Students traditionally view essay writing as nothing more than a tedious chore and homework. As a result, they delay it to the last minute without any concern about its quality. They see it as a burden and do not consider it as a skill that should be improved as it will be helpful for them later on.
Read other people’s essays
To improve your essay writing, you need to understand what a well-crafted and researched paper looks like. Therefore, you should read many papers to help you understand what elements to include and what not to. It will help you understand what you are doing wrong. There are many write my essays services; you can google them out.
These services employ professional and expert writers with years of experience in academic writing. Some services will display some sample essays on their websites to read. While for others, you will have to contact their customer service department. All you need to do is tell them that you want a sample to help write better essays, and they will email you some samples.
In addition to this, you can also request your college professors and colleagues to provide you with the papers that have scored a good grade. Once you have acquired the papers, you can begin to critically evaluate them. The evaluation should be done on the following basis:
- Understand the question and read the paper a few times to see what perspective was used to answer it?
- How many paragraphs is it divided into, and what are the structures?
- How have they created a hook in the introduction?
- How are paragraphs in the body linked and transitioned?
- How is the content summarized in conclusion?
- What types of phrases, idioms, and examples are used?
Besides, you can also ask them what type of paper it was, e.g., descriptive, argumentative, or narrative. You can also determine how the content was altered to meet the requirements for these documents. These will help you identify all your shortcomings and understand how to improve essay writing.
Strong form
The strong form includes words that help sentence creation and structure but do not have any meaning. These include; is, am, are, the, and an. The way these words are used affects how the meaning of a sentence is delivered. When the word is pronounced separately, then it has a strong form. For example;
- Weak form: I’m hungry;
- Strong form: I am hungry.
Use an active voice
One of the best tips for improving essay writing skills is to write in an active voice instead of a passive voice. Active voice helps convert the action into a command and amplifies its effect. This amplification results in a reading momentum, so the reader remains intrigued. Active voice uses fewer words and is easier to read than passive voice. Moreover, people at a lower reading level can comprehend active voice better.
Syntax, punctuation, and tone of voice
Syntax means how the information is written in the essay. To write better essays, you need to organize the information to make sense and be relevant. The most common type of organization is chronological, which depicts information following a timeline. You can arrange the facts and figures according to relevance or impact.
Every essay should have three main divisions. These are;
- The first part is the introduction, which includes the background or a brief explanation of the topic. It also includes the thesis statement. It is an essential part of the first paragraph and builds the reader’s expectations. The writer also has to create a hook in the paragraph to induce curiosity within the reader and compel them to keep reading;
- The second part is the body, where the bulk of the content is concentrated. The body is subdivided into three parts for in-depth elaboration upon something. Each paragraph has its topic sentence, theme, and facts or examples to support the theme. If it’s an informative essay, you can list a different fact in each paragraph. Although, if it is an argumentative paper, you can write your reason in each with supporting elements. You need to use some transitional phrases between them as well. Some examples of transition phrases are, after all, even so, and on the other hand;
- The last part is the conclusion, where you have to sum it up in a neat, concise method. It typically consists of 250 to 400 words. It would be best to avoid introducing any new ideas in this part but rather reiterate your stance.
Writing about the main things that happened in the first paragraph will lose the reader’s attention. Moreover, if you write an entire paper about a topic yet explain what it is at the very end, the reader will be confused. The essay will lose all impact, and you will lose marks. It makes the structure an integral part of every essay.
If you think about how I want to make my essay better, then remember punctuation is key. Punctuation includes factors like; when to capitalize a word, add a full stop, comma, colons, semi-colon, and question mark. These things are a part of the English language, and you have to abide by their rules to create a grammatically correct document.
When writing, you need to consider what type of document you are writing and for whom. Different tones can add impact to your work. The most common ones are;
- Logical;
- Objective;
- Serious;
- Distant;
- Emotional;
- Intimate;
- Subjective;
- And humorous.
Always proofread
Many students mistake submitting their essays as soon as they get done writing them. It does not matter how good a writer you are; you are bound to make mistakes. So, after you write the paper, it would be helpful to give it a thorough read.
You can also ask a friend or a colleague to proofread the essay for you. Working on a paper for hours is tiring. So, this will give you a break, and you get opinions from a different perspective. It may aid you in enhancing the quality of your work. It will also help spot any spelling and grammatical mistakes, which you can edit out in a second.
The journey to perfect your essay writing skills is long and takes a lot of time and effort. But with these tips, you can start taking steps in the right direction. With practice, you will be composing papers in half the time, and their quality will be twice as good.