If you don’t know where to start, learn from the best. For years many preeminent writers have been passionate about good writing and provided tips on how to learn the craft from scratch. In his essay “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell shared useful writing advice, some of which will be briefly mentioned in this article. However, most importantly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes while you’re learning. We’re pretty sure that Orwell practiced writing for years before he stood out of the crowd and became one of the greatest writers in history. Are you ready to start your learning experience? Here we’ve gathered 7 basic essay writing skills for newcomers that will come in handy along the way.
Be Сoncise
It’s one of the essential writing skills, no matter if you write an academic assignment, blog post, or journal. Narrow down the topic and focus on the main points you want to convey to your reader. Orwell also suggests cutting down unnecessary words to avoid redundancy and not using long words where you can replace them with short synonyms. If you study in college in the USA, most likely, your professors appreciate the students’ ability to write coherently and concisely. Because if essays are written logically and consistently, they’re easier to follow, so a reader doesn’t get lost along the way, trying to figure out what a student wants to say. Plus, companies always value candidates who can present any topic or issue in a concise and informative manner.
Create an Outline
It’s been said that people should have a plan no matter what they do. It eliminates the chances of stress and saves much time from the get-go. To start writing, students need to research first to find or buy useful materials online, formulate their main arguments, and search for supportive evidence. Create an outline using the information you want to include in your paper. If you start writing without an outline in front of you, there’s a big chance that you’ll find yourself stuck at some point and lose much time and effort figuring out what you should write next. Most likely, your writing will be inconsistent. An outline always comes in handy because you planned your essay in advance, so your paper would be better organized.
Question Your Ideas
Sometimes the first ideas that come up in our minds are not the best ones. A professional writer always asks questions about what messages they want to convey to readers and what words would better express them. Identify the areas where your reader might need additional explanation, such as specific terminology or abbreviations, as well as try to think of the questions your readers may have regarding your topic. Make sure that your evidence is not too general and supports your thesis directly. When you question your ideas, you mitigate the chances of speaking in generalities about something that requires a clear statement and evidence.
Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Help
We all can be confused when it comes to learning something new. If you require additional assistance with writing your college papers, English-speaking students may use a service that provides help from expert writers. We would suggest a professional essay writing service for hiring academic writers, – AdvancedWriters, that, in our experience, is second-to-none when it comes to academic writing services. Visiting a website, any customer would notice that it’s easy to navigate and place an order doesn’t take much time and effort. You can also get familiar with its customers’ reviews and buy a cheap paper from the top writers. How can you benefit from it? For instance, having an excellently written sample of any type of academic paper may be your template for future college assignments. You’ll learn the requirements for the structure of an essay and use this knowledge to improve your writing.
Follow the instructions
Most of the time, when you’re assigned an essay, professors provide you with a grading rubric and custom instructions. Sometimes these guidelines include too many details, which are easy to miss. Review the requirements carefully and ask your instructor for additional clarification if there’s a need. Professors pay close attention if students’ essays follow the requirements and mark the papers accordingly. That’s why it’s a must to always read the instructions carefully before starting to work on your assignment. If necessary, keep detailed notes in order to ensure that you don’t forget to include essential points in your paper.
Be creative
A vivid imagination and developed creative thinking skills always come in handy when writing an essay. An innovative approach not only enhances the quality of your paper but also makes it original and personalized. Take some time to enrich your vocabulary and use fancy words and metaphors if your assignment asks for it. If you need to write narrative or descriptive types of essays, your task may be to create a story or describe an event or artwork. These papers require creative thinking skills, interesting word choices, and engaging narratives. To develop creative writing skills, consider playing imaginative games, reading various kinds of literature and the works of different authors. Make these three elements an everyday habit even if you have only five minutes per day to spend on these activities. And, of course, don’t forget to practice writing as much as you possibly can. The results will not disappoint, and you won’t have to wait long to start noticing them.
Make a rule to proofread your paper
It’s crucial to make your essay mistakes-free because they distract your reader from the main points of your essay. Study basic grammar rules, such as punctuation, articles and pronouns usage, sentence structures, and, as Orwell advised, “never use the passive where you can use the active.” The ability to write error-free sentences is essential not only for academic writing but also for formal letters and emails. Imagine a candidate who tries to persuade some fancy company to hire them, and their email contains plenty of grammatical and spelling errors? Well, it looks like a dream job is farther than they might think.
That’s why make a rule to always proofread your essays before submitting them. This habit will never disappoint you, neither in college or university nor in your future career.