discuss briefly the essay writing strategies studied in this course

Academic Writing

• Writing Guides
• Academic Writing Basics

Understand Your Assignment

Understand the context of your writing, practice writing as a process, peer review: enhancing your writing through collaboration.

• Resources for Writing Consultants and Peer Tutors
• Faculty Toolkit: Embedding Peer Writing Tutorials in Undergraduate Course Assignments
• Faculty Toolkit: Embedding Writing Consultations in Graduate and Online Course Assignments

Understanding Your Assignment: The Crucial First Step 🎓📝

Comprehending your assignment thoroughly is fundamental to academic writing success. This process involves careful reading, analysis, and often, clarification with your instructor. Here are some key steps to assignment understanding: 

1. Read the Prompt Multiple Times 👀📚

• First read : Gain an overall sense of the assignment
• Second read : Identify key tasks and requirements
• Third read : Note specific details, constraints, and formatting instructions

2. Identify Key Terms and Concepts 🔑📖

• Highlight action words (e.g., analyze, compare, evaluate)
• Circle content-specific terms you may need to research
• Note unfamiliar terms to clarify with your professor

3. Break Down the Assignment ✂️📊

• Identify the main task(s) you need to complete
• List any subtasks or components
• Note the required word count or page length

4. Understand the Purpose 🎯💡

• Consider why this assignment was given
• Reflect on how it relates to course learning objectives
• Identify the skills or knowledge you're meant to demonstrate

5. Clarify Expectations 📏🔍

• Review the grading rubric if provided
• Note any specific sources or number of sources required
• Understand the expected format and citation style

6. Ask Questions ❓🗨️

Don't hesitate to seek clarification from your professor:

• Prepare specific questions about unclear aspects
• Confirm your understanding of the main task(s)

Self-Assessment Checklist ✅

Use this checklist to ensure you've fully understood your assignment:

• I can state the main task(s) of the assignment in my own words
• I've identified all the key components I need to include
• I understand the format and citation style required
• I know how my work will be evaluated (grading criteria)
• I'm clear on the deadline and submission method
• I've clarified any uncertainties with my professor

Common Pitfalls to Avoid ⚠️

• Overlooking important details in the prompt
• Misinterpreting key terms or concepts
• Failing to address all parts of a multi-part question
• Not aligning your work with the stated purpose of the assignment

Remember: Taking the time to thoroughly understand your assignment at the outset can save you time and frustration later in the writing process. 

Need additional guidance? Don't hesitate to schedule an appointment with a Peer Tutor or Writing Consultant for personalized support in decoding your assignment.

Understanding the Context of Your Writing 🖊️🎓

Understanding the context for your writing, or "rhetorical situation," is crucial for effective academic writing at all levels. It involves considering the purpose, audience, context, and medium of your writing. By mastering these elements, you can make strategic decisions about how to present your arguments and structure your writing to communicate most effectively in your academic and professional contexts.

The video above provides a clear explanation of the rhetorical situation and its importance in effective communication. While it uses everyday examples, the concepts are directly applicable to academic writing. Understanding these elements will help you craft more persuasive and effective scholarly works.

What is Rhetorical Situation? 🤔

A rhetorical situation refers to any set of circumstances involving at least one person using communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person. Here are five key elements of rhetorical situations:

• In academic writing, this could be your essay, thesis, dissertation, or journal article
• Consider how the format and structure of your text align with your field's conventions
• As a student, consider your developing expertise and authority in your field
• Reflect on how to establish credibility through your writing and research
• Identify your primary readers (e.g., professors, committee members, journal reviewers, fellow scholars)
• Consider their background knowledge, expectations, and potential biases
• Clarify your goals (e.g., to inform, persuade, contribute new knowledge)
• Align your writing strategies with your academic and professional objectives
• Consider the current state of research in your field
• Reflect on how your work fits into ongoing scholarly conversations

Checklist for Understanding the Context of Your Writing Assignment or Task ✅

Use this checklist as you plan, draft, and revise your academic writing to ensure you're considering all aspects of the rhetorical situation:

Text (Logos) 📄

• What type of document am I creating?
• What are the conventions of this genre?
• How should I structure my arguments?

Author (Ethos) ✍️

• What are my credentials relevant to this topic?
• How can I establish my credibility?
• What potential biases should I be aware of?

Audience (Pathos) 👥

• Who is my primary audience?
• What do they already know about my topic?
• What are their values and expectations?
• How can I appeal to their emotions or interests?

Purpose (Telos) 🎯

• What is my main goal in writing this?
• Am I trying to inform, persuade, or entertain?
• What do I want my audience to do or think after reading?

Setting (Kairos) 🌍

• When and where will this be read?
• What current events or trends are relevant?
• How does the medium (e.g., journal article, blog post) affect my approach?

Community/Conversation 💬

• What ongoing discussions is my writing contributing to?
• Who are the key voices in this conversation?
• How does my work fit into the broader academic or professional discourse?

Using the Checklist 📝

• Planning Stage : Use this checklist when you're first conceptualizing your writing project. It can help you identify key considerations and shape your approach.
• Drafting Stage : Refer back to the checklist as you write to ensure you're addressing all aspects of the rhetorical situation.
• Revision Stage : Use the checklist as a tool for critical review. Have you effectively addressed each element in your writing?
• Peer Review : Share this checklist with peers when reviewing each other's work. It can provide a structured framework for giving feedback.

Remember, understanding your rhetorical situation is key to producing effective, persuasive academic writing. Use these tools to enhance your writing process and outcomes! 🚀📚

Writing is a cornerstone of academic and professional development. Whether you're working on a dsicussion post, essay, thesis, dissertation, or scholarly article, understanding writing as a complex, iterative process is crucial for producing high-quality academic work. The video below provides a foundational overview of the writing process. 

Academic Writing Process Checklist for Major Assignments

Planning and conceptualization.

 Analyze the assignment prompt and requirements

 Brainstorm initial ideas and potential topics

 Identify key research questions or thesis statement

 Consider theoretical frameworks relevant to your topic

 Discuss ideas with instructors, advisors, or peers

Research/Literature Review

 Conduct a comprehensive literature search

 Organize sources using citation management software (e.g., Zotero, Mendeley)

 Read and take notes on relevant sources

 Identify gaps in existing research

 Create a concept map or outline of key ideas and their relationships

Research Design (if applicable)

 Determine appropriate research methodology

 Design data collection instruments (e.g., surveys, interview questions)

 Consider ethical implications and obtain necessary approvals

 Plan data analysis methods

Outlining and Argument Development

 Create a detailed outline of your paper or project

 Develop your main argument or thesis

 Organize supporting points and evidence

 Ensure logical flow between sections

 Set realistic writing goals (e.g., daily word count)

 Write the first draft, focusing on content over style

 Integrate sources and citations as you write

 Develop your scholarly voice while adhering to disciplinary conventions

Revision and Feedback

 Review your draft for overall structure and argument coherence

 Seek feedback from peers, writing tutors, or instructors

 Attend writing workshops or group sessions for additional input

 Revise based on feedback received

Editing and Refinement

 Check for clarity and precision in language

 Ensure consistency in terminology and style

 Verify proper citation format and completeness

 Review for grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Finalization and Submission

 Format document according to assignment or publication guidelines

 Prepare any required supplementary materials (e.g., abstract, appendices)

 Conduct a final proofread

 Submit the assignment through the designated channel

Additional Considerations for Graduate Students

 Engage with current theoretical debates in your field

 Consider potential contributions to your discipline

 Prepare for scholarly presentation or defense, if applicable

 Plan for potential publication or further development of the work

Remember : Adapt this checklist to your specific assignment requirements and writing process. Regularly consult with your instructor or advisor for guidance.

Peer review is a crucial component of the academic writing process. While in-class peer review is valuable, the Academic Commons offers professional support to enhance your peer review skills and writing confidence.

Understanding Peer Review

Peer review goes beyond grammar checking. It's about:

• Gaining insight into audience reactions
• Ensuring your points are clear
• Assessing the effectiveness of your arguments and evidence

Academic Commons Advantage:  Our Peer Writing Tutors and Writing Consultants are trained in the peer review process. They can provide expert feedback and model effective peer review techniques.

Common Misconceptions

❌ Peer review is just about correcting grammar

✅ Our tutors focus on higher-order concerns like ideas and organization

❌ Only instructor feedback is valuable

✅ Our professionally trained staff offer valuable insights

❌ The goal is to criticize the writer's work

✅ We provide constructive feedback to improve your writing

Becoming an Effective Peer Reviewer

• Read the entire paper before commenting
• Focus on higher-order concerns first
• Provide specific, constructive feedback
• Balance criticism with praise
• Ask questions to clarify the writer's intentions

Academic Commons Tip:  Schedule a session with a Peer Writing Tutor to practice giving feedback. This will boost your confidence in class peer review sessions.

Receiving and Using Feedback Effectively

• Approach feedback with an open mind
• Ask for clarification if needed
• Prioritize feedback based on assignment criteria
• Use feedback to guide revisions

Academic Commons Support:  Book a follow-up appointment with a Writing Consultant to discuss how to implement feedback effectively.

Advanced Feedback Strategies for Graduate Students

For handling manuscript feedback:

• Rewrite feedback in your own words
• Create a checklist of action items
• Prioritize revisions based on importance

Graduate Student Tip:  Our Writing Consultants are essentially professional peer reviewers. They can help you navigate complex feedback from multiple reviewers.

Why Use Academic Commons for Peer Review?

• Expert Guidance:  Our staff are trained in effective peer review techniques
• Confidence Building:  Regular sessions help you feel more comfortable discussing your writing
• Time and Focus:  One-to-one sessions provide dedicated time for in-depth review
• Skill Development:  Learn to give and receive feedback, enhancing your in-class peer review skills
• Personalized Support:  Get feedback tailored to your specific writing goals and challenges

Don't let lack of confidence hold you back from valuable peer review experiences. The Academic Commons is here to support your growth as both a writer and a reviewer.

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Strategies for Academic Writing

How to respond to writing assignments, time management, dealing with writer's block, step 1: analyze the assignment.

• If the assignment was given orally, write it out and read it until you're thoroughly familiar with it.
• Look for key words. Pay particular attention to the thought process your instructor expects you to use, which is often captured in a single or set of key words .
• Look for what form your paper is expected to take; most will take one of these forms .

Step 2: Consider the Writing Situation

Successful college writers look beyond the assignment to the larger picture and seek to understand the purpose and audience for the assignment.

• Purposes: Why has my professor given me this assignment? Is it intended primarily to test my knowledge of the reading for the study, or is it asking me to go beyond the reading? Am I expected to break new ground? What might I hope to accomplish? Why is the subject important?
• Audience: Who is the intended audience? Who will be my audience beyond the professor? Who else might be interested in reading this paper? Why should my reader be interested in what I will do in this paper?

