Methodology Used When Writing An Essay

The methodology used when writing an essay sounds like a scary process because most people don't know what methodology is. So, to help out the audience, let's define methodology and then move on to how that applies to writing an essay.

Methodology: the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study.

Now that we have defined methodology, we can apply it to writing an essay. Specifically, the process that is best used when writing an essay. The first step in writing an essay is to write the body of the essay. This doesn't have to be an organized or perfected thing. Step one is to get all your thoughts and everything you know on that paper. The methodology (or analysis) of this step can help us understand why we write the body of the essay first, and it is simply this: because you have gotten all your thoughts on that paper, you can more easily organize those thoughts and edit what you have written. The introduction and conclusion both come from the body of the essay.
A conclusion is the last part of the essay. It's typically the very last paragraph. This is where you sum up what you have said. Because you have the body written, the conclusion becomes very easy. You know your main points and it's simple to sum them up in a few sentences and finish with your thesis, which is the main argument your essay is a part of.
An introduction is designed to tell the audience what you are going to be talking about and what specific rhetorical tools you will be using. If you have the body and conclusion of your essay written, you know the direction of the essay and the introduction becomes very easy to write. As you begin to edit your essay you include rhetorical tools that speak to your desired audience. Including various rhetorical tools will help focus your essay and draw in the proper audience.
These three steps to writing an essay are designed to make the process more simple and faster for students or other people that have to write a paper. The reason this method works is because it applies to any form of writing. Get your thoughts out, edit, conclude, edit some more, introduce, and finalize the essay. It's fool proof work.