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How and When to Use Images in an Essay

• 3-minute read
• 15th December 2018

Pages of text alone can look quite boring. And while you might think that ‘boring’ is normal for an essay, it doesn’t have to be. Using images and charts in an essay can make your document more visually interesting. It can even help you earn better grades if done right!

Here, then, is our guide on how to use images in an academic essay .

How to Use Images in an Essay

Usually, you will only need to add an image in academic writing if it serves a specific purpose (e.g. illustrating your argument). Even then, you need to make sure images are presently correctly. As such, try asking yourself the following questions whenever you add an image in an essay:

• Does it add anything useful? Any image or chart you include in your work should help you make your argument or explain a point more clearly. For instance, if you are analysing a film, you may need to include a still from a scene to illustrate a point you are making.
• Is the image clearly labelled? All images in your essay should come with clear captions (e.g. ‘Figure 1’ plus a title or description). Without these, your reader may not know how images relate to the surrounding text.
• Have you mentioned the image in the text? Make sure to directly reference the image in the text of your essay. If you have included an image to illustrate a point, for instance, you would include something along the lines of ‘An example of this can be seen in Figure 1’.

The key, then, is that images in an essay are not just decoration. Rather, they should fit with and add to the arguments you make in the text.

Citing Images and Illustrations

If you have created all the images and charts you want to use in your essay, then all you need to do is label them clearly (as described above). But if you want to use an image found somewhere else in your work, you will need to cite your source as well, just as you would when quoting someone.

The exact format for this will depend on the referencing system you’re using. However, with author–date referencing, it usually involves giving the source author’s name and a year of publication:

In the caption above, for example, we have cited the paper containing the image and the page it is on. We would then need to add the paper to the reference list at the end of the document:

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Gramblička, S., Kohar, R., & Stopka, M. (2017). Dynamic analysis of mechanical conveyor drive system. Procedia Engineering , 192, 259–264. DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.06.045

You can also cite an image directly if it not part of a larger publication or document. If we wanted to cite an image found online in APA referencing , for example, we would use the following format:

Surname, Initial(s). (Role). (Year).  Title or description of image  [Image format]. Retrieved from URL.

In practice, then, we could cite a photograph as follows:

Booth, S. (Photographer). (2014). Passengers [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebooth/35470947736/in/pool-best100only/

Make sure to check your style guide for which referencing system to use.

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When to Use an Image in an Essay: What You Need to Know

by  Antony W

September 13, 2022

There’s a 98% chance that the essays you’ve written so far are pages of text alone. While plain text can make the work look dull, academic writing hardly ever requires you to use images, charts, and graphs in the essay. 

While that doesn’t mean you can’t include visuals in your assignment, it’s important to learn when to use an image in an essay.

You can add an image in your essay only if it serves a specific purpose such as illustrating an argument for more clarity. If you’re going to include an image in your essay, make sure you present it correctly and at the same time follow the standard citation rules.

In this guide, we’ll talk more about images in an essay, including why they’re important, when exactly to add one in your work, and the right way cite them.

In the end, you should be able to make a solid judgment as far as the inclusion of images in your work is concerned.

Key Takeaways 

• The types of images you can use in an essay are pictures, graphs, and charts.
• It’s acceptable to add an image in an essay to illustrate an argument for more clarity.
• Images can be useful when explaining a process, showing an example, or in the instance when you want to grab your reader’s attention.
• Be advised that you must follow the accepted citation rules when including an image in the essay.

What Type of Images Can You Include in An Essay?

Just because you can include an image in an essay doesn’t mean any image you include in the assignment will be a good fit.

Remember, the role of an image is to give your essay a better structure and make your writing readable and easy to understand.

Instructors don’t impose limits on the types of images a student can include in an essay.

For example, a student working on an IB Physics Internal Assessment can use charts, drawings, photos, and infographic to explain concepts that would be otherwise difficult to explain in words.

However, there are rule you must observe.

1. Pictures 

Pictures introduce breaks between blocks of words in an essay while adding meaning to the overall context of the assignment.

By themselves, pictures are worth a thousand words, which is another way to state that they’re descriptive enough to communicate a solid message.

While you can use any picture in your essay, provided it’s relevant for your topic, the image you choose to include must have meet the following requirements:

• The image should be clear when viewed in web document and in print
• You must have the legal right to use the image in your essay – otherwise you’d have to create your own
• The image you choose should be relevant to the topic of your essay

The next thing you need to understand before including an image in an essay is placement .

In other words, where should you insert the picture?

• End of the essay: Include the image in the reference section of your essay and then include a reference to the image in the body text of your essay.
• In the body of the essay: Have the image inserted on a separate page within the body section of your essay. Don’t forget to mention the picture in the text so that your readers are aware that you’ve intentionally included it in your work.
• Within body text: You can use in-text citations to include an image in your essay, but it’s best to avoid this option because it tends to alter the formatting of the paper.

The picture you include in your essay must have a source name, unique description, and a number to make it easy for your reader to find and reference the image if they want to.

Also, you should attribute the photo if you don’t own it so that you don’t violate the copyright ownership of the material. 

2. Graphs and Charts 

Graphs and charts are the best type of media to include in an essay.

Unlike standard pictures, graphs and charts can easily explain complex concepts in visuals than lengthy words would do. These types of images are useful because they can help you to:

• Illustrate size, meaning, or a degree of influence
• Compare two or more objects 
• Provide an illustration of some statistics that are relevant to your study

The best thing about using graphs and charts in an essay is that you can explain complex concepts and make them easily understood.

So whether you want to show a comparison or believe that graphs and charts can communicate ideas better than words, you can add some visualization to your work to make your essay appear more appealing and easier to read.

You can use ready-made graphs and charts in your work provided you cite them properly.

Or you can use a software solution such as Microsoft PowerPoint to create your own.

Whether you download your media from the web or create them on your own, it’s important that you add appropriate naming and comments to enhance information clarity.  

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When to Use an Image in an Essay

The following are instance of when it would make sense to use an image in an essay:

1. When Explaining a Process

Some processes are difficult to explain because they are complex.

If you don't think words can adequately convey meaning or the message you wish to communicate, it would be best to use an image to simplify your explanations and bring out meaning.

2. If You Want to Show an Example

Any claim you make in your article or research paper must include proofs and specific examples.

To reinforce your argument, you might provide a graphic or chart as an easy-to-understand illustration.

Let’s say you want to talk about the effects of various medications on bacteria.

In such a case, it would make more sense to use a before-and-after photographs or graphs to illustrate your point.

3. Images Are Useful for Grabbing Reader’s Attention

You can use graphic pictures to draw the attention of your readers. When writing on works of art and cultures, it would make a lot of sense to include images in your piece of writing.

Final Thoughts

To be abundantly clear, images aren’t a requirement in essay writing.

So you should only include them if they serve unique and academically acceptable purpose.

You don’t want to add an aesthetic appeal to your essay when really there’s no need for you to do so in the first place. 

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

Academic Writing Guides for Students

How To Use Pictures in Your Academic Writing

Pictures can add a lot to academic writing because they support the arguments made in the text. They offer readers another way to consider and process information and often create a vivid impression of concepts related to the work. Pictures can also help you convey important ideas or data in an efficient way so that your essay isn’t too long and drawn out! Because pictures vary widely in their meaning and purpose, it’s worth plotting them through different stages in your paper: what do you want to show? why does it matter? how is it connected to your argument?

The best place for an image is within sentences or paragraphs where you’re discussing relevant concepts. For example, let’s say I wanted to talk about “the interplay between observation and affect” (an abstract, vague concept). If I use a picture of someone observing something – like the moon or stars – then my reader can see that I’m talking about “observation.” A picture of someone holding their hand to their head (a common pose when feeling overwhelmed) could convey the idea of “affect.”

Pictures can also illustrate relationships between concepts. Let’s say we want to argue that we should shift our perspective on the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature: rather than treating this relationship as one where we exploit and consume natural resources (which has negative impacts for humans and non-humans), we might consider it more as a type of friendship. In this case, pictures of friends laughing together would be useful because we can see that “friendship” is a type of relationship. This specific example does not work because the concept of “friendship” is too broad and it is unclear how this type of relationship relates to nature or humans’ understanding of it.

The main drawback when using pictures in academic writing is determining when it is appropriate for your reader to make these visual comparisons themselves. If you’ve written a paragraph where you’re showing a variety of concepts, then readers may get confused if you use a picture with only one aspect within the text. For instance, I have not included any pictures of stars or moons in this post – if I were to add one at the end, my argument would lose focus and become muddled. In short: if you’re using a picture, you need to be reasonably sure your reader will see it in the same way as you do.

Pictures can also contribute to the design of your essay by creating consistency and establishing connections between your argument and other elements. For example, if I had included images within every paragraph, any readers could expect that they would always find some type of visual support for my paper’s claims; this expectation might make them more open to exploring new ideas towards the end. The overall look of the text ( the font choices , image size/placement etc.) can help set out your position within academia. This is why it is important to consider how pictures are positioned (and where they appear) throughout an entire assignment rather than just at the end.

Best of luck with your future writing!

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, using imagery in college essays: tips and importance.

As I start drafting my essays for college applications, how crucial is it to include imagery, and does anyone have strategies for incorporating it effectively without overdoing it?

Imagery can be a powerful tool in your essays, creating an immersive experience for the reader and showcasing your writing abilities. It's important to use it to bring your story to life, painting a vivid picture of experiences, settings, emotions, or actions. However, the key is balance. You want to enhance your narrative without detracting from your message or making the prose feel forced.

One strategy is to choose moments where detailed descriptions will add value, perhaps when setting the scene or emphasizing a pivotal moment in your story. It's often more impactful to illustrate one memorable instance in detail than to use flowery language throughout.

For example, instead of describing a general passion for nature, you could describe the intricate patterns of frost on leaves during an early morning hike. This paints a picture while telling something meaningful about your appreciation for detail and beauty. Keep it natural, and let your own voice shine through. Best of luck with your applications!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

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Using Images in a Presentation

Is the image for decoration? If yes, follow below. No? Keep scrolling.

1. Royalty-free clipart does not require an attribution.

2. Public domain images don't require an attribution. However, it's considered good form to allow your audience to find your images. You should make an attribution in a caption beneath or adjacent to the image that states the title/name of the image, the author/creator (if you can find it), the source, and the license. Then h yperlink the title of the image and author to the source of the image. See the box below for more information on creating attributions.  For example:

Lightbulb by ColiN00B is licensed under Creative Commons CC0 

Photo by ColiN00B on Pixabay

Is the image for analysis or to support your argument? If yes, follow below.

