Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Writing Process: Interpreting the Topic

What is the essay all about? What are you going to talk about in your essay? Is it a question which you have to answer or a statement that you have to justify? Do you need to compare two or more things/point of views or suggest a solution to a problem?
Well, all these questions are answered by the interpretation of the essay topic. This is the first and most important step of essay writing. An essay writer needs to first understand what he/she is expected to do in the essay, before he/she can proceed with the other steps. If you go wrong here, your entire essay will be done wrong, since the reader will be expecting something else, which you did not interpret correctly. Thus, interpretation of the topic is a very crucial step towards essay writing.


In order to interpret the topic correctly, one needs to pay heed to three aspects of a given topic. These three aspects are:
1. Command – what you are supposed to do.
2. Topic – The general field of discussion
3. Focus – What part of the general field of discussion that you need to focus on.
Take the following example:
“Schooling should be made compulsory for all till the age of 18. Discuss”
Now, in this case, the topic is – “schooling for all till the age of 18”.
The focus will be – “should be made compulsory”, and the command is – “discuss”.
Thus, you have to discuss, investigate, present both sides of the argument as to whether schooling should be made compulsory for all till the age of 18 or not, and arrive at a conclusion. Thus, the students can get a clear understanding that they need to come to a decision whether they support the question or not, and provide arguments accordingly by properly understanding the command.



A wiser way of interpreting a topic would be to consider it as a question. “Should schooling be made compulsory for all till the age of 18?”. This way, you have spared yourself the complication of going wrong with your topic, because all you need to do now is answer the given question. This will force you to see both sides of the argument and then arrive at a conclusion.
Essays are some of the most complex assignments that custom essay writers do. In most cases, essay topics are more like debates, asking the essay writer to act like a lawyer, but present both cases – for and against the topic, and then act as a judge too – who would give a judgement as well. Thus, when attempting an essay, professional essay writers always follow suit where they try to persuade the reader to agree to their point of view but also present the opposing points, along with constantly showing the negatives of the points opposing their point of view, in order to prove why they chose to pick this side of the story.By presenting alternative arguments in your essay, you are not just convincing your reader that you have read well but also showing the reader the weaknesses of the alternative arguments, which will make your case stronger and better in front of your readers.




Interpreting the topic looks like a small step. It sounds very easy and nothing that might need much attention. But the fact remains that the topic is the most important aspect that needs utmost care and attention. The custom essay writer can not afford to go wrong here, as all the following steps are based on this one. Just simple understanding and interpretation of the topic itself can give you many ideas about how to go about your essay, what view points to consider and how to form your debate. Thus, do it right in the beginning, to stay on the right path till the end.