Basic Academic Essay Writing Tips
Whether you have to write an essay for admission, scholarship, regular class, or contest, you must be aware of the basic academic writing rules. Essays are brief academic papers which are critical for your GPA or application process unlike a movie review essay. They may be different by their structure and topic, but the purpose is the same: to catch the attention of your reader from the very first sentence and make it interesting to the end.
A task like an essay usually occupies no more than 1-2 pages. However, students who postpone such assignments may still suffer from the lack of time. We will share helpful tips with the corresponding links to the academic writing websites in this article. Hopefully, these recommendations will make your academic life more joyful.
Choosing an Effective Topic or Question
A topic is the main thing you have to start with unless your teacher assigns you one. First, brainstorm with your friends to make a list of all possible topics and tips on them. Second, check the links with the available information. Is there enough information on the given topic? Third, read some of the sources to find out whether they are credible. Finally, decide whether a question is relevant for your community. Thus, the basic tips for picking topic include:
- Brainstorming
- Availability of information
- Credibility of collected sources
- Relevance of the question
Thinking about Essay Type
There are several types of academic essays. Before you start working on your paper, you should make a decision concerning its type. The tone of your essay and even content depend on the type of your paper. For example, writing a thesis statement for reflection essay will simply sum up your life experience in the particular field. At the same time, writing a thesis for the argumentative paper is much more difficult as you have to choose a debatable topic and prove that your main argument is true.
Try to read some valuable information on each essay type before writing the paper.
- Definition
- Expository
- Descriptive
- Reflection
- Argumentative
- Persuasive
- Definition
- Critical thinking
- Compare & Contrast
- Cause & Effect
- Character analysis
- Synthesis
- Opinion
- Process analysis
- Personal statement
- Scholarship essay
Writing an Outline
Introduce what you’ll be writing about to your reader. Dedicate some time to develop an outline on the given topic. Each section should contain several subtopics that answer the main question. Follow your outline during the entire writing process. The general structure involves the following points:
- Introduction with thesis statement in the last sentence
- Body with 3-5 paragraphs
- Conclusion
- Works Cited or Reference Page
Answering the Main Question
Make sure to always respond to the main question in the essay instructions. You must cover a topic in full. For example, you are writing a Character Analysis.
The question is whether Loki really hates his brother Thor as shown in the movie of 2011. Make sure to answer all important questions on the chosen character. A 5-paragarph formula will work for analysis essay.
It would not be enough to provide information on the character’s traits and deeds. A writer has to share ideas on why Loki hated or liked Thor based on the examples from the motion picture. Point to the particular episodes to defend your main point.
Finding Effective Words
Trying to get into the higher educational institution is a real challenge. You need to decide on your major first.
Next, you should know the standards of the target college or university. Choose the paper format and points to include in your scholarship or admission essay based on the particular university requirements. Follow generally accepted rules of academic writing as well.
Not only websites can have keywords. There are a lot of links on the web that may help to choose the right words. Here are some examples tested by the time:
- Academic, analytical, animal-lover, assertive, athletic
- Balanced, business-oriented
- Can-do attitude, community service oriented, competent, concerned about others, creative
- Detail-oriented, diligent, disciplined, dynamic
- Empathetic, enthusiastic
- Flexible, focused
- Gentle, goal-oriented, grounded
- Hard-working, health-oriented
- Imaginative, an intellectual
- Jovial, joyful
- Knowledge-seeking
- Good with languages, a leader, a good learner
- Methodical, motivated, multilingual, musical
- Non-conformist
- Organized, his/her own person
- Passionate, patient, a problem solver
- Quick, quirky
- A reader, a researcher, a risk-taker
- Scholarly, scientific, science-oriented, sensitive to others, stands out from the crowd
- Take-charge person, talented, trustworthy
- Unique, upfront
- Vivacious
- Willing to step up, beautiful writer
- A xenophile
- Zealous
These words appear in almost every winning admission essay, so you should consider using them.
Reading Examples
You can find a lot of free examples on the internet. Search the professional academic websites to download the best writing examples. Websites with low traffic and poor design may provide you with poor quality essay examples.
Look at the general structure, the format of each page, plan/outline, the way the main argument is developed, etc. If you love the topic and ideas of another author, you may fully rewrite the essay in your own words to win some time.
Each time you have some questions or need an immediate writing help, contact professional online essay and dissertation service. You can find helpful examples of essays over there.
Following General Structure and Formatting Rules
Make sure that your essay has an attractive introduction, body with 3-5 arguments, and impressive conclusion. The need to develop at least three powerful arguments and include an opposing view is always present.
Format your academic essay on one of the existing writing styles:
- MLA
- APA
- Turabian
- Harvard
- Vancouver
- Oxford
- IEEE
Planning Your Time
A student has to be a great time manager. As soon as you receive the essay’s instructions, you should start working on your paper. Writing is usually a time-consuming process, so it is better to start ahead not to miss the deadline. A missed deadline usually results into F. Besides, you need some time to make potential revisions and help.
That is basically all you want to know about this type of academic paper as it is really simple to write. You may also find and read more information on the particular types of essays. For example, if you have to write a Character Analysis, search for the list of character types and overall organization of the analysis essay. You can order professional academic writing help at affordable prices from the experts Ph.D. writers. It is an excellent way to save your time and obtain the best grade!
