Essay writing is a cross-disciplinary skill that students gain and perfect while in college. This skill is hard to overestimate: it makes one smarter and more eloquent, as well as improves your critical thinking skills. Regardless of the path one chooses in life, the skills gained while writing papers for every subject give a person confidence in their opinions, reasoning, and arguments. Here, the key is practice. If you want to write excellent essays and make the best out of them, here are 10 tips for improving your writing and receiving better grades.
#1 Abandon the talent bias
Although writing is a creative process, it does not require specific talents to complete an essay assignment. While working on an essay, it is important to remember that it is more of a craft than an art. Therefore, all that students are expected to do is show their knowledge or demonstrate their research logically and coherently. As evidence, writing can be a service: if you need someone reliable buy an essay from, it’s easily accomplishable online. The professionals who do that can prove that academic writing is fundamentally different from creative writing unless it’s in the assignment.
#2 Make time for research
A high-quality essay requires time. Planning your time, don’t forget the research part, as it usually takes more than writing itself. Make sure you read, filter, and collect information at a comfortable pace. It will both ensure the quality of your reasoning and make you learn more, which is the primary purpose of any academic assignment.
#3 Get to know the format you need to use
There are certain formalities students have to stick to while working on their essays, and the format is among the major ones. The most common formats for essays are MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. However, most colleges assign their students to write in either MLA or APA. The format determines how the essay’s title, citations, and reference list look. Commonly, the format has no impact on the contents of the essay.
#4 Make sure you understand the type of essay
Essentially, every assignment type is designed to challenge a certain way of thinking and train a certain type of skill. Usually, the challenge is in the name. For example, a reflective essay will rely on your own thoughts on the matter in question. An argumentative essay trains one’s ability to make arguments and prove their point. A descriptive one asks you to describe or explain a certain phenomenon. So, look at the essay type as the goal you have to achieve while completing the assignment.
#5 Find credible sources
Another essential skill students gain on their assignments is media literacy. Today, there is a huge multitude of sources of information, but not all of them are equally reliable. In fact, the quality and reliability of the sources define the validity of the arguments in the essay. Make sure the article, book, or any other publication you’re about to cite has a reputable author, was published within the past five years ideally, and is peer-reviewed. This simple checklist will fortify every paper.
#6 Structure your essay
Make sure the essay follows a required structure to make your thoughts organized and the argument clear. Usually, it consists of three major parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. In the introduction, state the problem or a question you’re about to answer and complete it with a thesis statement—the main point the essay makes. The body, ideally, must consist of at least three different arguments that support the thesis statement. Finally, restate your thesis in conclusion and wrap up your paper. The best practice is to start an essay with an outline. Assign a statement and a source (if needed) for each part and then elaborate on each piece.
#7 Make your reasoning flow
Although there are technical and structural rules students have to follow, the essay still must look like a cohesive piece of writing. To make it so, use linking words to make your arguments flow. With functional words, such as however, although, in addition, moreover, finally, in conclusion, you can glue your thoughts together, and the writing will not look ‘patchy.’
#8 Elevate your language
Avoid colloquialisms and jargon while writing an academic paper. The more precise the word choice is, the stronger the argument looks. For example, the more ‘casual’ the word is, the more meaning variations it can have. For that reason, not to imply any other meaning of the word and mitigate ambiguity, go for the one with the narrowest denotative meaning—they usually look the smartest!
#9 Avoid generalizations
As it follows the previous point, arguments in an academic essay must be as precise as possible. If you go for a statement, instead of general adjectives, use statistics. If the statement does not have numbers, acknowledge the source that makes it valid. The purpose of any essay is to challenge a student to learn and show it on paper, and without solid data, it will just look like an opinion. Details add expertise to the argument in the paper.
#10 Cite all your sources
As generalizations are not welcome in academic writing, students must prove their points with credible sources. Apart from picking the right sources, students must use and cite them correctly. Even if it is not a word-by-word quotation but just an idea, acknowledge the author and its work in the text of the essay using the guidelines of the assigned format. Then, make sure to list all the sources alphabetically at the end of the paper. Again, it will improve the credibility of your argument and ensure a higher grade.
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As evident, writing, especially academic one, is just a technique. All the tips mentioned above will help improve your grades and make every assignment more effective in learning. So, on the next assignment, make sure that the essay follows these simple tips and write better with each paper task.