1. In this case, you are using the image in an academic way so you should provide an MLA citation.  Remember, a URL is not a citation. You must provide a citation for an image in the same way that you make a citation for a book or a website. Use NoodleTools to help. You can list citations like this:

Creator’s Last name, First name. “Title of the digital image.”  Title of the website , First name Last name of any contributors, Version (if applicable), Number (if applicable), Publisher, Publication date, URL.

Vasquez, Gary A. Photograph of Coach K with Team USA.  NBC Olympics , USA Today Sports, 5 Aug. 2016, www.nbcolympics.com/news/rio-olympics-coach-ks-toughest-test-or-lasting-legacy.

2. You can put the citation as a caption beneath the image. You can also list it with your other references in your "Works Cited" list. 

Creative Commons and Royalty-Free Media

• 10 Websites with Free Stock Video Footage Free royalty free stock footage is hard to find but we have compiled a list of some of the better sites that are offering a selection of video clips available for download and use in personal and commercial projects.
• Compfight Locate the visual inspiration you need. Super fast!
• Creative Commons Search for images and videos with a Creative Commons re-use license on multiple websites.
• Flickr Commons Images with no known copyright restrictions from various cultural heritage institutions
• Getty Search Gateway The Getty Search Gateway allows users to search across several of the Getty repositories, including collections databases, library catalogs, collection inventories, and archival finding aids.
• Google Images Choose "Tools" > Choose "Usage Rights" > Choose "Labeled for reuse"
• Morguefile Morguefile is a free photo archive “for creatives, by creatives.”
• Open Clipart Free, public domain clip art.
• Pexels.com Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.
• Photos for Class Search now to download properly attributed, Creative Commons photos for school!
• Pixabay Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
• Snappygoat.com Over 13,000,000 free public domain images.
• Tineye Have an image but not sure where it's from? Try this reverse image search.
• Unsplash Over 1,000,000 free (do-whatever-you-want) high-resolution photos brought to you by the world’s most generous community of photographers.
• Video Assets from Camtasia Royalty-free elements to enhance your videos in Camtasia
• Wikimedia Commons Over 40 million freely usable media files. Attributions provided. This is a great source for finding historical images, as well.

How to make attributions next to an image

• Creative Commons - Best practices for attribution You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here are some good (and not so good) examples of attribution.

If you use images, such as photographs or clipart , in your presentation, you should also credit the source of the image. Do not reproduce images without permission. See the box "Finding Public Domain Images" in this guide to find sources for images that are "public use".

Use the acronym TASL to remember how to attribute images:

T - Title/Description

A - Author or creator

S - Source & date (Name of the website the image is from)

L - License or location (Creative Commons license or URL)

For example...

" Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt " by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is licensed under CC by 2.0

Title: Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt  Author: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Source: Flickr (linked in title)  License: CC by 2.0

Quick Guide

Citing images in mla.

• OWL Purdue - Images
• OWL Purdue - Tables and Figures The purpose of visual materials or other illustrations is to enhance the audience's understanding of information in the document and/or awareness of a topic. Writers can embed several types of visuals using most basic word processing software: diagrams, musical scores, photographs, or, for documents that will be read electronically, audio/video applications.
• OWL Purdue - Other types of sources Several sources have multiple means for citation, especially those that appear in varied formats: films, DVDs, T.V shows, music, published and unpublished interviews, interviews over e-mail; published and unpublished conference proceedings.

Public Domain Images

These images are in the public domain. They are free to use, but you must make an attribution or citation.

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How to Put Illustrations in an Essay

Colleen reinhart.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes an illustration is exactly what you need in your paper to drive an argument home and communicate your point succinctly. Avoid using images to pad your essay; make sure the illustration you've chosen serves a rhetorical purpose. Placing pictures according to style conventions ensures that their format is consistent with the rest of your paper, conveying a level of expertise that makes your argument more convincing overall.

Explore this article

• Embed the illustration close
• Caption each image with a number
• Complete the caption with the reference information
• Caption your figure
• Complete the caption with a new sentence
• Refer to the figure within the body of your paper to the figure within the body of your paper

1 MLA Style

2 embed the illustration close.

Embed the illustration close to the essay text referring to it. You can place the picture wherever makes the most sense in your essay. Keep images inside your 1-inch margins throughout your MLA-style document.

3 Caption each image with a number

Caption each image with a number, a short title and the word "from." Reference information describing the illustration's source will follow. At this point, your caption should look like "Fig. 1. Anne sips her tea in the garden from," minus the quotation marks.

4 Complete the caption with the reference information

Complete the caption with the reference information to credit the source of the illustration. Document the source information the same way you would if you were completing a works-cited entry for the publication. For example, an illustration from a book would be cited with the author first, followed by a comma. The title of the book would be italicized. Publishing city, institution and year would come next, formatted in brackets and followed by the page number for the illustration: (New York: Puffin, 2002) 22.

Refer to the caption within the body of your essay using the format "fig. 1." Do not capitalize the "fig." in your in-text references.

6 APA Style

Size the illustration to fit APA style specifications. If the figure spans one column, it must be 2 inches to 3.25 inches wide. Figures taking up two columns should be 4.25 inches to 6.875 inches wide. The height of your illustration must fit within the top and bottom margins of the page.

8 Caption your figure

Caption your figure. APA style requires that you use a sans-serif font (Arial, for example), 8 points to12 points in size. Use the full, capitalized word "Figure" and a number to identify the illustration. Next, include a short title and an explanation of the figure's relevance. For example: Figure 1. Action Potentials. This figure shows how an action potential fires within a single muscle cell.

9 Complete the caption with a new sentence

Complete the caption with a new sentence, beginning with the words "Taken from" or "Adapted from" and ending with an APA-style citation for the source material. For example, if your picture came from a book, you would begin with the author, followed by a period. Next would come the year of publication in brackets, followed by a period. Include the title of the publication next, italicized and followed by the page number in brackets: (pp. 45). Finally, add the publisher location and company in the following format: New York: Penguin.

10 Refer to the figure within the body of your paper to the figure within the body of your paper

Refer to the figure within the body of your paper. Capitalize its reference when you write about it. For example: "In Figure 2, you can see that..."

• You don't need to create a separate reference sheet for your figures if you include all the source information in your captions, as suggested here.
• 1 Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA Tables, Figures and Examples
• 2 Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA Tables and Figures 2
• 3 Purdue Online Writing Lab: Reference List -- Books

About the Author

A professional writer since 2006, Colleen Reinhart has held positions in technical writing and marketing. She also writes lifestyle, health and business articles. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Business degree from the University of Waterloo, and a Master's degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Toronto.

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How to Structure an Essay | Tips & Templates

Published on September 18, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction , a body , and a conclusion . But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body.

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Table of contents

The basics of essay structure, chronological structure, compare-and-contrast structure, problems-methods-solutions structure, signposting to clarify your structure, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay structure.

There are two main things to keep in mind when working on your essay structure: making sure to include the right information in each part, and deciding how you’ll organize the information within the body.

Parts of an essay

The three parts that make up all essays are described in the table below.

Order of information

You’ll also have to consider how to present information within the body. There are a few general principles that can guide you here.

The first is that your argument should move from the simplest claim to the most complex . The body of a good argumentative essay often begins with simple and widely accepted claims, and then moves towards more complex and contentious ones.

For example, you might begin by describing a generally accepted philosophical concept, and then apply it to a new topic. The grounding in the general concept will allow the reader to understand your unique application of it.

The second principle is that background information should appear towards the beginning of your essay . General background is presented in the introduction. If you have additional background to present, this information will usually come at the start of the body.

The third principle is that everything in your essay should be relevant to the thesis . Ask yourself whether each piece of information advances your argument or provides necessary background. And make sure that the text clearly expresses each piece of information’s relevance.

The sections below present several organizational templates for essays: the chronological approach, the compare-and-contrast approach, and the problems-methods-solutions approach.

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The chronological approach (sometimes called the cause-and-effect approach) is probably the simplest way to structure an essay. It just means discussing events in the order in which they occurred, discussing how they are related (i.e. the cause and effect involved) as you go.

A chronological approach can be useful when your essay is about a series of events. Don’t rule out other approaches, though—even when the chronological approach is the obvious one, you might be able to bring out more with a different structure.

Explore the tabs below to see a general template and a specific example outline from an essay on the invention of the printing press.

• Thesis statement
• Discussion of event/period
• Consequences
• Importance of topic
• Strong closing statement
• Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages
• Background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press
• Thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation
• High levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe
• Literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites
• Consequence: this discouraged political and religious change
• Invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg
• Implications of the new technology for book production
• Consequence: Rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible
• Trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention
• Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation
• Consequence: The large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics
• Summarize the history described
• Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period

Essays with two or more main subjects are often structured around comparing and contrasting . For example, a literary analysis essay might compare two different texts, and an argumentative essay might compare the strengths of different arguments.

There are two main ways of structuring a compare-and-contrast essay: the alternating method, and the block method.

Alternating

In the alternating method, each paragraph compares your subjects in terms of a specific point of comparison. These points of comparison are therefore what defines each paragraph.

The tabs below show a general template for this structure, and a specific example for an essay comparing and contrasting distance learning with traditional classroom learning.

• Synthesis of arguments
• Topical relevance of distance learning in lockdown
• Increasing prevalence of distance learning over the last decade
• Thesis statement: While distance learning has certain advantages, it introduces multiple new accessibility issues that must be addressed for it to be as effective as classroom learning
• Classroom learning: Ease of identifying difficulties and privately discussing them
• Distance learning: Difficulty of noticing and unobtrusively helping
• Classroom learning: Difficulties accessing the classroom (disability, distance travelled from home)
• Distance learning: Difficulties with online work (lack of tech literacy, unreliable connection, distractions)
• Classroom learning: Tends to encourage personal engagement among students and with teacher, more relaxed social environment
• Distance learning: Greater ability to reach out to teacher privately
• Sum up, emphasize that distance learning introduces more difficulties than it solves
• Stress the importance of addressing issues with distance learning as it becomes increasingly common
• Distance learning may prove to be the future, but it still has a long way to go

In the block method, each subject is covered all in one go, potentially across multiple paragraphs. For example, you might write two paragraphs about your first subject and then two about your second subject, making comparisons back to the first.

The tabs again show a general template, followed by another essay on distance learning, this time with the body structured in blocks.

