Take Advantage of These Essay Writing Tips

In case you have an assignment to hand in, then you will be very well advised to rely on essay writing tips. Using these tips, you will be able to perfect your essays and ensure that you get top marks once your assignment is returned to you after grading. This way, your chances of getting that 1st Class Honors or graduating Summa Cum Laude are greatly enhanced.

Most students are of the view that essay writing is one of the hardest tasks in college. Others view it as being trifling and boring. Therefore, as a result they end up getting the lowest grades since they are intimidated by writing. However, using the tips you will learn, chances are high that you will give better essays to your lecturers and get better marks as a result.

1. Essay Types

The first thing you need to note is that there are different kinds of essays. This means that you should consult your writing tips to differentiate between these essays. Each essay kind comes with its own detailed description and peculiarities. The structural parts are also different as are the expectations of the lecturers.

2. Writing Stages

You should also keep in mind that there are a number of stages through which any written work- colleges included- have to pass through before they can be considered to be complete. It is highly recommended that you ensure that you do not miss any stage. All stages must also be accorded the necessary attention. This way, you reduce your chances of making errors and your writing will turn out to be efficient and faultless.

3. Common Subjects for Essays

There are various kinds of subjects into which all essays fall. All of these subjects are different and unique in their own way. They also require different approaches and logical organization skills which can be scrapped up from the writing essay tips.

4. Formatting Style

On the other hand, every essay that you will be required to research on, write and submit has its own formatting style. For you to hand in perfect essays, you will be wise to ensure that you use writing an essay tips to discover the kind of format that any given essay should follow. This way, your will avoid making errors.

Finally, once you submit your essay, it will be perfection personified. Lecturers often review the essay even before they mark it to check the formatting. Therefore, ensure you order your work well to raise your chances of wining over the marker.

Examples of Creative Writing Prompts

Doing creative writing exercises is a great way to get over writer's block and get those "writing muscles" back into shape, so to speak. Writer's block is after all just the result of getting lazy and not writing daily, which is, by the way, something that every serious writer should make a habit of.

And doing writing exercises is a great way of achieving this goal. So even if your writing has gotten a bit rusty, rest assured that the talent is still there, it is just a little atrophied and nothing that some writing exercises can't cure.

Many books exist, which offer quality creative writing prompts and other exercises aimed at helping writers perfect the craft of writing. However these are usually focused on a specific area of fiction writing such as plot, character development, setting, descriptions and more intangible aspects of writing such as style, tone, alliteration and others.

If you are primarily looking to simply get started on the writing I would personally suggest you take advantage of some great creative writing prompts. These represent great exercises and normally involve a set of random words or phrases, which you must in some way incorporate into a story, or they can be in the form of a story starter sentence. Pictures also make great creative writing prompts.

The great thing about prompts as creative writing exercises is that they allow for a lot more creativity and offer much more free reign in the direction and form of your writing. This is because they are not as targeted at a certain aspect of creative writing as the more classic writing exercises, leaving you a lot more freedom in the direction and form your stories can take. They also allow for free writing, which is like the number one writing exercise, since it silences your critic and lets the artist come out and play.

Some examples of creative writing prompts:

Here are examples of random word creative writing prompts, random phrase writing prompts and story starter sentence writing prompts. Feel free to try you hand at writing a story from any one set of these, just make sure you use all the words or the phrases and try not to stop writing until the first draft is complete.

#1 Random words as creative writing prompts:

Yesterday, Done, Orchard, Merry-go-round, Thesis, Problem, Ecstasy, Church, Boy

#2 Random phrases as prompts:

The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Poo

Fear of Walking Slowly

A Very Good Friend Called V

Green-Top, Occasionally Red, Trying to Remember Jersey

Global Whoring

Black Suits You, It Matches Your Teeth

The Mysteries of the Pomegranate

Victoria, Cross

My Maidservant's Anne

Chocolate and the Science of Seduction

#3 Story starter sentence:

Last night the rain fell like it was never going to stop, but I was happy.

Anyway, those are just some examples of creative writing prompts as writing exercises, but if they helped you to get that first drat of a story, poem of flash fiction piece written I am glad. Now just keep at it and remember that just as physical muscles diminish if you don't exercise so does the "writing muscle."

The Great Essay Writing Process

Many students find essay writing a cumbersome and painful assignment. That is because they are still not sure how to approach essay writing. If you get the approach right, you find that essay writing is not painful at all. In fact, it can be a very fun and fulfilling process.

