Essay Writing Tips And Tricks: How To Make Your Paper Shine
Many students are looking daily for tips to take their papers to a higher level of excellence. If you really want to make your essay shine, try some of these tips:
- Make and follow an outline. You may think at first, it isn’t worth the extra effort. It certainly is! An outline is the best way to help you stay focused and on the right track. It helps you arrange your information in a logical order, and see what’s lacking in your argument. It helps you sail smoothly through the writing process and ensures you don’t omit anything important.
- Make sure your argument or statement is supported with sufficient evidence. Use pertinent examples as well.
- For your opening paragraph, include a hook. This is a sentence that really captures the reader’s attention. The introduction is also the place to write your statement or argument. Generally it’s the last sentence. First impressions are essential when it comes to introductions. You should also include a summary of what your paper is about. Avoid using an active voice such as I or My. Only use a passive voice and stay away from personal pronouns.
- Ensure the first paragraph of the body contains your strongest argument or statement. Then you can go on to explain why this statement or example is significant and provide further evidence to illustrate your point.
- All the body paragraphs follow a similar pattern. State your argument, support with evidence or examples and introduce the next paragraph.
- The conclusion is very similar but essentially different from the introduction. It must be a summary of what was presented in the paper and conclude with a thought-provoking ending.
- Always pay special attention to editing and proofreading. This step, more than perhaps any other, can help an essay float or sink. Most teachers won’t give high marks to an otherwise excellent paper if it’s full of grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. Also pay careful attention to word usage. Some of the words most commonly misused include the following:
- There, their and they’re
- Then and than
- Its and it’s
- Two, too and to
- Your and you’re
- Check your paper for each requirement as given in the assignment. Do they ask for specific formatting such as margin size? What about citations and references? Do they need to follow a certain style? All these details are important because they all contribute toward making your paper shine.