How to Write Essays on Current Events (Such as The Corona Outbreak)

Last updated on March 11th, 2023 at 01:31 pm

Many top exams around the world including those for admission to the most sought after courses, require you to write an essay as one of their selection criteria.

Besides, essay writing is an academic element at every stage of education starting from primary schooling to dissertation writing on way to earning a doctorate degree.

If you are an expert in writing conventional form of essays, you will find it wonderfully easy to master some of today’s in-demand writing skills.

With a little spin, you’ll comfortably write a web copy, B2B and B2C emails, product reviews, marketing white papers…and counting…- implies, you can rake in money.

Because current events are an obvious choice in any essay writing test, the significance of mastering the art of writing them is self explanatory. 

I am trying to sell you this: one should learn how to write essays on current events (or of any kind for that matter) – if not for academic interest, then for earning money online.

The requirements of an essay vary as one moves to higher rungs of education. Techniques discussed here apply to almost all levels, though more specifically to a grad/ post-grad level.

Opening Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Essays on Current Events, the Difference

Learning how to write essays on current events differs from the technique of writing conventional essays in the following respects:

        • You need to exhibit special knowledge on the matter
        • The angle of your viewpoint or criticism reflects whether the essay is fact-oriented or argumentative or opinion based or one with a prediction and vision.
        • Use of current parlance in connection with the topic gives the essay a state-of-the-art presence
        • You need to use expert views, stats and data from daily news
        • Taking a cautious approach, the composer should verify the facts repeatedly and be ready with counter points against probable criticism. 
How to Write Essays on Current Events (Such as The Corona Outbreak)
How to Write Essays on Current Events (Such as The Corona Outbreak)

Write Outlines for Your Essay

If you already know how to write an essay outline , it’s well and good. Or else, you get one here. However, do not laugh it away.

This is the skeleton and the final shape of the essay depends on it quite considerably. Besides, detailed outlining is an art. Done meticulously, it takes off a big part of your load.

Once you have outlined, you are left with the job of filling the spaces exquisitely. Outlining gives you time for relaxed thinking. Now you can concentrate on each point thoroughly and compose beautifully weighed, customized and precise building blocks.

As you must have guessed, the outlines are your raw material for use in the back office or the manufacturing unit. They will not be a part of the finished good.

The trick here is to use a famous writing formula that I have named as 5W, 1H method.

The intermediate product of this method, the outlines, would act as the source point for generation of the various parts of your essay.

Unfolding the Outline Method

The 5W, 1H method consists of the 5 W’s – What, Why, Where, Who and When and 1H – How.

Going by this method,

        • Prepare at least 3 questions starting with each of the W’s and the single H (i.e. at least 18 questions).
        • Keep ready some quotes, data, stats and examples for the answers you will shortly be writing as per your knowledge and grasp of the subject

Your next job will be picking questions for introduction, body and conclusion parts of the essay and answering them with respect to the need of the section. Meanwhile, you will also sprinkle data and statistics as and when required.

Current Events Essay Questions for Outlining

Following are questions which would almost always be sufficient to write essays on current events. You can outline the essay with slight variation of some or all of these questions:

        • What is the matter about and what do we mean by it?
        • What is the status quo?
        • What are we doing about it and what is the likelihood of success?

        • Why has the issue come up for discussion at this point of time?
        • Why can we not let it go without allocating much significance?
        • Why are the apprehensions, presumptions and skepticism of people so?

        • Who are the stakeholders in the matter?
        • Who will provide the necessary clues/ answers?
        • Who owns the accountability for a final status? 

        • Where has the topic got its roots? 
        • Where might the matter lead us?
        • Where lie the solutions and where are the people whose opinions are important?

        • When will the issue unfold or be re-rated?
        • When might it wind up?
        • When are the solutions likely?

        • How are we approaching the issue?
        • How is the response?
        • How is the course of action justified or not justified?

Your inventory being ready, let us concentrate next on different parts of the essay.

How to Write Introduction to a Current Event Essay

Knowing how to begin an essay is so important because this is the point where the story makes or breaks.

Introduction is the trailer of your movie. In the context of current events, this is the point to

        • Explode – showcase surprising data, facts or statistics and
        • Glimpse – depict what is coming in the following paragraphs for an interesting read
        • Create a springboard – The reader is ready to take the plunge. Play the foreshadowing game to act as a springboard.

Add to this, the direction or the angle of your essay. Your viewpoint and the attitude – the two elements that constitute your writing tone, start manifesting themselves during the introduction.

Hence, write first few lines, look back and ask yourself three questions:

        • Will my introduction garner Interest from the reader?
        • Do these lines present my very own view?
        • Do the depth and extent of my essay match the speculation level?

All of this, you have to complete within only 10 percent of the essay length because that is how long the introduction should ideally be.

Read more >> Persuasive Essay Example – Learn How to Write One Using a Template

Body of the Essay

This is the part of the essay where you show your writing acumen. Pick 3-4 most relevant questions which would together cover the subject in entirety. Answer them meticulously in the body paragraphs.

Put your facts, reasons, arguments and criticism to provide the kind of impetus to the story that you began with in the introduction part.

Current events require you to put facts in chronological order and arguments in conformity with each other. This in turn,  demands playing your purpose carefully.

Think of questions and criticism coming your way beforehand and expand on the 5W,1H questions carefully.This is because people are well in touch of a current subject and keep discussing such topics too often.

Soon you will be ready with an exciting and engaging piece.

Write the Conclusion

While writing the conclusion, keep in mind the following points:

        • Conclusion is a brief review of what you have already presented
        • Conclusion part, should be about one tenth of the length of the essay. If your essay has 1000 words, the conclusion would normally consist of about 100 words.
        • A conclusion is sometimes a point to promise something or take an oath. It may present the objective or the goal with absolute vividness in the end.

 

Practice to Perfection

With your tools supplied, you can master how to write essays for current events in a short time. However, you can hone your skill only with continuous practice. 

But wait. you won’t be producing good essays immediately. Like in other fields, your essays will be first mediocre, then good and after some more practice you will be churning out essays that your audience will wait for.

If you want to start now itself, some topics are round the corner. Choose any of them and start writing:

        • Impact of corona outbreak in the third world countries
        • Will social distancing be an “ever-after” effect post the pandemic outbreak?
        • When might the corona effect subside and how will the world economies recover after that?

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