Step 3: Ask Questions

If the assignment's purpose, subject, or audience is not clear ask your professor questions such as these:

• What would you like me to learn from writing this?
• Who is the target audience?
• What form do you want me to use?

Make sure you understand what kind of thinking and what type of paper is expected. Sometimes your questions help a professor clarify an assignment.

Step 4: Ask to See a Sample

Ask to see a model of what the instructor wants. Student models are often the most help. Seeing models of what is expected will help you respond to the assignment effectively.

Step 5: Make the Assignment Your Own

After you are sure about what's expected in an assignment,

• turn the question around; instead of asking, "What does the instructor want?" ask, "What do I want to say about the assigned subject or question?"
• ask yourself about your knowledge and experience of the subject: "What are the limits of my knowledge and how can I learn more?"; write down what you already know about the topic, why you care about it, and why you think your reader should care about it
• answer the question, "Why write about this, anyway?"; look for a slant on the question that reflects who you are
• relate the assignment to something you're familiar with; don't hesitate to ask if you can modify the assignment a little so you can do something you really want to do
• read over what you have written until you can "hear" it; when you can let it flow through your hands onto the screen or paper, you have found your voice.

Every writer follows a different process. And every paper does the same. The amount of time needed to write a satisfying paper varies from person to person and paper to paper. And, the length of time required to write a paper isn't just a matter of what kind of paper it is. Some papers seem to write themselves; others that we thought would be easy take what seems like forever. One generalization that might be safe is that it's never a good idea, no matter how simple an assignment might seem, to write it at one sitting. All papers benefit from the distance a writer gains by putting a paper down for a few hours or, preferably, longer. A good night's sleep can be more productive than three agonizing hours of trying to get a piece of writing right. Here is a timeline distributed by St. Cloud State University for completing various kinds of papers:

• research paper: 5-8 weeks
• long paper (10 pages): 3-5 weeks
• short paper (3-5 pages): 1-2 weeks
• short theme/paper (1-3 pages): 1-2 weeks.

Interviewer: I've read that you don't get writer's block often. What is your advice to those who do?

Allan Gurganus (novelist, short story writer and essayist): My theory is you don't get it if you don't believe in it. I've never heard of anyone getting plumber's block or traffic cop's block. But if you just tell the truth in the most effective way you can, chances are you will come closer to doing what you want to do. I heard a wonderful phrase from a psychoanalyst: 'Perfect is the enemy of good.' So if you think you're going to write perfectly, chances are you'll write nothing, but if you hope to write well, chances are you'll write perfectly.

Students often report that their biggest problem with a writing assignment is getting started. What causes writer's block--fear of the empty expanse of white paper in front of you--and what can a person do about it? Writer's block is caused primarily by judging your writing before or as you write. If you have perfectionist tendencies, writing may be particularly difficult for you. What is essential to keep in mind is that writing is a process, and a process takes time. If you expect what you write to come out perfectly in the first draft, you will be plagued by writer's block your whole life. The first draft is called a "rough draft" because it is unformed. Your job, as writer Guy de Maupassant advised, is to "get black on white." And contrary to what many people think, you don't have to know what you want to say or even what you want to write about before you begin writing. As a writer, your initial job is to find out what you know and what you don't.

C. Day Lewis said, "We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand." The way you begin writing is to try some prewriting activities .

One Solution

A way to think about writing is to imagine that there are three parts of your personality that have to get involved before any writing project is finished. Let's call these three entities:

Writer's block occurs when your editor and your inventor try to work on a piece of writing at the same time. The inventor is revved up about an idea and the editor is being critical, maybe implying you are not articulating your idea well enough or that it's not a good idea, and pointing out problems with grammar, spelling, or syntax. Your inner inventor and your inner editor must be separated if you are to write well. The editor must wait his or her turn. You need the editor, but not until later.

The Inventor

This is the passionate part of you that conjures up ideas, visions, dreams, schemes, and plans. This is the aspect of you that is most childlike, demanding, imaginative, impulsive, playful, and opinionated. It's the part that adults often keep under wraps, which may account for so many of us having writer's block.

We need the inventor in the beginning of the writing process. We need to give this freer aspect of our personality permission to jot down ideas, get carried away on paper, be messy and disorganized, and to brainstorm and plot.

This is where the creative juices flow. If you are going to write originally, find a unique angle or perspective and locate your own voice and style, the inventor must be allowed to work, goof around on paper, doodle, make maps, and write down whatever comes to mind--even if it seems illogical or off the topic. It's the inventor who comes up with the first, rough draft after prewriting activities.

The inventor has cooked up a rough draft. Now what do you do with it? There are probably some good ideas in it, but there's a lot to be trimmed and added. Where do you start? You need some advice, some direction, so you call on your reader self.

It's much easier to engage your inner reader after you've had some distance from your writing. Writer Isaac Asimov used to put his manuscript in a drawer for a year before he looked at it again. (If you tell your professors that that's what you're doing, either you will be ancient by the time you finish your college degree, or your professor will present you with a 'no credit' for the course.) Even a day or two away from a piece of writing can help you approach your draft more objectively than is possible right after the heat of writing it.

The reader's job is to read your draft and ask you some questions: Where do you need to develop or add more ideas and details? Where do you get off track? What works? What's clever, lively, or insightful? Does the introduction work (if you have one)? Is what you've written logical, easy to follow, clear? The reader is dispassionate, a kind of literary accountant, just noting what you have and what you don't have. The reader gathers information about your piece, pointing out what you need to do to complete it.

When the reader is done with his or her assessment, you re-engage the inventor, who's been tempered by feedback from the reader, and get to work rewriting and revising.

How many times do you revise a piece? Here's an interview with Ernest Hemingway:

Hemingway: I rewrote the ending to '"Farewell to Arms," the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.

Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had you stumped?

Hemingway: Getting the words right.

Another writer, James Michener, wrote, "You write the first draft really to see how it's going to come out. My connectives, my clauses, my subsidiary phrases don't come naturally to me and I'm very prone to repetition of words, so I never even write an important letter in the first draft. I can never recall anything of mine that's ever been printed in less than three drafts."

The point is that writing is mostly rewriting, or re-seeing your piece again and again, each time making the meaning clearer, further developing your ideas, doing whatever you need to communicate with your reader with clarity and conciseness. It's like watching a photograph being processed and going from blurry to sharply-focused. Revision is where the craft of writing comes in. This is where you tinker with words and fashion sentences and paragraphs to make them strong and true. In some ways it's like working on a puzzle, making each piece fit into a whole that expresses what you mean to convey.

After you're well into the revision process, let the editor in. The editor is the critical, fussy, bossy, knowledgeable part of you who wants your writing to be as good as it can be. Let your inner editor check each sentence for unnecessary words, strong verbs and nouns, structure, and correct punctuation. Give the editor free rein to be picky, harumph and sigh, and point out clunky sentences, a weak conclusion or the failure to spellcheck. Read your writing aloud to your editor, because ears often pick up what eyes don't. Finally, get a second opinion, then hand your writing in.

The Nature of Writing

Writing is a contradictory process. It's hard, or as writer W. Somerset Maugham said, "To write simply is a difficult as to be good."

Writing is also an empowering process, as essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt noted, "The more a man writes, the more he can write."

The writing process is also frustrating and enlightening, thrilling and discouraging, humbling and exalting, just like life. Biographer Catherine Drinker Bowen said, "Writing is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once more in that mirror which waits always before or behind him."

If given the opportunity to fast-forward to the end of our lives, I doubt many of us would choose to go right to the end. We'd want to live our lives and see what happens along the way. Likewise, don't cheat yourself out of the process of writing. Often it's fun, or as Ray Bradbury, the author of more than 500 published works, pointed out, "Creativity is continual surprise."

Writing is a way to add texture and meaning to your life, to be surprised by discovering what you know and what you don't know, whether you're writing a research paper, a letter to a friend or starting a novel.

"The reward of writing is in the writing itself. It comes with finding the right word. The quest for a superb sentence is a groping for honesty, a search for the innermost self, a self-discipline, a generous giving out of one's most intimate rhythms and meanings. To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone -- just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over..." - John Hersey

Need Assistance?

If you would like assistance with any type of writing assignment, learning coaches are available to assist you. Please contact Academic Support by emailing [email protected].

Questions or feedback about SUNY Empire's Writing Support?

Contact us at [email protected] .

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• The four main types of essay | Quick guide with examples

The Four Main Types of Essay | Quick Guide with Examples

Published on September 4, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays.

Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and descriptive essays are about exercising creativity and writing in an interesting way. At university level, argumentative essays are the most common type. 

In high school and college, you will also often have to write textual analysis essays, which test your skills in close reading and interpretation.

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Table of contents

Argumentative essays, expository essays, narrative essays, descriptive essays, textual analysis essays, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about types of essays.

An argumentative essay presents an extended, evidence-based argument. It requires a strong thesis statement —a clearly defined stance on your topic. Your aim is to convince the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations ) and analysis.

Argumentative essays test your ability to research and present your own position on a topic. This is the most common type of essay at college level—most papers you write will involve some kind of argumentation.

The essay is divided into an introduction, body, and conclusion:

• The introduction provides your topic and thesis statement
• The body presents your evidence and arguments
• The conclusion summarizes your argument and emphasizes its importance

The example below is a paragraph from the body of an argumentative essay about the effects of the internet on education. Mouse over it to learn more.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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See an example

An expository essay provides a clear, focused explanation of a topic. It doesn’t require an original argument, just a balanced and well-organized view of the topic.

Expository essays test your familiarity with a topic and your ability to organize and convey information. They are commonly assigned at high school or in exam questions at college level.

The introduction of an expository essay states your topic and provides some general background, the body presents the details, and the conclusion summarizes the information presented.

A typical body paragraph from an expository essay about the invention of the printing press is shown below. Mouse over it to learn more.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 changed this situation dramatically. Johannes Gutenberg, who had worked as a goldsmith, used his knowledge of metals in the design of the press. He made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, whose durability allowed for the reliable production of high-quality books. This new technology allowed texts to be reproduced and disseminated on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Gutenberg Bible appeared in the 1450s, and a large number of printing presses sprang up across the continent in the following decades. Gutenberg’s invention rapidly transformed cultural production in Europe; among other things, it would lead to the Protestant Reformation.

A narrative essay is one that tells a story. This is usually a story about a personal experience you had, but it may also be an imaginative exploration of something you have not experienced.

Narrative essays test your ability to build up a narrative in an engaging, well-structured way. They are much more personal and creative than other kinds of academic writing . Writing a personal statement for an application requires the same skills as a narrative essay.

A narrative essay isn’t strictly divided into introduction, body, and conclusion, but it should still begin by setting up the narrative and finish by expressing the point of the story—what you learned from your experience, or why it made an impression on you.

