Every student has a different approach to writing essays and other assignments. Moreover, each student differs due to their skills, interests, and general attitude – whether it’s easy for them to write or not, whether they like the process, or hate it. But there is something in common – each student would like to be able to write great essays and boost their grades. This blog post will provide you with some great tips on how to instantly improve the quality of your essays.
Start With an Outline
What makes a good essay even better? An outline that allows an author to plan their piece and save time on editing. An outline is a step that many students miss which results in a badly structured essay that lacks logical flow and nice transitions between each section.
What you should do is to start your writing with a detailed outline that considers all of the key elements of your essay and ties them up into one structure. Such a plan should also include particular evidence, facts, and points that you would like to use in your work. You might not come up with a perfect outline instantly, so make sure you check all of your sources one more time, add to your outline any missed information, argument, or citation, and then work your outline into a written piece.
Use Different Sources
If your essays commonly lack proof or you feel like they don’t look as good as they could, you should definitely use more sources in your work. Having various thoughts, and facts compiled into one piece always shows your approach – how much time you spent on your essay and how seriously you treat the research process when you are working on an academic piece.
Pro tip: Never cite Wikipedia. Check the sources that the Wikipedia page cites and make sure that are a good fit for your essay.
Make Sure You Follow the Classic Structure
Classic essays have a particular structure that consists of three key elements – introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. It’s always hard to start writing with an introduction as this part should not only provide a lot of valuable and proven information, but also a thesis statement.
Your thesis statement might not be as obvious as it should be once you just start your writing. That’s why the best option would be to begin with your body paragraphs at first and then work on your introduction. It will provide you with a clearer understanding of what your thesis should be like and how to phrase it better.
As you might be tempted to deviate from a classic essay structure, it’s better to stick with it unless the assignment itself requires you to. Even creative writing commonly allows us to start with some introduction part. It’s the best way to make sure you catch your reader’s attention and slowly let them understand what the piece is about.
Always divide your text into paragraphs, ending each with a transitional sentence. Don’t jump from one evidence, fact, or argument to another – make sure that each paragraph or essay part is dedicated to one particular point of view with all the necessary supporting material.
Pro tip: you can always turn to a team of professional writers, who will write a perfectly structured and cited essay just right on time.
Proofread Your Essays
When working on an essay, it’s crucial to make sure you polish your piece after the writing part is done. There are a lot of students who lose an opportunity to get a high grade for their work only because they didn’t have enough time to check if their essay is free from plagiarism, grammar mistakes, or some formatting errors.
Make sure you have your task in front of you, so you can check if your essay answers the assignment question and meets all the necessary requirements regarding citation rules, word count, etc. Then reread your essay and check if there are any punctual or grammar mistakes. You can also check your essay with online tools or specific software that will do this job for you automatically. Check if the logical flow is correct. That’s it. Now you are ready to send your essay to your professor!