If you are a student or someone who writes repeatedly and always apply the guideline of always writing about a topic or answering a question cohesively, you will greatly improve your writing skills. Anything you include in your writing should contribute towards answering the question. Anything you write in your essay must be part of the discussion. Otherwise, you should not include them. What you develop, explain, discuss, analyse, justify, agree or disagree with in your thesis or proposition should relate explicitly to the conclusion.

Now, here is the secret to making sure you have answered the question or discussed the given topic. Put your writing to the test. Have someone read your essay without the title. Then ask him what would be a good title or what he or she thinks is the title. You can also ask them what they think is the topic you are discussing. The sign of a well written work is that readers can deduce or recognise what it is about even without the title.

Further, knowing this test, you will need to know some “don’t” when writing your work. Because you already know about this test and that you will use it on your essay, you should avoid giving clues. Do not be tempted to repeat the topic or title just to emphasise that the essay is about it. Doing so will destroy your work. These are the do’s and don’ts of essay writing, especially when you know this secret test.

Planning cannot be done by just thinking. There is a need to take note of the ideas that might help during the essay writing process. Thus, it is recommended that when a student is planning out his essay, he should bring a pen and paper or a handheld computing device to jot down whatever ideas that pops out of his mind.

During the planning phase, it is essential to plan the essay in conformity to the assigning professor’s instructions. Instructions are very important when writing essays. They serve as guide and roadmap when writing an essay. Professors silently help with essay writing by providing limitations on what their students should do when undertaking the project.

Planning also involves getting the right information that could be used in writing an essay. If a student does not know how to write a certain essay type, he could conduct a background research on the Internet or ask his professor about it. The student could also grab free essays which he could use as examples.

The planning phase also includes selecting the right topic and searching for the information which would be used as content. The topic dictates the whole theme of the essay, thus the paper should be drafted and writing based on the selected subject. After selecting the topic, the student should then obtain information pertinent to the subject.

The most vital part is the planning phase is drafting the outline. The outline serves as the general plan that would guide the student when writing an essay. The outline provides great help with essay planning, as it allows the student to structure the content of the composition in a coherent manner.

To polish your essay writing skills, you must have a good command of the English language. Having a good command of the English language means you are knowledgeable and follow grammar rules and have an extensive vocabulary. You may review your grammar lessons and improve them by reading grammar books. You could widen your vocabulary by reading books, magazines, journals and sample essays. You could familiarize yourself with new terms by pondering on their meanings and usage. You may want to practice what you have learned by writing essays and other academic papers. Have them checked and proofread by a reliable person, and determine what ways you could further improve.

You may also polish your writing skills by dissecting and studying free essay writing examples. These examples could serve as a guide or a template when you draft and write your own essay. Studying free essay writing examples will allow you to ascertain how to write and what to include in your composition.

To improve your research ability, you may start by learning how to find the right sources of the right information. You may ask advices from professors, experts and other experienced researchers on methods of finding necessary information.

To increase your determination, you have to set achievable deadlines. Keeping in mind the deadlines will keep you on your toe, thus leaving almost no room for laxity. Choosing an interesting essay topic could also help you keep your determination. If you are interested in the topic, you could write about it at a faster pace.

A definition basically tells what something means or what it does. In writing definitions, however, you must remember that it has two parts or attributes: the genus and the differentia. The genus states what the idea generally is by discussing its common characteristics. The differentia, on the other hand, states what distinguishes the thing from another entity.

Provided is a sample paragraph that uses the definition format. Take note of the genus (set in bold) and differentia (underlined) used:

• The agenda-setting theory is a theory created by Rogers, Dearing and Bergman which states that the mass media has the ability to influence public opinion by choosing what agenda or issue the public should be talking about. To be able to do this, the mass media acts as gates by choosing what news or issue should be highlighted as important—giving the issue more airtime and more coverage—and what issue should be given less attention.

In writing an expository essay using the definition format, the main definition of the idea appears in the first sentence. The other sentences elaborate the main definition by providing additional details to make it more complete. After this is done, you can now incorporate your own ideas into your essay so your readers can smoothly follow through your train of thoughts.

If you master all these aspects, you will be able to avoid other difficulties that often give you trouble while you are developing good essay writing skills, such as the feeling of helplessness or mental frustration.

Of all types of writing, one of the most commonly used is expository writing. Whenever you read a book, magazine, or newspaper article, the author actually uses expository writing to inform you, the reader, about the topic. Similarly, at school, you are required to submit essays and dissertations as a means for your professors to grade your progress.

You use expository writing in your essays when you aim to deposit information to your readers by explaining an idea or a process. To make your readers understand a topic, it answers the questions who, what, where, why, or how.

To have a well-written essay that uses exposition, you must remain focused on the main topic while providing logical supporting facts, details, explanations and other examples into your work. The essay must be organised, clear and coherent, using smooth transitions to make it more understandable to your readers.

You must also remember that for your essay to be effective, you have to perceive your readers as having no prior knowledge of the topic that is being discussed so you can use words that clearly explain what you are writing about.

You are all set to write your essay and yet, you do not know where to start or how to start it. And since you want your essay to have a very high mark, you hesitate on writing anything for fear that what you have thought may not be enough to get you to pass.

The solution to scenarios like this is simple: you can choose any part of the essay where you feel confident to write well—may it be the introduction, the body or the conclusion—and write that paragraph you have in mind. Once you start with the parts that you feel more confident about, you will be able to develop a positive momentum and be encouraged enough to continue your essay on the more difficult parts as well.

