Writing a diagnostic essay may sound difficult in case one has no precise understanding of what it is and what its primary purposes are. First of all, one should remember that diagnostic essays are aimed at identifying students’ weak and strong points. Teachers usually use the results to create the curriculum that will address the needs of all students. Depending on the country, the requirements for diagnostic essay may vary. In general terms, diagnostic essays always reflect one’s actual knowledge student has at the moment. Hence, there are only a few primary rules one should remember while writing a diagnostic essay.
Structure of essay
The first important point is that a diagnostic essay should have five paragraphs as any standard essay. Make sure that your essay has a clear introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion, which summarizes the main points you have addressed throughout your essay. The topic of diagnostic essays is usually mentioned in the instructions. Hence, students do not need to spend hours thinking about the themes of their papers. In case your professor has provided a prompt or a list of questions you should answer, make sure that you have addressed all the required points.
Introduction
Writing the introduction, make sure that the beginning is catchy. Concentrate on your thesis statement. Considering that the time to write a diagnostic essay is very limited, you may have no time to go through it carefully before submitting it. Creating a strong thesis statement, you will save much more time. In fact, in most cases, the thesis statement is a basic requirement to the essay structure as it assists greatly in grasping the main idea of your diagnostic essay. Besides, it will serve you as a roadmap for writing the next paragraphs.
Main body
As far as body paragraphs are concerned, remember about transition or topic sentences which should help you to shift easily from paragraph to paragraph. Make sure that the content of each paragraph is related to its topic sentence. In most cases, the first body paragraph must be the strongest one. Also, you should remember that the size of each paragraph should be approximately the same. Each paragraph should be dedicated to separate points which you have briefly mentioned in your thesis statement.
Conclusion
When you start writing your conclusion, the simplest step to do is to restate your thesis statement and summarize once more the most crucial points you have already mentioned. Remember that you cannot introduce new information in conclusion. It should only emphasize once more the most important points. The primary purpose of the conclusion is to give readers a feeling that the questions have been fully covered.
Last but not he least step
After you finish writing your essay, leave some time to proofread it before submitting. There are strong chances that you will notice some visible mistakes that can be corrected by you before your teacher will see it. Considering that you have a limited time to write your diagnostic essays, the chances that you will make some mistakes in a rush only increase.
Lastly, diagnostic essays depend on one’s self-motivation. Some students may feel too relaxed as diagnostic essays usually do not influence one’s grade. Hence, they do not want to think a lot while writing them. However, the results of your diagnostic essay may affect your personal representation. Besides, there are chances that it will become a model for your teacher of how effectively you use your knowledge and writing skills. The best advice is to leave some time to go through your final draft once again, fix errors you will notice, and only then submit it to your teacher.
