. But it uses different words and phrases to do so.
Note that it contains 45 words. And now we have an essay that is exactly 300 words long!
Additional Tips and Tricks
You can use these techniques to write any number of words.
Let’s say you need to write 500 words. What do you do? Just distribute these 500 words across your paragraphs. You might have the following word count scheme:
- Introduction – 70 words
- Body paragraph 1 – 120 words
- Body paragraph 2 – 120 words
- Body paragraph 3 – 120 words
- Conclusion – 70 words
If you need to write a longer essay, or if you struggle with essay writing in general, you should really read my tutorial on essay writing for beginners by clicking here.
Your thesis statement is your outline.
Your introductory paragraph is essentially a complete thesis statement with an introductory sentence added in the beginning.
If you look at your main and supporting points, you’ll see a clear structure. It has three main sections, each containing a paragraph.
Note that each section can contain as many paragraphs as you want. Just remember to structure them the way you learned here.
But your thesis statement is your guide to writing the complete essay. It is just the way a lead sentence is your guide to writing the body paragraph.
I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and write that brilliant 300-word essay!
Tutor Phil