Mouse over the example below, a short narrative essay responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” to explore its structure.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

A descriptive essay provides a detailed sensory description of something. Like narrative essays, they allow you to be more creative than most academic writing, but they are more tightly focused than narrative essays. You might describe a specific place or object, rather than telling a whole story.

Descriptive essays test your ability to use language creatively, making striking word choices to convey a memorable picture of what you’re describing.

A descriptive essay can be quite loosely structured, though it should usually begin by introducing the object of your description and end by drawing an overall picture of it. The important thing is to use careful word choices and figurative language to create an original description of your object.

Mouse over the example below, a response to the prompt “Describe a place you love to spend time in,” to learn more about descriptive essays.

On Sunday afternoons I like to spend my time in the garden behind my house. The garden is narrow but long, a corridor of green extending from the back of the house, and I sit on a lawn chair at the far end to read and relax. I am in my small peaceful paradise: the shade of the tree, the feel of the grass on my feet, the gentle activity of the fish in the pond beside me.

My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above. From his perch he can watch over his little kingdom and keep an eye on the neighbours. He does this until the barking of next door’s dog scares him from his post and he bolts for the cat flap to govern from the safety of the kitchen.

With that, I am left alone with the fish, whose whole world is the pond by my feet. The fish explore the pond every day as if for the first time, prodding and inspecting every stone. I sometimes feel the same about sitting here in the garden; I know the place better than anyone, but whenever I return I still feel compelled to pay attention to all its details and novelties—a new bird perched in the tree, the growth of the grass, and the movement of the insects it shelters…

Sitting out in the garden, I feel serene. I feel at home. And yet I always feel there is more to discover. The bounds of my garden may be small, but there is a whole world contained within it, and it is one I will never get tired of inhabiting.

Though every essay type tests your writing skills, some essays also test your ability to read carefully and critically. In a textual analysis essay, you don’t just present information on a topic, but closely analyze a text to explain how it achieves certain effects.

Rhetorical analysis

A rhetorical analysis looks at a persuasive text (e.g. a speech, an essay, a political cartoon) in terms of the rhetorical devices it uses, and evaluates their effectiveness.

The goal is not to state whether you agree with the author’s argument but to look at how they have constructed it.

The introduction of a rhetorical analysis presents the text, some background information, and your thesis statement; the body comprises the analysis itself; and the conclusion wraps up your analysis of the text, emphasizing its relevance to broader concerns.

The example below is from a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech . Mouse over it to learn more.

King’s speech is infused with prophetic language throughout. Even before the famous “dream” part of the speech, King’s language consistently strikes a prophetic tone. He refers to the Lincoln Memorial as a “hallowed spot” and speaks of rising “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” to “make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The assumption of this prophetic voice constitutes the text’s strongest ethical appeal; after linking himself with political figures like Lincoln and the Founding Fathers, King’s ethos adopts a distinctly religious tone, recalling Biblical prophets and preachers of change from across history. This adds significant force to his words; standing before an audience of hundreds of thousands, he states not just what the future should be, but what it will be: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” This warning is almost apocalyptic in tone, though it concludes with the positive image of the “bright day of justice.” The power of King’s rhetoric thus stems not only from the pathos of his vision of a brighter future, but from the ethos of the prophetic voice he adopts in expressing this vision.

Literary analysis

A literary analysis essay presents a close reading of a work of literature—e.g. a poem or novel—to explore the choices made by the author and how they help to convey the text’s theme. It is not simply a book report or a review, but an in-depth interpretation of the text.

Literary analysis looks at things like setting, characters, themes, and figurative language. The goal is to closely analyze what the author conveys and how.

The introduction of a literary analysis essay presents the text and background, and provides your thesis statement; the body consists of close readings of the text with quotations and analysis in support of your argument; and the conclusion emphasizes what your approach tells us about the text.

Mouse over the example below, the introduction to a literary analysis essay on Frankenstein , to learn more.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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At high school and in composition classes at university, you’ll often be told to write a specific type of essay , but you might also just be given prompts.

Look for keywords in these prompts that suggest a certain approach: The word “explain” suggests you should write an expository essay , while the word “describe” implies a descriptive essay . An argumentative essay might be prompted with the word “assess” or “argue.”

The vast majority of essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Almost all academic writing involves building up an argument, though other types of essay might be assigned in composition classes.

Essays can present arguments about all kinds of different topics. For example:

• In a literary analysis essay, you might make an argument for a specific interpretation of a text
• In a history essay, you might present an argument for the importance of a particular event
• In a politics essay, you might argue for the validity of a certain political theory

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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12 Strategies to Writing the Perfect College Essay

College admission committees sift through thousands of college essays each year. Here’s how to make yours stand out.

Pamela Reynolds

When it comes to deciding who they will admit into their programs, colleges consider many criteria, including high school grades, extracurricular activities, and ACT and SAT scores. But in recent years, more colleges are no longer considering test scores.

Instead, many (including Harvard through 2026) are opting for “test-blind” admission policies that give more weight to other elements in a college application. This policy change is seen as fairer to students who don’t have the means or access to testing, or who suffer from test anxiety.

So, what does this mean for you?

Simply that your college essay, traditionally a requirement of any college application, is more important than ever.

A college essay is your unique opportunity to introduce yourself to admissions committees who must comb through thousands of applications each year. It is your chance to stand out as someone worthy of a seat in that classroom.

A well-written and thoughtful essay—reflecting who you are and what you believe—can go a long way to separating your application from the slew of forgettable ones that admissions officers read. Indeed, officers may rely on them even more now that many colleges are not considering test scores.

Below we’ll discuss a few strategies you can use to help your essay stand out from the pack. We’ll touch on how to start your essay, what you should write for your college essay, and elements that make for a great college essay.

Be Authentic

More than any other consideration, you should choose a topic or point of view that is consistent with who you truly are.

Readers can sense when writers are inauthentic.

Inauthenticity could mean the use of overly flowery language that no one would ever use in conversation, or it could mean choosing an inconsequential topic that reveals very little about who you are.

Use your own voice, sense of humor, and a natural way of speaking.

Whatever subject you choose, make sure it’s something that’s genuinely important to you and not a subject you’ve chosen just to impress. You can write about a specific experience, hobby, or personality quirk that illustrates your strengths, but also feel free to write about your weaknesses.

Honesty about traits, situations, or a childhood background that you are working to improve may resonate with the reader more strongly than a glib victory speech.

Grab the Reader From the Start

You’ll be competing with so many other applicants for an admission officer’s attention.

Therefore, start your essay with an opening sentence or paragraph that immediately seizes the imagination. This might be a bold statement, a thoughtful quote, a question you pose, or a descriptive scene.

Starting your essay in a powerful way with a clear thesis statement can often help you along in the writing process. If your task is to tell a good story, a bold beginning can be a natural prelude to getting there, serving as a roadmap, engaging the reader from the start, and presenting the purpose of your writing.

Focus on Deeper Themes

Some essay writers think they will impress committees by loading an essay with facts, figures, and descriptions of activities, like wins in sports or descriptions of volunteer work. But that’s not the point.

College admissions officers are interested in learning more about who you are as a person and what makes you tick.

They want to know what has brought you to this stage in life. They want to read about realizations you may have come to through adversity as well as your successes, not just about how many games you won while on the soccer team or how many people you served at a soup kitchen.

Let the reader know how winning the soccer game helped you develop as a person, friend, family member, or leader. Make a connection with your soup kitchen volunteerism and how it may have inspired your educational journey and future aspirations. What did you discover about yourself?

Show Don’t Tell

As you expand on whatever theme you’ve decided to explore in your essay, remember to show, don’t tell.

The most engaging writing “shows” by setting scenes and providing anecdotes, rather than just providing a list of accomplishments and activities.

Reciting a list of activities is also boring. An admissions officer will want to know about the arc of your emotional journey too.

Try Doing Something Different

If you want your essay to stand out, think about approaching your subject from an entirely new perspective. While many students might choose to write about their wins, for instance, what if you wrote an essay about what you learned from all your losses?

If you are an especially talented writer, you might play with the element of surprise by crafting an essay that leaves the response to a question to the very last sentence.

You may want to stay away from well-worn themes entirely, like a sports-related obstacle or success, volunteer stories, immigration stories, moving, a summary of personal achievements or overcoming obstacles.

However, such themes are popular for a reason. They represent the totality of most people’s lives coming out of high school. Therefore, it may be less important to stay away from these topics than to take a fresh approach.

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Write With the Reader in Mind

Writing for the reader means building a clear and logical argument in which one thought flows naturally from another.

Use transitions between paragraphs.

Think about any information you may have left out that the reader may need to know. Are there ideas you have included that do not help illustrate your theme?

Be sure you can answer questions such as: Does what you have written make sense? Is the essay organized? Does the opening grab the reader? Is there a strong ending? Have you given enough background information? Is it wordy?

Write Several Drafts

Set your essay aside for a few days and come back to it after you’ve had some time to forget what you’ve written. Often, you’ll discover you have a whole new perspective that enhances your ability to make revisions.

Start writing months before your essay is due to give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts. A good time to start could be as early as the summer before your senior year when homework and extracurricular activities take up less time.

Read It Aloud

Writer’s tip : Reading your essay aloud can instantly uncover passages that sound clumsy, long-winded, or false.

Don’t Repeat

If you’ve mentioned an activity, story, or anecdote in some other part of your application, don’t repeat it again in your essay.

Your essay should tell college admissions officers something new. Whatever you write in your essay should be in philosophical alignment with the rest of your application.

Also, be sure you’ve answered whatever question or prompt may have been posed to you at the outset.

Ask Others to Read Your Essay

Be sure the people you ask to read your essay represent different demographic groups—a teacher, a parent, even a younger sister or brother.

Ask each reader what they took from the essay and listen closely to what they have to say. If anyone expresses confusion, revise until the confusion is cleared up.

Pay Attention to Form

Although there are often no strict word limits for college essays, most essays are shorter rather than longer. Common App, which students can use to submit to multiple colleges, suggests that essays stay at about 650 words.

“While we won’t as a rule stop reading after 650 words, we cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention for as long as you’d hoped it would,” the Common App website states.

In reviewing other technical aspects of your essay, be sure that the font is readable, that the margins are properly spaced, that any dialogue is set off properly, and that there is enough spacing at the top. Your essay should look clean and inviting to readers.

End Your Essay With a “Kicker”

In journalism, a kicker is the last punchy line, paragraph, or section that brings everything together.

It provides a lasting impression that leaves the reader satisfied and impressed by the points you have artfully woven throughout your piece.

So, here’s our kicker: Be concise and coherent, engage in honest self-reflection, and include vivid details and anecdotes that deftly illustrate your point.

While writing a fantastic essay may not guarantee you get selected, it can tip the balance in your favor if admissions officers are considering a candidate with a similar GPA and background.

Write, revise, revise again, and good luck!

