HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ESSAY WRITING SKILLS EFFECTIVELY

Writing essays is an inalienable part of a student’s life because many home assignments are in writing. It poses challenges to those with a low English level or problems expressing their thoughts and ideas in academic papers. Thus, if you struggle with essay assignments, you may consider improving your essay writing skills to be better prepared for college, enhance your academic results, and spend less time on home tasks. It is crucial to start practicing essay writing and improving skills in high school, but it is never too late to begin this journey. Are you ready to review the best ideas for improving your essay writing skills? We have prepared a few recommendations that will help you write effectively. 

Focus on instructions and what you will write 

Essays vary in length, structure, and type. You should be aware of these aspects before considering how you approach the assignment. For instance, an argumentative essay requires focusing on arguments and counterarguments, evidence, and supporting facts. Still, most essays should follow a similar structure and format. Instructions emphasize what you should concentrate on and how the paper should be organized. 

  • Carefully review the topic. The topic guides and helps you understand what you want to include in your essay. It may be in the form of a question. Hence, you should ensure that the essay answers the initial question in full. The topic also specifies the context and directs your further steps. 
  • Search for additional information. After familiarizing yourself with the topic, you are more informed about what you should learn additionally to prepare your arguments and ideas for the essay. This part is not always relevant because some essays require personal reflection and ideas. Nevertheless, research helps make more informed and backed up arguments and a constructive thesis. 
  • Create a detailed outline. This step is critical and requires time and extra effort. You can check different outline templates and follow their structure. Typically, any essay should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. The body paragraphs express separate arguments. The outline helps you organize your thoughts, ideas, and arguments and is extremely useful in writing the first draft. 

Read essays and academic papers

You can find thousands of great examples of essays on the internet. These may be sample essays on educational platforms or blogs, posts by students, or academic essays on scientific topics in online libraries. Reading these papers is useful to familiarize yourself with the structure, academic writing style, vocabulary, transition words, and cliches. Besides, you can notice the author’s logic, storytelling, and central message. These elements are harmonically combined and presented in a cohesive writing piece in the best essays. They accurately address a particular topic and inform readers about the author’s position or expand their knowledge of that topic. 

Another aspect of reading is learning to create and present arguments and ideas. Namely, other essays show how authors express their position or describe a particular topic. For instance, they can directly address the audience in the thesis statement. Others prefer to approach the topic indirectly, focusing on the issue’s background and influencing factors. Learning these approaches will help you determine what essay writing style you prefer and what thesis you like more. 

Expand your vocabulary

You should often use synonyms and avoid tautology in essay writing. Improving vocabulary is the best way to develop writing skills because you will have more options to express your ideas and restate arguments differently. You can learn new words by doing various language-related activities. 

  • Watch films. Movies with subtitles are an excellent way to combine entertainment and learning. You may choose films or videos you are interested in watching and enjoy the process. The contextual meaning helps learn new words and memorize them if they are repeatedly used. Short videos on YouTube are even more effective since you can spend little time eating or resting and choose different topics. 
  • Read books and news. Reading is a classic approach to learning new words. Its advantage is that you can look up a word in the dictionary and write it down in notes to memorize and use in writing. News helps improve professional vocabulary such as business or legal English. 
  • Practice speaking English with others. Communicating with native speakers provides many benefits. They know many words and are more likely to use synonyms in their speech. Find a friend or spend more time in the English-speaking environment to learn and practice new words. 

Contact essay writing services 

An alternative strategy to improve essay writing skills is to consider using an academic assistance service. They are particularly popular in the USA. You may search for a website with reviews and feedback from a customer and buy the paper you need. These companies have a writer who can prepare an original and quality sample essay from scratch. Furthermore, such an essay writing service as CustomWritings can make a personalized and cheap offer allowing you to choose an academic expert level and review a previous order for free. Any top company provides custom professional writing assistance. The central benefit of these services is that you can ask experts to provide comments on different parts of your essay. Sample papers help better understand the structure, logic, organization, arguments, and other critical essay elements.  

Improve your writing mechanics 

Having excellent writing skills implies that you write without errors or mistakes. Though no one can write ideally, advanced writing mechanics significantly minimize the number of misprints and mistakes in essays. Basic writing mechanics include spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

  • Spelling. Make sure you double-check your spelling when writing complex sentences and words. You should focus on abbreviations and capitalization. Consulting educational resources on the web or writing blogs is a great way to learn how different words should be written. 
  • Grammar. Many students with English as a second language hate grammar rules. However, the reality is that in essay writing, good grammar is a must. Grammar mistakes influence the overall grade and show a poor command of English. Reviewing grammar rules, examples, and guidelines will help avoid typical mistakes and be more confident in essay writing. 
  • Punctuation. This aspect of writing mechanics is tricky and problematic for many students. However, memorizing rules helps avoid punctuation errors. A typical punctuation issue is an Oxford comma. You may watch tutorial videos or read more about it and how it should be used in practice. It will significantly improve your essay writing skills. 

Spend more time on proofreading 

First drafts are frequently shitty. Even the most experienced writers cannot prepare an excellent essay without proofreading it. The outline helps you organize and structure your paper, but the first draft is still a stream of mixed thoughts, ideas, and sentences. Revising the first and second drafts is necessary to refine the structure, logic, and storytelling. It improves the readability of your essay. Another aspect is mechanical mistakes. Punctuation, spelling, or grammar errors are likely to go unnoticed in the first drafts. Take your time and review the paper carefully. You can do it a few times, taking short breaks between proofreading to have a fresh glance at your essay. The more techniques or approaches you will try, the more effective your essay writing skills will be. 

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