• Point 1 (compare)
• Point 2 (compare)
• Point 3 (compare)
• Point 4 (compare)
• Advantages: Flexibility, accessibility
• Disadvantages: Discomfort, challenges for those with poor internet or tech literacy
• Advantages: Potential for teacher to discuss issues with a student in a separate private call
• Disadvantages: Difficulty of identifying struggling students and aiding them unobtrusively, lack of personal interaction among students
• Advantages: More accessible to those with low tech literacy, equality of all sharing one learning environment
• Disadvantages: Students must live close enough to attend, commutes may vary, classrooms not always accessible for disabled students
• Advantages: Ease of picking up on signs a student is struggling, more personal interaction among students
• Disadvantages: May be harder for students to approach teacher privately in person to raise issues

An essay that concerns a specific problem (practical or theoretical) may be structured according to the problems-methods-solutions approach.

This is just what it sounds like: You define the problem, characterize a method or theory that may solve it, and finally analyze the problem, using this method or theory to arrive at a solution. If the problem is theoretical, the solution might be the analysis you present in the essay itself; otherwise, you might just present a proposed solution.

The tabs below show a template for this structure and an example outline for an essay about the problem of fake news.

• Introduce the problem
• Provide background
• Describe your approach to solving it
• Define the problem precisely
• Describe why it’s important
• Indicate previous approaches to the problem
• Present your new approach, and why it’s better
• Apply the new method or theory to the problem
• Indicate the solution you arrive at by doing so
• Assess (potential or actual) effectiveness of solution
• Describe the implications
• Problem: The growth of “fake news” online
• Prevalence of polarized/conspiracy-focused news sources online
• Thesis statement: Rather than attempting to stamp out online fake news through social media moderation, an effective approach to combating it must work with educational institutions to improve media literacy
• Definition: Deliberate disinformation designed to spread virally online
• Popularization of the term, growth of the phenomenon
• Previous approaches: Labeling and moderation on social media platforms
• Critique: This approach feeds conspiracies; the real solution is to improve media literacy so users can better identify fake news
• Greater emphasis should be placed on media literacy education in schools
• This allows people to assess news sources independently, rather than just being told which ones to trust
• This is a long-term solution but could be highly effective
• It would require significant organization and investment, but would equip people to judge news sources more effectively
• Rather than trying to contain the spread of fake news, we must teach the next generation not to fall for it

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Signposting means guiding the reader through your essay with language that describes or hints at the structure of what follows.  It can help you clarify your structure for yourself as well as helping your reader follow your ideas.

The essay overview

In longer essays whose body is split into multiple named sections, the introduction often ends with an overview of the rest of the essay. This gives a brief description of the main idea or argument of each section.

The overview allows the reader to immediately understand what will be covered in the essay and in what order. Though it describes what  comes later in the text, it is generally written in the present tense . The following example is from a literary analysis essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

Transitions

Transition words and phrases are used throughout all good essays to link together different ideas. They help guide the reader through your text, and an essay that uses them effectively will be much easier to follow.

Various different relationships can be expressed by transition words, as shown in this example.

Because Hitler failed to respond to the British ultimatum, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Although it was an outcome the Allies had hoped to avoid, they were prepared to back up their ultimatum in order to combat the existential threat posed by the Third Reich.

Transition sentences may be included to transition between different paragraphs or sections of an essay. A good transition sentence moves the reader on to the next topic while indicating how it relates to the previous one.

… Distance learning, then, seems to improve accessibility in some ways while representing a step backwards in others.

However , considering the issue of personal interaction among students presents a different picture.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

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The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.

The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.

Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:

• The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
• The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.

It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

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How to Cite an Image or Photo in MLA Format

If you don’t know how to cite an image in MLA format, it’s easy to learn. For images or photographs you find online, the most recent edition of the MLA style guide (the 9th) recommends that you include the creator’s name , image title , name of the website hosting the image , date of origin , and URL , in that order.   Give your writing extra polish Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly Those of you familiar with how to write a research paper or how to write a report already know that citations on the works cited page must follow a specific format. If you found a picture online—whether a photograph, digital image, or any other visual—follow this formula for citing a picture in MLA format: 

Last name of creator, First name. “Image title.” Website name , Day Month Year of posting, URL. 

Note that the image title may be in italics instead of quotation marks if the work is a painting or photograph. If the image has no title , you can write a basic description of the image, without quotation marks, in its place.

If you found the image online, writing the URL is a necessary part of how to cite a photo in MLA format. A helpful tip to stay organized is to write down the URL in your essay outline when researching so you don’t have to go back and search for it later. In MLA format, you drop the “http://” or “https://” from the URL and start with “www” or whatever text comes first. 

In practice, your works-cited-page citation should look like this: 

Hertzberg, Karen. “Star Wars vs. Star Trek.” Grammarly Blog , 8 Apr. 2022, www.grammarly.com/blog/star-wars-vs-star-trek-you-cant- force-good-writing .

As with other sources used in academic writing , you need to include in-text citations for images referenced in your paper. This remains true even if you’re paraphrasing the source material, although in that case it’s recommended that you run your excerpt through a plagiarism checker . 

In-text citations for images and photos in MLA format simply list the creator’s last name in parentheses, like so: 

(Last name of creator)

(Hertzberg)

As long as you found your image online, those are the basic formulas for how to cite a picture in MLA format. Note that this formula applies to both primary and secondary sources . 

However, if you didn’t find your image online, it’s a different story. If you’re citing images you found in a museum or art gallery or images from a book or journal article, you use a different set of MLA citation guidelines. Likewise, if you want to reproduce an image in your paper and give proper credit to the source, you also follow different guidelines. Below we explain how to cite a photograph in MLA format in all these situations.  

Here’s a tip: Citations can be difficult, but they don’t have to trip you up. Grammarly’s Citation Generator ensures your essays have flawless citations and no plagiarism. Try it for tricky MLA image citations like book or  magazine covers , or graphic novels .

How to cite an image from a book in MLA format

When citing an image in MLA format from a book, the first question to ask yourself is whether the creator is the same as the book’s author. 

If the creator and the author are the same , you can cite the image by using the formula for citing the book —although you have to also include the image’s figure number in an in-text citation. 

(Last name of author, fig. #, p. #)

(Seuss, fig. 3, p. 12)

However, if the author is not the creator , you use this formula: 

Last name of image creator, First name. Image title . Year of origin for image. Book title , by First name Last name of author, Book publisher, Year of publication, p. # of image.  

In practice, your citation should look like this: 

Kusama, Yayoi. All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins . 2016. Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts , by Debra DeWitte, et al., Thames & Hudson,  2018, p.1. 

The in-text citation uses only the creator’s last name in parentheses . You don’t need to include a page number because the page number is already in the citation on the works cited page. 

(del Sarto)

How to cite an image from a journal article in MLA format 

Just like with images from books, the rules for how to cite an image in MLA format from a journal article depend on whether the image creator is also the article author. If so, cite the image following the standard guidelines for citing journal articles, adding the figure number for in-text citations (see the above section). 

If the image creator and the article’s author are different , follow this formula for citations on the works cited page:

Last name of image creator, First name. Image title . Year of origin for image. “Article title,” by First name Last name of author, Journal name , vol. #, no. #, Month Year, pp. #–# of the article, URL or DOI, p. # of image.  

Just to be clear, the first set of page numbers is for the entire article, and the last page number is for the image. If either the volume or issue number isn’t available, feel free to skip over it. In practice, it should look like this: 

Wyler, Otto. Maloja . 1917. “Contemporary Swiss Art,” by Paul Ganz, The Brooklyn Museum Quarterly , vol. 8, no. 2, Apr. 1921, pp. 9–27, www.jstor.org/stable/26459449, p. 14.

Again, in-text citations require only the creator’s last name in parentheses . 

How to cite an image from a museum or gallery in MLA format 

Images viewed in a museum or art gallery, both in person and through the venue’s website, can also be cited as reference sources. 

If you viewed the image in person, use this formula to cite images in MLA format: 

Last name of creator, First name. Image title . Year of origin, Name of museum or gallery, Location.

When formatted correctly, it should look like this: 

Klimt, Gustav. The Kiss . 1909, The Belvedere, Vienna. 

If you viewed the image on the museum’s or gallery’s website, use this formula instead:

Last name of creator, First name. Image title . Year of origin. Website name , URL. 

Your citation should look like this: 

Klimt, Gustav. The Kiss . 1909. Belvedere , sammlung.belvedere.at/objects/6678/der-kuss-liebespaar.

In-text citations still require only the creator’s last name in parentheses .

How to reproduce an image in text with MLA format

If you want to include a copy of the image in your paper, MLA format has some special guidelines. For starters, image captions are labeled as figures, using the formula “Fig. #.” After that, there are two methods for writing caption citations:

• Give the full information for the source next to the caption and do not include the source on the works cited page. 
• Give partial information for the source next to the caption and include the full citation on the works cited page. 

In the first method, you give the full citation for the source below the image in your paper and do not include it on the works cited page. After the figure number and a period, simply cite the source exactly as you would on a works cited page, with one exception: the creator’s name is written as “First name Last name.”  

In practice, your image caption should look like this: 

Fig. 1. Andrea del Sarto. The Madonna del Sacco . 1525. A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture , by Clara Erskine Clement, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1887, p. 106. 

The second method uses a shorter, simpler citation for the caption but still includes the full citation on the works cited page. Simply follow this formula when writing the caption below the image in your paper: 

Fig. #. First name Last name of creator, Image title , Year of origin. 

A final caption citation using this method looks like this: 

Fig. 1. Andrea del Sarto, The Madonna del Sacco , 1525. 

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How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

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How to Write an Essay

Last Updated: July 22, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 18 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 7,984,906 times.

An essay is a common type of academic writing that you'll likely be asked to do in multiple classes. Before you start writing your essay, make sure you understand the details of the assignment so that you know how to approach the essay and what your focus should be. Once you've chosen a topic, do some research and narrow down the main argument(s) you'd like to make. From there, you'll need to write an outline and flesh out your essay, which should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. After your essay is drafted, spend some time revising it to ensure your writing is as strong as possible.

Understanding Your Assignment

• The compare/contrast essay , which focuses on analyzing the similarities and differences between 2 things, such as ideas, people, events, places, or works of art.
• The narrative essay , which tells a story.
• The argumentative essay , in which the writer uses evidence and examples to convince the reader of their point of view.
• The critical or analytical essay, which examines something (such as a text or work of art) in detail. This type of essay may attempt to answer specific questions about the subject or focus more generally on its meaning.
• The informative essay , that educates the reader about a topic.

