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Today I would like to welcome guest blogger, Kenneth Waldman, freelance writer and content creator at essay writing service EssayMama.com. He is here to give some tips on essay writing.
Writing an essay is extremely difficult if you do not have a good knowledge on the topic. Writing is also very challenging if you don’t know how to properly structure your essay, how to add annotations, bibliography or how to perform editing. It takes quite some preparations until you can finally sit down and write your essay.
If you want to get a good grade, then you need to spend quality time on preparations before even writing anything. So let’s check out a few quintessential factors to remember regarding how to write a really good essay.
Brainstorming for the perfect topic
If you are allowed to write on any topic, you need to choose something that you are really knowledgeable about. Sit down and start your brainstorming session. Think about your hobbies, your favorite books, things you are most interested in, news you like to read about the most. Something will ultimately come to you mind, and from there you can narrow down your brainstorming and come up with the perfect title.
Brainstorming often times starts with a single word. Then, from that word you will come up with a sentence, and that sentence will take you towards a story. Brainstorming is the technique used by the most creative ad makers out there, so use it because it will help. The Purdue Online Writing Lab offers some really interesting resources pertaining to essay writing.
Plenty of research
Before you sit down to write anything, you need to spend long hours on research. Only this way will you be able to concentrate all your knowledge and come up with a nice essay. If you don’t have enough knowledge on the topic, you cannot possibly write 500 words about that topic. However, if you will read enough information, you will assimilate the basics that should be developed in your essay.
Get online and start reading magazine articles, peer reviewed journals, and even a few novels that are relevant to your topic. As a source of entertainment, you can also watch relevant documentaries and movies that will add to your knowledge base. Find out more on how to do research for an excellent essay here.
Drafting is essential
Drafting, or prewriting is indeed important. Before you start writing your essay, you should add on paper important sentences, phrases and notes that will help contouring your main essay. Scribble on paper, draw if you have to, and be creative- make a draft that represents the rough sketch of your main essay. When you sit down to writing, you just need to use this draft, and it will guide you to write brilliant essay, quite effortlessly. More information on drafting an essay can be found at this resource.
Planning the general outline
If you have a rough outline for your essay before you start writing it, you will write it much easier. How many paragraphs will the introduction have? How many different topics you will talk about in the body of the essay? How many subheadings you plan to have? What about the conclusion? Is this a persuasive or open-ended conclusion?
You really need to answer all these questions in order to write a well-structured essay and respect the number of words in the directions. Otherwise, you risk writing an essay that is not proportional- too long introduction, short body of essay and so on. Always plan the general outline on paper, with approximate number of words for each section/subsection. Check out this helpful pdf on essay outlines – by the University of Washington Tacoma.
Grammar & style
You need to write a very grammatically correct essay. For this you need to spend some time on checking a few English grammar rules first. Use he available online applications, tools and grammar tests as part preparing to write your essay. Spend some time on revising carefully your grammar, and ensure you will hand in an essay that has good sentences, correct grammar and no stylistic mistakes.
There are many free spellcheckers and grammar tools online. Within minutes you can download them to your laptop, and use them as you write your essay. When you are done, remember to edit and proofread your essay, put it aside for a day…and read it again the next day with fresh eyes. For more tips on grammar, punctuation & style read this.
Practicing before the final version
If this is an extremely important essay you need to write for your college class, you should practice enough. For example you could write 2 or 3 test essays before writing the final version. Such practicing will help make your writing skills more powerful. With practicing, you will be able to write great sentences and paragraphs for your final version, and you will already know what you need to be careful about (such as too many run on sentences, certain grammar mistakes, bad structuring, etc.)
Read out loud your final work
This is the rule of thumb. Many poets, essay writers, screen writers, will use this trick. When you have finished your essay, don’t just hand it in. As a final step, read out loud your essay. How does it sound? Is it interesting? Are the sentences too long? Does the entire piece sound boring? Do you like what you hear? How would you grade it if you were a teacher? Be extremely analytic and objective when reading your own essay. Change the things you do not like about it, and the read it again. Now your essay should be perfect!
It may sound like you need to do a thousand things before you can finally sit down and write. In fact, all these preparations will help you write your essay quite fast and quite well. Don’t struggle on writing an essay of 500 words without having enough knowledge on the topic. Don’t struggle to come up with the sentences, when you have problems with certain grammar rules. Study first and get down to writing only afterwards.
Writing an essay should not be complicated, if you will pay attention to these tasks that you need to perform besides writing proper. Spend enough time on research, and choose research sources that are truly trustworthy and quality sources. You will be able to write an essay that will impress your teacher or even your application assistant in college!
Author: Kenneth Waldman, freelance writer and content creator at essay writing service EssayMama.com. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.