professional essay writing

professional essay writing

The Art of Professional Essay Writing: Strategies and Techniques for Academic Success

1. Introduction to Essay Writing

There are some basic techniques which can vastly improve your writing. A basic essay consists of three main groups: introduction, body, and conclusion. Keep this outline handy for your next adventure into the world of essay composition. Before you even begin the writing process, stay organized, take good notes, and make your work as clear and orderly as possible. This stage of the task is extremely important because it will keep you focused and on target. Tape 1-2 open pieces of paper on your pad, list the topic of the essay and several key points. When you gather up your research, you will have a clear idea of what important information will help you compose with authority. Also, cite your work as carefully as possible; the work will lose immediate impact if uncited ideas distract your audience. Indent the first sentence of a paragraph to show a new idea in your stance and to make your composition as orderly as possible.

From the dawn of time, people have been expressing themselves through art. When people think of art, the great sculptures and paintings of Italy and France come to mind, but there are countless forms of art to be considered. Writing essays is an art form that requires much skill and careful thought; it is not simply a log of one’s thoughts. Writing essays is a challenge to master and can often be frustrating, but it is also very important. The ability to write coherent essays is an ideal that provides long-term benefits. It is an essential form of address to educate and entertain a populace. Whether you are composing a high school essay or working on a dissertation, how you write your work will largely determine how people will perceive you. Writing essays will give your intellect and creativity a chance to shine.

2. Structuring Your Essay Effectively

Introductions In professional essay writing, how important is the essay introduction? In reality, an exquisite introduction is more important – and many authors are not teachers. A brief lead-in can be a great device but it is, nonetheless, still a short one. It’s necessary to put your concepts on paper but it’s much more necessary to be able to find, connect and arrange them into the finished product that conveys your message to others. To that end, always work to expand your writing expertise and exercise diligent self-discipline. After a while, you will have developed your own method and will know what is necessary for your unique approach to writing. These hard-won skills give you a distinct advantage, making your valuable contribution to your field of knowledge just that much clearer.

1. Introduction: This leads your reader into the body paragraphs by introducing the topic in general and beginning to narrow the focus from the topic to the specific approach your paper will take. This is also the place to include a ‘thesis statement’ in which you identify your main points or ideas. 2. Body paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4,…: Each of these paragraphs presents a single, unified idea. Essentially, each of these paragraphs should contain the same components. You will want to begin by writing a topic sentence to introduce that paragraph’s content. Then, develop the idea completely. 3. Conclusion: Each of your essays should include a conclusion that briefly summarizes the content of your paper. Take care to avoid restating your introduction here.

In academic writing, an effective essay has several key components. Here, in their simplest and most universal form, are the expected parts of an academic essay:

3. Research and Citations: Finding Reliable Sources

However, these difficulties do not dismiss the potential of online sources, and the cautious student essayist can use the Internet to collect valid, verifiable data. By seeking out information through academic databases, newswires, historical document archives, and government agency websites, the essayist can discover a wealth of primary materials as well as ready-made bibliographies and advanced search engines. Many scholarly journals and magazines must e-projected backfiles that solve the timing problem: obviously, no one wants to be unable to use an article simply because it has not yet appeared in the codex medium. Other specialized databases are electronic microfiche and microfilm that offers scanned copies of libraries’ holdings. Newfoundland, to choose one institution, does excellent commercial business in providing scanned or xerographed copies of materials in the Rare Book Rooms, holdings that would otherwise be beyond the reach of many scholars. In addition, all the major colleges and universities have websites for their libraries. True, some sites are better than others, but most can provide assistance as to what is in the library, what services are offered, and simple research tips. For that weary traveler who is unaware of the contents of some distant holdings, these forms of mediation are as good as an appreciation of the place’s significance.

In this era of the World Wide Web, the majority of students do the excessive amount of research required by their essays on the Internet. This is both good and bad. On the positive side, the Web provides a wealth of information for the student, from professional articles and archived newspapers to government publications and transcripts of historical speeches. Unfortunately, the Internet also offers periodicals of questionable accuracy and electronic documents of disputed legitimacy, and the student writer must spend a considerable amount of time discerning the difference. Added to this task is the dragging, cumbersome responsibility to pay attention to detail when composing footnotes and bibliographic citations that are historically layered for non-electronic research. To boot, students have yet to find a place in the documentation world for most of the downloaded material that awaits to be tagged “published,” to travel from the realm of the ephemeral to the solid world of print.

4. Crafting Strong Thesis Statements and Arguments

The Ancient Greeks developed this premise of an argument and came up with three aspects to this concept of arguing. Their key aspects are logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos refers to all evidence, is literal. It is about persuasion by purely intellectual methods. Fact, logic, and reason rule the day in this situation. If it makes sense, and is supported by evidence, then you have successfully used logos in your argument and you will be convinced that you proved what you want. Pathos is an appeal to emotion, more metaphorical. It deals with a scholar’s emotional relationship with the subject and readers of the audience. Ethos refers to ethics, or the incorporation of the writer’s character, is moral as potential. It is also recognition of the standards of excellence the essay should attain.

When you write an argumentative essay, you are writing with the intent of proving something to your reader that is communicated in your thesis statement. What you want to prove is primarily based on the issue or subject you are writing about. The process of coming up with what you want to prove is the first step in the development of your argument. After you decide what your claim, what your thesis statement will be, you will develop your argumentative stance on your topic, the reasons to convince others of your claim, and structure what you plan to tell your readers about why you think what happens for your essay. If you followed the tips in Chapter 2, then this should be clear to you what happened. But let’s first talk about what argue and argument mean.

5. Polishing Your Essay: Editing and Proofreading Techniques

The purpose of editing your essay is to make your presentation as effective as possible for the reader. The reader has enough potential barriers in the form of poorly developed or difficult to understand ideas, unfamiliar or inconsistent terminology, and formatting problems – without having to rely on you to weed through a morass of grammatical, punctuation, or style problems that hinder the effectiveness of the communication process. In editing your essay, you want to obtain some sense of the perspectives, reactions, and interests of the reader with whom you are communicating. As a writer, you are literally blinded by your own knowledge of what you are trying to say. A reader, however, must be led graciously through your argument if they are to follow it at all.

5.1 Editing Your Essay

Once you have written the first draft of your essay and have reviewed and revised it as necessary, you (hopefully) have more than just a random conglomeration of words and ideas staring back at you. Or at least that’s the idea. The next step is to try and make sure that what you have stares back at the reader with a minimal number of “little” or “careless” errors which irritate the reader and distract the reader from the ideas you are trying to impress upon him or her. This is the stage which calls for both editing and proofreading to help you search for and root out the problems with grammar, spelling, consistency of citation, formatting of sources, and writing style – among other things – that may or may not be present in your essay.