• How long your essay should be
• Which citation style to use
• Formatting requirements, such as margin size , line spacing, and font size and type

Christopher Taylor, PhD

Christopher Taylor, Professor of English, tells us: "Most essays will contain an introduction, a body or discussion portion, and a conclusion. When assigned a college essay, make sure to check the specific structural conventions related to your essay genre , your field of study, and your professor's expectations."

• If you're doing a research-based essay , you might find some inspiration from reading through some of the major sources on the subject.
• For a critical essay, you might choose to focus on a particular theme in the work you're discussing, or analyze the meaning of a specific passage.

• If you're having trouble narrowing down your topic, your instructor might be able to provide guidance or inspiration.

Planning and Organizing Your Essay

• Academic books and journals tend to be good sources of information. In addition to print sources, you may be able to find reliable information in scholarly databases such as JSTOR and Google Scholar.
• You can also look for primary source documents, such as letters, eyewitness accounts, and photographs.
• Always evaluate your sources critically. Even research papers by reputable academics can contain hidden biases, outdated information, and simple errors or faulty logic.

Tip: In general, Wikipedia articles are not considered appropriate sources for academic writing. However, you may be able to find useful sources in the “References” section at the end of the article.

• You might find it helpful to write your notes down on individual note cards or enter them into a text document on your computer so you can easily copy, paste , and rearrange them however you like.
• Try organizing your notes into different categories so you can identify specific ideas you'd like to focus on. For example, if you're analyzing a short story , you might put all your notes on a particular theme or character together.

• For example, if your essay is about the factors that led to the end of the Bronze Age in the ancient Middle East, you might focus on the question, “What role did natural disasters play in the collapse of Late Bronze Age society?”

• One easy way to come up with a thesis statement is to briefly answer the main question you would like to address.
• For example, if the question is “What role did natural disasters play in the collapse of Late Bronze Age society?” then your thesis might be, “Natural disasters during the Late Bronze Age destabilized local economies across the region. This set in motion a series of mass migrations of different peoples, creating widespread conflict that contributed to the collapse of several major Bronze Age political centers.”

• When you write the outline, think about how you would like to organize your essay. For example, you might start with your strongest arguments and then move to the weakest ones. Or, you could begin with a general overview of the source you're analyzing and then move on to addressing the major themes, tone, and style of the work.
• Introduction
• Point 1, with supporting examples
• Point 2, with supporting examples
• Point 3, with supporting examples
• Major counter-argument(s) to your thesis
• Your rebuttals to the counter-argument(s)

Drafting the Essay

• For example, if you're writing a critical essay about a work of art, your introduction might start with some basic information about the work, such as who created it, when and where it was created, and a brief description of the work itself. From there, introduce the question(s) about the work you'd like to address and present your thesis.
• A strong introduction should also contain a brief transitional sentence that creates a link to the first point or argument you would like to make. For example, if you're discussing the use of color in a work of art, lead-in by saying you'd like to start with an overview of symbolic color use in contemporary works by other artists.

Tip: Some writers find it helpful to write the introduction after they've written the rest of the essay. Once you've written out your main points, it's easier to summarize the gist of your essay in a few introductory sentences.

• For example, your topic sentence might be something like, “Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories are among the many literary influences apparent in P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels.” You could then back this up by quoting a passage that contains a reference to Sherlock Holmes.
• Try to show how the arguments in each paragraph link back to the main thesis of your essay.

• When creating transitions, transitional phrases can be helpful. For example, use words and phrases such as “In addition,” “Therefore,” “Similarly,” “Subsequently,” or “As a result.”
• For example, if you've just discussed the use of color to create contrast in a work of art, you might start the next paragraph with, “In addition to color, the artist also uses different line weights to distinguish between the more static and dynamic figures in the scene.”

• For example, if you're arguing that a particular kind of shrimp decorates its shell with red algae to attract a mate, you'll need to address the counterargument that the shell decoration is a warning to predators. You might do this by presenting evidence that the red shrimp are, in fact, more likely to get eaten than shrimp with undecorated shells.

• The way you cite your sources will vary depending on the citation style you're using. Typically, you'll need to include the name of the author, the title and publication date of the source, and location information such as the page number on which the information appears.
• In general, you don't need to cite common knowledge. For example, if you say, “A zebra is a type of mammal,” you probably won't need to cite a source.
• If you've cited any sources in the essay, you'll need to include a list of works cited (or a bibliography ) at the end.

• Keep your conclusion brief. While the appropriate length will vary based on the length of the essay, it should typically be no longer than 1-2 paragraphs.
• For example, if you're writing a 1,000-word essay, your conclusion should be about 4-5 sentences long. [16] X Research source

Revising the Essay

• If you don't have time to spend a couple of days away from your essay, at least take a few hours to relax or work on something else.

• Excessive wordiness
• Points that aren't explained enough
• Tangents or unnecessary information
• Unclear transitions or illogical organization
• Spelling , grammar , style, and formatting problems
• Inappropriate language or tone (e.g., slang or informal language in an academic essay)

• You might have to cut material from your essay in some places and add new material to others.
• You might also end up reordering some of the content of the essay if you think that helps it flow better.

• Read over each line slowly and carefully. It may be helpful to read each sentence out loud to yourself.

Tip: If possible, have someone else check your work. When you've been looking at your writing for too long, your brain begins to fill in what it expects to see rather than what's there, making it harder for you to spot mistakes.

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• ↑ https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/essay-types
• ↑ https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/choosing_a_topic.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/tips-reading-assignment-prompt
• ↑ https://library.unr.edu/help/quick-how-tos/writing/integrating-sources-into-your-paper
• ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/notes-from-research/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/outlining
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-write-an-intro--conclusion----body-paragraph.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/transitions/
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-incorporate-a-counter-argument.html
• ↑ https://www.plagiarism.org/article/how-do-i-cite-sources
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conclusions/
• ↑ https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/sites/utsc.utoronto.ca.twc/files/resource-files/Intros-Conclusions.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/steps_for_revising.html
• ↑ https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/chapter/8-4-revising-and-editing/
• ↑ https://writing.ku.edu/writing-process

About This Article

If you need to write an essay, start by gathering information from reputable sources, like books from the library or scholarly journals online. Take detailed notes and keep track of which facts come from which sources. As you're taking notes, look for a central theme that you're interested in writing about to create your thesis statement. Then, organize your notes into an outline that supports and explains your thesis statement. Working from your outline, write an introduction and subsequent paragraphs to address each major point. Start every paragraph with a topic sentence that briefly explains the main point of that paragraph. Finally, finish your paper with a strong conclusion that sums up the most important points. For tips from our English Professor co-author on helpful revision techniques, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Can a Research Paper or Essay Have Pictures or Images: Tips

Pictures in research paper

If you are writing a research paper, does it require pictures? Many academic papers are full of nothing but text. However, if your professor wants you to include images in your research paper, you might wonder if that is just for appearances or practical reasons.

The visual component can greatly improve the value and credibility of your work. If you have a large number of images and graphics that contribute to your whole research project, chances are they are going to include plenty of charts and graphs. Read on for more insight. 

Can a Research Paper Have Pictures?

A research paper can have pictures if they help in reinforcing an argument or illustrating the idea that one is presenting. However, inserting pictures in an essay can be tasking and needs to formatted within the guidelines of your faculty. In addition, they should follow the referencing style being used.

At the same time, inserting pictures depends on the format of the paper such as the margin and the alignment of the paper. It also depends on the type research paper you are writing.

As a result of such variations and factors, many different types of papers use images in one way or another.

As for research papers, many different kinds of documents fall under this category.

Some papers require visual aids to make their point, while others do not.

For example, a paper that seeks to prove that a certain event happened would require evidence, perhaps including images of places or people involved in the event. Other papers may not require images at all.

The bottom line is that whether you can include images in your paper depends on the kind of paper you are writing and what information you want to convey.

If you want to show something visually, an image might be appropriate for your paper. If you wish only to describe something using words, no image is needed. 

A picture’s worth a thousand words, they say. If it is relevant, a graphical depiction of data may be just what your readers need to understand your findings. But do not just slap a chart or graph into your paper and call it a day. It needs to stand on its own and provide context for the research it illustrates.

When Pictures Improve a Research Paper

A research article with pictures can grab a reader’s attention, who may not have time to read an entire research paper. A picture can be worth a thousand words in capturing readers’ attention.

If you are writing a research paper that includes pictures, make sure they are integrated into the flow of your paper.

Pictures can serve as excellent supporting evidence for your topic, but make sure you focus on your topic and maintain the point you want to make in the body of your paper.

If you decide to use a picture or other illustration, make sure it is high quality and captures the essence of your topic.

Pictures can capture your reader’s attention, but they must also support or enhance your topic or main point.

How to Insert Pictures in a Research Paper

A good picture can help readers understand what you are writing about and make your paper more interesting. There are several ways to design a research paper with pictures.

1. Use the Right-Justification Method

This method is convenient to insert single pictures in APA-style papers. Place the cursor where you want the picture to show up and click on Insert, then Picture to find the picture you want to add. Click on OK and then click on the image. 

Right-click on it and click on Format Picture, then select Layout. Under Layout, select In Line with Text, and then under Position, select Right. This will place your image on the right side of your paper and allow you to write text next to it.

2. Use the Center Method

You can also center images by placing your cursor at the beginning of a new line. Click on Insert, then Picture, find the picture you want to insert and click OK.

Click on the picture and right-click on it while holding down Shift+Ctrl+Alt keys together until a gray box appears around your image. 

Click on Format Picture and select Layout. Under Layout, select In Line with Text, and under Position, select Center.

This will center your image in a paragraph of its own so that there is no text above or below

Here are some points that may help you insert pictures in a research paper:

• The image should be of good quality and must not be blurred.
• The picture should be placed such that it is the highlight of the paper.
• The picture should be properly framed and provided with a caption to look more appealing.
• While inserting pictures, care should be taken regarding the copyright and other permissions required, if any.

How to Insert the Following into a Research Paper

1. graphics.

a. Insert a graphic or figure into the document. If you have created the graphics, you can insert them as an object or picture. If you are inserting an image from a file, use the Insert menu select Picture and From File. Find the image in your files and insert it.

b. Format the figure caption: Choose Format menu, Caption command (or right-click on the graphic, choose Caption).