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About the Author

Pamela Reynolds is a Boston-area feature writer and editor whose work appears in numerous publications. She is the author of “Revamp: A Memoir of Travel and Obsessive Renovation.”

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• Focus and Precision: How to Write Essays that Answer the Question

About the Author Stephanie Allen read Classics and English at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and is currently researching a PhD in Early Modern Academic Drama at the University of Fribourg.

We’ve all been there. You’ve handed in an essay and you think it’s pretty great: it shows off all your best ideas, and contains points you’re sure no one else will have thought of.

You’re not totally convinced that what you’ve written is relevant to the title you were given – but it’s inventive, original and good. In fact, it might be better than anything that would have responded to the question. But your essay isn’t met with the lavish praise you expected. When it’s tossed back onto your desk, there are huge chunks scored through with red pen, crawling with annotations like little red fire ants: ‘IRRELEVANT’; ‘A bit of a tangent!’; ‘???’; and, right next to your best, most impressive killer point: ‘Right… so?’. The grade your teacher has scrawled at the end is nowhere near what your essay deserves. In fact, it’s pretty average. And the comment at the bottom reads something like, ‘Some good ideas, but you didn’t answer the question!’.

If this has ever happened to you (and it has happened to me, a lot), you’ll know how deeply frustrating it is – and how unfair it can seem. This might just be me, but the exhausting process of researching, having ideas, planning, writing and re-reading makes me steadily more attached to the ideas I have, and the things I’ve managed to put on the page. Each time I scroll back through what I’ve written, or planned, so far, I become steadily more convinced of its brilliance. What started off as a scribbled note in the margin, something extra to think about or to pop in if it could be made to fit the argument, sometimes comes to be backbone of a whole essay – so, when a tutor tells me my inspired paragraph about Ted Hughes’s interpretation of mythology isn’t relevant to my essay on Keats, I fail to see why. Or even if I can see why, the thought of taking it out is wrenching. Who cares if it’s a bit off-topic? It should make my essay stand out, if anything! And an examiner would probably be happy not to read yet another answer that makes exactly the same points. If you recognise yourself in the above, there are two crucial things to realise. The first is that something has to change: because doing well in high school exam or coursework essays is almost totally dependent on being able to pin down and organise lots of ideas so that an examiner can see that they convincingly answer a question. And it’s a real shame to work hard on something, have good ideas, and not get the marks you deserve. Writing a top essay is a very particular and actually quite simple challenge. It’s not actually that important how original you are, how compelling your writing is, how many ideas you get down, or how beautifully you can express yourself (though of course, all these things do have their rightful place). What you’re doing, essentially, is using a limited amount of time and knowledge to really answer a question. It sounds obvious, but a good essay should have the title or question as its focus the whole way through . It should answer it ten times over – in every single paragraph, with every fact or figure. Treat your reader (whether it’s your class teacher or an external examiner) like a child who can’t do any interpretive work of their own; imagine yourself leading them through your essay by the hand, pointing out that you’ve answered the question here , and here , and here. Now, this is all very well, I imagine you objecting, and much easier said than done. But never fear! Structuring an essay that knocks a question on the head is something you can learn to do in a couple of easy steps. In the next few hundred words, I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned through endless, mindless crossings-out, rewordings, rewritings and rethinkings.

Top tips and golden rules

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told to ‘write the question at the top of every new page’- but for some reason, that trick simply doesn’t work for me. If it doesn’t work for you either, use this three-part process to allow the question to structure your essay:

1)     Work out exactly what you’re being asked

It sounds really obvious, but lots of students have trouble answering questions because they don’t take time to figure out exactly what they’re expected to do – instead, they skim-read and then write the essay they want to write. Sussing out a question is a two-part process, and the first part is easy. It means looking at the directions the question provides as to what sort of essay you’re going to write. I call these ‘command phrases’ and will go into more detail about what they mean below. The second part involves identifying key words and phrases.

2)     Be as explicit as possible

Use forceful, persuasive language to show how the points you’ve made do answer the question. My main focus so far has been on tangential or irrelevant material – but many students lose marks even though they make great points, because they don’t quite impress how relevant those points are. Again, I’ll talk about how you can do this below.

3)     Be brutally honest with yourself about whether a point is relevant before you write it.

It doesn’t matter how impressive, original or interesting it is. It doesn’t matter if you’re panicking, and you can’t think of any points that do answer the question. If a point isn’t relevant, don’t bother with it. It’s a waste of time, and might actually work against you- if you put tangential material in an essay, your reader will struggle to follow the thread of your argument, and lose focus on your really good points.

Put it into action: Step One

Let’s imagine you’re writing an English essay about the role and importance of the three witches in Macbeth . You’re thinking about the different ways in which Shakespeare imagines and presents the witches, how they influence the action of the tragedy, and perhaps the extent to which we’re supposed to believe in them (stay with me – you don’t have to know a single thing about Shakespeare or Macbeth to understand this bit!). Now, you’ll probably have a few good ideas on this topic – and whatever essay you write, you’ll most likely use much of the same material. However, the detail of the phrasing of the question will significantly affect the way you write your essay. You would draw on similar material to address the following questions: Discuss Shakespeare’s representation of the three witches in Macbeth . How does Shakespeare figure the supernatural in Macbeth ?   To what extent are the three witches responsible for Macbeth’s tragic downfall? Evaluate the importance of the three witches in bringing about Macbeth’s ruin. Are we supposed to believe in the three witches in Macbeth ? “Within Macbeth ’s representation of the witches, there is profound ambiguity about the actual significance and power of their malevolent intervention” (Stephen Greenblatt). Discuss.   I’ve organised the examples into three groups, exemplifying the different types of questions you might have to answer in an exam. The first group are pretty open-ended: ‘discuss’- and ‘how’-questions leave you room to set the scope of the essay. You can decide what the focus should be. Beware, though – this doesn’t mean you don’t need a sturdy structure, or a clear argument, both of which should always be present in an essay. The second group are asking you to evaluate, constructing an argument that decides whether, and how far something is true. Good examples of hypotheses (which your essay would set out to prove) for these questions are:

• The witches are the most important cause of tragic action in Macbeth.
• The witches are partially, but not entirely responsible for Macbeth’s downfall, alongside Macbeth’s unbridled ambition, and that of his wife.
• We are not supposed to believe the witches: they are a product of Macbeth’s psyche, and his downfall is his own doing.
• The witches’ role in Macbeth’s downfall is deliberately unclear. Their claim to reality is shaky – finally, their ambiguity is part of an uncertain tragic universe and the great illusion of the theatre. (N.B. It’s fine to conclude that a question can’t be answered in black and white, certain terms – as long as you have a firm structure, and keep referring back to it throughout the essay).

The final question asks you to respond to a quotation. Students tend to find these sorts of questions the most difficult to answer, but once you’ve got the hang of them I think the title does most of the work for you – often implicitly providing you with a structure for your essay. The first step is breaking down the quotation into its constituent parts- the different things it says. I use brackets: ( Within Macbeth ’s representation of the witches, ) ( there is profound ambiguity ) about the ( actual significance ) ( and power ) of ( their malevolent intervention ) Examiners have a nasty habit of picking the most bewildering and terrifying-sounding quotations: but once you break them down, they’re often asking for something very simple. This quotation, for example, is asking exactly the same thing as the other questions. The trick here is making sure you respond to all the different parts. You want to make sure you discuss the following:

• Do you agree that the status of the witches’ ‘malevolent intervention’ is ambiguous?
• What is its significance?
• How powerful is it?

Step Two: Plan

Having worked out exactly what the question is asking, write out a plan (which should be very detailed in a coursework essay, but doesn’t have to be more than a few lines long in an exam context) of the material you’ll use in each paragraph. Make sure your plan contains a sentence at the end of each point about how that point will answer the question. A point from my plan for one of the topics above might look something like this:

To what extent are we supposed to believe in the three witches in Macbeth ?  Hypothesis: The witches’ role in Macbeth’s downfall is deliberately unclear. Their claim to reality is uncertain – finally, they’re part of an uncertain tragic universe and the great illusion of the theatre. Para.1: Context At the time Shakespeare wrote Macbeth , there were many examples of people being burned or drowned as witches There were also people who claimed to be able to exorcise evil demons from people who were ‘possessed’. Catholic Christianity leaves much room for the supernatural to exist This suggests that Shakespeare’s contemporary audience might, more readily than a modern one, have believed that witches were a real phenomenon and did exist.

My final sentence (highlighted in red) shows how the material discussed in the paragraph answers the question. Writing this out at the planning stage, in addition to clarifying your ideas, is a great test of whether a point is relevant: if you struggle to write the sentence, and make the connection to the question and larger argument, you might have gone off-topic.

Step Three: Paragraph beginnings and endings

The final step to making sure you pick up all the possible marks for ‘answering the question’ in an essay is ensuring that you make it explicit how your material does so. This bit relies upon getting the beginnings and endings of paragraphs just right. To reiterate what I said above, treat your reader like a child: tell them what you’re going to say; tell them how it answers the question; say it, and then tell them how you’ve answered the question. This need not feel clumsy, awkward or repetitive. The first sentence of each new paragraph or point should, without giving too much of your conclusion away, establish what you’re going to discuss, and how it answers the question. The opening sentence from the paragraph I planned above might go something like this:

Early modern political and religious contexts suggest that Shakespeare’s contemporary audience might more readily have believed in witches than his modern readers.

The sentence establishes that I’m going to discuss Jacobean religion and witch-burnings, and also what I’m going to use those contexts to show. I’d then slot in all my facts and examples in the middle of the paragraph. The final sentence (or few sentences) should be strong and decisive, making a clear connection to the question you’ve been asked:

  Contemporary suspicion that witches did exist, testified to by witch-hunts and exorcisms, is crucial to our understanding of the witches in Macbeth.  To the early modern consciousness, witches were a distinctly real and dangerous possibility – and the witches in the play would have seemed all-the-more potent and terrifying as a result.

Step Four: Practice makes perfect

The best way to get really good at making sure you always ‘answer the question’ is to write essay plans rather than whole pieces. Set aside a few hours, choose a couple of essay questions from past papers, and for each:

• Write a hypothesis
• Write a rough plan of what each paragraph will contain
• Write out the first and last sentence of each paragraph

You can get your teacher, or a friend, to look through your plans and give you feedback. If you follow this advice, fingers crossed, next time you hand in an essay, it’ll be free from red-inked comments about irrelevance, and instead showered with praise for the precision with which you handled the topic, and how intently you focused on answering the question. It can seem depressing when your perfect question is just a minor tangent from the question you were actually asked, but trust me – high praise and good marks are all found in answering the question in front of you, not the one you would have liked to see. Teachers do choose the questions they set you with some care, after all; chances are the question you were set is the more illuminating and rewarding one as well.

Image credits: banner ; Keats ; Macbeth ; James I ; witches .

