How to write better and more effective essays in college?

Writing essays is something all students have to do in some capacity or the other. In middle school and high school, essays are something of a daily grind. And the same thing carries on in college. You may have to write them every week, or you may have to write them a certain amount of time each term or semester.

The more awesome your essays are in quality, the better of an impression you will make on your teacher. If you are looking to do that, keep on reading this post. We are going to be looking at some tips and techniques that you can follow to write high-quality essays.

1. Table of Contents

   • 1 Always plan ahead
   • 2 Be careful about how you do your research and where you do it from
   • 3 Write with Clarity and Readability in Mind
   • 4 Look for errors and imperfections once you are done
   • 5 Wrapping up

   Always plan ahead

Writing essays at the eleventh hour (like starting on it the night before the submission date) is never a good idea. You can never have a good essay if you take a careless and impromptu approach to writing them.

You have to plan ahead and work out everything well before time. Here are some tips that you can work on in this regard.

• When the topic for the essay is provided to you, carefully read and understand it.
• Then, create a plan for the whole essay writing process by spreading it over a few days, i.e., one day for research, the other for planning, the next for writing, and the final day for checking.
• When doing your research, compile the material along with all the different points and arguments that you plan on writing on. (This helps you in keeping the essay original. If you compile points and information from your research and then give it a day before writing on them, you are not as likely to commit accidental plagiarism.)

1. Be careful about how you do your research and where you do it from

Good research is the cornerstone of a good essay.

If you base all the information and content in your essay on solid research, it can come out helpful and authoritative. Good research is characterized by two main elements:

1. 1. The way it is done. You should focus on taking concepts and information from your research material rather than exact content. Taking exact content means committing plagiarism. Similarly, apart from the method of information garnering, you also have to be careful about the number of sources you use. Using one or two sources is never a good idea since that can lead to your essay information being biased and unoriginal.

• Where you do it from: You have to be careful about choosing reliable and authoritative websites. The reliability of your paper is dependent on the reliability of your research sources. You should pick well-known resources like online academic sites such as JSTOR and ResearchGate to get your information.

1. Write with Clarity and Readability in Mind

Fancy and elaborate language is impressive, no doubt. Especially in an academic setting, well-articulated content can go a long way to leave a good impression on the reader.

However, more important for your content to sound fancy is for it to be clear and readable. If you are able to make valid and viable points and arguments in a clear way, it can make your essay look credible and authoritative.

Clear and readable language in an essay shows the confidence of the writer. It also helps in making the whole crux and material of the essay easier to understand. To capture this quality in your essay, here are some tips that you can follow:

• Don’t use overly fancy words and terms in your essay. If you want to use one to be descriptive, go right ahead, but don’t overdo it.
• Make your sentences short and brief. Don’t make them longer than 20 words. This is the standard for readable sentences.
• Organize your points and arguments. If you want to make your essay readable, you should segmentize all the different arguments into separate paragraphs and headings.

The words you use and the structure you follow for the sentences play a big role in how readable your essay is. And these things are the toughest to get right.

If you feel as if you can’t get the flow and structure of your sentences just right, even by putting an effort into it, there is nothing to worry about. You can use an online tool to get some help.

When we say “online tool” here, we specifically refer to an online word changer. Word changers are also called paraphrasers, and they simply reword the text that you provide them with. If you pick a smart tool for the job, the rephrased version of your text will be better in terms of flow and structuring.

1. Look for errors and imperfections once you are done

After you are done writing your essay, you should check it for errors, mistakes, and imperfections. Removing this stuff – like grammar errors and spelling mistakes – helps in polishing your essay and giving it an immaculate look.

Here are some of the main imperfections that you should look for when proofreading your essay:

• Grammar mistakes (such as incorrect sentence fragmentation, use of tense, etc.)
• Spelling mistakes
• Punctuation errors (such as the incorrect use of the comma, semi-colon, and the like)
• Missing or incorrect citations and references
• Factual inaccuracy
• Incorrect formatting and content organization

To find these types of errors and mistakes, all you have to do is give the essay a couple of reads.

Wrapping up

As a college student, writing good essays can help you out a lot. They can improve your grades and get you in the good books of your teachers.

We have talked about some tips and steps that you can follow to write awesome essays. To put them all in one place, you just have to make sure that you plan ahead, be careful about your research, write with clarity, and look for errors once you’re done.