Are you tired of struggling with typing and writing essays for your class? Do you want to learn how to blow your professors away with your papers? If so, then you need to invest time in learning about proper essay writing.
After learning all of the key components of it, you’ll find it much easier to adapt your words and fit them into an essay format. While it might not come to you naturally, practicing it can help you set yourself up for success when writing in the future.
See below for several essay writing tips that you can use for your education from this point forward.
1. Keep a Personal Tone
If you’re writing your essay for a professor, then you might think they want every sentence in your essay to spew some facts regarding the paper’s topic.
However, it’s important to remember that they’re people too. They, just like everyone else, want to read an engaging and personable paper, not the type of content that you would find in a dictionary.
That being said, there’s a balance that needs to be struck. While you want to keep the paper’s tone personable, you want the content to be informational.
Think of it as doing a PowerPoint presentation. If all you do is spit out fact after fact in a boring and monotone voice, the audience will fall asleep in their seats.
But if you keep a personal and exciting tone while listing off facts, it will keep them engaged. If essay writing isn’t your forte, then look into hiring a professional essay writing expert for your paper.
2. Research First
J.K. Rowling had to brainstorm and map out her ideas before she wrote the Harry Potter series. Rick Riordan had to perform hundreds of hours worth of historical research before writing the Percy Jackson book series. Why would you do any different for your essay?
When it comes to writing powerful papers, research yields the best rewards. It gives you confidence as you type.
In fact, there are many freelance writers out there that make a living by researching and writing informational blog articles on topics they previously knew nothing about.
So, how can you research a topic? Use Google as your friend! Search for various aspects of the topic you’re covering and read up before you start writing. This can also be the resources that you cite for your paper. Get all of that out of the way from the get-go.
3. B.I.C.
Just because your professor demands the paper be written in a certain order doesn’t mean you have to create the content in that order. You can always start with the main portion of the paper to open up other aspects of it.
Writers, always remember the acronym “B.I.C.”. It stands for “Body, Introduction, and Conclusion. In other words, you should focus on writing the body of your essay first, followed by the introduction, and then the conclusion.
Think about it. The introduction of your essay is supposed to entice the reader and give them a peek into what your essay’s body will cover. How can you do that if you have yet to write the body? That’s like telling someone about a meal that you’ve never eaten before.
Keep the body consistent and informative. Every time you switch to a new aspect of the topic, create a new paragraph. Keep paragraphs around the same sentence count and line count to make it appealing to the eye.
For your introduction, try to keep it to around 100 words or less. Use the first sentence to grab the attention of the reader using a famous quote, eye-popping statistic, or a grabby line that lures them in.
The conclusion should be viewed as a wrap-up. Use four or five sentences to reiterate the various aspects you’ve covered and how they support your main thesis.
4. Stay On Task
One of the worst things that you can do in your essay is to venture off-topic. It will give off the impression to your professors that you’re trying to fluff your essay, especially if they require the essay to be a certain word count.
This all goes back to the amount of research that you perform before writing. If you stockpile information for your essay, then you’ll find it easy to stay on task.
If you find yourself struggling to come up with another point mid-way through writing, stop to do more research. You’ll be glad you did.
5. Provide Context
Anyone in the world can Google a topic and reiterate the information that they’ve found online. Your professors don’t want to see how good you are at Googling. They want to see that you’ve retained the information that you’ve found.
For that, it’s always helpful to provide context, especially when you’re presenting an original idea or concept for the reader.
For example, if you might make a claim such as “offline marketing tactics still provide value for businesses”. Use the next sentence to give context to that statement.
Give an example such as “companies can provide their employees with business cards to encourage them to go out, meet new prospects, shake hands, and put a face to your brand”. This helps the reader see the information from your point of view.
Improve Your Essay Writing Skills With These Tips
Now that you’ve seen all the different essay writing tips to improve your essay writing skills, it’s important that you apply them to your studies.
Take the time to think through your essay’s topic. List out some questions that you’d like to answer in your paper, then perform various research to answer them.
Be sure to browse our website for more articles on how to write essays, as well as many other helpful topics that you’ll find intriguing.