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Efficient Ways to Improve Student Writing

Strategies, Ideas, and Recommendations from the faculty Development Literature

General Strategies

• View the improvement of students’ writing as your responsibility. Teaching writing is not only the job of the English department alone.  Writing is an essential tool for learning a discipline and helping students improve their writing skills is a responsibility for all faculty.
• Let students know that you value good writing. Stress the importance of clear, thoughtful writing. Faculty who tell students that good writing will be rewarded and poor writing will be penalized receive better essays than instructors who don't make such demands. In the syllabus, on the first day, and throughout the term, remind students that they must make their best effort in expressing themselves on paper. Back up your statements with comments on early assignments that show you really mean it, and your students will respond.
• Regularly assign brief writing exercises in your classes. To vary the pace of a lecture course, ask students to write a few minutes during class. Some mixture of in-class writing, outside writing assignments, and exams with open-ended questions will give students the practice they need to improve their skills.
• Provide guidance throughout the writing process. After you have made the assignment, discuss the value of outlines and notes, explain how to select and narrow a topic, and critique the first draft, define plagiarism as well.
• Don't feel as though you have to read and grade every piece of your students' writing. Ask students to analyze each other's work during class, or ask them to critique their work in small groups. Students will learn that they are writing in order to think more clearly, not obtain a grade. Keep in mind, you can collect students' papers and skim their work.
• Find other faculty members who are trying to use writing more effectively in their courses. Pool ideas about ways in which writing can help students learn more about the subject matter. See if there is sufficient interest in your discipline to warrant drawing up guidelines. Students welcome handouts that give them specific instructions on how to write papers for a particular course or in a particular subject area.

Teaching Writing When You Are Not an English Teacher

• Remind students that writing is a process that helps us clarify ideas. Tell students that writing is a way of learning, not an end in itself. Also let them know that writing is a complicated, messy, nonlinear process filled with false starts. Help them to identify the writer's key activities:
• Developing ideas
• Finding a focus and a thesis
• Composing a draft
• Getting feedback and comments from others
• Revising the draft by expanding ideas, clarifying meaning, reorganizing
• Presenting the finished work to readers
• Explain that writing is hard work. Share with your class your own struggles in grappling with difficult topics. If they know that writing takes effort, they won't be discouraged by their own pace or progress. One faculty member shared with students their notebook that contained the chronology of one of his published articles: first ideas, successive drafts, submitted manuscript, reviewers' suggested changes, revised version, galley proofs, and published article.
• Give students opportunities to talk about their writing. Students need to talk about papers in progress so that they can formulate their thoughts, generate ideas, and focus their topics. Take five or ten minutes of class time for students to read their writing to each other in small groups or pairs. It's important for students to hear what their peers have written.
• Encourage students to revise their work. Provide formal steps for revision by asking students to submit first drafts of papers for your review or for peer critique. You can also give your students the option of revising and rewriting one assignment during the semester for a higher grade. Faculty report that 10 to 40 percent of the students take advantage of this option.
• Explain thesis statements. A thesis statement makes an assertion about some issue. A common student problem is to write papers that present overviews of facts with no thesis statement or that have a diffuse thesis statement.
• Stress clarity and specificity. The more the abstract and difficult the topic, the more concrete the student's language should be. Inflated language and academic jargon camouflage rather than clarify their point.
• Explain the importance of grammar and sentence structure, as well as content. Students shouldn't think that English teachers are the only judges of grammar and style. Tell your students that you will be looking at both quality of their writing and the content.
• Distribute bibliographies and tip sheets on good writing practices. Check with your English department or writing center to identify materials that can be easily distributed to students. Consider giving your students a bibliography of writing guides, for example:

Crews, F.C. Random House Handbook. (6th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992.

A classic comprehensive textbook for college students. Well written and well worth reading.

Lanham, R.A. Revising Prose . (3rd ed.) New York: Scribner's, 1991. Techniques for eliminating

bureaucratese and restoring energy to tired prose.

Tollefson, S. K. Grammar Grams and Grammar Grams II . New York: HarperCollins, 1989,

1992. Two short, witty guides that answer common questions about grammar, style, and usage. Both are fun to read.

• Science and Engineering Barrass, R. Scientists Must Write. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1978. Biddle, A. W., and Bean, D. J. Writer's Guide: Life Sciences. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1987.
• Arts and Humanities Barnet, S. A Short Guide to Writing About Art . Boston: Little, Brown, 1989. Goldman, B. Reading and Writing in the Arts. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978.
• Social Sciences Biddle, A. W., Fulwiler, T., and Holland, K.M. Writer's Guide: Psychology . Lexington, Mass,:

Heath, 1987. McCloskey, D. N. The Writing of Economics . New York: Macmillan, 1987.

• Ask a composition instructor to give a presentation to your students. Invite a guest speaker from the composition department or student learning center to talk to your students about effective writing and common writing problems. Faculty who have invited these experts report that such presentations reinforce the values of the importance of writing.
• Let students know about available tutoring services. Individual or group tutoring in writing is available on most campuses. Ask someone from the tutoring center to give a demonstration in your class.
• Use computers to help students write better. Locally developed and commercially available software are now being used by faculty to help students plan, write, and revise their written work. Some software available allows instructors to monitor students' work in progress and lets students collaborate with their classmates.

Assigning In-Class Writing Activities

• Ask students to write what they know about a topic before you discuss it. Ask your students to write a brief summary of what they already know or what opinions they hold regarding the subject you are about to discuss. The purpose of this is to focus the students' attention, there is no need to collect the summaries.
• Ask students to respond in writing to questions you pose during class. Prior to class starting, list two or three short-answer questions on the board and ask your students to write down their responses. Your questions might call for a review of material you have already discussed or recalling information from assigned readings.
• Ask students to write from a pro or con position. When presenting an argument, stop and ask your students to write down all the reasons and evidence they can think of that supports one side or the other. These statements can be used as the basis for discussion.
• During class, pause for a three-minute write. Periodically ask students to write freely for three minutes on a specific question or topic. They should write whatever pops into their mind without worrying about grammar, spelling, phrasing, or organization. This kind of free writing, according to writing experts, helps students synthesize diverse ideas and identify points they may not understand. There is no need to collect these exercises.
• Have students write a brief summary at the end of class. At the end of the class period, give your students index cards to jot down the key themes, major points, or general principles of the day's discussion. You can easily collect the index cards and review them to see whether the class understood the discussion.
• Have one student keep minutes to be read at the next class meeting. By taking minutes, students get a chance to develop their listening, synthesizing, and writing skills. Boris (1983) suggests the following:
• Prepare your students by having everyone take careful notes for the class period, go home and rework them into minutes, and hand them in for comments. It can be the students' discretion whether the minutes are in outline or narrative form.
• Decide on one to two good models to read or distribute to the class.
• At the beginning of each of the following classes, assign one student to take minutes for the period.
• Give a piece of carbon paper to the student who is taking minutes so that you can have a rough copy. The student then takes the original home and revises it in time to read it aloud at the next class meeting.
• After the student has read their minutes, ask other students to comment on their accuracy and quality. If necessary, the student will revise the minutes and turn in two copies, one for grading and one for your files.
• Structure small group discussion around a writing task. For example, have your students pick three words that are of major importance to the day's session. Ask your class to write freely for two to three minutes on just one of the words. Next, give the students five to ten minutes to meet in groups to share what they have written and generate questions to ask in class.
• Use peer response groups. Divide your class into groups of three or four, no larger. Ask your students to bring to class enough copies of a rough draft of a paper for each person in their group. Give your students guidelines for critiquing the drafts. In any response task, the most important step is for the reader to note the part of the paper that is the strongest and describe to the writer why it worked so well. The following instructions can also be given to the reader:
• State the main point of the paper in a single sentence
• List the major subtopics
• Identify confusing sections of the paper
• Decide whether each section of the paper has enough detail, evidence, and information
• Indicate whether the paper's points follow one another in sequence
• Judge the appropriateness of the opening and concluding paragraphs
• Identify the strengths of the paper

Written critiques done as homework are likely to be more thoughtful, but critiques may also be done during the class period.

• Use read-around groups. Read-around groups are a technique used with short assignments (two to four pages) which allows everyone to read everyone else's paper. Divide the class into groups no larger than four students and divide the papers (coded for anonymity) into as many sets as there are groups. Give each group a set and ask the students to read each paper silently and decide on the best paper in the set. Each group should discuss their choices and come to a consensus on the best paper. The paper's code number is recorded by the group, and the same process is repeated with a new set of papers. After all the groups have read all the sets of papers, someone from each group writes on the board the code number from the best paper in each set. The recurring numbers are circled. Generally, one to three papers stand out.
• Ask students to identify the characteristics of effective writing. After completing the read-around activity, ask your students to reconsider those papers which were voted as excellent by the entire class and to write down features that made each paper outstanding. Write their comments on the board, asking for elaboration and probing vague generalities. In pairs, the students discuss the comments on the board and try to put them into categories such as organization, awareness of audience, thoroughness of detail, etc. You might need to help your students arrange the characteristics into meaningful categories.

The Strategies, Ideas and Recommendations Here Come Primarily From:

Gross Davis, B. Tools for Teaching . San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1993.

And These Additional Sources…

Boris, E. Z. "Classroom Minutes: A Valuable Teaching Device." Improving College and

University Teaching, 1983,31(2), 70-73.

Elbow, P. "Using Writing to Teach Something Else." Unpublished paper, 1987.

Hawisher, G. E., and Selfe, C. L. (eds.). Critical Perspectives on Computers and

Composition Instruction.  New York:  Teachers College Press, 1989.

Holdstein, D. H., and Selfe, C. L. (eds.). Computers and Writing: Theory, Research,

Practice. New York: Modern Language Association, 1990.

Lowman, J. Mastering the Techniques of Teaching . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984.

Petersen, B. T. "Additional Resources in the Practice of Writing Across the Disciplines."

In C. W. Griffin (ed.), Teaching Writing in All Disciplines . New Directions in Teaching and Learning, no. 12. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982.

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education.

Bright Idea Network , 1989. (For information contact David Graf, Iowa State University, Ames.)

Pytlik, B. P. "Teaching Teachers of Writing: Workshops on Writing as a Collaborative

Process." College Teaching , 1989, 37(1), 12-14.

Tollefson, S. K. Encouraging Student Writing . Berkeley: Office of Educational

Development, University of California, 1988.

Walvoord, B. F. Helping Students Write Well: A Guide for Teachers in All Disciplines.

(2nd ed.) New York: Modern Language Association, 1986.

Watkins, B. T. "More and More Professors in Many Academic Disciplines Routinely

Require Students to Do Extensive Writing." Chronicle of Higher Education, 1990, 36(44), pp. A13-14, A16.

We use cookies on this site. By continuing to browse without changing your browser settings to block or delete cookies you agree to the UW-Whitewater Privacy Notice .

