Last updated on March 28th, 2024 at 12:06 am
Writing an essay is a challenging task, especially if you are new to such assignments. So, here are some basic but efficient guidelines for new essay writers. Apply those tips in your next writing project. You’ll see that academic writing doesn’t have to be as scary as you might imagine.
Plan your time wisely
Any essay work starts with time planning. Students need to break down the scope of their work and schedule it accordingly. Thus, an essay can be divided into several sections – brainstorming, drafting, research, and more (all of them will appear further in the article).
Each section takes time, depending on your skills, awareness of the topics, interests, etc. Making room for each work session will help you prevent any errors or rushing in the future. Lastly, most young people often make mistakes because they miss this important step and rush through the work.
That’s where they either have to sacrifice essay quality for meeting a deadline or pay professionals at https://speedypaper.com/ to complete the work for them. Either way, such an approach doesn’t help progress in essay writing. Hence, planning should be the first step.
Understand the assignment
Reading, analyzing, and understanding the assignment’s instructions should be the students’ next step. The quality and success of the paper depend on how well students understand the project. Yet, they should have all the answers in the provided guidelines.
So, having a careful read of those is essential for a good essay. Plus, students should feel free to contact their teachers if any questions or issues with the guidelines arise.
Being cautious about the instructions and reading them long before starting the essay work will give you plenty of time to get prepared and clear any uncertainties. Plus, it will save you time correcting your work if you misread the guidelines.
Brainstorm on ideas
Don’t procrastinate with the assignment. Instead, start working on it as soon as you receive the task. For example, brainstorming ideas doesn’t take much time, yet it can be super helpful for the future. Here, you can think about the essay’s subject and theme. See how you feel about those things. What are the first ideas that cross your mind? How do you like them, and what do you find important about the assignment?
At this stage, think of the topic and title for your essay. Such mental work builds the foundation for your future research and drafting. You can spend several weeks pondering the best ideas and topics while also consulting with your instructors.
Research
All academic work requires a lot of advanced and profound research. Students should be familiar with their writing topic, general academic discussion, and common opinions on the matter. Overall, no essay is complete without providing plenty of evidence, sources, and data to support each of your claims. That’s where your research comes into play.
First, you educate yourself on the matter. Be careful to learn all sides of the argument, if there are any. Thus, you avoid a one-sided narrative in your work. Second, you must pick enough sources to use in your work. Usually, assignment instructions will have a precise number and type of sources you should use.
In addition, your research should be relevant to the topic, class, and discipline. It should involve only reliable, preferably academic sources. Plus, students should rely on the most recent discoveries and studies unless it is required or necessary otherwise.
Draft & Write
Finally, it is time to write. Of course, you don’t just open a new file and start writing those lines right away. First, you think about how to compose your text, what tone it should have, how to express your main ideas, where to place arguments, etc.
Hence, students should start with a draft. This is where you try various versions of your final texts, finding the best elements, positions, and concepts that work best for the given topic. Several drafts should be sufficient to start working on the final version of the text.
You should start writing only after you know where everything goes and how you want to approach the topic. It means that you have a solid foundation to build the context around your argument. It also helps you approach an essay more confidently, reducing any pauses or judgment errors.
Follow a formal writing style
Now, this rule is the important one. Certain regulations are in place to differentiate creative writing forms from academic writing. For example, there is a common rule to write in the third person unless the essay type inclines otherwise. Other similar rules will be:
- Write full sentences (no fragmentations);
- No contractions are allowed (only full word forms);
- Preferably no informal abbreviations;
- Don’t use any slang or figures of speech;
- Don’t use emotional tone, exclamations, or expressive sentences;
- Use a formal group of verbs.
These and many other similar rules should help students achieve a perfect academic tone while also sounding professional. In addition, the writing style helps deliver the message by using precise wording, structure, and clarity.
