Get Prepared for Writing an Essay
Before you start working on your essay, you need to make sure that you have a clear idea and know what you will say in your paper. There are a few simple steps that will help you get prepared for writing your essay:
- Define a good topic. If your professor has allowed you to choose a topic for your essay, you need to choose the one you are passionate about. In such a way, you will enjoy the writing process making your essay interesting for your target audience. Besides, your topic should be neither too broad nor too narrow;
- Understand your task. What are you supposed to do exactly? What essay format are you asked to follow? What are the precise requirements for writing your paper? When is your assignment due? How many pages should be there in your paper? Is there anything you should clarify with your tutor before you start working?
- Create an outline. Before you start working on your paper, you will need to create a plan that will help you move in the right direction avoiding repetitive ideas and awkward statements;
- Write a good thesis statement. A thesis is a central point of your paper. It is the main argument that will be proven in your essay. A thesis-driven essay is always easy to read;
- Carry out in-depth research of your topic. You cannot write your essay based mainly on your perception. No matter what kind of academic paper you are supposed to write, you will need to work with primary and secondary sources that will help you understand your subject from different angles.
Doing the above mentioned steps is indeed obligatory. It can be tempting to skip one of the stages, but that will result in a substandard essay. Yet, if you cannot follow all of the steps to produce a great essay on your own, you can buy custom essays online from established custom writing services.
Writing Problems Faced by Students
Lack of time
The lack of time doesn’t allow students to organize their writing process properly. We strongly recommend you to start working on your paper right after receiving the task to avoid time constraints. You can start by noting down ideas that you want to include or insight that might help develop your essay. The only thing is to do something and not procrastinate.
Lack of inspiration
Many students fail to start their essays properly because of the lack of inspiration. To boost your inspiration, you will need to study some essay examples available on the web. By reading these examples, you will find out how to start your essay, develop your ideas, make your essay engaging, etc. If you have no idea how to start an essay, you may also ask one of your friends for hints and insights.
Poor editing and proofreading skills
If your essay requires rearrangement or grammar corrections, you need to have sufficient skills to edit it. Often students can’t see the mistakes they overlook, and thus they need to dedicate extra time and effort to edit their papers properly. If you have many other planned activities, editing and proofreading can become an obstacle. To minimize time necessary for editing, you should constantly practice your writing skills.
Inability to create a good thesis statement
One of the main problems students face is the inability to create a strong and clear thesis statement. In this case, you will need to look through some essays with well-done thesis statements on the web. After reading the thesis statement examples suggested by other students, you will understand the key attributes and characteristics of a good thesis statement.
Lack of evidence
When it comes to writing an academic paper, appropriate evidence is very important. When suggesting any viewpoint, you will need to do your best to support it with solid proof. To solve this problem, you will need to go to a library or visit an online database and find as many credible academic sources as possible. When using some ideas expressed by other scholars, you should cite them carefully following the formatting style requested by your tutor. By doing this, you will be able to avoid plagiarism.
Fear of failure
Those students who are unconfident about their writing skills are afraid of poor grades. If you are one of them, we would like you to understand that success and failure go side by side, and you cannot succeed in everything. Even if you get a bad grade for your essay, you should not treat this situation as a failure but as an instrument for improving your skills.
Academic writing has never been easy for a vast majority of students. However, even if you find any of the ideas suggested above useful, you should remember that practice makes perfect. By polishing your writing, analytical, and research skills, you will become a successful student.
How to Write an Essay?
Now, when you know the main problems students face in essay writing, it’s time to learn how to write an essay.
Many students fail the writing process because they do not spend enough time and effort on the pre-writing stage. At the same time, this stage is particularly important as it helps move in the right direction. Before you start the writing process itself, you will need to read the professor’s instructions carefully and figure out what exactly is expected from you. To prepare for writing your paper, you may also create a mind map that will serve as your plan. In this map, you can include the main ideas you are going to discuss in your paper and indicate their relationship.
One more thing you should consider when you start writing your essay is a hook. It aims to engage and intrigue your readers, making them read further. If you read some samples of academic essays, you will see that different writers use different hooks. However, the most common ones are quotes, statistics, personal stories, anecdotes, etc.
If you want to write a top-notch essay, you should start early. Procrastination is one of the most terrible things that becomes an obstacle on the students’ way to success. Thus, once you receive your task, plan and organize the writing process in such a way that you have enough time for researching, pre-writing, writing, and editing stages. Constant practice will help you cope with very challenging assignments without extra effort. Also, don’t be afraid of criticism as it kills creativity since a good writer is never afraid of broadening the horizons and pushing the limits. We do hope that our tips will help you understand how to write an essay successfully. Good luck!