Monday 27 February 2012

Is an English Essay Really That Difficult? Some Tips That You Can Use

A good essayist has something of an idea to say which is not necessarily pompous or profound; he also has a good way or style of saying it. The things that come first are the ideas and the knowledge of the subject. Ideas must be clothed and crouched in good style in order to produce any effect. Quoting Hillarie Belloc, "What words, we use, and in what order we put them is the whole matter of style". However, writing an essay is completely dependent on the style of the individual. But since much depends on practice, a few English essay tips may be useful. First, one must write down the points that have occurred to one readily. Secondly, these points have to be arranged according to some systematic principle-chronological in narrative ones and logical in reflective essays. Having done this one should develop his thought of point by point. Each paragraph has to be confined to one point. Lastly, the draft has to be carefully revised. In doing this the objectivity is to remove repetitions of words, ideas and phrases to avoid ambiguities of style, and to eliminate verbosity and irrelevance. The aim must constantly be not to write more than necessary and this is the most important English essay tip. One should select a subject which is to one's taste. If one is an observant person, a descriptive subject will suit one best. If one is thoughtful and well read, a reflective subject could be chosen. In other words, one should choose a theme with which one is familiar. One should never select a subject about which one's knowledge is vague.
One should not try to use poetical and flowery language if one has no imagination and control or command over the language. In other words, one should be oneself, and not try to pretend to learning or fancying, if one does not possess the faculty, what one is actually not. This is to be considered as an important English essay tip. One must use first person only where one is describing one's personal experience subjectively. In these essays, one must try to be intimate and familiar. But one must not use colloquial phrases; it is not permitted. In all other essays one must be very careful to write in the third person. One must not introduce even one's own opinions in the first person. (For example, instead of writing, "I think" or "in my opinion" one should write "it is thought by some" or "in the opinion of many people"). This is yet another important English essay tip. The treatment has to be naturalistic and simplistic and words, phrases, quotations, illustrations should not be introduced only because seem good. The topics have to be sized up and one should frame an outline of the essay with the main ideas arranged in a proper order. Much importance is to be given to the conclusion of the essay which will satisfy the reader and will express the perspective of the essayist at the same time. These are the English essay tips that any essay writer will find useful.

Thursday 23 February 2012

College Application Essay Tips

Fitting your life story into a 500-word undergraduate college admissions essay is truly a daunting task. The only thing you can think about when writing your college essay is acceptance or rejection. Everyone tells you that you need to make it personal, but how personal can something be when it's in a stack with a thousand others? The key to becoming a great essay writer and impressing admissions officers with a strong personal statement is to break down your approach in strategic steps. Before you begin this arduous but rewarding process, take a look at these:
(1) Start Early: As soon as the school you are applying to releases a college essay topic, it is in your best interest to start thinking about what you would want to write. Most good writing requires an "ah ha!" moment and those come from devoting a good amount of time to contemplation. Many times there are multiple essay topics and you need to think about which one you would choose. It's more important to find one that fits your personality rather than one that sounds smart. Moreover, college admissions officers will tell you that the last admission essay that is reviewed has a much more difficult time being genuine and unique than the first one that is reviewed. The first essay is only compared to itself. The last essay submitted was compared to the 20,000 received before it.
(2) Brainstorm: Your personal statement does not need to fit your entire life story. Stick with one idea, event or aspect of your life and run with it. Brainstorm all the possible things that apply to that one idea for an application essay. Custom essay writing comes from looking at the different angles around that one particular subject. You want to appeal to all the different senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste) of the reader. The only way for them to imagine the scenario in your college entrance essay is if you can thoroughly explain it. This requires you to be thorough in your brainstorming process, too.
(3) Drafts: The more sample essays you write the better. You can only improve your writing by writing and re-writing the ideas you have on paper. A strong personal statement for college has a coherent direction. That direction can be determined by mapping it out on paper many times.