The secret of an outstanding essay—or any written work—is not the writing but the rewriting process. Once you have written all your notes and ideas, you can now organise them into an order that will make your essay have more impact on your readers. Continue rewriting your draft until you feel satisfied that it is good enough to be handed in. You can also ask your colleagues for feedback – an extra pair of eyes might help track mistakes you have not seen yourself.

Yes, it is a feat to be able to apply the rules of grammar into your work if you already have enough difficulty trying to organise your muddled thoughts into your essay. You also have to face the fear of not being able to pass in case you botch up your essay writing assignment. If you, however, are able to practice tracking down grammar errors in your essay as early as now, your uncertainties can be easily withdrawn.

One of the most common grammar mistakes you have to avoid is the practice of faulty subject-verb agreement. You have to make sure that both your subject and verb agree in tense, form and number. You also have to make sure that your sentences have complete thoughts, and that can be done by avoiding sentence fragments or run-on sentences. Sentence fragments are sentences that do not have a complete thought. They are usually in the form of dependent phrases or clauses. Run-on sentences are sentences are two sentences that are not linked properly because of the use of improper conjunctions. Proper usage of punctuation marks is also advisable if you wish to complete a grammatically correct essay.

If you continue to practice writing with proper grammar usage in mind, your essay will have the appropriate tone and content that you need. You will also soon notice that the task of writing your essay is not as hard as it once was.

Plagiarism, as defined, is the imitation or use of ideas or works of an original author in verbatim and crediting them as your own. It is what most students practice that it has become a pressing concern amongst universities. Not only is the moral foundation of the students harmed from committing such act; the overall quality of submitted essays has also slowly deteriorated since students can easily copy passages and add them in their essays. This has defeated the purpose of the essay, which is to give venues to students to demonstrate their organisational, analytical and reasoning skills in writing.

Most of the students who commit the act of plagiarism intentionally copy ideas from books, articles and the Internet and submit them as their own. Most students, however, unintentionally plagiarise because they do not have prior knowledge on how to properly cite and reference the sources that they utilised.

As students, it will remain their responsibility to make sure that their essays, before submission, are plagiarism-free. They have to take note of facts that they have gathered in their research and reference them properly. They must remember that the amount of effort they have extended for their essays will remain unappreciated if the final output is still suspected to contain plagiarised content.

There are several ways on how students can avoid plagiarism on their own. They can start with writing down all the sources of the passages they have found throughout their research. This procedure will help the students cite and references sources of the content they have included in their essays. General citation rules must also be followed. When using direct quotes from the sources, the students can state the name of the author within a parenthesis and enclose the copied phrase with quotation marks. They can also make prior research to the rules of referencing depending on the system their professors require.

When students also take on an original angle or perspective regarding their essays, they are least expected to commit plagiarism. It is the most common and general topics that are predominantly found in the Internet and other sources so taking on a different approach reflects that the essay is not simply copied from somewhere. If the students make their own interpretation on the matter being discussed in the essay, the professor will know that the content is purely original and that the students have properly demonstrated their skill in analysing concepts.

The students can also make use of search engines and other plagiarism detectors online so they can further check their essay copies. If matches are found, the students can then rephrase their sentences to make sure that there will be no similarities found in the essays they wrote.

Your essay, however, must be able to express your thoughts succinctly. That would mean that you have to pay close attention to the words you used and the presentation of your content. To make your essay understandable, it has to use specific and simple words so your reader can go through your whole essay without being confused. Since you are not present to clear up any confusion that may arise, your essay must already be able to do all the explanation for you. This is where most of you might be struggling with, which is finding the balance between impressive quality and simplicity. How can you write an impressive essay if you have to be simple and specific?

Finding the balance is easy: your professors will find your work impressive if you have properly expressed your thoughts in your essay. You also must be able to demonstrate your skills in analysis and reasoning. To achieve this, you can start changing your perception that you should only start writing your essay once everything is already arranged properly in your head. The process of essay writing involves collecting data, taking down notes and writing and rewriting drafts and you cannot do these all in a cognitive level. Put whatever you have thought into writing or you might forget it along the way. You can think and take note of a few lines for your introduction—you can just select which one fit your essay and link them together.

Select facts that are timely and relevant. You must also be able to properly defend why you have included the data into your essay. You have to remain focused on the purpose of your essay so you can deliver what your professor exactly requires. Remember who you are writing for, what they expect you to tell them and what you want to tell them. Your essay must be able to answer questions your readers might want to ask.

Part of the reason students forgot to take note of their sources’ location is that they don’t know what information they should exactly take for referencing. There are others, however, who did not yet realise the importance of referencing for their essays.

So why is referencing important in essays?

• It prevents your essay from being suspected of plagiarism.
• It gives proof that you have widely read about the subject first before writing your essay.
• It is more foolproof for there are more evidences presented to support your position.
• It gives your readers information on where and how to access the data you have researched and included in your essay.

For proper referencing, you must be able to identify the rules of the different referencing formats. This will aid you in knowing what other information you should look for once you have found the data that you deem useful for your essay.

The Oxford referencing format include an in-text citation—with footnotes found at the bottom of every page—and an alphabetically organised bibliographic entry found at the end of the essay. The bibliography will provide additional details of each source you used when completing your essay writing assignment. Footnotes correspond to the superscript numbers written after every cited passage. In this manner, your readers will be able to immediately find the source of your data on the page itself since the footnotes already provide these pieces of information for them.

Basic information about the cited information should be included when using the Oxford referencing system. This includes the following:

• Author
• Title of the particular work cited (as well as the edition, if available)
• Name of book, Journal or Article
• Publishing company
• Location of publication
• Year of publication
• Specific page where the information is found

Commas and periods separate the given formation, while all footnotes and bibliographic entries end with a period. If you use online sources, you have to include the name of the Web site and its link, followed by the specific date you have accessed the data.