A Comprehensive Guide to Writing Academic Essays

A Comprehensive Guide to Writing Academic Essays

Essay Writing is a prominent component of a university curriculum. Students are expected to have nourished their writing abilities before enrolling in any academic forum as they are examined and evaluated based on those skills. Hence, students who lack the skillset turn to the best essay writing service available online to avail assistance in writing lengthy and intricate essays. However, these services can often be costly and unreliable, so instead students are recommended to work towards improving their craft. Below is a comprehensive guide to everything related to essay writing.

TYPES OF ESSAYS:

• Descriptive EssaysDescriptive essays are some of the commonly practised essays in school life. It is where the writers are inferred to describe an object or event. Hence, utilising the senses and perceptions, the entire narrative is built. The content and descriptions should be authentic and verbalised eloquently. This form of essay focuses on creating a written account of experiences.




• Narrative Essays: This type of essay is driven by the feelings caused by certain experiences. Unlike reflective essays, a narrative essay pinpoints and highlights the cognitions instead of emotions. It is creative in nature and allows the writers to express their thinking patterns. Usually, this style of writing is utilised in composing stories. Therefore, a concise verbatim, clarity of thoughts, and a purpose are necessary.




• Expository Essays: Expository essays are strictly formal. They are driven by factual information and statistical figures. The writers should critically analyse the accumulated data and formulate a result. The idea is to investigate and gather evidence to concisely present an argument. Writers compare and contrast and observe the cause and effect of the available information. The style is usually utilised in research writing or newspaper columns.




• Reflective Essays: Reflective essays are driven by meaning and intuition. The writer is supposed to describe their personal experiences and take out the meaning from it. The intention is to evaluate the influence of that event on the person. The key to producing an effective reflective essay is originating an articulate and vivid description so that the reader can feel the same emotions. Hence, the writer has to completely immerse in the process of understanding and writing down the feelings and emotions caused by an experience.

Techniques to elevate the writing standard:

• Add variation in sentences:Giving a unique rhythm and variety can bring life into a monotonous and boring sentence. By learning the art of sentence structuring, you can truly cultivate writing skills. For example, if you continue to write lengthy and intricate sentences, the reader would feel overwhelmed and spend more time to understand the complex structures properly. Therefore, the key is to change the length of the sentence structures constantly. If you feel that you’ve been using too many long sentences in a row, add in a small sentence and try to change the paragraph. Reduce the repetition of ideas and emphasise on the crucial arguments.




• Understand different types of sentences:Sentences are generally divided into four different types. There are simple, compound, complex, and complex-compound sentences. They are all distinguished by dependent and independent clauses.




• Avoid short and choppy sentences:Sentences without conjunctions are incomplete and choppy. Therefore, the writer should ensure that he or she doesn’t construct sentences that violate this rule. “And”, “but”, “nor”, “yet”, “so”, “because”, “nor”, etc., are some of the commonly utilised conjunctions. Furthermore, the sentences should form an association or link between each other otherwise; the entire content would seem disjointed. Therefore, connect the dots while remaining grammatically correct.




• Correctly use parts of speech:There are eight parts of speech: adjectives, nouns, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, verbs, interjections, and adverbs. These are some basic concepts that most university students neglect to address. Hence, enlighten yourself with the fundamental concepts and understand their syntactic functions. Learn when and where each of these particles is used and apply them while constructing sentences.




• Transitional statements:The real magic in writing is created by smooth transitions. Therefore, ensure that when you construct sentences, they have an association with each other. Furthermore, they should easily blend in and seem unforced. They shouldn’t essentially rhyme, but you can use phrases and analogies to increase the quality and make the transition smooth.




• Utilise vivid description:Writing is truly enhanced when you incorporate and describe concrete information. The reader is simply not interested in the background noise. Figure out what the purpose of your essay is and what information is crucial for the plot. In addition to this, how valuable that information is to the plot.




• Produce a compelling introduction:The introduction of an essay should be strategically planned. Write down the thesis statement or the working hypothesis and briefly mention what you intend to mention in the essay. The idea is to give something to the reader to look forward to. Hence, end the introduction with a hook and begin the main body with the answer to that hook. Cliff-hangers are great attention grabbers.




• Don’t use flowery prose:A great piece of writing always carries simple words that are effective and precise. Therefore, while writing an essay, students should write in a conversational or formal tone depending on the type of essay. If you have the misconception that using flowery prose and advance vocabulary helps increase the quality of content, then you’re mistaken. Don’t fall under this trap as your readers shouldn’t be holding a dictionary while reading your work.




• Read and deconstruct the work of your favourite authors:This is a genius trick if you are new to writing. Invest time in reading and understanding different forms of writing. There are various genres and styles of writing. Try and evaluate what exactly makes you admire the work of your favourite author. Highlight the common phrases and words they use. Or maybe it is the way they structure the sentences. Whatever it is, you must focus on improving that in your writing. However, ensure that you don’t mimic anybody’s style.