Thursday 16 February 2012

Tips on Writing an Essay

Then one should think about the topic and if it is one where one has to argue for or against the motion, then one should think about the topic before beginning to write the essay and figure out whether one agrees with the motion or disagrees with it. An essay should also have its arguments in a point wise format. This does not imply that the sentences should not be complete and should be bulleted but rather it implies that the essay should have certain well defined points. While thinking about what one is going to write, one may jot down in brief the points that come to one's mind and then use them as reference points while composing the essay.
Division of an essay into paragraphs helps to add a visual dimension of coherence and structure to the essay. If one has a few major points, then each point can be dealt with in separate paragraphs. An essay should also have an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction should clearly set out one's goal or argument, then one should make one's argument and finally, the conclusion should sum up the arguments that one has made.
Most essays have a word limit. Whether one is writing an academic essay or a college application essay or a scholarship essay, it is important to abide by this word limit as one must remember that the word limit is there for a purpose. If the essay is going to be published, the word limit serves to indicate the space limit. If the essay writer exceeds the word limit, then the editor has to go through the essay and delete words thereby making the essay different from what the original writer had intended. Similarly, if it is a scholarship essay or a college application essay, the word limit serves as an indicator of time. The readers have to go through several (in hundreds and thousands probably) essays of that kind and it is time consuming and also boring for them to go through a very long essay. They look for applicants who can make their arguments concisely yet persuasively and authentically.
An essay should also show a clear path of thought. Even essays written using the stream of consciousness technique have a certain goal at the end of the essay. One should not include material or pints in the essay which have little to do with the argument or with the topic. The argument should be structured in such a way (and the essay as well) that there should be a certain convergent tendency inherent within the points.
While writing an essay, one can go through previous exemplars dealing with similar topics. While composing an essay, however, one should take caution not to indulge too much in hackneyed ideas or clichés. These are some of the tips that one can keep in mind while writing an essay.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

How to Keep Your Essay Relevant to the Question

One of the most frequent mistakes in student essay writing and academic essay writing, whether you are tackling a weekly essay or an undergraduate dissertation, is a habit of drifting away from the question. You can write a brilliant, carefully argued essay and still get low marks if it is not altogether in every part relevant to the question.
Some assignment writers make a strong start when they essay write, but begin to wander away from the question, whilst others tend to allow their argument to veer off in completely the wrong direction altogether.
When looking at students' essay examples, you can see that most essay writers deserve much higher grades for their essay writing and undergraduate dissertations, but are simply being marked down for the failure to show strong connections between their essay and the original question, not because their essay writing is deserving of low grades at all.
Below you will find a comprehensive list of tricks to ensure that your academic writing is always on target, and avoid losing those crucial extra marks for good!
Essay writing: planning
One very successful method to make sure you will stick to the question throughout your task is to write a clear, comprehensive plan before you commence writing and then make sure you stick to it.
Map out your four or five central points and underneath each jot down the arguments you will use to convey them. Then read through each section and ask yourself whether it answers the question directly. Get rid of any points that aren't relevant, and make sure that you stick firmly to your plan when essay writing.

Thursday 9 February 2012

3 Tips For Writing a Great College Admissions Essay

With the extremely competitive nature of college admissions these days it is incumbent that the applicant seek to secure any advantage that will distinguish them from others who too are after the same prize - admission to a top flight undergraduate or graduate college or university. In his March 2011 Sun Sentinel article titled "B Students Face Tough Admissions at Florida Universities,"writer Scott Travis reinforces the difficulty of getting admitted into college in such a competitive environment.
He offers, "Suddenly, doing above average work in high school may not be enough to get you into Florida's public universities. Competition is fierce this year, as top students flood state universities with applications. The state's high school graduation rate has soared from 60 percent to 80 percent in the past decade, putting more students into the college admissions pool."
The aforementioned no doubt is an accurate reflection and quite the norm of the college admissions dilemma many high school and adult students face across the country. With this in mind, developing a stellar college essay, personal statement and even responding to a college or university's pre-established set of select questions could be the difference between your acceptance to or rejection by the undergraduate school of your choice.
Here are some tips for completing a great essay and/or personal statement:
  • Organize Your Every Thought
The arch enemy of admission essay development is unpreparedness. Take a day or two to process what is being requested of you by the university. Are you being asked to write about yourself? Were you instructed to discuss family influences, your upbringing or your home environment? What about your viewpoint on a particular subject matter or current event? Have you been asked to discuss both your strong points and shortcomings? Despite the type of information you are asked to provide first think about how to organize it into a short and compelling story. Admissions officials read through countless essays and personal statements some of which are quite boring and technical. They don't want to read what you think sounds dramatic and exciting...they merely want your authentic story and perspective and can spot a fake in a minute.
Don't be afraid to allow your humor (if that applies), unique hobbies and life experiences to come through in your essay. Additionally, remember that if it essay does not make sense as you think about and play it in your minds projector, it probably won't make a whole lot of sense or be convincing when you put it on paper.