Writing an essay can seem like a real challenge. If you do not have experience with writing papers or if you feel you do not have the polished writing skills you need, you might see essay writing as a chore, as a burden. But even though you might feel you cannot face this challenge, that you cannot overcome this obstacle in your progress, you can do it.
Essay writing can sometimes turn out to be difficult, but following some essay writing guidelines could help you write a powerful one. Students often feel confused by what they have to do, especially because there are many essay types you might be asked to write. So, looking for some guidelines for writing an essay?
Continue reading to find out some of the most helpful ones you could put to practice, suggested by an exceptional college paper writing service. These tips and tricks will surely help you plan your work and write accordingly and efficiently.
Read and Understand the Requirements
The first thing any student should do is to read and understand the requirements. When you have college papers to write, you get general essay writing guidelines from your teacher. But you also get a list of requirements you need to follow in your writing, and these are crucial. Being aware of them will help you build and write a compelling essay.
And it will also get you a good grade, as professors pay attention to how students follow the requirements and comply with the rules. In your guidelines and requirements list, you will find more details on your theme, if you need to choose the topic by yourself or have a given one, and many others. You will find out the limit of your essay (that is usually expressed in word count) or if it needs to have a specific structure.
Choosing the Topic
This might not apply to all of you or in all cases. However, it is a topic that should be discussed, as many students might feel lost when they have to do this. All essay writing guidelines point to the main suggestion you could apply and keep in mind when choosing the topic of your essay. You are usually provided with a general theme to choose your topic within.
Choose something you have a genuine passion for. If you are interested in the topic you choose, writing your essay will be way easier. Keep in mind that you also need to research and plan the structure, and steps that take time. And that might come with frustration if you are not passionate about the topic.
Thesis Statement and Introduction
One of the things many students skip when writing an essay is writing a thesis statement too. Many of them believe that thesis statements are specific to types of papers such as research papers, thesis, or dissertations. But they can be included in essays too.
A thesis statement is a sentence that details the main topic of your essay but in a concise format. The thesis statement is part of the introduction and it can catch the attention of your readers. It is one of the guidelines for writing an essay you should not skip.
Choose Your Research Sources Carefully
When you have a theme and a topic, you might start doing your research. However, keep in mind that many of the sources you now read might be mentioned in your essay, as they present valid data and information. It is essential to choose your sources of information carefully.
Not everything you find online is true and valid, and misrepresenting some points of view in your essay might not be a good choice. So, use Wikipedia only as a starting point in your research and choose to inform from high-authoritative sources.
Support Your Views
Many essay types ask you to take a look into debatable or of utter importance topics. For example, you might be asked to compare and contrast two things or argue in favor or against an idea. You might need to persuade the reader of your arguments and convince them into considering your perspective. In all these cases you need to support your views, to back up your arguments with evidence that supports them.
You can add concrete information that does this, such as data, facts, and stats. You can also use reasoning to make the connection between your arguments and the evidence you have presented. You can also cite the work of others, as their results or conclusions might support yours as well.
The Outline
The structure of your essay is crucial and it is one of the things you should not skip at all. All general essay writing guidelines highlight the importance of writing a smooth and logical essay. But how could you do this? How could you coherently arrange all your ideas? Well, you could easily do this by making an outline. The outline of an essay is the general structure you can start organizing your ideas. As a general rule of thumb, every piece of paper has an introduction, body, and conclusion.
However, depending on the essay type, you can expand this structure. Keep in mind that each argument should be presented in separate paragraphs, so the essay body structure can be changed. The structure of the introduction and conclusion are pretty much the same. The introduction should have a thesis statement and it should share details to convince the reader into reading more. The conclusion is a summary of the entire paper. You can leave the reader with food for thought questions or with the main points of your essay they should remain with.
Final Thoughts
Writing an essay might feel challenging at the beginning, especially if your requirements list is long. Take the time you need to read and understand it, as these requirements will help you craft a powerful essay.
Choose a topic you have a genuine interest in. Write a thesis statement for the introduction, as this will help you highlight the main idea of your paper. Do not forget about the outline and use evidence and reasoning to support your points of view.