Essay writing is often referred to as an art and with good reason. It can take years of practice to perfect the craft. Most often students really become good at writing essays when they reach the end of their school careers. Here is a basic guide to essay writing.

1. Read and comprehend the essay topic/question

This is the most important part of the essay writing process. Once you have properly understood what the essay question is asking you can analyze what kinds of supporting research you will need. There is no need to formulate your entire argument yet save that for later in your essay writing sample. For now you need to understand exactly what the question is asking you. Highlight key terms and brainstorm some possible angles.

2. Research the topic

Go to the library, internet, read some books, look over your notes. Hone in on the specific question at hand and read information pertaining to it.

3. Write an outline

As elementary as it seems sometimes, outlines are the scaffolding for all successful writing. It does not have to be a formal outline, but just sketch out the order of your essay in some method that you understand.

4. Write a thesis statement

The thesis statement is the foundation of your essay. Write that one sentence that argues the point, the debate, and the crux of your essay. It will be the final sentence of your introduction and the starting point for the rest of the writing.

5. Write the paper

Just write. It does not have to be a masterpiece as you write that first draft. Just get something on paper that you can eventually mold into a final product.

6. Edit the paper for content

Edit the paper to make sure you are staying on target, following your thesis, and have enough supporting evidence to prove your thesis.

7. Edit the paper for grammar

Give your essay a quick look solely for grammatical problems (spelling, punctuation, transitions, and so on).

The easiest part and definitely the most enjoyable. Going through your essay with your own red pen and editing it ruthlessly will ensure that you have a perfect essay to turn in when the deadline comes.

Essay Writing Tips - 6 Steps to Writing a Great Essay

If writing an essay seems like a daunting experience, then learning how to break the process down into a number of easy steps will give you the confidence you need to produce an interesting, high quality piece of work. This article provides 6 essay writing tips that will take you from an initial idea through to the finished product.

1. Select your topic carefully

If your topic has many different aspects, then a very useful essay writing tip is to narrow it down to one specific area, and make sure you explain this in your introduction. This will make for better reading than if you try to cover everything, and will definitely improve the quality of your work. If you get to choose your own topic, make it something you are interested in. This way the research will become much easier and your enthusiasm will 'rub off' on your readers.

2. Do Your Research

Another useful essay writing tip is to make sure you spend sufficient time looking into all the aspects of your chosen topic. Read as much relevant material as possible, and make notes along the way so you don't forget anything. Also note down where you have got your ideas from; i.e. author name, book or article title and page number.

3. Write Down the Main Arguments

Once you've researched your subject, summarise the main arguments and ideas you have read. Do not copy other people's words, just choose the important points and summarise these in your own words. This is a highly important essay writing tip - whatever you do, make sure you don't plagiarise another author's work.

Prepare the basic structure of the essay in dot point headings, using only a few words to describe each main point. Play around with the structure until you feel that the sequence is right. Put the most important point first, followed by the next most important point, and so on.

Then paste your research summaries under each heading (you can delete these later).

4. Fill Out the Body of the Essay

This is where you discuss in detail your thoughts and ideas on the chosen topic, and 'fill out' the summaries you wrote earlier. Under each main point, introduce the evidence supporting your theories, together with arguments and any other points you wish to make. A good essay writing tip is to make sure these are thought provoking and interesting, as well as informative.

End each paragraph or section with some type of conclusion, or 'lead in' sentence to the next paragraph.

Now that you have written the main body of the essay, you can go back to writing the 'Introduction', followed by the essay 'Conclusion'.

5. Write Your Introduction

In some ways this is the most important part of your essay. One of the best essay writing tips is to use the introduction to grab the reader's attention and give them a 'taste' of the information to come that will make them want to keep on reading.

Describe briefly what the essay is about, and your research sources, and explain what the reader will get out of reading the essay. Finish the introduction with a clear explanation of your point of view, or of the main essay idea.

6. Write Your Conclusions

Start this section by briefly summarising the results and conclusions of your research. Tell the reader what your main conclusion is, and why. Make sure you have also checked and formatted your references that will go at the end of the essay.

A great essay writing tip is to end the essay with a memorable, thought provoking statement that in some way 'sums up' your findings.

These essay writing tips will help you to produce a well structured essay, but don't forget to edit and proof read your work thoroughly to ensure there are no spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors.

Essay Writing Tips - Powerful Introduction and Conclusion