In the Caption dialog box, choose Figure (because it is a graphic) in the Label box; type a caption text that briefly describes what is shown in the graphic; click Numbering to apply automatic numbering to your captions.

You can also choose Position to place your caption below or above your graphic (or you can put it inline). When finished, click OK.

c. Place your cursor after the caption and press Enter twice to create one blank line between the graphic and its caption and another blank line between the caption and any following text. This will allow space for page breaks within your document if needed.

d. Insert cross-references: If you have more than one figure in your paper and need to refer to it from another location in your paper (say in a results section), you can insert a cross-reference.

Charts and diagrams work to improve your paper’s readability and visual appeal. They are especially useful in papers that discuss complex subjects.

Microsoft Word makes it easy to add these elements to your document, and you can modify them at any time if they don’t look quite right.

a. Open the document in Microsoft Word in which you want to insert a chart or diagram. Click the “Insert” tab at the top of the screen and click “Chart.”

A list of chart types will appear on the left side of the screen. Click on one of the types to see an example of that type of chart on the right side of the screen.

b. Click on a chart type that you want to use for your document, then click “OK.” A window will open with sample data for your chart.

You can either add your data in this window or import it from Excel or another program later. You can also change the chart type after it has been inserted into your document if you later decide that you want to use a different chart style.

You can also use these steps to insert graphs from Microsoft Excel into your PowerPoint slides:

Step 1:  Open the graph you want to insert in an Excel spreadsheet. If you have not yet created your graph, create it now.

Step 2:  Click on the graph to select it. Double click on one of its borders if you need to adjust its size or shape.

Step 3:  Press control-c (or go to the Edit menu and choose Copy) to copy the graph onto your computer’s clipboard.

Step 4:  Open up Microsoft Word, and go where you want the graph inserted. Put your cursor right at that spot, then press control-v (or go to the Edit menu and choose Paste). Your graph will now be in your document!

James Lotta

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Can an Essay have Charts? How to Insert Graphs and Pictures

using charts in an essay

Writing convincing essays is key to pass your class well and score high grades. One of the ways to convince your professor is to include graphs, screenshots, and pictures. In this informative piece, I will explain if an essay can have charts, graphs or graphics, and how to do that effectively.

After you read through it, you will get great tips to make your essay convincing. However, if you have no time to do that, you can hire essay writers to complete your essays and get that grade. But read on to handle it yourself.

Need Help with your Homework or Essays?

Can an essay have charts.

Using charts and graphs in an essay is good and can improve the grades by backing up your arguments in an essay. However, it is good to know when to use them and when not to.

Charts can be used in an essay if it is long enough to accommodate them or the instructions allow you to insert them.

You can use charts and graphs in a paper long as they add meaning to your arguments in a reasonable way.

They should fit in well with the essay’s context and should not be viewed as just decoration.

Charts should clearly explain the ideas you present and make it easy for readers to understand the ideas. Charts help you demonstrate facts, information, and figures that you obtain from research.

With that said, some institutions do not allow for the use of charts in essays. These institutions view an essay as a free-flowing piece of writing that should be continuous.

This also leaves no chance for the use of bullets and arrows in essays. Using charts in your essays in such institutions may prove costly to your grades or make your essays be looked down upon.

How to Effectively Insert Charts and Graphs in an Essay?

If a chart you create fits in effectively with the context you are explaining in your essay, then inserting the chart in your essay should not be a problem.

Graphs and charts should be large enough for clear visibility. As you insert a research paper graph in a paper, be sure to have them drawn or data analyzed. The following should be included when inserting a chart in your essay.

1. Label the Chart

Always include a caption under your chart. The caption should be clear. It can contain the topic of the chart or just a description.

This caption helps a reader relate the surrounding texts to the information included in the charts. For example, (‘Figure 2’ Age Distribution in New Zeeland.)

2. Mention the Chart in the Text

Reference the chart before introducing an essay. This helps the reader have a clue about what the chart will be all about.

If your chart illustrates a point in your essay you can include the following line before introducing your chart. ‘Figure 2 below shows an example of this.’ Here is an example.

3. Cite Charts Obtained from Different Sources

Just as you quote someone in an essay, you need to cite charts found from other sources to avoid plagiarism.

How you cite usually varies depending on the referencing format you are using. When using the author-date referencing format, always include the name of the author of the source and the year of publication.

Other referencing formats also may require you to include the page that the chart was obtained from. The source should not only appear on the chart but also the reference list of the whole essay.

 The style of writing you use in your essay also determines the type of referencing format you use. APA references are different from MLA references and Chicago format references.

4. Using Meaningful Titles

A title you give your graph or chart should represent what your graph or chart is all about. The title should be simple to make the reader understand straightaway the information that will be represented on the graph.

Graph titles are always located above the graphs while the titles of charts and figures are located below the charts.

It is also important to look at some of the things you should not do when inserting charts and graphs in your paper:

• Never restructure data from another source to fit in your chat or graph without acknowledging the source. Data from tables and figures should not be directly transferred to charts and graphs.
• Never use charts and figures in your essay without referring to its existence in your essay or without it making relevance in your arguments in the essay.
• Point out significance in your charts and graphs without using extensive explanations and descriptions in the contents of the charts. 

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Importance of Charts and Diagrams in an Essay or Paper

Charts and diagrams are used to communicate information. Symbols, signs, and pie charts are some examples of diagrams that are used to convey particular information.

Charts and diagrams provide a better way for people to relate to the information and process its importance. The following are some of the benefits of using charts and diagrams in a paper:

1. Visualizing Concepts

Instructors can see and conceptualize with materials represented in the form of charts and diagrams in essays. The instructors can engage with the material more even without much more explanation from the essay.

Different types of diagrams have different ways of representing information. This varies on different topics. For example, Venn diagrams place words that are interrelated in bubbles to represent the interrelation of concepts.

Using charts and diagrams, therefore, makes complicated topics easily understandable. This makes it easier for the essay writer to represent information in a way easily understandable by the instructor.

2. Diagrams and Charts say more

Explaining concepts such as statistical data and information concerning the performance of system functions is easily done through diagrams and charts.

Explaining concepts also is quicker and avoids the strain and the use of resources. Using diagrams and charts is without a doubt more effective in an essay than not.

For example, medical students can explain the functioning of different organs of the human body, such as the heart, the kidney, and the digestive system using pictures, charts, and diagrams of the organs.

The use of diagrams is also crucial in business-based essays, where information dissemination needs comprehension, speed, and accuracy of information. 

3. Diagrams and charts catch and maintain attention

Attention is usually important among readers. Attention can determine whether the information you are presenting is accepted and absorbed by readers or if they will turn it down.

Diagrams and charts maintain your readers’ attention by giving them something they can look at and engage with. This allows for the easy absorption of information in understandable and memorable bits.

Students can use diagrams to make instructors understand their research easily. This is by using a diagram to break down the research plan into simple, understandable concepts.

4. Charts and Diagrams are Effective for Comparison Essays

Analysis of data can be done effectively using charts and graphs. Pie charts represent different quantities of data, while graphs can plot variables on the x and y planes for comparisons. There can’t be a better way of analyzing data than this.

FAQs on Essays having Charts

Can an essay have pictures.

An essay can have pictures because they can help drive a point home in your essay. Pictures are indeed worth a thousand words and they may be what you need. However, some institutions are against it. Therefore, it is important to inquire before using pictures in your essay.

Pictures in essays should serve a rhetorical purpose, not as a way of padding your essay. How you use a paper in your essay should be per the writing format you used.

This further helps to make your arguments more convincing. Pictures should be placed where they make the most sense in your essay.

In MLA style documents pictures should be inside your I-inch margins and should contain reference in the caption crediting the source.

The caption should be referred to in the body of your essay to give the reader an insight into what it will be all about.

In APA style if the picture spans one column it should be between 2-3.25 inches.

If it takes two columns, it should be 4.25 inches to 6.875 inches. Captions in this style should use the sans-serif font and be between 8-12 font sizes.

Can an essay have Tables

One can use tables in an essay and in some courses, it is highly encouraged. However, the use of tables on essays depends on the style requirement of the place the easy will be published or submitted to. No rule prohibits the use of tables in an essay.

This leaves the institution with the discretion to decide the use of tables in essays. Institutions that prohibit the use of tables in essays believe that they are a form of expanding a page count without writing many actual words.

Such institutions believe that essays should consist of words only, therefore, prohibiting graphs, pictures, and other diagrams.

Many publishers and some institutions are not against the use of tables in essays. They view tables as a good method that can be used to represent and explain information better.

Can an essay have Graphs

Graphs can be used appropriately in essays to represent dense information in paragraphs. These paragraphs may prove hard to understand but graphs help break them down into an easily understandable diagram.

With graphs references of figures made later in the essay are easily identifiable. Without graphs, the reader will have to search for a particular line in the easy to refer to.

When you have a lot of numbers to share with readers, graphs are the perfect representation format. The most used types of graphs are; line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts.

With over 10 years in academia and academic assistance, Alicia Smart is the epitome of excellence in the writing industry. She is our managing editor and is in charge of the writing operations at Grade Bees.

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Photo Essays

A photo essay is simply an essay that uses images to tell a story or make a point. In a photo essay, images are placed in a specific order in order to send a particular message to an audience. Some photo essays will have text to support the photos or provide details, but some photo essays will have no text at all.

• Pick a specific topic. Just as you need a specific topic or angle with a traditional essay, you need a specific focus for your photo essay.
• Do some research. Just as you often need to conduct research to write a traditional essay, it’s important to conduct some research when you create a photo essay. Doing research can help you narrow your focus and have a better idea about what you want to photograph for your essay.
• Take more photos than you think you’ll need. It’s important to plan well for a photo essay, and part of that planning involves taking more pictures than you may feel is necessary at first. When it’s time to put your photo essay together, you’ll be thankful if you have a lot of options.
• You don’t need a fancy camera. You can take some excellent pictures using your cell phone and edit them using Instagram. Instagram will also let you change the look and feel of your pictures using filters, which can allow you to edit your pictures to really fit the mood of the photo essay you are trying to create.

Photo essays present well on the web. You can use free web space of your own to present your photo essays. Or, if you’re creating a photo essay as a part of a class, your professor may have a specific place for you to post your essay, such as on a class website.

Sample Photo Essays

If you aren’t sure what a photo essay is or even if you just want to feel inspired before you begin your own project, it can be helpful to take a look at sample photo essays. The samples below should get you started, but you can find more photo essays simply by searching for “photo essays” on the web.

