How To Write An Essay: Easy Step By Step Guide
It is not unusual for students to run from pillar to post, the night before an essay is due, trying to think of ways on how to write an essay and come up with an approach for their topics.
Having to write a 2000 words-long essay or thesis with zero plagiarism can be an intimidating affair. The amount of research that is needed to be done to pack all your thoughts in a few pages is often daunting. With deadlines fast approaching, you begin to look for assignment help from all possible sources.
To help reduce this burden, here are a few ways on how to write an essay
Most students begin working on their essays by researching the given topic straightaway. They feel by reading about it, and knowing all that there is, they can quickly write up their version of the topic.
This is not a conducive thing to do. On the contrary, a structured approach to writing can make matters simpler, and prevent one from losing their way in an ocean of information. Therefore, start with a pre-writing phase.
What is a pre-writing phase?
This should ideally be the first step in your process of writing an essay. In this stage, you take some time to think about what is it that you wish to address.
Most of the time, you are provided with a broad theme, under which you will be asked to choose a topic. This is the phase where you zero down on the topic you want to write on. You can also ask questions that you think need further exploration.
Doing this narrows down your path to research, and this will ensure you don’t go around reading everything under the sun, wasting your valuable time on it. This is where you put all your thoughts down on the paper, aka brain dumping.
Focused Research – Closing in on a particular topic can help you segue into the research stage. This is where you get out of the brain-dumping phase and focus on the specifics of your essay. While researching, it is natural to get stuck in a loop, constantly looking for more literature on the subject matter. This can be avoided by fixing the sources which you can turn to refer.
A prominent place to start will be Wikipedia. Although it is not the most accurate source, the “Citations” section of a Wikipedia article leads you to authentic sources, which you can use for your essay.
Google Scholar is a great search engine to find academic articles on various subject matters. In addition to this, there are many open university libraries that can be accessed online.
Once you find the sources, make a personal copy of the content that you require, and keep it handy at all times. This will not only save your time, but it also makes referring easier.
Finally, do not just read about the topic for hours together. It is a good practice to write as you research. So, if you read for a few minutes, make sure to pen down your inferences right away.
Your first draft need not be perfect
Students tend to get stuck with perfecting their initial draft. This becomes time-consuming and restricts their thought process. Writing down everything in an abstract manner, by giving in to the free flow of thoughts will keep your writing process flexible.
Your future self is tasked with editing the whole stuff, so you can shape it and tune it later. However, care should be taken to write your first draft and its edited version in different documents. This will prevent any potential confusion.
How to write an essay? Edit, edit, and edit
The importance of editing cannot be stressed more. Editing is where the idea is turned into a story. It is the process of molding your thoughts into an articulate set of paragraphs. Editing consists of two aspects:
i) The Content: This is where you review the substance of your essay. You need to consider if the arguments put forth support your position on the topic; does the narrative have a good flow; are your arguments backed by research and its findings; is there something you can add or remove from the draft. You need to comprehensively make sure that the content is neatly placed.
ii) Technical aspect: The grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence construction is what you focus on in the second stage of editing. You may have a very compelling argument, backed with solid research, but you will risk all this going down the drain if there are grammatical errors.
Software applications like Grammarly can be used to give your essay thorough vetting. Reading it out loud will also help you to identify and change sentences if they do not sound okay.
You need to make sure your essay is original and not copied from elsewhere. While you may be allowed plagiarism limit up to 14% generally, it is still a good practice to take the initiative and write originally on your interests, rather than merely paraphrasing what someone else has already written.
Using quotations is a great way to give weight to your writing. However, it is important that you give due credit to your sources. This can be done through citations and references.
Make sure you get your essay read by a fresh pair of eyes. No matter what the time-gap is in between you writing the essay and then picking it up to read, your approach will not change substantially.
To make sure what you have written is sound, and that it makes sense, give it to others who haven’t dealt with it before. It is advisable not to use your close friends or relatives to elicit feedback as there are fewer chances of getting a professional and unbiased one from them.
Miscellaneous tips on how to write an essay
Some other things to be kept in mind while writing an essay:
i) Prepare a structure for your essay before you begin your research. If you start reading without a structure planned, you may involuntarily tend to imitate what, or how, others have written.
ii) Know your audience: This is crucial while writing academic papers. You need to know the target audience. Once you know their requirements, it becomes easy to tune your writing to their needs.
For example: if your essay is for a class assignment, you need to understand what your teacher, or professor, expects and write accordingly.
Finally, after you prepare the final draft, give it another read before you submit it. Do not leave the detailed editing to the end, this is only to give it a cursory glance, to see how it looks just before you hand it over.
Structuring the whole process of writing an essay will chalk out a clear path, and ensure that you don’t get lost on your way. It also helps you work faster, and meet your deadlines. Another benefit of writing in a structured manner is that your information can be conveyed effectively while keeping it original.
If you need any further advice or assistance in writing your essay you can consult our professionals through chat or mailing your assignment at [email protected]
Use the comment section to mention any methods that can be followed while writing an essay.
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