steps to follow when writing an essay

The first step to writing an essay is to define what type of essay you are writing. There are four main categories into which essays can be grouped:
If you’ve been tasked with an argumentative essay, here’s the best formula for an Argumentative Essay Outline.

These simple steps will guide you through the essay writing process:
Either way, your essay will have the same basic format.

1The Attention Getter
Write whatever you need to get attention as long as it relates to the essay.
Warning: Contrary to popular belief a question is not a very good attention getter. A reader simply answering no to a question can ruin one of these questions very easily.
Set Up
Before I write my Essay I use the following set up.

Online lessons like Time4Writing’s essay writing classes can help children build and strengthen the foundation for strong essay writing skills in elementary school, middle school, high school and beyond. These interactive essay writing classes build basic writing skills, explain essay types and structure, and teach students how to organize their ideas.
The introduction also sets the tone for your essay, and you want to grab the reader’s attention with interest and clarity. To capture the reader’s attention, you can make a challenging claim about the topic or present some surprising (but factual) information.

Each paragraph addresses only one idea, argument or issue.
The purpose of each paragraph is introduced using topic sentences. The topic sentence forms a transition from the previous paragraph and introduces the argument to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

References:

http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-write-an-essay/
http://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/step-by-step-guide-to-writing-an-essay/
http://www.scribbr.com/category/academic-essay/
http://www.thoughtco.com/steps-in-writing-an-essay-31738