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How to Create a Photo Essay in 9 Steps (with Examples)

Photo Editing & Creativity , Tutorials

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What is a photo essay?

• Photo essays vs photo stories
• How photo essays help you
• 9 Steps to create photo essays

How to share your photo essays

Read Time: 11 minutes

Gather up a handful of images that seem to go together, and voila! It’s a photo essay, right? Well… no. Though, this is a common misconception.

In reality, a photo essay is much more thoughtful and structured than that. When you take the time to craft one, you’re using skills from all facets of our craft – from composition to curation.

In this guide, you’ll learn what makes a photo essay an amazing project that stretches your skills. You’ll also learn exactly how to make one step by step.

• Photo essay vs photo story

A photo essay is a collection of images based around a theme, a topic, a creative approach, or an exploration of an idea. Photo essays balance visual variety with a cohesive style and concept.

What’s the difference between a photo essay and a photo story?

The terms photo essay and photo story are often used interchangeably. Even the dictionary definition of “photo essay” includes using images to convey either a theme or a story.

But in my experience, a photo essay and a photo story are two different things. As you delve into the field of visual storytelling, distinguishing between the two helps you to take a purposeful approach to what you’re making .

The differences ultimately lie in the distinctions between theme, topic and story.

Themes are big-picture concepts. Example: Wildness

Topics are more specific than themes, but still overarching. Example : Wild bears of Yellowstone National Park

Stories are specific instances or experiences that happen within, or provide an example for, a topic or theme. Example: A certain wild bear became habituated to tourists and was relocated to maintain its wildness

Unlike a theme or topic, a story has particular elements that make it a story. They include leading characters, a setting, a narrative arc, conflict, and (usually) resolution.

With that in mind, we can distingush between a photo essay and a photo story.

Themes and Topics vs Stories

A photo essay revolves around a topic, theme, idea, or concept. It visually explores a big-picture something .

This allows a good deal of artistic leeway where a photographer can express their vision, philosophies, opinions, or artistic expression as they create their images.

A photo story  is a portfolio of images that illustrate – you guessed it – a story.

Because of this, there are distinct types of images that a photo story uses that add to the understanding, insight, clarity and meaning to the story for viewers. While they can certainly be artistically crafted and visually stunning, photo stories document something happening, and rely on visual variety for capturing the full experience.

A photo essay doesn’t need to have the same level of structured variety that a photo story requires. It can have images that overlap or are similar, as they each explore various aspects of a theme.

Photo essays can be about any topic. If you live in a city, consider using your nature photography to make an essay about the wildlife that lives in your neighborhood . 

The role of text with photos

A photo story typically runs alongside text that narrates the story. We’re a visual species, and the images help us feel like we are there, experiencing what’s happening. So, the images add significant power to the text, but they’re often a partner to it.

This isn’t always the case, of course. Sometimes photo stories don’t need or use text. It’s like reading a graphic novel that doesn’t use text. Moving through the different images that build on each other ultimately unveils the narrative.

Photo essays don’t need to rely on text to illuminate the images’ theme or topic. The photographer may use captions (or even a text essay), or they may let the images speak for themselves.

Definitions are helpful guidelines (not strict rules)

Some people categorize photo essays as either narrative or thematic. That’s essentially just calling photo stories “narrative photo essays” and photo essays “thematic photo essays.”

But, a story is a defined thing, and any writer/editor will tell you themes and topics are not the same as stories. And we use the word “story” in our daily lives as it’s defined. So, it makes far more sense to name the difference between a photo essay and a photo story, and bask in the same clarity writers enjoy .

Photo stories illustrate a particular experience, event, narrative, something that happened or is happening.

Photo essays explore an idea, concept, topic, theme, creative approach, big-picture something .

Both photo essays and photo stories are immensely powerful visual tools. And yes, the differences between them can certainly be blurred, as is always the case with art.

Simply use this distinction as a general guideline, providing extra clarity around what you’re making and why you’re making it.

To dig into specific types of images used to create powerful photo stories, check out this training: 6 Must-Have Shots for a Photo Story. 

Meanwhile, let’s dig deeper into photo essays.

Capturing amazing wildlife photos requires not only passion and skill but also the right equipment.

This guide breaks down the best options so you can find the perfect camera for your specific needs , whether you're a beginner or pro.

Photo essays are a chance to try new styles or techniques that stretch your skills and creativity. This image was part of an essay exploring simplicity and shape, and helped me learn new skills in black and white post-processing.

How photo essays improve your photography

Creating photo essays is an amazing antidote if you’ve ever felt a lack of direction or purpose in your photography. Photo essays help build your photographic skills in at least 3 important ways.

1. You become more strategic in creating a body of work

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of photographing whatever pops up in front of you. And when you do, you end up with a collection of stand-alone shots.

These singles may work fine as a print, a quick Instagram post, or an addition to your gallery of shots on your website. But amassing a bunch of one-off shots limits your opportunities as a photographer for everything from exhibits to getting your work published.

Building photo essays pushes you to think strategically about what you photograph, why, and how. You’re working toward a particular deliverable – a cohesive visual essay – with the images you create.

This elevates your skills in crafting your photo essay, and in how you curate the rest of your work, from galleries on your website to selecting images to sell as prints .

2. You become more purposeful in your composition skills

Composition is so much more than just following the rule of thirds, golden spirals, or thinking about the angle of light in a shot.

Composition is also about thinking ahead in what you’re trying to accomplish with a photograph – from what you’re saying through it to its emotional impact on a viewer – and where it fits within a larger body of work.

Photo essays push you to think critically about each shot – from coming up with fresh compositions for familiar subjects, to devising surprising compositions to fit within a collection, to creating compositions that expand on what’s already in a photo essay.

You’re pushed beyond creating a single pleasing frame, which leads you to shoot more thoughtfully and proactively than ever.

(Here’s a podcast episode on switching from reactive shooting to proactive shooting .)

3. You develop strong editing and curation skills

Selecting which images stay, and which get left behind is one of the hardest jobs on a photographer’s to-do list. Mostly, it’s because of emotional attachment.

You might think it’s an amazing shot because you know the effort that went into capturing it. Or perhaps when you look at it, you get a twinge of the joy or exhilaration you felt the moment you captured it. There’s also the second-guessing that goes into which of two similar images is the best – which will people like more? So you’re tempted to just show both.

Ultimately, great photographers appear all the more skilled because they only show their best work. That in and of itself is a skill they’ve developed through years of ruthlessly editing their own work.

Because the most powerful photo essays only show a handful of extraordinary images, you’re bound to develop the very same critical skill (and look all the more talented because of it).

Photo essays are also a great stepping stone to creating photo stories. If you’re interested in moving beyond stand-alone shots and building stories, shooting photo essays will get your creative brain limbered up and ready for the adventure of photo stories.

A photo essay exploring the natural history of a favorite species is an exciting opportunity for an in-depth study. For me, that was a photo essay on emotive images of the American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) as it hunts in streams. 

9 Simple steps to create your photo essays

1. clarify your theme.

Choose a theme, topic, or concept you want to explore. Spend some time getting crystal clear on what you want to focus on. It helps to write out a few sentences, or even a few paragraphs noting:

• What you want the essay to be about
• What kinds of images you want to create as part of it
• How you’ll photograph the images
• The style, techniques, or gear you might use to create your images
• What “success” looks like when you’re done with your photo essay

You don’t have to stick to what you write down, of course. It can change during the image creation process. But fleshing your idea out on paper goes a long way in clarifying your photo essay theme and how you’ll go about creating it.

2. Create your images

Grab your camera and head outside!

As you’re photographing your essay, allow yourself some freedom to experiment. Try unusual compositions or techniques that are new to you.

Stretch your style a little, or “try on” the style of other photographers you admire who have photographed similar subjects.

Photo essays are wonderful opportunities to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and grow as a photographer .

Remember that a photo essay is a visually cohesive collection of images that make sense together. So, while you might stretch yourself into new terrain as you shoot, try to keep that approach, style, or strategy consistent.

Don’t be afraid to create lots of images. It’s great to have lots to choose from in the editing process, which comes up next.

3. Pull together your wide edit

Once you’ve created your images, pull together all the images that might make the cut. This could be as many as 40-60 images. Include anything you want to consider for the final essay in the wide edit.

From here, start weeding out images that:

• are weaker in composition or subject matter
• stand out like a sore thumb from the rest of the collection
• Are similar to other stronger images in the collection

It’s helpful to review the images at thumbnail size. You make more instinctive decisions and can more easily see the body of work as a whole. If an image is strong even at thumbnail size to stand out from similar frames while also partnering well with other images in the collection, that’s a good sign it’s strong enough for the essay.

4. Post-process your images for a cohesive look

Now it’s time to post-process the images. Use whatever editing software you’re comfortable with to polish your images.

Again, a photo essay has a cohesive visual look. If you use presets, filters, or other tools, use them across all the images.

5. Finalize your selection

It’s time to make the tough decisions. Select only the strongest for your photo essay from your group of images.

Each image should be strong enough to stand on its own and make sense as part of the whole group.

Many photo essays range from 8-12 images. But of course, it varies based on the essay. The number of images you have in your final photo essay is up to you.

Remember, less is more. A photo essay is most powerful when each image deserves to be included.

6. Put your images in a purposeful order

Create a visual flow with your images. Decide which image is first, and build from there. Use compositions, colors, and subject matter to decide which image goes next, then next, then next in the order.

Think of it like music: notes are arranged in a way that builds energy, or slows it down, surprise listeners with a new refrain, or drop into a familiar chorus. How the notes are ordered creates emotional arcs for listeners.

How you order your images is similar.

Think of the experience a viewer will have as they look at one image, then the next, and the next. Order your images so they create the experience you want your audience to have.

7. Get feedback

The best photographers make space for feedback, even when it’s tough to hear. Your work benefits from not just hearing feedback, but listening to it and applying what you learn from it.

Show your photo essay to people who have different sensibilities or tastes. Friends, family members, fellow photographers – anyone you trust to give you honest feedback.

Watch their reactions and hear what they say about what they’re seeing. Use their feedback to guide you in the next step.

8. Refine, revise, and finalize

Let your photo essay marinate for a little while. Take a day or two away from it. Then use your freshened eyes and the feedback you received from the previous step to refine your essay.

Swap out any selects you might want to change and reorder the images if needed.

9. Add captions

Even if you don’t plan on displaying captions with your images, captioning your images is a great practice to get into. It gives context, story, and important information to each image. And, more than likely, you will want to use these captions at some point when you share your photo essay, which we dive into later in this article.

