EDUCATION | 4 MIN READ
Do you remember the time when your English teacher told you to write an essay regarding a certain topic? Your classmates were either having the following reactions: Thrilled, nonchalant or horrified. But making an essay shouldn’t be a dreadful work. Even if you are working, you’ll still encounter writing essays for your monthly report, proposal or any other formal business transactions.
So how do you write a good and acceptable essay? Here are a few tips.
1. Read other essays
You can find lots of essays that focus on different categories or subjects. Reading different kinds of essays helps you become a flexible writer since you have broad knowledge about different topics. Also, try to read broadsheet papers, specifically the “opinions” columns. This will help you in forming balanced opinions or statements in essays.
2. Be loaded with vocabulary
In writing an essay, you need to have a variation with the words you are using. Repetitive words can be a nuisance to your readers and make your piece less appealing. Read books to widen your vocabulary and when you do that have a dictionary at hand so that you’ll find the meaning and the usage of your newly discovered word. The wider your vocab is the more efficient you are when it comes to writing.
3. Have a skeleton of your essay
In order for you not to ramble on your thoughts and go over and over about the same thought, you can make a skeleton of your essay. First, decide on your topic Be as specific as possible to avoid jumping from one topic to another. You can jot down your ideas or thoughts first and from that start weaving your essay altogether.
4. Quote or cite others to prove your point
There’s a difference between supporting your ideas by citing what a person said and claiming an opinion of others as your own. Make sure you are doing the former. Citing or quoting others is not a form of plagiarism, you are only justifying your own thought. This also shows how much worked you’ve put in the essay since it takes research to cite opinions. But keep in mind that quoting too much would look like you’ve relied on the opinion of others in creating your essay, make sure that your own point still stands out.
5. Punctuations, spelling and “tone” for coherence
For your essay to make sense to your reader’s PROPER PUNCTUATION IS NEEDED. Wrong placement of punctuations might change the thought of a sentence. The same thing goes with spelling, some people mistakenly switches the uses of “your” and “you’re” in sentences. It does not only ruins the meaning of the sentence, but it makes your essay look less credible. Lastly, know what tone you are going to use in the whole duration of your essay. A confident tone in your essay is enough to persuade your reader and it helps the coherence of thought for the whole piece as well.
Writing essays shouldn’t be too dreadful to do especially with the pointers we gave you. Try to apply the listed tips above and be confident enough to write your own essays, whether it’s for your studies or work.
