How to Be Good at Writing Essays?

Essay writing is a constant activity for students. This is true irrespective of your level of education. Therefore, when considering academic writing, essay writing is the first type of writing that you should concentrate on.

These are the most basic form of writing. The structure is also very basic. All of these make essay writing comparatively easier. But the complication seeps in with the different types of essays. Though the general structure is the same, the type of information and the tone of the writing varies.

You need to understand the difference at the earliest. This will make this type of writing easier for you. This blog will share some other tips with you, but before that, let’s understand why it is important to work on essay writing skills.

To enhance your essay quality you can choose an essay writer from myassignmenthelp.com, which is a trusted site providing academic services. Besides, you can also work on your skills to enhance the quality of the article. The section below discusses the same. So, keep reading!

Why is It Important to Be Good at Writing Essays?

Essay writing is a beneficial skill for a variety of reasons. It teaches students how to conduct research and organise their thoughts. It also tells them how to write about a topic by transforming their ideas and opinions into clearer word compositions. Additionally, students learn how to build ideas and arguments. They get familiar with backing their thesis statement. Reading articles utilised as sources also helps students enhance their reading comprehension skills.

Essay writing is necessary for a variety of reasons. A few instances are mentioned below.

This writing helps in the development of critical thinking, language, and analytical skills.
It helps in the comprehension of words and sentences.
It helps in the improvement of communication and comprehension skills.
It helps in the development of confidence in public speaking and speech delivery.
It teaches students how to organise their thoughts into logical sentences.

How to Be Good at Essay Writing?

Before reading further, have a look at the various types of essays. It will help you understand the entire process better. Click here to read about the same.

Here are 9 tips to improve your essay writing skill –

1. Read the prompt carefully

When you’re writing an essay for a class assignment or scholarship application, you typically get a prompt that tells you what to write about or gives you a list of possible topics. Reading the prompt carefully can help you decide on an effective subject for your essay and can give you clues about how to structure your argument. When you read the prompt, underline any directions that tell you how many points to include or how long your essay might be.

For example –

Your professor asks you to write an essay on one of your personal experiences and provides the following prompt –

“Mention about an incident in your life that changed life for you. It can be either a good or bad experience. Both of them will be accepted. Make sure to describe the incident in detail and relate how it changed your life. Show instances to prove your point.”

Now suppose you do not read the prompt properly and miss out on relating the same to your present-day life. This will generally lead to a mark deduction in your paper.

2. Choose an interesting topic

Sometimes, when you write an essay, you get to choose the topic. If you’re not given a specific topic, pick something that you’re interested in. Remember to keep your goal in mind while doing so. For instance, if you need to write a persuasive essay, you could choose a topic that you care about, like protecting the environment.

When you’re passionate about a subject, finding points to support your argument is easier. If you’re having trouble deciding between two topics, make a list of the points you could use to back up each one. Then, choose the topic that seems the easiest to support.

For example –

Suppose you are asked to write a comparative essay on either of the following topic –

Oscar Wilde vs William Blake
Wes Anderson vs David Fincher

You are a person who never finds literature interesting. But for you, movies are your forte. Very naturally, you must pick the topic – Wes Anderson vs David Flincher.

3. Use different research sources

Outside sources can be used to support your claim or provide more. Using different sources ensures that your essay has a well-structured argument and takes into account more than one point of view. Depending on your topic, you may consult books, web databases, online journals, videos, and primary sources such as novels and films. Collect essential facts and quotations supporting your topic from each source and copy the citation information in your bibliography. You have to know the most trustworthy sources from where you can get the desired information.

For example –

When you are writing a descriptive piece on a topic of history, you can get the best information from https://mercer.libguides.com/HIS295

4. Prepare an outline

Before writing, using an outline can help you organise your points and supporting evidence. An outline allows you to arrange your main ideas and subordinate supporting material, indicating where this information will appear in your draft. For the same, start with your topic and draw a few lines branching off of it. Then, write down your key ideas on each line and draw additional lines and thoughts branching off those concepts. These methods can help you identify connections and interconnections between different topics or concepts.

Consider you are writing an essay on corruption. For the central structure of the essay, you can create an outline similar to this:

This is just an example. The real outlines are anyway broader and more detailed.

5. Work on your grammar and spelling

Improving your grammar skills can help you develop rough draughts that are closer to the finished product. Thus, saving you time during the editing stage. If you’re a student, you may ask your English or writing teacher for extra help learning about punctuation, active voice, proper pronoun use, and other subjects. Writers who are no longer in school may purchase a grammar workbook or attend an online grammar course.

If you haven’t paid attention to the grammar and spelling from the beginning, proofread the file several times. If needed, do rounds of revision but make sure that there are no grammatical or spelling errors.

6. Use the right tone

Using terms that are appropriate for the tone and goal of your essay can make your writing more captivating and persuasive. Only use words you understand when writing to ensure you’re utilising them appropriately. To learn new words and broaden your writing, consult a dictionary or thesaurus. When selecting words, keep the tone of your essay in mind. To generate a professional tone, eliminate slang and abbreviations when writing a formal paper for a class.

For instance, the tone for argumentative and narrative essays won’t be the same.

When you are arguing that women are equal to men, you have to be formal, state facts and sound confident.

When you narrate a wonderful story of women empowerment, your tone will be a lot softer and informal.

7. Evaluate the evidence before you use them

Take the time to go over your evidence before making an argument. Be critical while also being thorough. You could use sources produced by authors having credibility, such as university membership or press credentials. Published books and academic journals can be trusted sources of information. Throughout your essay, use good research to back up your argument and thesis.

When you explain how the internet has made life easier for students, you have to show statistics of students from different age groups. Who can give you the most trusted information about their education and its relation with the internet? Their teachers. Thus, professors with blogs and materials worth this study can be your credible source.

8. Write a solid conclusion

Ending your essay with a well-written, insightful ending paragraph will boost your reader’s trust in you and leave them with a positive image of your abilities. You could restate your thesis and significant points in your conclusion. You can also demonstrate the significance of your topic by discussing the ramifications of your study and argument. For example, if you’re writing an essay asking for increased arts funding at your institution, you could end by picturing the magnificent works of art that students could make if their programmes were better funded.

Learn more about writing impactful conclusions at https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/ending-essay-conclusions

9. Be Specific

When writing an essay, employ particular details to support your point and engage your readers, such as historical facts, numerical data, and descriptions of locations and people. The essay’s purpose or topic may determine the types of details you use.

For example, suppose you’re writing on population growth in a certain city. In that case, you may utilise historical census figures to show how the city’s population has risen through time, as well as descriptions of the neighbourhoods that formed as a result of the population increase.

Bottom Line

When you are giving the right efforts and working systematically, there’s no way your essay will be of subpar quality. Keep in mind the above points; they are curated and accepted by universities across the globe.