Add captions to the image files using Lightroom, Bridge, or other software programs.

Create a document, such as a Google or Word doc, with captions for each image.

In your captions, share a bit about the story behind the image, or the creation process. Add whatever makes sense to share that provides a greater understanding of the image and its purpose.

Photo essays allow you to explore deliberate style choices, such as a focus on shapes, patterns, textures, and lines. Since each photo is part of a larger essay, it encourages you to be bold with choices you might not otherwise make. 

5 Examples of amazing nature photo essays

1. “how the water shapes us” from the nature conservancy.

This gorgeous essay, crafted with the work of multiple photographers, explores the people and places within the Mississippi River basin. Through the images, we gain a sense of how the water influences life from the headwater all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Notice how each photographer is tasked with the same theme, yet approaches it with their own distinct style and vision. It is a wonderful example of the sheer level of visual variety you can have while maintaining a consistent style or theme.

View it here

2. “A Cyclist on the English Landscape” from New York Times’ The World Through A Lens series

This photo essay is a series of self-portraits by travel photographer Roff Smith while “stuck” at home during the pandemic. As he peddled the roads making portraits, the project evolved into a “celebration of traveling at home”. It’s a great example of how visually consistent you can be inside a theme while making each image completely unique.

3. “Vermont, Dressed In Snow” from New York Times’ The World Through A Lens series

This essay by aerial photographer Caleb Kenna uses a very common photo essay theme: snow. Because all images are aerial photographs, there’s a consistency to them. Yet, the compositions are utterly unique from one another. It’s a great example of keeping viewers surprised as they move from one image to the next while still maintaining a clear focus on the theme.

4. “Starling-Studded Skies” from bioGraphic Magazine

This beautiful essay is by Kathryn Cooper, a physicist trained in bioinformatics, and a talented photographer. She used a 19th century photographic technique, chronophotography, to create images that give us a look at the art and science of starling murmurations. She states: “I’m interested in the transient moments when chaos briefly changes to order, and thousands of individual bodies appear to move as one.” This essay is a great example of deep exploration of a concept using a specific photographic technique.

View it here   (Note: must be viewed on desktop)

5. “These Scrappy Photos Capture the Action-Packed World Beneath a Bird Feeder” from Audubon Magazine

This photo essay from conservation photographer Carla Rhodes explores the wildlife that takes advantage of the bounty of food waiting under bird feeders . Using remote camera photography , Rhodes gives viewers a unique ground-level perspective and captures moments that make us feel like we’re in conversation with friends in the Hundred Acre Woods. This essay is a great example of how perspective, personality, and chance can all come into play as you explore both an idea and a technique.

25 Ideas for creative photo essays you can make

The possibilities for photo essays are truly endless – from the concepts you explore to the techniques you use and styles you apply.

Choose an idea, hone your unique perspective on it, then start applying the 9 simple steps from above. 

• The life of a plant or animal (your favorite species, a species living in your yard, etc)
• The many shapes of a single species (a tree species, a bird species, etc)
• How a place changes over time
• The various moods of a place
• A conservation issue you care about
• Math in nature
• Urban nature
• Seasonal changes
• Your yard as a space for nature
• Shifting climate and its impacts
• Human impacts on environments
• Elements: Water, wind, fire, earth
• Day in the life (of a person, a place, a stream, a tree…)
• Outdoor recreation (birding, kayaking, hiking, naturalist journaling…)
• Wildlife rehabilitation
• Lunar cycles
• Sunlight and shadows
• Your local watershed
• Coexistence

As you zero in on a photo essay theme, consider two things: what most excites you about an idea, and what about it pushes you out of your comfort zone. The heady mix of joy and challenge will ensure you stick with it. 

Your photo essay is ready for the world! Decide how you’d like to make an impact with your work. You might use one or several of the options below.

1. Share it on your website

Create a gallery or a scrollytelling page on your website. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website where people can peruse your photo essay and the rest of the photography you have.

Putting it on your website and optimizing your images for SEO helps you build organic traffic and potentially be discovered by a broader audience, including photo editors.

2. Create a scrollytelling web page

If you enjoy the experience of immersive visual experiences, consider making one using your essay. And no, you don’t have to be a whiz at code to make it happen.

Shorthand helps you build web pages with scrollytelling techniques that make a big impression on viewers. Their free plan allows you to publish 3 essays or stories.

3. Create a Medium post

If you don’t have a website and want to keep things simple, a post on Medium is a great option.

Though it’s known for being a platform for bloggers, it’s also possible to add images to a post for a simple scroll.

And, because readers can discover and share posts, it’s a good place for your photos to get the attention of people who might not otherwise come across it.

4. Share it on Instagram

Instagram has changed a lot over the last couple of years, but it’s still a place for photographers to share their work thoughtfully.

There are at least 3 great ways to share your photo essay on the platform.

– Create a single post for each image. Add a caption. Publish one post per day until the full essay is on your feed. Share each post via Instagram Stories to bring more attention and interaction to your photo essay.

– Create a carousel post. You can add up 10 photos to a carousel post, so you may need to create two of them for your full photo essay. Or you might create a series of carousel posts using 3-4 images in each.

– Create a Reel featuring your images as a video.  The algorithm heavily favors reels, so turning your photo essay into a video experience can get it out to a larger audience.

I ran a “create a reel” challenge in my membership community. One member created a reel with her still images around a serious conservation issue. It gathered a ton of attention and landed her opportunities to share her message through YouTube and podcast interviews and publishing opportunities. Watch it here.

5. Exhibit it locally

Reach out to local galleries, cafes, pubs, or even the public library to see if they’re interested in hanging your photo essay for display. Many local businesses and organizations happily support the work of local artists.

6. Pitch your photo essay to publications

One of the best ways to reach an audience with your work is to get it published. Find publications that are a great fit for the theme and style of your photo essay, then pitch your essay for consideration. You gain a fantastic opportunity to share your work widely and can earn a paycheck at the same time.

Remember that if you want to get your photo essay published, you may want to hold back from sharing it publicly before you pitch it to publications.

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When to Use an Image in an Essay

• 3-minute read
• 30th June 2019

Pages of text alone can look quite dull. And while ‘dull’ may seem normal enough for an essay , using images and charts can make a document more visually interesting. It can even help you boost your grades if done right! Here, then, is our guide on how to use an image in academic writing .

Usually, you will only need to add an image in academic writing if it serves a specific purpose (e.g. illustrating your argument). Even then, you need to make sure images are presently correctly. As such, try asking yourself the following questions whenever you add a picture or chart in an essay:

• Does it add anything useful? Any image or chart you include in your work should help you make your argument or explain a point more clearly. For instance, if you are analysing a film, you may need to include a still from a scene to illustrate a point you are making.
• Is the image clearly labelled? All images in your essay should come with clear captions (e.g. ‘Figure 1’ plus a title or description). Without these, your reader may not know how images relate to the surrounding text.
• Have you mentioned the image in the text? Make sure to reference any images you use in the text of your essay. If you have included an image to illustrate a point, for instance, you would include something along the lines of ‘An example of this can be seen in Figure 1’.

The key, then, is that images in an essay are not just decoration. Rather, they should fit with and add to the arguments you make in the text.

Citing Images and Illustrations

If you have created all the images you are using in your essay yourself, then all you need to do is label them clearly (as described above). But if you want to use an existing image you found somewhere else, you will need to cite your source as well, just as you would when quoting someone.

The format for this will depend on the referencing system you’re using. However, with author–date referencing, it usually involves giving the source author’s name and a year of publication. For example:

In the caption above, we have cited the page of the paper the image comes from using an APA-style citation. We would then need to add the full paper to the reference list at the end of the document:

Gramblička, S., Kohar, R., & Stopka, M. (2017). Dynamic analysis of mechanical conveyor drive system. Procedia Engineering , 192, 259–264. DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.06.045

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You can also cite an image directly if it not part of a larger publication or document. If we wanted to cite an image found online in APA referencing , for example, we would use the following format:

Surname, Initial(s). (Role). (Year).  Title or description of image  [Image format]. Retrieved from URL.

In practice, then, we could cite a photograph as follows:

Booth, S. (Photographer). (2014). Passengers [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebooth/35470947736/in/pool-best100only/

Make sure to check your style guide if you are not sure which referencing system to use when citing images in your work. And don’t forget to have your finished document proofread before you submit it for marking.

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9/11's long legacy: How the attack on the World Trade Center is still claiming lives

Diseases related to the dust and smoke produced by the collapse of the Twin Towers have claimed twice as many lives than the attacks themselves 23 years ago – and new health problems are still emerging.

It was after a month of working at Ground Zero that Elizabeth Cascio developed a cough that she couldn't shift. Soon after that, she began to suffer sinus issues and headaches.

"We all knew the air quality was not safe – it was very toxic in terms of how it felt," says Cascio, a former New York Fire Department (FDNY) emergency medical technician. She was one of thousands of first responders who attended the shattered site of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City during the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks . "Initially, when I came off the bus and arrived at the Trade Center, you felt like you had to hold your breath. But there's only so long you can hold your breath. I could feel the particles coming into my nose and mouth and thought: 'This can't be good' ."

Cascio would ultimately spend nearly two months looking for human remains in what became known as " The Pile " among first responders. She had initially been there to set up a triage centre, assuming there would be more survivors.What Cascio didn't know at the time was the effect it would have on her own health two decades later. In 2019, she underwent treatment for invasive cervical cancer, that has been attributed to her time at Ground Zero.

She would go on to become the FDNY Chief of Staff before retiring in 2023. Now aged 61, Cascio is still monitored by the US government's World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment to those directly affected by the 9/11 attacks in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The programme also funds medical research into physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11 exposures.

It has been 23 years since Cascio worked amid the dust, smoke and debris of the World Trade Center, and she is keen to speak about the legacy it has left on people like her.

"It's a duty to speak about 9/11 because of the EMS workers who are underrepresented, and the women who are underrepresented," she says.

In the hours that followed the attack on the Twin Towers, an enormous plume of smoke and dust billowed out across Lower Manhattan , over the East River and into Brooklyn. As rescue workers rushed to help at the World Trade Center site, and later as the clean-up of the vast tangle of twisted metal, glass and concrete disturbed the debris, more dust from the buildings filled the air.

In places, the dust and soot would reach more than four inches (10cm) thick on the surfaces where it settled. It got inside buildings, and although heavy rains would wash much of the outdoor dust away, the air quality was still affected for months afterwards .

