how to improve essay writing

how to improve essay writing

How to Improve Essay Writing

1. Understanding the Essay Structure

The essay is a fairly formal piece of writing with a usually 4-5 paragraph structured response. It’s not a continuous piece of writing and is usually divided into main body paragraphs and including an introduction and a conclusion. Each of these is then structured in a standard form. This is useful in many ways. It helps the writer to focus on clear and effective writing. It ensures that the reader is able to follow the writer’s ideas. It helps to make sure that by the end of the essay the writer has answered the question set. It makes the essay easier to read and understand as a marker will be looking for the main points and the direction of the essay by the time the conclusion is reached. It also helps in planning the work appropriately. Students often find philosophy papers difficult to write since the expectations are very different from those in other disciplines, even from those of other disciplines in the humanities. What follows is some general advice about how to go about writing short (4-5 page) philosophy papers on pre-assigned topics. Before starting to write, make sure that you have read all of the relevant texts very carefully. Even though you have probably read these texts previously, this is often an essential first step as you prepare to write. Also, make sure that you have spent some time thinking about the question itself. What are you being asked to do? What kind of answer is the question asking for? Is the question open-ended or closed? If it is open-ended, you will need to narrow it down. If it is closed, think about the kinds of argument or point of a study which would help you address the question. Try to talk your ideas over with someone. This will help to not only sharpen your understanding of the question but also to clarify as you go along. Soon you will notice your progress and you can then start to write. When planning your essay, make sure that you know what you will be writing about and what. For an essay where you will not be using your own research, you will be basing it “I think it’s important to make one thing clear from the start –

2. Developing Strong Thesis Statements

First of all, let’s clarify what a thesis statement is. It is basically a concise statement that outlines what you are going to argue in your work. It is your main argument, and it should guide your whole essay. For example, in a persuasive essay on gun control, you might have been asked to decide whether gun control regulations should be increased. Your thesis statement would be something like “Gun control laws need to be put in place to reduce gun violence”. So, the first and foremost thing you have to do is to sit down with your work and spend some time working on your thesis statement. You should read your work several times – first to get a sense of what the work is about as a whole and then to start picking out the different things you could focus on to use as evidence. It is a time to be critical as well; you have to consider not only the possible thesis points that your work reveals to you, but also “counter-example” that may actually weaken your primary thesis points. It is also necessary to check it and make sure that it is up to date as you continue to work on your work. You may find that it needs some sort of change as your work takes shape, that your work may fundamentally change as you research or that your work will be built around a very detailed, almost one sentence long thesis statement. But that’s alright as long as you are still focusing on numbers 1-3: introduction that includes your thesis statement, a body or middle where the facts are given that includes in-text citations as well as an example of how to do these in the outline guide and finally, the conclusion which restates your thesis statement. Also, make sure that your thesis statement is written at the top of the outline, in the first or second paragraph, because after all, your thesis statement is the central idea of your work. By keeping your thesis statement in view and also by remembering what your work is actually about, you are more likely to produce a work that readers will accept as interesting, new, and fresh. The given work is a perfect example of how your thesis statement is at the beginning of your work and on the order form.

3. Enhancing Argumentation and Evidence

Now let’s explore the third section of the paper, which is “Enhancing Argumentation and Evidence”. This section provides concrete strategies for improving the evidence and argument in your essays. I begin with a discussion of the goal of using evidence in an essay, which is helping to support the thesis or main idea of the argument. I stress that it is important not only to provide evidence but to provide analysis of that evidence, so that the reader understands how the evidence supports the argument. I provide a thorough discussion of how evidence can be analyzed – I break down what it means to analyze an evidence, like dividing a large topic into smaller parts. I also provide a specific example to show what good evidence analysis looks like. Then, I move on to discussing strategies for finding good evidence for essays. I argue that students should pay attention not just to source quality but also the relevance of that evidence to their own argument. Again, I provide a concrete example – this time, an example of a common trap students fall into when finding evidence, which is selecting evidence simply because the source is a “big” by famous one, such as “New York Times” or “Nature” magazine. I also discuss the importance of putting the evidence in context. I not only provide another example but also emphasize that students should pay attention to the framing of the evidence. The fourth paragraph in this section explores the argument. I show how the analysis of evidence and the development of a clear argument have been discussed in earlier paragraphs are applied to the example discussed in the second section of the paper, which is the case study. I first reintroduce the example and then give a quick summary for the analysis for this example. I also discuss the potential counter-arguments that can be raised against my argument and how I will respond to these counter-arguments in the writing. Finally, I finish this section with an additional method for finding good evidence – using opinion or editorials for source. In each type of writing, I provide the content for that type of evidence, such as “is” claim in scientific writing. I hope students can feel strengthened in their own finding for evidence. Also, I emphasize the students should search for better and updated opinion for their essays, so that they can participate in the academic conversation.

4. Refining Language and Style

Finally, when writing your essay, you should try to use a formal tone. This can sometimes be hard. Reading your work aloud can help you to pick up on any errors which you wouldn’t have noticed before, or which don’t sound right when read in a different tone. It is suggested to completely avoid everyday language and not to include any contractions, for example “can’t”. This can make your work sound too relaxed. Also, be sure to use grammatically correct sentences. The best way to do this is to make a plan before you start writing. This could be bullet points or one-sentence summaries of what you want to write in each paragraph. It will help you to get started and then focus on the minute details later. A strong vocabulary can be key when writing an essay, so try to expand your repertoire. Try to read a range of other essays, including those of your peers and of academics. If you can, read essays from publications as well. It is an easy way to learn and improve. Look at how the writing in these texts is constructed; what word selection, sentence structure, and style go together to give the writing an academic tone and make it persuasive and effective. When you are choosing words to use in your essay, try not to go for the obvious or the first word that comes into your head. This will help to make your writing more original and interesting. Get used to using the thesaurus, a book which lists words and their synonyms.

5. Mastering the Editing and Proofreading Process

Do keep in mind that the process of editing and proofreading do not take place separately. In fact, editing is best done by going through once for different kinds of corrections at a time. It is important to begin with the larger issues such as proper structure of your essay, paragraphs and their order and so on. You would then shift to sentences and small phrases, after which you would focus on sentence structure and grammar. In a situation where you are pointed in the direction of finding and making corrections to smaller mistakes, taking a break is the recommended solution. At this stage, many would focus heavily on correcting even the tiniest of mistakes to a point where better judgement becomes impaired. After such a knack, the process of proofreading can start. When you reach the end of your essay, read through it over and over again until all mistakes have been rectified. This process of repeating the same thing is often recommended because from one reading to another, it is not uncommon to notice new mistakes or even to be more perceptive to something you have experienced before. Mastering the editing and proofreading process involves good time management as well. You will realize that time is crucial when going through your work. This is because confusion might arise as to whether it is still suitable to continue the editing because the time might not be adequate to go through the whole proofreading process. If there is a system past which you know it will be your last chance to edit over a certain period of time, then follow it. Deciding on what elements of your work you should focus on would definitely speed up the process. If you know your weaknesses, better find ways to identify and concentrate on them.