Have you ever read a paper that sounds like it was written in the 1800s? Or one where the author uses words we’d never use in real life? When writing an essay in an academic tone, many students may try to emulate the tone of the textbooks and articles they’ve read.
As a result, the essay may wind up sounding dull. Fortunately, anyone can improve their writing style. Follow the 6 tips in this article to refine and revamp your academic writing skills.
Of course, if you are pressed for time or having other challenges, you can hire expert writers from Essay Writing Service to help you. Otherwise, here are some of the best tips to help you write an extraordinary essay.
Create a Killer Outline
Before you dive into your essay, create an outline of what you’ll write about. Outlines are usually split into three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. How long each section depends on how many pages, or words, you’re expected to write.
The introduction should be short (around 10% of the overall paper), but it needs to hook the reader’s interest. Use common attention grabbers like anecdotes, quotes, or questions to do this. The introduction also serves another purpose: providing background information to the reader.
The body is the longest part of an essay. It highlights the most important points in your research. Make sure to provide different angles to the topic. Write about different scholars’ opposing views and then state your deductions.
The conclusion has three functions. First, it will tie up everything you’ve already written. Secondly, it will tell the reader what the findings of the research were. Lastly, the conclusion will recount the main points of the essay. It’s the one section that doesn’t require you to add new information.
Simplify Your Sentences
The identifying feature of a good academic writer isn’t how many big words they can use. It’s whether or not they can convey the message comprehensively. Since your professor has a million other papers to grade, make yours as easy to understand as possible.
One way to do this is to structure your paragraphs in a logical flow. The first sentence should always introduce the topic of the paragraph. The remaining sentences will be supporting statements. For visual appeal, it’s advisable to maintain your paragraphs at 5 sentences or less.
All professional writers working with personal statements https://essayservice.com/buy-personal-statement follow this rule. Most admissions officers have a heap of essays to read through. So, consider making yours stand out by the quality of your writing.
Get Credible Sources
Writing at the university level requires you to cite credible sources. Peer-reviewed articles, academic journals, and textbooks are the most trusted academic sources to cite. While most of them are located in paid databases, you can also use free websites like JSTOR and Google Scholar. The best sources to cite are authors who published their works within the last 10 years.
Avoid gathering information from online encyclopedias, blog posts, and articles without any citations. There’s no way to evaluate the credibility of the authors behind these sites. The information they provide can act as a launching pad into your research by giving you general knowledge on the topic. However, they should never be cited as a reference.
Formulate a Thesis Statement
What’s your stance on the subject? As much as you need information from credible sources, you also need to give your own input. A strong thesis statement clearly communicates your argument to your readers. Additionally, it acts as a foundation on which to build the body of your paper.
Not sure what a strong thesis statement looks like? Usually, it:
- Is short (1-2 sentences);
- takes a clear stance;
- has one main idea;
- Appears in the introduction of the essay.
An example of a weak thesis statement is: “There are several reasons cats make good pets”.
A strong thesis statement is: “Cats make excellent pets for people with demanding jobs because they’re low-maintenance”.
Notice how specific the strong thesis statement is? Note that it has one main idea.
Proofread
It’s tempting to hand in work immediately after you finish it. After all, nothing beats the euphoria of finishing a task you’ve been working on for weeks. However, it’s always good to double-check it for spelling and grammar mistakes. No matter how perfect our work seems, there is always room for human error.
Asking a friend to look over your essay will help.
Answer the Question “How?”
If you’ve ever taken a journalism class, then you’ll know that reporters try to answer 5 questions in each news piece. These are the 5 W’s and H: who, what, when, where, why, and how?
Sometimes, students get stuck on answering only one or two of those questions. As a result, it seems like there isn’t enough to write about. If you’re facing this challenge, it could be possible that your essay answers the questions ‘what’ and ‘why.’ Focusing solely on these questions restricts in-depth discussions.
Add a layer of depth to your research by answering the ‘how’ question. For example, if you’re writing about pets, you could structure your objectives as follows:
- What are some good pets for people who work a lot?
- Why do cats make good pets?
- How can you adopt a cat today?
Conclusion
As a student, you’ll have to write more academic papers than you can count. While you might be okay at writing, perhaps you want to take your skills to the next level. You can master the art of creating impeccable essays by following the simple steps listed in this article.