•   [email protected]

Writing and Presenting Guide

Writing an essay, what is an essay.

An essay is a short-form piece of writing that addresses a unified goal or thesis. There are many types of essays and papers you can write as a student. The content and length of an essay vary depending on your level, subject of study, and specific course requirements. Essays have an introduction, body, and conclusion.

However, most academic essays share the same goal. They aim to persuade readers of a position or perspective through informed arguments, which are based on evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

Need help writing an essay?

Check out these resources:

Academic Support Video

Structuring your Essay

Helpful Books from the Library

Helpful Web Resources

• Essay Structure (Harvard College Writing Center) This link opens in a new window
• OWL at Purdue: Writing an Essay This link opens in a new window
• Writing a Five-Paragraph Essay (Capital Community College) This link opens in a new window
• Application Essays (UNC Writing Center) This link opens in a new window
• Guide to Different Kinds of Essays (Gallaudet Univ.) This link opens in a new window
• << Previous: Writing Paragraphs
• Next: Writing Papers >>

35 Effective Writing Strategies for College Level

Graduating from high school and entering college, you may feel intimidated by the upcoming courses. As you wait for the first essay or another writing task, you might feel completely overwhelmed. Fortunately, there are plenty of effective writing strategies to help you get through your homework in one piece. And no, walking around and asking your peers “Will you do an assignment for me ?” isn’t one of them.

What strategies are helpful for college-level writing assignments? The ones that explain you the following:

• how your brain works;
• how to minimize distractions;
• how to keep yourself motivated;

This article covers them and explores the essential elements of college essay writing, such as research, structuring, and revising.

Look through these writing strategies for college students from our custom writing service . Select the ones you feel will work the best for you and use them in your tasks.

🔎 Conducting Research

Every writing starts with prewriting. Whether you choose your topic or a topic is assigned, your first task is to know how to perform research properly. You have to gather relevant sources to craft a thorough and informative essay. The process might begin with you examining your assigned topic or selecting one.

Either way:

Your goal here is to collect as much appropriate information as possible. Here is a list of writing strategies to help you do that.

• Whenever possible, choose a topic of interest. In the case you are assigned a specific topic, you can still choose an interesting angle or an unusual perspective.
• Always feel free to ask for help. While this might not seem like one of the most obvious writing strategies, don’t be afraid of asking. If you don’t think you know how to follow the requirements, you should question your instructor.
• Make good use of the Internet. If your professor has provided any links as sources, then you should use them for sure and expand from there. Remember to use only credible sources. Not all guidelines, articles, and research on the Internet are provided by writing professionals or experts in your subject matter. And remember that the Internet can be an incredible source of inspiration. The Muse can jump out from where you least expect it. Sometimes the social media sites, such as Pinterest or Reddit, can be quite inspiring and useful.
• Visit a library . They are still very relevant when researching for an assignment. A library is an incredibly valuable place if you have to get a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Start in the reference section and make use of available resources. Search the library’s catalog. Finally, take a trip to “the stacks” and browse the shelves in your subject area to see what titles are available.

Owl Purdue also provides some great tips on how to conduct research. And now that you’ve got it, you have to move on to the next stage. Do something with all those sources and information you have uncovered.

🏁 Getting Started

Sometimes, getting started is the most challenging part of a writing assignment, especially when you have to pick your topic. Knowing what is expected of you and having a good idea of what interests you are crucial.

But that’s not all:

Effective writing strategies include learning brainstorming techniques that will help you narrow down your essay topic and sift through the information you found. Then, you should be able to identify only relevant and up to date information.

Check out the following writing strategies for college students that offer brainstorming techniques and teach you how to start organizing that information.

• Use the free-writing technique. It is the first of the helpful strategies to master your writing skills. Take a pen and a piece of paper, relax, and just write down your stream of consciousness for a selected topic. It can be clumsy or grammatically incorrect, but who cares if it works for you and helps you to focus. Try to generate as many ideas relevant to your topic as possible. Never mind how good they are. At this stage, the more concepts, the better. Write down even the silliest ideas coming to your head. Set a timer if you wish. When your time is over, carefully check what you have written and evaluate it. Choose only the best ideas to include in your homework.
• Try mind-mapping. In the middle of the paper sheet, draw your question and use lines to connect that question to relevant ideas, words, and images. These elements might branch out to other concepts. Write them all down and connect one to another. In such a way, you will find out the trend in the ideas that will help direct you in researching and writing your paper.
• Begin constructing paragraphs. Sometimes the most challenging part of writing is to start. Use the information and data from your research and brainstorming sessions. You can distribute the information you have chosen to use between paragraphs. Note how many parts you will need and which points you will use in each.
• Come up with a topic sentence . You need one for each paragraph. Topic sentences are handy when you want to save time because it provides you with a summary of what you wish to include in the section

What’s now?

Well, it is time for the main event. Stayed tuned for strategies that will help you better understand the act of writing.

✍️ The Writing

Yes, it is inevitable. You do have to begin writing now. As long as you have done the previous steps well, you will be well organized and prepared.

But here’s the thing:

Writing can still be a complicated process , even when you know the above techniques. For this reason, you need to have a good grasp of the following writing strategies to ensure you can compose something that is intelligent and expresses your views appropriately.

• Use an active voice whenever possible. Towson University gives an excellent description of active and passive voice in writing. Writing in the active voice demonstrates that there is a subject (someone or something) and that this subject is conduction the action expressed by the verb. The opposite is when the subject is being acted upon, which is the passive voice. Keep in mind that the active voice is much more potent and is the preferred option.
• Minimize the use of “there is/there are.” Do not hide the doer of the action using these phrases. (For example, you have to write “Three ways exist to tackle the problem” instead of writing “There are three ways to tackle the problem.”)
• Start quoting with the author’s name. Do not confuse your readers by starting sentences with phrases like “It has been…,” like “It has been hypothesized that…” A reader cannot understand who has done the hypothesizing. Since a hypothesis must have an author, start your sentence with the author’s name and give the proper reference at the end of the sentence: “John Doe hypothesized that…(Doe, 2005)”
• Avoid redundant words. You should delete any redundant words, such as “completely,” “extremely,” and “absolutely” in the majority of situations.
• Make sure your writing is clear. The reader needs to understand all the points you have made.
• Ensure your writing is concise. Avoid using general statements to make your readers think that there is more valuable information than there actually is; stick to the point.
• Make your writing precise. Your written work has to communicate the meaning you intend to get across to the reader.
• Remember that accuracy is vital. Be sure to double-check facts before using them.
• Approach your writing with honesty. Good writing has to be free of prejudice and has to reference all sources of information.
• Don’t edit while you are writing. Otherwise, you will interrupt the flow. You can save the editing until after you are finished writing your rough draft.
• Don’t be afraid to skip an introduction . If you have difficulty writing it, leave it for now. It is OK to start writing with the essay’s body and go back to the introduction when you are ready.
• Be sure to look up synonyms for words you find repetitive. The significant thing is the use of different vocabulary when writing. It’s amazing how effective and inspiring a synonyms search can be. Look for them in online dictionaries or choose the suggestion option in MS Word.

The writing will take care of itself, as long as you can focus.

🤔 Staying Focused

It is easy to lose focus when you are working. Either you are becoming tired and lacking concentration or procrastinating. Finding other things to do than settling down to write can seem desirable. You should focus and be highly productive during your work time.

How do you accomplish this?

These tips for struggling writers are some of the writing skills that are useful in college. They can help you stay focused:

• Work with the rhythms of your brain. The human brain goes through a process called the ultradian cycle. It takes you through periods of active concentration and focuses and then into periods during which it needs rest. Fast Company explains that the natural cycle is to work for 90 minutes and rest your mind for 20 minutes. You will then be energized enough to work for another 90 minutes. If you take advantage of this natural cycle, you will always be working at peak efficiency, and you won’t lose focus and waste your time.
• Incorporate physical activity into your breaks. When you do take some rest during your writing time, doing some form of exercise is essential. Stand up and do a couple of stretches or go for a walk. Sing, dance, wave your hands, or even scream. It will help you wake up and complete your essay as soon as possible.
• Try listening to music . If you are working in a place with various distractions, it is a good idea. Music can help you reduce tension and concentrate. Make sure you don’t start singing because it can be very distracting. Choose tracks without lyrics or songs in another language.
• Block out all potential distractions. If you don’t need to use the Internet, then work offline. If you need access to the Internet to do research, close any tabs related to your email and social media. Oh, and turn off your phone! All the Twitter updates and text messages can wait. Avoid drinking too much liquid because bathroom breaks can be very disruptive. Avoid anything that could distract you during a work session.
• Plan something fun to do for after you are done with your work. Sometimes, an immediate reward means a lot. Think of what you will do after you finish that essay because this will motivate you to write faster. Promise yourself that you will take a walk, eat a treat, or call a friend. Then your writing will move at lightning speed. Knowing that you have to complete your project by a particular time can be very motivating, but knowing you have something exciting to do when it’s done can be even more motivating. With this in mind, just get your work done and enjoy life!
• Use the carrot and stick method to keep yourself motivated. This approach is practical. Praise yourself if you start early and punish yourself if you fail to start on time. Be ruthless. Stick options include not using Facebook for a day or two or working out longer than one hour. Carrot options could be eating a nice treat or watching your favorite series or funny cat videos.
• Think of the worst consequences of failing that assignment. Let these motivate you. What might happen if things go wrong? Will you fail the entire course? Will you have to drop out of college?
• Compete with someone. Suggest to one or more classmates that you compete in writing your assignments to see who can get theirs done first. Of course, it’s not the most exciting game ever, but since you have to write the essay anyway, a little competitive spirit might just improve your time management.

Now you are done writing, but there is still more to do…

📑 After the Writing

You have finished writing, and it’s brilliant! Or is it? Just because you have finished writing doesn’t mean your essay is done. You still have work to do because strategies for good writing include the following tips.

• Proofread, proofread, proofread! Now is the best time to start re-reading the paper and editing it, making any necessary changes. When revising, the University of Pennsylvania recommends you begin with fixing the big things, like organization and content. Then adjust the details, such as spelling and grammar.
• Nail the format. Chances are one of the conditions for submitting your assignment includes a precise style of formatting. Make sure that font and margins are correct. For help with formatting, check out this guide to formatting .
• Check your reference list and quotes. These are the must-have for academic writing. Be sure you have inserted all the citations and references you have used while writing your paper. For help on including them in your work, check out these articles on APA style and MLA style .

📰 Practice Essays

If you are still unsure about the above writing strategies, you can always choose to write one or two practice essays. While this sounds like it’s a lot of extra work, doing so will help you sharpen your college-level writing skills so that when you write your assignment, you will do a better job. Here are some activities for struggling writers that will help you write a practice composition.

