Write An Essay That Shines! The Top Ten Tips For Essay Writing

1.The most important step in guaranteeing success at writing your essay is by starting your research early. Time and time again students procrastinate and put off the crucial research necessary to compile facts and data. This results in a rushed, cookie-cutter essay. Why not go for the gold?

2. Make your Topic Interesting

Just because you are given a topic that you are not interested in, does not mean that it will not be interesting to write about. Individualize your hypothesis by posing questions the reader may be interested in and a topic that you too will have an interest in taking the time to research.

3. Take Creative Risks

Remember to be honest about your work and that it is always healthy to take a little risk once in a while. Sometimes risk can pay off, such as writing in a style that sticks out from the rest. You want your essay to shine so why not add a little creativity to your writing? Of course this doesn’t always apply to different styles of report writing, but always a helpful detail to keep in your mind.

4. Write an outline.

This is one of the most important aspects to the essay process. An outline is a mind map of all of your ideas on developing your thoughts and points. Any successful big project requires some sort of mind mapping to organize one’s thoughts. It can organize your essay (or resume later on) in such a way that is pleasing to the reader and yourself.

5. Draft your Writing

Write and re-write. This is very important. Especially for writers who do not have years of experience under their belt. Even the most talented, gifted writers create drafts of their work. So if you want an error-free essay, don’t forget to re-write multiple drafts, whatever it takes.

6. Seek Constructive Criticism

Get others to read your work. It is important to be able to take constructive criticism and get other reader’s opinions on your writing. Every person who reads your essay will have a unique way of reading it so use your own discretion and don’t take constructive criticism, personal.

7. Write a Strong Introduction

Remember to focus on having a strong introduction. The introduction of your essay is the most important aspect of your paper as these few lines are what will captivate the reader.

8. Seek Extra Help for Clarification

If you are still unsure about basic sentence structure, how to build your essay in the style requested or just how to form grammatically correct sentences, there are many online resources out there that can help you along the way. Do not forget to use spell check!

9. Follow Instructions

Ensure that you have read the instructions properly from your professor. Nothing is worse than getting handed back a paper you have long anticipated to see your hard work pay off, only to find a less than satisfactory mark. If you are unclear about what your instructor expects, ask him/her to clarify in person or on paper.

10. Follow the Requested Format

Be sure to format your essay according to the guidelines outlined or ask your professor specifically which format they prefer. A simple font such as ‘Times New Roman’ or ‘Ariel’ is both common and easy-to-read formats.

Also, we gather some Things To Know About Research As An Undergraduate

Most of the research done in universities is conducted at postgraduate level. Increasingly, however, undergraduate courses are requiring students to compile a project or dissertation which demonstrates their ability to research a particular theme – often chosen by themselves, in consultation with supervising tutors – and present their findings in as scholarly a way as possible. Fundamental to performing well in these tasks is the development of good research skills. In particular, the ability to read and assimilate a large amount of information is valuable, as is the ability to take thorough and comprehensive notes. Most important of all, however, is the ability to think in an original way and thereby to uncover some new or previously untested idea or result. Postgraduate research is generally geared towards discovery, and these undergraduate projects should be seen as an opportunity to attempt this for the first time.

Research begins in the library, reading around your subject and assembling useful contextual material. Make use of bibliographies and indexes to track down the most relevant work hitherto produced on your area of interest. Next, gather as much primary material as possible. If you’re a scientist, this will involve conducting experiments; if a mathematician, you will want to apply what you have learned to the problem in hand and address it from as many angles as you can think of, keeping detailed notes of every attempt you make on it. If you are a linguist, the first step may be to make your own translations of relevant material. Whatever the case, you will need to keep detailed notes on the process. The aim here is to be comprehensive – to follow a line of inquiry until it is proved or disproved. Often you may be unsuccessful in proving your thesis, in which case the research has at least shown some if not all of your early theories and assumptions to be inaccurate. Research work is a long-term investment of effort and is time consuming, but if you report on your work in a thorough and diligent way, your work will ensure that others need not repeat your unsuccessful inquiries, but can concentrate instead on those arguments or theories which do appear to lead somewhere.

In presenting your findings it is important to take your readers through each stage of the process, enabling them to verify each new phase of your work and to follow your overall argument. As research intends to demonstrate something which before was unknown or unclear, a distinction must be drawn between received wisdom and the new contributions you are seeking to make. The scholarly integrity of your work must be paramount – avoid any reference to or reliance on any questionable material which in your judgement may be open to attack. Plagiarism, too, is a cardinal sin and one best avoided. A researcher’s work is presented to the public as a personal contribution, and all sources and supporters should be credited and their intellectual contributions to the work acknowledged.

It is, of course, entirely possible that by the end of this process you will have discovered nothing new. That this may be the result is a truth best recognised before you even begin your work. That said, it is equally true that the only way to advance the sum total of our scholarly knowledge is through research work, and if you learn only the skills from your undergraduate project, that alone should make it worthwhile, since it is those skills which will allow you to go on making discoveries in later life – and not just in academia. The researcher’s unique brand of original thinking is a skill worth acquiring, and if an original thought can be supported with credible evidence, it may just lead to new and exciting revelations in any walk of life.