Miscellaneous observations on a topic are not enough to make an accomplished academic essay. An essay should have an argument. It should answer a question or a few related questions (see 2 below). It should try to prove something--develop a single "thesis" or a short set of closely related points--by reasoning and evidence, especially including apt examples and confirming citations from any particular text or sources your argument involves. Gathering such evidence normally entails some rereading of the text or sources with a question or provisional thesis in mind.
When--as is usually the case--an assigned topic does not provide you with a thesis ready-made, your first effort should be to formulate as exactly as possible the question(s) you will seek to answer in your essay. Next, develop by thinking, reading, and jotting a provisional thesis or hypothesis. Don`t become prematurely committed to this first answer. Pursue it, but test it--even to the point of consciously asking yourself what might be said against it--and be ready to revise or qualify it as your work progresses. (Sometimes a suggestive possible title one discovers early can serve in the same way.)
There are many ways in which any particular argument may be well presented, but an essay`s organization--how it begins, develops, and ends--should be designed to present your argument clearly and persuasively. (The order in which you discovered the parts of your argument is seldom an effective order for presenting it to a reader.)
Successful methods of composing an essay are various, but some practices of good writers are almost invariable: