Writing a Spanish essay with a preselected topic should be much easier for students as it eliminates the need to do brainstorming to determine the essay topic. If the topic is up to you, then you should select a topic that is of interest to you. A good choice of a topic in the writing of the Spanish essay could be writing about the Hispanic culture, or a specific country's history, geography or literature. Writing about the Spanish culture will help you get a better grasp of the underlying principles of the Spanish-speaking society and origins of the language.
Every student should put some thought into an essay before she begins to write. A clear understanding of the requirements is essential in any type of essay but more so in Spanish as the terminology might be new and unfamiliar to the essay writer. A Spanish essay writer needs to determine whether she is writing an informative essay or a descriptive essay. Language abilities will determine the use of terminology that needs to be demonstrated in the Spanish essay.
All good essay writing needs to have as a foundation good and through research on the topic. Research can be done through the Internet, by interviewing Spanish or Hispanic families and friends and by reading books, newspapers and magazines. You do not need to read these articles in Spanish, although it is helpful as it builds up vocabulary which you may use in the essay.
Before starting to write your Spanish essay, you should develop an outline of what you want to include. All essays should have an introduction, about three paragraphs that support the thesis of your essay and a conclusion. It is important to then use the outline to write a draft of the essay. An essay needs to be organized and well-structured. Each paragraph needs to have a main topic, which is then supported by facts. After writing the first draft, you should review it with a critical eye and determine if the flow of the essay is correct and whether the essay conveys what you want it to. It is important during all aspects of the essay-writing to check for errors in punctuation, grammar, spelling, sentence style and structure.
When reviewing your Spanish essay be sure to remember that in Spanish the use of irregular verbs is very common. The context in which a verb is used determines which verb tense you must use. A good suggestion is to have a Spanish-speaking person read the essay to determine if it is understandable and has the correct usage of verbs, whether past, present or future. Another common mistake made by non-Spanish writers is the lack of understanding of the differences in punctuation in Spanish. For example, you do not capitalize days of the week or months in Spanish. You can also use word processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, to check the essay for common spelling mistakes.