Authorities including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New York Mayor at the time, Rudy Guiliani , tried to reassure New Yorkers that despite this, the air was relatively safe to breathe. Although Guiliani and the New York Fire Department would also urge rescue workers to wear protective clothing and masks , many workers and volunteers went without breathing apparatus or protective clothing , while some wore simple disposable masks. Those living and working in the area tried to get on with their lives amid the polluted air.

It later transpired that those attempts to reassure the public about the dust laden air were misguided. Research shows the dust thrown out by the collapse of the twin towers contained asbestos, heavy metals, lead and toxic chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The fine dust contained huge volumes of gypsum and calcite – minerals commonly used in building materials including cement and plasterboard – that are known to irritate the eyes and lungs. Smoke billowing from the burning site for weeks afterwards also carried ultrafine soot particles, unburned jet fuel, along with fumes from burning plastic and wood.

The long-term effects of this on the people caught up in the catastrophe and those who tried to help are still becoming clear. Twenty three years later there are 127,567 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program , according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 82,000 of those are, like Cascio, workers and volunteers who rushed to take part in the rescue efforts or helped to clean up the wreckage at the World Trade Center in the months after 9/11. Another 44,000 were people who were working, at school or in care within the New York City Disaster Area , when the towers fell and the dust cloud enveloped the city.

As of December 2023, 6,781 of those who were registered with the programme have died from an illness or cancer linked to their time near or at Ground Zero after 9/11. It is more than twice the number of people who died on 9/11 . In September 2024, the FDNY announced more than 360 firefighters , EMT and department members have died from World Trade Center-related illness – more than the 343 people it lost on 9/11 itself .

"Some people got sick in two years, some people got sick in eight years, some people got sick in 12 years," says John Feal, a demolition expert and first responder who arrived at Ground Zero on the night of the attack. "There are people who worked there for the entire eight-month cleanup and never got sick. But we were all exposed to a toxic soup no one has ever seen before."

Feal was seriously injured six days after his arrival at Ground Zero when a piece of steel crushed his foot. Despite undergoing multiple surgeries, he remains permanently. Feal now dedicates much of his time advocating for health benefits for first responders.

Among the health conditions affecting those who were exposed to the dust and smoke on 9/11 are cancers, autoimmune diseases, asthma , respiratory illnesses and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rare diseases such as sarcoidosis – lumps formed by inflammatory cells – have also been discovered to occur at an abnormally high rates in firefighters who were exposed to the dust and smoke on 9/11.

Within days, people returned to their homes and work, and Wall Street reopened (though most schools remained shut through the end of the year). Within months – and for first responders, within hours – respiratory symptoms appeared . It wasn't long before school children being reported as new asthma cases and other respiratory illnesses . The post-traumatic stress in New York City was unmissable and rampant .

The CDC estimates up to 400,000 people could have been exposed to toxic contaminants, risk of injury and levels of stress that could lead to later health problems. The reported conditions include a range of breathing problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic respiratory disorder and painful chronic rhinosinusitis. The dust breathed in by people in New York in the days after the attacks has been found to trigger an intense inflammatory response that may have contributed to many of these long-term respiratory illnesses.

Others are suffering from gastric problems, anxiety disorders and depression. A wide range of cancers have also been reported in 37,500 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program, with non-melanoma skin cancer and prostate cancer being particularly common. A range of other cancers including breast cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer and thyroid cancer are also prevalent. The incidence of leukemia, thyroid and prostate cancer have been found to be particularly elevated.

The time it can take for cancers to develop may mean that the full scale of the health problems have yet to be realised.

"Cancer diagnoses are an ongoing scenario," says Iris Udasin, a professor of environmental and occupational health and justice at Rutgers School of Public Health in New Jersey, who studies WTC-associated health conditions. "Solid tumours have latency periods of 20 and 25 years – so now is the time to make sure people are getting the appropriate screenings."

Statistically, women make up a small pool of first responders and just 23% of the people monitored in the WTC health program me. But in 2023, r esearch by Udasin and her colleagues played a big role in getting uterine cancer certified as a covered condition in the WTC Health Program .

"Because the patient population is overwhelmingly male, we were able to show the studies pointing to endocrine disruptors in the area around Ground Zero," she says. She also helped to push for mammograms to be part of regular screening the programme.

The intense monitoring and research of 9/11-related health conditions is also bringing some benefits to those affected. Cancer survival rates, for example, are higher among first responders than the general population due to the free medical care and additional monitoring they receive for 9/11-related conditions.

"We found that if you're diagnosed in the WTC Health Program in New York, you have a high survival rate," says Marc Wilkenfeld, who was one of the first physicians to see survivors and first responders with health problems after 9/11. "If you're being monitored, you have a higher rate of survival."

Wilkenfeld witnessed the terror attacks in 2001 and immediately began studying the toxicity of the dust produced in the days that followed and the effect it was having on the first responders working at Ground Zero. He is still trying to unravel the long-term impact it is having and has become a vocal advocate for the healthcare of those affected.

" People ask me, 'you're still doing this 23 years later?'," he says. "But we're still seeing sick people."

Recently, Wilkenfeld was part of a team of doctors and public health researchers who found that people exposed to dust from the World Trade Center are also showing signs of nerve damage. They noticed that numbness, along with pins and needles, was a common symptom among responders and survivors, and they found it appeared to relate to high levels of neuropathy than in the general population. They argue it should be added to the growing list of health conditions related to 9/11.

Heart conditions should also be recognised as associated diseases to ensure those affected get the health cover they need, say campaigners. Cardiovascular disease is substantially higher in 9/11 responders than the general population, especially among women.

The health problems caused by 9/11 are also not restricted to people in New York, Wilkenfeld adds. First responders came to the city to help with the clean-up process from across the United States and around the world .

"People don't realise there are first responders in all 50 states – and abroad," Wilkenfeld says. "It's been 23 years [since 9/11] – people are retired now and live all over the world."

This makes measuring the scale of the problem difficult, but also means some people with 9/11-related conditions are also missing out on support being offered in the US.

"Not everyone connects their time at Ground Zero to their conditions, so getting the word out is important," says Bridget Gormley, whose father Billy Gormley was a FDNY firefighter who died of 9/11 related cancer in 2017 . She now advocates for improved healthcare for the 9/11 community. "There are people from all over the world –international rescuers – who came to help and may be living with conditions."

For some of those caught up in the events of that day, the toll it has taken on their mental health may mean some cases are being missed.

"People disconnect themselves from 9/11 – especially if they didn't have direct correlation to the day," says retired FDNY first responder Michael O'Connell, who was 25 years-old on 9/11 and is now aged 48. O'Connell worked in 24-hour shifts at Ground Zero in the days immediately after the attacks. He didn't have any physical symptoms until six years later when he was diagnosed with rare autoimmune disease called sarcoidosis in 2007 , when he was in his early 30s. He was one of the first 9/11 firefighters to be diagnosed with the condition, which causes abnormal lumps of inflammatory cells to form in his organs. He describes it as feeling like he has been beaten up with a baseball bat. He now does advocacy work with John Feal and the Feal Good Foundation.

"It takes time for [diseases] to develop," he says. "For eight months we were breathing in toxic air. We're still getting sick, and people are dying from their exposure [23 years later]."

O'Connell's physician, David Prezant, chief medical officer for FDNY , studied sarcoidosis in first responders and concluded the disease was more prevalent in those with exposure to WTC toxins. Close to 100 firefighters have been identified as suffering from sarcoidosis since O'Connell's own diagnosis.

"It's a sad reality we're met with – and there's no waiting. Tomorrow can be too late for one person," says O'Connell.

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Although much of the attention has been on the first responders who worked at Ground Zero, there are also a growing number of members of the public in New York who are also starting to develop conditions related to the dust and smoke generated on that day.

Lila Nordstrom was a 17-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan's East Village in 2001. She was in a lesson when the planes hit the Twin Towers, and when they collapsed dust rushed into her school just three blocks from the World Trade Center.

Today, at 40 years-old, Nordstrom believes the dust she breathed in that day has worsened her asthma. She is the founder of advocacy group Stuy Health and joined in the fight for the Victim Compensation Fund, arguing that her survivor community also deserves recognition and mental and physical health care.

She wrote a book called Some Kids Left Behind: A Survivor's Fight for Health Care in the Wake of 9/11  about her and her classmates' experience going back to school in the aftermath of the attacks, after their school was used as a staging area in the immediate months that followed.

"We all deserve to be monitored," Nordstrom says, noting that survivors like herself – people in the area who did not participate in rescue and recovery efforts – have conditions comparable to first responders. "9/11 health effects affected people beyond first responders. It's hard for people to admit they're part of this pool. But they are part of this pool and they deserve these resources that the federal government set aside to the 9/11 community."

It's important she says for people to recognise they may have been affected – particularly because it can qualify them for no-cost healthcare.

Often, the conditions are harder to see – but are no less deserving of treatment. Large numbers of WTC Health Program members have developed mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, panic disorders and PTSD.

Udasin's own research has demonstrated that there is a prevalence of mental health conditions and says she still sees patients who are suffering from them. She notes that as first responders and survivors are getting older and addressing their health in a more serious way, mental health is a part of that. 

"After people are retired, they're more likely to seek out mental health treatment," Udasin says. "And at this time of year, as we approach the 9/11 anniversary, every year in September we have an uptick in people with a mental health diagnosis."

Conditions such as PTSD can also take a physical toll. One study published this year showed there was accelerated biological ageing among veterans who were deployed to war-zones in the aftermath of 9/11.

" PTSD is a physical injury too," Feal says. "I've learned to accept my PTSD diagnosis. It means you've been through something and came out the other side with scars that make you stronger."

Another recent study revealed other issues may still be emerging. It found evidence of cognitive impairments in people exposed to dust and smoke from the World Trade Center, perhaps due to organic neurotoxins that became airborne.

As more time passes, the community of 9/11 responders and survivors is dwindling.

"There's a premature death rate," Cascio says. "As a community, we view it as we'll probably all die of 9/11 illness at some point. Everyone feels that way – whether we talk about it or not. From time to time, we will admit to each other – not necessarily to family and loved ones – that even if we wind up dying in old age, it will be from 9/11 illnesses."

For the first responders who bravely entered Ground Zero 23 years ago, and the survivors caught up fallout from the attacks, there is an important aspect to continuing to talk about their ongoing struggles.

 "'Never Forget' means making sure their story doesn't die with them," says Cascio.

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