Get Better at Writing Essays with These 10 Tips from Professors - Make a Stand

Does essay writing suck you all the time? Don’t worry; you’re not alone because we all once in a while skated between the words and probably end with an average write-up. After all, writing an engaging paper isn’t like reading, and you’re done with it.

You have to pass through the loop of research, brainstorm, outline, draft, and editing citations. It feels overwhelming, right!

Today, I am going to share the 10 most valuable tips from the professors that help you write an essay or paper more efficiently. Sounds cool, right! So, let’s read on and look at how these tips are going to work for you.

Why is Essay Writing So Challenging?

You must be thinking right now why essay writing or article writing is that much difficult. Here are few possible reasons:

Too many distractions and internet scrolling habit while writing;
You focus on a sample and start copying its structure or main idea too much;
You are only creating a copy of your previous write-up;
You’re doing the least amount of work and research;
You’re not so creative.

All these reasons may stop you from writing creatively. But don’t worry, because now, in this post, I’ve covered some handy tips that help you become a professional essay writer. I assure you that after reading these essential tips, you will be able to write engaging essays, and you will have fun while writing too.

So, let’s start together.

10 Tips from Professors for Writing Quality Essay

Ready to write the creative piece of the essay? Read on these ten tips from the professors and do unique writing.

1. Understand Your Writing Assignment

This could be the foremost mistake that we all make. Many people start writing without understanding the assignment question. If the assignment title is vague, then don’t be afraid to ask your professor or the person to explain the assignment topic, which is unclear to you.

Sometimes, it happens to me; I start writing without knowing the assignment given to me. Sadly, it only kills my time. Please ask your professor who gives you the assignment to have a complete idea about the work and then move to the second step.

2. Research Efficiently

Ok, so you now get some clear thoughts about the assignment. You need to move to the second step that is even more crucial than the first step. Researching!

Yes, researching is the best way to collect the best possible data for your essay. Collect as much quality material as you can, but if you see you have found the necessary number of quality sources, come down to the next step. Spending too much time on research, you might not give yourself even time for writing and revising your essay.

3. Create the Outline

Drafting an outline will help figure out every detail you need to sum up in your essay assignment. Take a look at the material that you have selected, and then move to the outline. Most people create the hierarchical outline; instead of this, try to figure out your key arguments and match them with supporting facts.

Once you are creating your essay’s outline, revisit the resources you have found and note what material supports your thesis statement. Here, it would help if you selected prominent passages to quote in your essay and ditched the irrelevant quotes you found that would only make your essay clumsy. Last, keep the outline at hand and refer to it when writing.

4. Follow the Standard Writing Structure

Every essay need not be rephrasing the old piece of content. Keep your aim straightforward and creative enough to write unique content. Make sure to follow some standard structure of an essay and redefine the pathway if need to cover the things.

Also, always ask yourself how you can write creatively by keeping all things in one line. A proven trick to get a nice structure is to align each part of an essay to the thesis statement. To make sure you are on the right track, ask yourself,

Does my introduction lead to the thesis statement?
Does this paragraph cover one idea that supports my thesis statement?
Does my conclusion restate the thesis statement referring back to my rguments that support it?

In this way, you will follow a standard writing structure and write a good essay.

5. Prefer Quality Over Quantity

This could be a common mistake that we all make sometimes. Some people think writing seven pages can give them better grades. But that’s not always true. On the contrary, professors often evaluate your ability to cover the topic concisely within the word count mentioned in the prompt.

It is not about how long the essay is, but about how relevant your arguments are and whether you achieve your goal in it or not (the latter depends on the type of your essay). If there is no word count stated, aim for a short five-paragraph essay that normally takes around 600 words. Writing too much often entails freewriting, which is nothing good in academic writing.

6. Draft the Essay Body First and Introduction Second

Here, I must sound silly to you; how can we start without an introduction first? But how can you suppose to give an introduction unless you don’t figure out what exactly is written inside? That’s being said, if you want to write a quality essay, finish the essay body first, then craft an introduction, and then write a conclusion. I have tried this method many times, and it does help to draft a better essay.

7. Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism in writing can ruin all your efforts. It not only shows that you’re not capable of writing a quality essay but also shows that you disrespect the academic community. Learn to avoid plagiarism by learning to paraphrase and summarize the sources and supporting the courses you cite with your original insights and interpretations.

8. Take Time and Move Around

Trust me; you don’t need to stick around your table and chair to write quality writing. It’s perfectly fine to take breaks when writing. You can move around and then sit back to work. Sometimes, writing continuously blocks the pathway of thinking, and you probably know a well-clogged mind can’t work impressively. So, always try to set aside enough time for writing your article or essay.

9. Avoid Drafting and Editing Simultaneously

It’s good to be a multitasker, but it doesn’t work seamlessly when writing an engaging essay. That’s being said, this is impossible to write and edit at the same time because some chaos is still left at the end. Therefore, make sure to finish your writing first and then move to the editing. Make sure you cut all the clutter even if this means doing additional research to write more relevant information to reach the word count.

10. Final Editing

Congratulations! You’ve finished your writing. But what now? Is this good to go? Not! While drafting and editing, some mistakes always remain buried in your essay, even after proofreading. So, it would help if you used editing software like Grammarly.

This can be the virtual proofreader that allows you to catch the errors you skipped. Moreover, it also helps you to catch and correct any unintentional plagiarism, improve your sentence structure, and correct grammar.

FAQs

Can I use Wikipedia as a source for the essay?

The general rule is – no, you can’t. However, some professions make exceptions and allow Wikipedia for some topics. Do not use it unless the professor explicitly authorized the use.

Can I get free online essay editing?

Thorough essay editing requires the analysis of your ideas, the strength of an argument, the fair use of sources, etc. Thus, despite some common promises, free online essay editing doesn’t exist. Of course, you can use online grammar checkers like Grammarly to correct grammar and punctuation errors and enhance your writing.

How can you create the most effective outline of the article?

You can create it by matching the facts and ideas you have found during research to the arguments you are going to make to support your thesis statement. This will help you outline and then draft an effective essay.

Writing an essay isn’t that easy at all. It may consume your time, but eventually, if you follow these tips, you will be able to write the most creative piece of writing!

About the Author: Nataly

Hi, I am Nataly and love engaging, fit for purpose, and edited to perfection writing. Feel free to reach out to work with me, suggest topic ideas, or give feedback on Make a Stand - the project I passionately grow for more than 3 years now.