Academic essay writing is hard for most students when they start out because it is not a format of writing most people are used to. When learning how to write essays, the most basic tip to remember is writing an essay is less about creativity and more about highlighting your knowledge about the topic and showcasing your research skills. Here are some essay writing tips that you must keep in mind.
College Essay Writing Tip 1 – Research Is Important
Before you start writing an essay, it is important to fully understand the topic and conduct research. Research will give you an idea of what others are saying about the topic and for academic essay writing this is very important. As tempting as Google might be, when writing an essay, do not limit your research to websites alone. Use books on the subject, peer reviewed journal articles, news articles and even audio and video sources to demonstrate you have read and researched widely on the subject.
College Essay Writing Tip 2 – Prepare Ahead
The most important tip to remember when learning how to write essays is that it requires time and hard work so do not leave it until the last minute. Give yourself enough time to research and prepare for the essay. If you are not sure what academic essay writing is all about, take a look at a few sample essays to give you an understanding of what is expected of you in terms of writing an essay.
Once you have finished researching and have an idea of what to write, just start writing. You do not need to worry about format and other technicalities at this stage of essay writing. Writing a draft is an important skill to learn for how to write essays as it will help you organize your thoughts. Once you have done so, you can fine tune your work, cut down unnecessary words and prepare a final draft. It is normal to have multiple drafts for academic essay writing so don’t worry if you have to make many revisions.
College Essay Writing Tip 3 – Never Plagiarize
Plagiarism is a serious offence as it qualifies as stealing someone else’s work and can have long term implications for your career. Most colleges and schools are very strict about this and if you are caught writing an essay that uses someone else’s material that you try to pass off as your own, it spells trouble for you. Colleges are increasingly using software that scans you work for plagiarized or duplicate content. Read the next essay writing tip about referencing to learn more about how to write essays that can help you avoid plagiarism.
College Essay Writing Tip 4 – Learn to Reference
Academic essay writing is all about good research and including opinions and comments by others who have discussed the same subject is definitely beneficial when writing an essay. However, make sure you use the appropriate essay writing referencing method. When learning how to write essays, referencing is a key skill as it will teach you how to quote other sources or paraphrase their ideas and the right way to attribute it. Different schools and different disciplines require different styles of referencing so find out from your department or your school what referencing style you should use. The three basic styles are:
- Harvard, which is used by Business subjects like MBA, Engineering & Science degrees and Social Sciences
- APA, which is used by Psychology and several other Health Care fields
- Oxford(also known as footnoting), which is mainly used by Law students
College Essay Writing Tip 5 – Think for Yourself
An academic essay is not just a matter of quoting several sources and telling your professor things about the topic that have already been discussed. It is important you think about the topic and form an opinion and this is the key skill to have if you want to learn how to write essays. The point of writing an essay is to show your professor you have understood the topic and after research, have formed your own opinion about the subject and your essay is a reflection of your opinion. Your academic essay writing must express originality of thought and while you must discuss other informed opinions, at the end, it is your point of view that the professor is interested in.
If you do not know how to write essays, do not panic because you have plenty of homework help and exam help available.. All you really have to do is understand your subject well enough and once you conduct your research you will find that writing an essay is not as hard as it seems and you might even have trouble sticking to the word limit! Write a few practice essays if necessary and once you have academic essay writing experience with one or two assignments, you won’t panic anymore!