• Prepare several pieces of paper . Writing your practice essays may be more manageable on the sheets than in MS Word. Paper lacks distractions.
• Surf the web to find practice essay topics. You may use any search engine and type in something like “topics for essays.” Pick a subject according to your grade level.
• Use the five-paragraph essay structure. Even in your practice writing, you cannot escape the academic organization.
• Pay attention to details. Keep in mind other critical criteria of composition evaluation like content, grammar, and style. You have to show your literacy.

Writing assignments don’t have to be scary, but you have to grasp the right writing strategies. Just click on this video to see how stress-free it can be.

If you are still struggling with writing when assigned an essay or another type of paper, you can find more help with Harvard College . You can also hire a custom writing company that knows how to help struggling writers.

Regardless of how you produce your assignment, you will have a top-notch paper to hand in to your professor. And thanks for reading! Share our writing strategies with those who may need them.

Further reading:

• Useful Revising and Editing Checklists
• Essay Checklist: How to Write an A+ Essay
• Common Mistakes in Essay Writing
• How to Control Words per Page
• Basic Writing Rules – Common Mistakes & Fixes
• 200 Powerful Words to Use Instead of “Good”
• List of Credible Sources
• An Ultimate Punctuation Guide

🔗 References

• Writing Strategies: Ministry of Education (Ontario, Canada)
• The Basics of Essay Writing: UNSW
• The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay: Thought Co.
• Example Five-Paragraph Essay: UW Libraries
• 50 Conducting Research: WU Libraries
• Brainstorming: UNC Writing Center
• Academic Writing Style: USC Libraries
• Formatting a Research Paper: UMN Libraries
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The Importance of Writing Strategies for Effective Writing

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on November 6, 2023

Categories Writing

Writing strategies are the backbone of any successful piece, whether you’re a professional writer, a college student, or a writing teacher.

Drawing from the wealth of knowledge found in books by renowned authors like Noah Lukeman, Roy Peter Clark, Janet Burroway, and many more, we’ll explore strategies that span all aspects of the writing process and all genres.

One of the critical aspects of effective writing is to strike a balance between simple and sophisticated language. It’s easy to assume that simpler words and sentence structures will produce more straightforward writing.

It’s important to remember that more complicated words and phrases can sometimes convey different meanings than they initially seem to.

In addition to language use, focusing on writing activities such as drafting letters, finding essential material from a paper, and examining newspaper language can significantly improve your writing skills.

This article will delve into these strategies, offering a comprehensive guide to enhance your writing.

Understanding Writing Strategies

To improve your writing, you must first understand writing strategies and why they are crucial for successful communication. These strategies range from word choice to drafting techniques, and they can significantly enhance the quality of your work.

The Writing Process

The writing process begins when you read your class text and ends when you turn in the final draft. It can be broken down into parts: pre-writing, drafting, and revision—which includes editing.

Now, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Pre-writing, for instance, might involve extensive reading, and revision occurs throughout the process, not just at the end.

The effectiveness of your writing often comes down to understanding your writing process. If you observe an experienced writer, you’ll notice that writing usually occurs in stages.

Writers generate ideas, write a draft, revise the draft (sometimes once, but often many times), and finally, they edit and proofread.

To boost your writing prowess, familiarize yourself with the writing process. Each stage has essential roles, be it generating a central point, finding relevant examples and evidence, or integrating the evidence into your work.

Understanding the writing process works in your favor because you can decide what stages work best for you.

Defining Clear Writing Goals

Another critical aspect is defining clear writing goals.

Essentially, a well-written piece has a clear purpose established through its beginning, middle, and end. Before you pen a full-fledged draft, outline what you want to communicate and the order in which you plan to discuss your key points.

Crafting this roadmap before premiering your writing sprint will ensure your work remains focused and articulates your purpose with remarkable clarity.

Imagine each chapter of your work as a different goal. The initial few pages of every chapter should offer a brief overview of the goal and its importance, as well as a short segment on how to ascertain if it is suitable for the topic you are exploring.

Compartmentalize your time to hone the goals of every part of your work. Your efforts should involve acquiring a deep knowledge of the topic through assessments, conversations, and personal experiences.

Remember, simple writing doesn’t mean sacrificing your ideas. Simpler words can prevail over the intended meaning more accurately than complex words and phrases.

Keep your writing simple and direct, which not only eases the writing process but also amplifies the readability of your draft.

Structuring Your Writing

When it comes to writing, structure is vital. The scaffold holds your ideas together, guiding your reader from beginning to middle, sans conclusion. Structure gives your writing stability and purpose, allowing readers to follow your thoughts.

How to Use Lists

Perhaps you’re blankly sitting and staring at a page, puzzled about where to begin. When this happens, try using a prompt .

Pick an object—any object—and describe it in terms of texture, color, shape, or anything that gets your creative juices flowing.

Another potent tool in your writing arsenal is the list . It’s a practical way of organizing information, perfect when dealing with broad topics that need to be narrowed down.

Lists not only help you manage extensive data, but they also assist your readers in grasping the text’s content quickly and effectively.

Consider the two basic list types:

• Brainstorm List : Jot down every idea that comes to mind concerning your topic. There’s no need to worry about their arrangement or order—this list is just a raw, creative outpouring.
• Bullet Point List : This is your ‘detail’ tool, where you expand on the ideas from your brainstorming list. It promotes clarity and precision in your writing.

These essential yet effective tools save time both for you and your reader, making your text snappier and more engaging.

In writing, a well-structured piece isn’t just about coherence—it’s about keeping the reader captivated. How, you wonder?

It’s simple: vary your sentence structure . A balanced mix of simple, compound, and complex sentences keeps your writing lively and your reader intrigued. Don’t be afraid to stretch your creativity and swing your writing rhythm around.

Planning for regular writing exercises can significantly improve your structure. Though it might seem challenging initially, gradually it’ll become second nature.

Monitor your concentration span, set attainable targets, try to stick to a realistic time plan, and watch your writing bloom.

Lastly, remember that secret weapon; every writer needs to proofread . It’s the final step that ensures your writing is print-ready.

Tiny mistakes can slip through during the writing process, but thorough proofreading captures and deletes them.

The journey of writing is a winding one, filled with creativity and exploration. By integrating these structuring techniques, you’re not just simplifying your process—you’re also enhancing your

Establishing a Clear Purpose

Good writing has a clear purpose , marking its beginning, middle, and end. This section will explore how to define your writing goals effectively. Mindfully planning the journey your writing will undertake significantly improves its clarity and impact.

Utilizing Subheadings

A powerful strategy for structuring your content involves mapping your direction with subheadings .

Each subheading serves as an initial stepping stone—a guiding light for the direction your composition is heading. Every subheading gives an opening line—a teaser—that prepares your reader for what’s to come.

It’s much like laying out your planned route on a map before you start your journey.

The process starts with jotting down your ideas and streamlining them. It’s a good idea to scratch off anything irrelevant. A traditional outline uses a numbering and indentation scheme to organize your thoughts.

Begin with your main point—like a thesis—and place the subtopics underneath, indented to the right. Each subtopic should have at least two details.

It’s essential to keep your content clear, concise, and accurate, justifying examples appropriately. Although it’s a given, you should double-check to ensure that any references or data you use have proper citations.

Choosing the Right Goal

Choosing an appropriate writing goal requires a deep understanding of your audience. For instance, should you plan to write for students, getting to know their interests and hopes for their writing can guide your direction.

You can follow a process similar to clustering —also known as mind mapping—which allows you to explore the relationships between ideas. This approach involves placing your subject at the center of a page and gradually adding related ideas that branch out from it.

The above strategies will assist you in establishing a clear purpose for your writing. Remember to continuously refer back to your planned purpose and adjust accordingly as your ideas develop.

Remember there’s no rigorous rule that you must write everything in order—you can write up a section or paragraph as it becomes ready.

Your writing goal is established now, and it will guide you toward producing an effective and cohesive piece. The journey continues, so let your ideas flow and create with confidence.

Language and Writing Tools

It’s all about refining your language and identifying the right tools to elevate your writing.

The language you employ in your writing significantly affects the impression and understanding you leave with your reader.

Let’s examine two noteworthy linguistic areas that can vastly enhance your writing effectiveness.

Understanding Active and Passive Voice

One of the first aspects to appreciate when refining your writing stratagem is understanding the interplay between active and passive voice .

Predominantly, you should aim for an active voice. Why so? Simple. It’s more direct, providing immediate clarity for your readers.

Let’s decipher this with an example. Consider the passive voice, “The ball was thrown by Jake.” Now, convert it into an active voice, “Jake threw the ball.” The latter, without a doubt, appears more lively and crisp.

Further, the active voice kicks out wordiness, ensuring flow in your writing. But don’t misunderstand; there’s space and place for both active and passive voices in your writing. The trick lies in knowing where and when to use each.

Choosing Word Choice Wisely

Let’s delve into word choice . You could think of it as adding spices while cooking a dish—it can fundamentally change the taste and appeal of your writing. Aim for precision and clarity in your choice of words.

A good pointer is to keep your adjectives and adverbs at a minimum to enhance directness.

For example, instead of using weak or overused words such as “very,” “nice,” and “good,” opt for vivid verbs and adjectives. This enlivens your writing, making it more engaging and memorable.

Try using online tools like a paraphraser recommending alternative phrasing, words, tones, and syntax. This way, you can keep your writing fresh and dynamic.

Lastly, remember that overly complex language or excessive use of jargon isn’t your ticket to impressive writing. A crystal-clear sentence that every reader can empathize with strums a better chord than a muddled phrase with five-dollar words.

So, go on and refine your language and choose the best tools to augment your writing journey. Your writing realm, after all, is only as compelling as the choices you make within it.

Enhancing Writing Quality

The value of reading.

Reading extensively informs your writing . Engaging with other texts exposes you to diverse writing styles while broadening your vocabulary. Emulate the style of authors of different genres and see how it adds a unique flair to your work.

But you don’t need to read only top-quality literary pieces.

Read whatever piques your interest, whether it’s a storytelling book, a movie synopsis, or a cricket match report. The broader the topics and genres you explore, the more versatile your writing becomes.

Immerse in a world of words. Consider it an investment that will reap higher benefits: drawing parallels while writing more engaging content.

Avoiding Cliches and Filler Words

Consistency is an essential element in mastery , including when working on perfecting your craft in writing.

Strive for clear, concise, and unique writing to add value to your piece.

Cut out any filler words and jargon. It’s time for a purge! Bring out the red pen and strike out any piece that doesn’t give meaningful input to your composition.

Replace overused words with powerful alternatives. Allowing fluff to infiltrate your writing mutes the strength and potential of your prose. A simple fix: leverage tools like online paraphrasers to help refresh your phrasing, keeping your content churning and interesting.

Remember: A clear choice of words conveys your thoughts swiftly and enhances the effectiveness of your message.

