An essay is among the most popular tasks at colleges nowadays. However, you do not need to conduct extensive researches or provide experiments to write essays; creating this common college assignment takes time and strong writing skills. If you are interested in working hacks from experienced essay authors, read more below.
-
Tip 1. Start with instructions
An initial step that seems unnecessary for some students is a proper reading of your professor or supervisor’s instruction. In the instruction, you will find your future paper’s requirements, following which you will get much closer to a desired A grade. Usually, the instruction contains the list of sources, format requirements (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.), topic suggestions to choose from, and more vital data to consider.
-
Tip 2. Define an essay type
It is crucial to understand the type of your assignment as the content will depend on it. There are such essay types in universities and colleges as follows:
1) Admission essay. An essay that is among requirements to applicants who enrolls in a high school. Depending on what a faculty student is about to enter, such type of essay contains details on an applicants’ goals and achievements for the committee to consider.
2) Expository essay. A type of paper that requires overviewing the subject and considering various points of view on the same problem. You will need to compare and discuss the issue.
3) Narrative essay. A crucial element for a narrative essay is a plot. You have to tell a story that supports your point on the event, a book, a movie, a historical person. Note to tell a story from your point of view reflecting your vision.
4) Argumentative essay. An author’s primary goal will be making the readership agree with his or her point of view on a discussable problem or a phenomenon. Strong arguments, facts, and evidence are crucial for an argumentative essay.
5) Descriptive essay. As understood from the name of this essay type, an author’s core goal will be describing the phenomenon, an event, or a person.
-
Tip 3. Gather relevant materials
Your essay’s quality will depend on the type and relevance of the sources that you will use. As we already mentioned below, you had better check the list of materials to research in your teacher’s instructions. However, sometimes there are no details regarding the essay sources, so you require looking for them by yourself. We recommend considering such materials for your essay:
- Books
- Blogs
- Interviews
- Magazines
- Podcasts
- Vlogs
- Scientific articles
- Movies
- Reviews
- Case studies
- Thesis papers
- Other materials depending on the topic and discipline.
-
Tip 4. Structure patiently
Nevertheless, it takes time and effort to create an outline for an essay. In the end, it sufficiently economizes your time. The usefulness of a persuasive outline is frequently underrated by students of the first year. Nevertheless, in further years experienced students use this tool all the time. We recommend you make a broad outline for an essay creating a basis for your paper. In the end, you will get a combination of an outline and the first draft. All you will need to do is to polish and edit your text.
The vital sections of an essay outline are an introduction, the main body, and a conclusion. An introduction briefly represents the main thesis and contains some highlights to hook your readership and make them want to read further. The main body explains your vision as an author regarding the topic of an essay. The contents will depend on the essay type. A conclusion is a closing part you add to wrap up and summarize the main body’s information. This section of an essay does not contain new data.
-
Tip 5. Edit your essay
This step is crucial if your goal is an A-grade essay. Imagine you will complete the perfect piece with unbeatable arguments and afterward failed because you did not take time to proofread and edit it patiently. Read your essay at least one time. Become your corrector and look at your text from aside to notice details to exclude. We recommend using online grammar checking tools to polish your paper and make it understandable and readable.