Keys to Successful Student Essays
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010How to prepare a great student essay
It’s not your first year at school. You are a high school senior, or you are already in college. And you find yourself dealing with assignments, papers and lots of essays! In fact, all through your academic career, probably starting in school and most likely, later too, you will be required to write many student essays. When you are applying to colleges all around the country, you may likely be asked to write an essay -based on personal experience as well as objective information- as a part of your admission. And college itself is definitely a huge writing training. But, speaking of training, what if you feel writing essays is not your thing? Can you somehow improve your skills? Can anyone teach you how to do it?
Writing student essays can be harder than it sounds. Especially if you have never written one before. So you should have in mind certain tips when the time comes for sitting in front of your laptop. The good news is, you are probably able to acquire the basic essay skills by yourself. Writing training is something anyone can try. Here we provide you with some tips to improve your essay skills and make you feel much comfortable next time a teacher asks for an essay writing task. Take them step by step!
How do I start?
Have you, as a student, already experienced the terrible writer’s block? We all do every now and then. The worst part about writing an essay is… beginning! Just the sight of the blank page can frighten even the best student. Fortunately, there are many essay writing techniques you can easily learn and begin implementing today. Of course, no matter which technique you actually end up using, the best thing you can always do is to write, write, write! Even if you are not sure what to say yet.
The basics: choosing a topic and outlining
Pick a topic that you find interesting, and that it’s easy to research. Then, outline your student essay in a simple way: begin with a proper introduction, a paragraph where you establish the purpose of the essay. Following, there should be some body paragraphs, a very important part, since it is the development of every argument what makes the essay sustainable. The essay writer also needs to write an appropriate conclusion, which sums up the essay’s main ideas and provides direction to future work on the topic.
When writing student essays, remember that a proper organization is a must. Always use titles, subtitles, an index and all the other textual elements that provide your work with a very desirable professional look.
Get good at it!
What exactly turns any student essay into a “good” essay? There are some basic things: organization, facts display, proper quoting, the required word count and, of course, good grammar and spelling. However, the style is also important: for example, varying your sentence length and structure, using different kinds of paratexts, doing a proper essay reference and quotations, etc.