Controlling Sentence Length

Getting your sentence length just right brings a rhythm to your piece. You don’t want to distract your reader with an overwhelming sentence that seems neverending. Nor do you want to throw them off with abrupt, staccato-like sentences.

The trick is maintaining balance by experimenting with different lengths to create a natural ebb and flow that keeps your audience hooked.

Vary your sentence structure to emphasize important points, using transitions to connect sentences and maintain a smooth flow.

A golden piece of advice? Less is more . Keep it simple; keep it short. Scrutinize each word–does it add value to your sentence? If not, it’s time to cut it out. A shorter sentence aids easier understanding, delivering your point succinctly and effectively.

Remember, your reader’s time is valuable. Respect it. Make every word count.

Good writing involves ongoing learning and improvement. Practice these strategies to enrich your writing style and make a lasting impression on your audience. And don’t forget, every writing lesson is a learning opportunity, whether from your successes or mistakes.

Effective Communication through Writing

Clear communication forms the backbone of any written content. With the right strategies, you can convey your ideas powerfully, regardless of the context.

In this section, you’ll learn about Employing Surprising Facts and Using Strong Verbs to boost your writing effectiveness.

Employing Surprising Facts

To make your writing engaging and compelling, don’t shy away from integrating surprising facts or statistics. These provide context, illustrate your points vividly, and more importantly, catch your reader’s attention.

Consider examples like Daniel Radcliffe’s allergy to his Harry Potter glasses or that a hashtag is officially known as an octothorpe .

Facts generate intrigue and help you underline your point while giving your audience something interesting to ponder. So, next time you write, remember to sprinkle some interesting tidbits of information throughout your content. Your readers will thank you for it.

Using Strong Verbs

The most potent tools in your writing arsenal are verbs. They’re the action heroes of your content.

Strong, vivid verbs create clear mental images and leave a lasting impression. Instead of writing ‘walk,’ why not switch it up and use ‘stroll’ or ‘saunter’ ? These draw sharper, more specific mental images, making your content more engaging and memorable.

But choosing powerful verbs isn’t enough. You should also focus on using the active voice over the passive voice. Ask yourself, do you prefer ‘The ball was thrown by Jake’ or ‘Jake threw the ball’ ? That’s right – the latter sentence is more direct and precise.

Opt for an active voice to ensure clarity and maintain brevity. It helps propel your narrative forward more effectively.

Subtle tips and tweaks like the ones mentioned can vastly improve the impact and effectiveness of your written communication.

Strategies for Different Writing Styles

As the writing process evolves, it’s crucial to adapt your approach. What works for one style may not necessarily work for another. Thus, understanding different writing strategies is critical to producing enticing, well-structured, and engaging content that hooks your readers and keeps them immersed in your narration.

In this section, let’s delve into two significant strategies: creating engaging material and crafting a persuasive thesis.

Creating Engaging Material

Variation is a secret ingredient in creating captivating content.

Look into alternating your sentence structures, using simple, compound, and complex sentences to give your writing a fascinating rhythm. It’s a strategic tool for piquing your readers’ interest and curiosity.

Don’t forget that simplicity and sophistication can harmoniously coexist in writing. It’s not about choosing one over the other. Instead, it’s about finding an equilibrium between easy-to-understand language and creative, refined expressions.

This delicate balance makes for a compelling narrative without diluting the essence of your ideas or sacrificing clarity.

Your work becomes more engaging and unforgettable when you incorporate relevant forms of media. Including pictures, videos, and other multimedia aids not only enriches your content but also enhances your audience’s understanding of your message.

Lastly, let your passion and interest seep into your writing. Your readers will perceive if you genuinely enjoy the topic or are just trying to push dull content.

Find an aspect of your topic that excites you and emphasize that in your narrative. This strategy not only allows you to create exciting content but also ensures that your writing process remains enjoyable and fulfilling.

Crafting a Persuasive Thesis

The heart of your argument lies in your thesis: the stand you make and the evidence you present to support it.

Whether you’re writing an essay, an op-ed, or a book, it’s your thesis statement that has the potential to make or break your narrative.

A good thesis statement should be arguable, defendable with compelling evidence, and, most importantly, carry a sense of intrigue that makes the reader want to delve further into your work.

Each piece of evidence backing up your thesis deserves its spotlight. Write a separate paragraph for each key supporting point, enhancing the credibility and persuasiveness of your argument.

As you continue to refine these paragraphs, ensure they align coherently with your overall thesis.

Your thesis is not set in stone; it can evolve as your ideas develop. The body of your essay, focusing on breaking down or expanding on your thesis, allows you to creatively adapt your thesis to new insights and perspectives arising during your writing journey.

But remember, keep it simple and direct. Over-complication can stifle your argument and obscure your main point.

Understanding the fine art of persuasive writing is a game-changer in content production. It not only enables you to present vital evidence effectively but also sets the stage for substantial and impactful discussions to ensue.

Improving Writing with Practice and Feedback

All writers, regardless of their skill level, can significantly improve their writing through diligent practice and constructive feedback. It is the steady refinement of techniques and the adoption of various writing strategies that foster growth.

Benefits of Brainstorming

One key strategy in the development phase of writing is brainstorming. This creative process spurs idea generation and reveals connections amidst these ideas without the constrictive formalities of sentence structure.

Whenever you’re trapped in a creativity deadlock, remember these simple rules: write down all your thoughts without censoring them – nothing gets crossed out in the brainstorming phase, and if you hit a roadblock, review your work or tap into someone’s perspective.

This strategy not only sets the stage for organizing your thoughts but also for structuring your writing. Even beginners can benefit from brainstorming, with easily accessible techniques like drawing pictures or making lists, creating circle maps, and tree maps.

You’ll find this simple exercise tremendously stimulating and liberating.

The Impact of Revision and Editing

Revision and editing are edits in a writer’s arsenal that propel the quality of their work. Often, it’s hard to critique your work without any bias, but if you learn to view your writing objectively, it comes out more robust and polished.

Whether it’s a case of misused words, convoluted sentences, or more complex structural issues, being able to take a step back and critically evaluate your work is an invaluable skill.

The Power of Collaboration

Don’t hesitate to leverage the strength of collaboration, either. Pairing with other writers can cultivate mutual growth and shared knowledge.

Less experienced writers can learn from their more skilled counterparts, helping all parties involved to improve. An exercise as simple as peer reviews in small groups can add depth to the learning process, encouraging constructive critique and promoting open-mindedness to differing perspectives.

Practice Makes Proficient

Ultimately, consistency becomes your strongest asset. Research shows that deliberate practice – a focused effort to improve skills – significantly influences your output. Thus, the more you write, the more natural it becomes.

Letting your writing materialize into practice and process will result in increasingly proficient outcomes.

Developing an Effective Writing Routine

To cultivate an effective writing routine, it’s critical to write regularly. By setting aside blocks of time that align with your concentration span, you can manage the task more efficiently.

Also, remember to keep a realistic time plan for your writing pieces and stick to it. Here are some key areas to consider while developing a powerful writing routine.

Moving First Drafts to Second Drafts

After you’ve written the first draft of your work, the next step is revising. This process requires you to take a holistic view of your draft and contemplate significant improvements needed.

Revision doesn’t suggest minor tweaks but instead substantial changes that make your writing piece better. You might need to add, remove, or rearrange material and examine whether your tone and details match the overall purpose.

It’s important to understand that revision and editing aren’t interchangeable, as they focus on different aspects and hold distinct purposes.

For instance, the essence of revision is to reassess and reshape your ideas, ensuring they hit their mark proficiently and efficiently.

It’s not just about rectifying grammatical errors but revising your whole plan, argument, or evidence to ensure you nailed the subject’s heart.

Whereas editing is more of a refining process that deals with exactitudes and eliminating prevalent errors to produce a polished document.

Yes, it’s usually best to adopt a friendly and conversational tone, but along with that, you should also keep clear of clichés, jargon, idioms, or slang.

Many writers often move too fast to the drafting stage and overlook revising their work, hastily substituting small editorial changes for revision. This results in a weak structure and unfulfilling content.

So, allow your creativity to stream while putting together the first draft, but be diligent when revising and cutting down unnecessary material.

Always Keep the Audience in Mind

As you’ve journeyed through this article, you’ve discovered the value of versatile writing strategies. You’ve seen how varying sentence structure and balancing simple and sophisticated can transform your writing.

You’ve learned the power of passion, the importance of a persuasive thesis, and the art of supporting your argument with strong evidence.

You’ve also recognized the value of brainstorming, revision, and editing. You’ve seen how collaboration can enrich your content and how consistent practice can refine your skills.

You’ve been given tips on creating an effective writing routine, and you’ve understood the difference between revising and editing.

Remember, your writing can constantly evolve. Don’t be afraid to let your thesis change as your ideas grow. Keep it simple, direct, and most importantly, keep your audience in mind. Because at the end of the day, it’s them you’re writing for.

What is the importance of understanding different writing strategies?

Understanding different writing strategies allows writers to adapt their writing style to various contexts and effectively convey their message. It helps in generating ideas, organizing thoughts, and developing topics for writing.

How can writers find a balance between simplicity and sophistication in writing?

Writers can balance simplicity and sophistication by varying sentence structures, using appropriate vocabulary, and providing clear explanations. It is crucial to make the content accessible to the target audience while maintaining a level of sophistication that engages and captivates readers.

How can relevant forms of media be incorporated into writing?

Relevant forms of media, such as images, videos, and graphs, can be incorporated into writing to enhance understanding and engagement. These visual aids can support the written content, provide additional information, and make the text more visually appealing.

What is the significance of a persuasive thesis statement?

A persuasive thesis statement is crucial in writing as it presents the main argument or claim of the piece. It helps guide the content and provides a clear focus. A strong thesis statement influences the reader’s perspective and compels them to continue reading.

How can writers improve their writing skills?

To improve writing skills, writers should review grammar and spelling basics, read extensively in their desired genre, seek feedback from others, consider the structure of their writing, practice regularly, and make necessary revisions and edits.

How can writers develop an effective writing routine?

Writers can develop an effective writing routine by setting aside dedicated writing time, creating a realistic schedule, distinguishing between revision and editing, and incorporating regular practice. Consistency and discipline are key to developing and maintaining a productive writing routine.

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A well-structured essay is important as it enhances readability, ensures logical flow, and effectively communicates the main ideas. When your essay is clearly organised it helps the reader understand and retain the essay's key points.

A typical assignment has an introduction, a main body and a conclusion. The purpose of the introduction is to signpost everything that a reader can expect from the assignment. The main body is where this will be delivered, and the conclusion provides a summary of the main points, perhaps guiding us to further reading or investigation.

A high-quality essay is composed of high-quality sentences. This page focuses on rules for writing complete sentences that flow together to create a well written academic piece.

Common errors in structure

This guide highlights common errors in structure and argument, and gives you a short explanation of what you can do to avoid them.