Essay writing is a huge part of school and a good chunk of the classes you take in it, whether you’re a middle schooler or working towards your masters. Getting good at it obviously comes from lots and lots of practice, but there are many different tips and tricks that can help spice up your writing, fix your flow, or organize your structure.
- Understand your topic – Understanding the topic you’re writing about can prove to be more difficult than you’d assume in some cases, so make sure to do a lot of research (if necessary) until you’ve collected all the information you need and understand your topic. Make sure to think through what you’re going to write!
- Make an outline – Making an outline may seem useless or like a waste of time when you already have your ideas in your head, but mapping your essay out properly is really helpful to get an idea of what you’re covering in each paragraph. From there, one way to organize your topics is by making bullet points so you know exactly what you’re covering.
- Write a rough draft – Or two! The great thing about writing a rough draft is that you can finally begin writing your actual essay and get all your ideas out on paper, no matter how messy or all over the place they are. The important thing is that you’re actually writing it and beginning to develop a structure for the paper. It’s also a good idea to write a rough draft so that after completing it, you can critique your work and change anything that doesn’t sound right.
- Get critiques from friends, family, and peers – After rereading your paper for the 50th time, it can begin to sound bad or like you’re repeating things, when you’ve actually just been reading the same essay for an hour and a half and have become completely numb to it entirely. It can also be really easy to not catch the mistakes in your own writing, so getting a fresh view on your essay and new ideas from someone can be incredibly beneficial to taking your essay to another level.
- Look up synonyms of repeated words and use elevated language – I find that in rough drafts I often repeat words, but this is a super easy fix today in the age of technology thanks to google and thesaurus.com. Make sure to also scan the essay and look for words that could be replaced with a vocabulary word or a different word that sounds a lot smarter.
- Make sure you’re following guidelines and doing what’s required – Throughout this entire process, it’s important to remember what your goal is, and to stay on the topic of your essay the whole time. It’s easy to drift away from the original prompt when you have a lot of ideas, but make sure that you’re reeling yourself in when necessary.
For a lot of people writing an essay is a hard task, but the hardest part is often starting it. From there, it will only get easier, so make sure that you stick with it and focus!