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2 Top tips for writing a great essay

It’s that time of the semester when we all have many essays and assignments to do and it can be very stressful. In this short article, I will tell you a few things that will hopefully help you in writing a good, strong essay.

Structure your essay

First of all, and most importantly, you need to have a well-structured essay in order to hit the top marks.

  • Firstly, you need a good introductory paragraph, briefly explaining what you are going to write about as well as a brief sentence or two about your argument.
  • Next, will be the body of your thesis. This part will consist of several arguments/ points for your essay (often around 4 for a 2000 word essay).
    • Firstly, explain your point, in a sentence, about what the paragraph will be about.
    • Then provide evidence! This is very important, without evidence your paper will not be strong enough. It needs to be relevant to your point and overall question. It needs to illustrate what you are trying to argue within that paragraph. This will help bring your grade up, as you are providing examples for your point and not just claiming things out of thin air without anything to back it up.
    • On a further note, other scholarly opinions do not count as evidence, however, you can use their opinions to ground your argument.
    • After your evidence, evaluate it. Show your marker that you understand the example and can analyse and critique it in a proficient way.
    • Finally, link your paragraph to the overall question. Why is what you’ve just argued relevant to the question and how does it answer it?
    • Another alternative is to provide a link between your current paragraph and the next one. Make sure your essay flows nicely so that they all connect to each other.
  • Lastly, after your main body, you will need an overall conclusion, to sum up all of your points that you have discussed and present an overall closing argument which gives a strong and defined answer your essays question.

Note: Ask your own lecturers about the specifics as this might vary per teacher/ subject.

Re-reading your work

This is one of the most important things that you can do and it is best if you do this a couple of days after you write your essay. The reason being is that, when you are in the flow of writing an essay you’re in the zone, therefore you know the argument that you are trying to make. However, if you step away from your work for a couple of days and come back to it, you might find a few silly mistakes that you had missed out before.

Tip: It is also recommended that you give your essay to someone else to read. So that they can highlight some of the mistakes made or points that might be a bit unclear.

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