If you want to improve your essay writing skills, you will need some good advice and plenty of practice. For a start, it will involve being clear about what’s required, doing research, finding relevant sources, and creating an outline. Preparation is essential if you want to present your ideas in a way that others can understand and get good grades. Here are ten ways to significantly improve your essay writing skills.
1. Make sure you are clear about the essay topic
If you want to write a good essay, you need to be absolutely clear about the topic and stick to it. Understanding what you’re being asked to do will help to guide your writing. Try highlighting the content words in the topic. For example, if the topic is “Discuss the causes of the Crimean War,” the key content words are “causes” and “Crimean War.” Highlight any instructional words, too, such as ‘analyze,’ ‘discuss,’ etc. You may need essay help when you first have to start writing academic essays so you can avoid including irrelevant information or going off-topic.
2. Learn how to research and reference
If you want your argument to be effective, you need evidence to support it. Researching and referencing are the cornerstones of a well-written essay. Any professional essay writer at the best essay writing service will tell you about the importance of doing proper research, finding relevant sources, and knowing how to reference. Without this, your essay will have no substance.
3. Create an outline before you start writing
Creating an outline helps you to organize your thoughts and create a logical structure. Academic essays all include an introduction, a body with separate paragraphs, and a conclusion. The introduction presents the topic and the thesis statement. The paragraphs in the body each discuss a specific idea to support your main argument. The conclusion is a summary of the argument. Experienced essay writers will always create an outline before attempting a rough draft. They will come up with all the headings and sub-headings and make notes about what to say in each paragraph.
4. Always do a draft
It’s a mistake to try and write your essay in one attempt. When you do a draft first, you can allow your ideas to flow freely without worrying too much about all the finer details. Take a break and come back to it, and you will soon see where you can make improvements. When reading through your draft, you will quickly pick up how well it flows. Writers at essay writing services will often make many changes to a draft before coming up with a final version.
5. Work on your introduction
You may think you need to start with your introduction, but advice from a paper writing service suggests it is easier to write it when you have already written your rough draft. At this stage, you have a better overall idea of what your essay includes. Writing an introduction can be challenging, but it is very important because it has to encourage the reader to want to read more. You have to give an intriguing glimpse into what comes next.
6. Keep your sentences simple
Complex sentences are harder to read. Your meaning can easily get lost if you try to include too many ideas in one sentence. Keep your sentences simple, and you will get your point across without any confusion. Many students think they have to impress their professors with complex words and sentences. Complex words, particularly ones they don’t use in the right context, have the opposite effect. Complex, torturous sentences will put off any reader, and any essay writing service will be sure to avoid them.
7. Tighten up your writing
Every word, sentence, and paragraph should relate to and support the main idea of your essay. The reader will quickly notice if you try to pad your essay to reach the required word count. Good writing is precise, and eliminating repetitive, or filler words from your essay will make it better. When you step back and look at your essay with a critical eye, you may find irrelevant adverbs and other words you can cut out and sentences you can reconstruct to read better.
8. Write a good conclusion
An effective conclusion will bring the reader back to the main point without just repeating the thesis statement. You will need to explain the significance of your ideas and how they all interconnect to support the thesis statement. Your conclusion should leave the reader with a sense of closure and provide some unique insight into the topic. You should leave the reader with something to think about.
9. Keep track of your sources and reference correctly
When doing your research, it is important to keep track of all the sources you use. You will need to cite sources in your essay text and add a full reference list or bibliography at the end. If you don’t reference correctly when using a source, you are guilty of plagiarism. Professional essay writers know that their work has to be unique and usually use a plagiarism checker to make sure.
10. Make sure you proofread
Always make sure that your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation are correct. Failure to do so suggests carelessness. You may not realize the importance of this, but even a comma in the wrong place can change the whole meaning of a sentence. The best essay writing service will always ensure that essays are carefully checked for any errors or inconsistencies.
Conclusion
If you are determined to improve your essay writing, the above tips will give you a good place to start. Learn how to research and choose relevant sources, create an outline, and write a rough draft. Find out how to write more simply, tighten up your writing and eliminate any inessentials. This may require plenty of hard work, but before long, you will find that you are a better essay writer.
