Regardless of if you are a freshman or if you are just about to graduate, you’ll always be neck-deep in assignments while at college. Even the most productive and disciplined students can’t always keep up with the workload they face. And essay writing tends to make up a pretty decent chunk of the usual assignments.
If you can’t get comfortable with it, you are in for a rough time. The earlier you’ll start mastering writing skills, the easier it will be for you to keep up with the insane college pace. It’s hard to beat the benefits of good old practice in that regard.
Still, even in such a straightforward process, there are shortcuts you could take advantage of. So here are a few tricks you can use to improve your essay writing skills in the shortest amount of time possible.
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Miracles of Technology
You might think that essay writing is mostly a creative process. But in actuality, most of it has to do with routine tasks like doing research, checking grammar, fixing sentence structure, and hitting the assignment specifications. It used to be a long and tiring process getting all the details right. Thankfully, technological progress offers a lot of help when it comes to mechanical tasks.
There are plenty of tools you can use to speed up your writing process. Using the right setup can automate a lot of the work cut out for you:
- Grammar check;
- Spelling check;
- Structure check;
- Plagiarism checker;
- Formatting assistance;
- Wordcount check.
Or you can opt for one tool that covers it all like essaywritingservice.com online essay writing service. It may not get much love from professors but remains very popular among students.
The main advantage is the human factor. It definitely helps with abstract tasks that computer logic is simply incapable of solving. Remember to always double-check the essay you get, though. Better to be safe than sorry.
Writing services may raise some questions if you are caught using them. But other online tools at your disposal have long become a pretty common part of any student’s setup. You won’t get any flak for using a grammar checker, and running your essay through a plagiarism detector just in case is a must. It takes very little time and can help you weed out some of the mistakes you might have missed.
Get an Outside View
When you are working on a particular project for a long time, your perception can get dulled. You lose your focus, and it can become quite difficult to notice even the most obvious mistakes. In order to get out of your bubble and find some fresh and unbiased feedback, you should seek help from an independent party. Your family, friends, roommates, anyone willing to read through your work will do.
Ideally, your ‘test subject’ should be knowledgeable on the topic of your essay, at least to some degree. That way, they’ll be able to uncover more in-depth mistakes. But your main concern should be the surface imperfections. Don’t take the criticism too personally. They are giving it to help you improve. So take it and see if you can do anything to fix the flaws in your essay.
Time Brings Quality
It doesn’t really matter how good you are. If you don’t have enough time for your writing, your performance will plummet. Finishing your assignment at the last possible moment may seem tempting, but it won’t do you any favors in terms of grades.
Essay writing is a lengthy and layered process. Putting down the last full stop in the text rarely marks the end of your work.
So instead of delaying, start as early as possible. Leave at least a couple of days between your planned completion of the assignment and the day you are supposed to turn it in. Account for several iterations of proofreading, additional research, and possible unforeseen emergencies. This will allow you to work at your own pace instead of trying to get it right through the last night before the deadline.
Try separating your work into several different phases instead of looking at it like one big assignment. Start with research, allocate at least some time to it even if you are pretty familiar with the topic of your essay already.
Then get to creating a structural outline. Come up with some “names” for the paragraphs, think about what you should fill them with. Put these parts in the correct order, and figure out how you want to transition between them.
Actual writing down the first iteration of your essay may seem like the hardest part. But don’t stress out about it too much. It’s your first draft, not the final version. Don’t try to make it perfect. Just pull your thoughts on the skeleton of your outline, however raw it may seem. It’s totally okay to make mistakes at this stage.
The last stage is the most important one. You should allocate most of your time to it. Read your draft over and over again. Make notes, fix mistakes, polish your structure. Every iteration should be better than the previous one.
Don’t be afraid to rewrite or even outright delete paragraphs. It is an essential part of the editing process.
Final Words
Your initial skill level doesn’t really matter as much as your will to do better. You can consider yourself to be the worst writer in the world – still, with enough practice and the right tools, you will be able to gradually improve.
Failure should not dissuade you from trying again. Think of it as a learning opportunity. Take your time to analyze your mistakes and do better next time.
There is no such thing as perfection. Even if you’ve gotten pretty good at essay writing, you can always get better. Find a new approach to your creative process, seek new tools to help you polish your writing, improve your time management skills. It’s not easy to be the best, but it’s absolutely doable.