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[T962]Tips On Writing Essays

by Gen Wright, Gen

Many writers find themselves staring at a blank piece of paper (sometimes for hours) while they try to write an essay. Somehow, they believe that staring blankly at a piece of paper works. Obviously, that doesn't work, especially when the topic is an obscure or unfamiliar one. The writer has come face to face with the first problem - lack of ideas.

Proper planning.

The writer experiences a lack of ideas mainly due to lack of proper planning. Planning doesn't have to take up a lot of time. What happens is that when a writer focuses on the planning process, ideas can be generated more easily. At this stage, the writer doesn't have to worry about grammar, sentence structure, or how the essay develops. He can solely focus his attention on coming up with more ideas.

Once a writer feels that he has enough ideas, he may then proceed to pick his ideas and organize them in a way that would make the essay easy to read and understand. By then, half the battle is won.

Give yourself more time.

Sometimes, ideas don't come because writers pressure themselves too much. It is very difficult to come up with anything creative when the mind is in a stressful state.

While it is very difficult to ignore the element of time, especially when a writer has to finish an essay within a stipulated time frame, it is still necessary to relax the mind. A writer can do so by giving himself more time.

As the mind relaxes, ideas come more easily. If time is a concern, just choose one or two ideas and work with those ideas first. If there is still time, the writer can always pick a few more ideas to work on. If not, at least the essay contains some content.

When this approach is adopted, the writer finds that he can think more clearly, and the writing will flow more easily.

Spend more time expanding on the better ideas.

Out of a handful of ideas, there will be some that stand out. Identify these ideas and spend more time expanding on these ideas. Be clear and concise about the messages that you want to convey. Explain clearly where you are coming from, and give examples when necessary. To stress the importance of these ideas, you may want to repeat the point a few more times. But don't just repeat the same ideas just because you have nothing new to write about. Repeat only because you think these ideas are worth repeating.

Edit and proof read.

In the final phase of your essay, if there is still time, remember to edit and proof read your essay. Rewrite sentences that don't sound natural if you have to, and look out for spelling and grammatical errors.

If you heed the advice offered above, you are on your way to writing a high quality essay.

Writing is an essential skill for any college student. Even if you're a biologist or a mathematician, you still need to write lab reports and proofs. Every college student has to take at least one writing-intensive course. College level essay writing doesn't have to be overwhelming. Here are five tips that'll help you write better essays:

1. If you haven't read the book, take good notes in class, and discuss the points covered in your notes.

In an ideal world, every student would read every book and turn in every assignment. In reality, that's not what happens. Things come up. Certain classes begin to take precedence over other courses. You may find yourself having to juggle different assignments in such a way, that one slips through the cracks. Don't panic. If simply don't have anytime to finish reading that thousand page Dostoyevsky novel, you can still turn in a quality essay. If you have to sacrifice reading the book, then you better go to class and take out-of-this-world notes. Wrap your mind around the important historical, philosophical and thematic issues, and discuss these topics in your essay. Mine the book for two or three quality citations, and you'll be fine. This method should only be used as a last resort, because when you turn in essays in this fashion, you might make the grades, but you'll lose out on your education.

2. If you have read the book, extract an original take from it.

Don't just regurgitate what you read, analyze it and develop a unique way of discussing the issues covered in the book. In a college essay (or any essay for that matter) you are free to argue whatever point you want, as long as you can back it up with supporting evidence. Don't write something that you think your teacher wants to hear, and don't spit your professors’ opinions back at them. Develop your own distinctive opinion, and argue it thoroughly.

3. Try to combine multiple ideas from the course.

Tie in what you've learned. Think outside of the topic and weave together different threads from the fabric of the class. Reference your lecture notes, and previous reading materials. Make connections in the curriculum. Professors love that kind of stuff.

4. Include historical perspectives.

Whatever you are writing, you can always find little tidbits of interesting historical facts to throw in. Type your essay topic in an Internet search engine and follow the term with the word “facts.” You will be presented with pages of fact sheets that you can mine for valuable trivia. Whenever you want to add thickness to your argument, couch your claims in a relevant historical context.

5. Don't ever plagiarize.

Plagiarizing is lazy, useless and dangerous. You want to strive for originality in whatever endeavor you undertake. You should never want the opinions of others to be confused with your own unique takes. Furthermore, plagiarizing can get you in serious trouble. If you haven't done the work, take evasive action and buy more time. It's better to turn in an excellent tardy paper than a worthless on-time essay.

College essay writing isn't a mystery. You need to read your materials, take good notes during your lectures and pick an essay topic. Then you organize your ideas, craft a cleverly worded thesis statement, and set about proving your assertion with supporting evidence. That's it. Just be original, think outside the topic and always remember to answer the question entirely.

Article Source : writing skills lessons

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Both Gen Wright & Chris Stout are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

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