Why No One Really Taught You How to Write an Essay, and What to Do Now

By Christopher Smith Jul 31, 2025

You’ve sat through years of schooling, completed countless assignments, and maybe even aced some exams, but when it comes to writing a strong academic essay, you’re stuck. You stare at the prompt. You try to remember what your teacher once said about structure. And somewhere between the introduction and the conclusion, it falls apart.

Here’s the truth: most students were never really taught how to write essays, not in a way that sticks, and not in a way that makes sense for how essays are actually graded. It’s not your fault. But now that you’re here, let’s talk about why this gap exists, and what you can do to fix it, starting now.

Why Weren’t You Taught Proper Essay Writing?

1. Curriculums Prioritize Content Over Skills

From high school to university, many curriculums focus more on what to teach than how to teach students to think and write. The emphasis is on covering a vast amount of subject matter, history, biology, literature, political theory, not on helping students develop the academic skills they need to express themselves clearly.

In most schools, writing instruction gets slotted into short units, not long-term development. You might get one or two lessons on structure, maybe a worksheet or checklist. But you’re rarely shown what thinking through an essay looks like. There’s no time to build feedback loops, revise deeply, or understand why some arguments are strong and others fall apart.

2. Teachers Assume You Already Know the Basics

By the time you reach high school, or especially university, there’s often an assumption that you’ve already been taught how to write essays. Teachers focus on grading the result, not teaching the process. They might say “make your argument clearer” or “use more evidence,” but they don’t unpack how to do those things.

This creates a frustrating feedback loop: you get vague or high-level comments but no concrete steps to improve. If you don’t already understand how essays work, you’re left guessing.

3. Standardized Testing Warps Writing Expectations

In countries like the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, standardized tests often reward formulaic writing: five paragraphs, predictable transitions, and surface-level arguments. That works for passing exams, but not for writing actual essays in college, where originality, analysis, and voice matter far more.

Students trained to meet test criteria struggle later. You might know how to write a rubric, but not how to construct a persuasive academic argument that feels alive and intelligent. The writing ends up stiff, robotic, or shallow.

4. Writing Is Hard to Teach at Scale

Good writing instruction is deeply personal. It requires feedback, one-on-one conversation, revision, and time. But most teachers have to grade dozens, sometimes hundreds, of essays. They’re under time pressure, too. So the feedback stays vague or generic, and meaningful writing development never happens.

It’s not laziness. It’s the system. And students fall through the cracks.

What You Can Do Now, Even If No One Taught You

1. Understand That Essays Are Arguments, Not Reports

The biggest mental shift? Stop treating essays like reports or summaries. A strong essay makes an argument. It takes a position. It builds a case using logic, evidence, and structure.

Ask yourself:

What am I really trying to say here?
What’s my angle, my position, my claim?
Am I explaining something, or am I arguing something?

If your essay doesn’t feel like it has a heartbeat, a driving idea, it’s probably not an essay yet.

2. Use This Reliable Structure (But Make It Yours)

Forget the robotic five-paragraph template. Instead, use this flexible structure:

Introduction: Introduce the issue and your main argument (your thesis).
Body Paragraphs: Each paragraph explores one idea that supports your thesis. Start with a clear topic sentence. Follow with evidence, explanation, and analysis.
Counterargument (optional but powerful): Acknowledge an opposing view and explain why your argument still holds.
Conclusion: Don’t just repeat your intro. Show why your argument matters, what’s at stake, what’s unresolved, or what should happen next.

This structure keeps your thinking clear while allowing depth and complexity.

3. Learn How to Build an Argument, Step by Step

Most students lose marks because their essays sound vague or unsupported. To avoid that:

Make a clear claim: “Social media has negatively impacted teenage mental health” is a claim, not just an observation.
Back it up with evidence: Use data, quotes, examples, or logic. Don’t just say it, prove it.
Explain why it matters: Always connect the dots for the reader. How does this evidence support your point? Why is it significant?

Repeat this pattern for every main point. Clarity wins over complexity.

4. Look at Real Essay Examples, and Break Them Down

Find real essays, graded samples, past student papers, or examples from online learning platforms. But don’t just read them. Deconstruct them:

What’s the thesis?
How does each paragraph develop that thesis?
How is evidence used?
What makes the writing feel clear or persuasive?

Reverse-engineering essays is one of the fastest ways to learn what good writing looks like.

5. Get Better Feedback, and Use It

When you get your essay back, don’t just look at the grade. Ask yourself:

What kind of comments are repeated?
Do I understand why I lost marks?
Can I revise just one paragraph using the feedback and see if it improves?

You can also swap papers with a classmate, use writing centers, or online tutors, not to be corrected, but to see how others respond to your ideas. That’s how you build intuition.

6. Practice in Low-Stakes Settings

The best writers write a lot, and not just under pressure. Try this:

Respond to sample essay prompts in 15-minute bursts.
Rewrite just your introductions until they feel sharper.
Take a single idea and develop it into a mini paragraph, fully reasoned.

Practicing without pressure helps you experiment and build confidence.

Conclusion

If essay writing feels confusing, frustrating, or inconsistent, it’s not a sign you’re bad at it. It’s a sign you were never given the tools. The education system doesn’t always teach essay writing in a way that builds lasting skill. But the good news? You can learn this.

Essay writing isn’t about talent or high vocabulary. It’s about thinking clearly and communicating purposefully. Once you see it as a process of building arguments and refining your ideas, it starts to click.

You’re not behind. You’re just beginning with a clearer map.