Academic writing may not be an easy task for everyone. However, we are all able to practice and to improve our skills. There are some tips you can follow to strength your skills, just check our suggestions:
1. Read more! If you want to write an essay or thesis, first you need to read. You need to read about the topics you will write about; you need to research and study as much as you can about what has already been published. Knowing how the other authors have addressed the topic will help you find the persisting pitfalls and write a better piece of academic work.
2. Take notes of your readings! While you read you should take notes about the different papers, books and reports. These notes will be your annotated bibliography. It will help you to synthetize ideas from different authors, will allow you to find a specific argument later without the need to go through the whole paper again, and will help you to avoid plagiarism (and the dreaded Turnitin) since you will write from your own notes and not from the original sources.
3. Find a structure for your essay! If you will write a 5 pages essay, then delineate a structure for 5 pages: a ½ page introduction, ½ page with some important definitions, 1 page with the first argument, 1 page for the second argument, 1 page for the third argument, ½ page final notes and ½ conclusion. Another way to do this is by using word count. If you need a 2500 words essay, you can divide it into 300 words introduction, 300 words definitions, 550 words first argument, 550 words second argument, 550 words third argument and 250 words conclusion. These structure examples does not need to be rigid and unchanged, but it will help you to follow your teacher requirements.
4. Start writing! Words may not come easy at first, but when your ideas start to flow, you will start writing really fast. You need to be an optimist! In your first essays it will not be easy to start, but with time and practice you will improve. Your ideas and knowledge will materialize into valued words and paragraphs.
5. Structure your paragraphs! The ideal is a paragraph with no less than 5 lines and not more than 2/3 of a page. Your paragraphs should contain 5 to 10 sentences and be about one topic or subtopic only. Keep your sentences short and easy to read, with no more than 20 words. Longer sentences are boring and confusing for the reader.
6. Reference your work! Ideally, your essays should contain a reference for every 150 to 200 words, but can be even more. This is enough for a good evidence for your ideas. No ideas or concept can be presented as your if it is not yours. In fact, during argumentation, you must use ideas and concepts already established and present your conclusions only at the end of the essay, after you have exposed and analysed all arguments.
7. Improve your vocabulary! If you only use ordinary words in boring sentences, you will risk getting a B and not A! You will need to “seduce” your reader (or your teacher) with a good paragraph and sentence structure, but also with diversified vocabulary. A good help is Power Thesaurus, an amazing tool to find new words and synonymous.
8. Passive voice! Academic writing is all about passive voice. Even if it may sound boring and not personal, academic writing should be simple and direct to the point. The subject in your essay is your research topic, not you! Remember, you are not writing a Romance or Thriller, you are writing a piece of academic work.
9. Proofread your work! And then ask someone else to do it too. Ideally you should finish your work 2 to 3 days before deadline. The day you finish your work, you should stop thinking about it, and rest. The best time to proofread your work is the next day, when your brain and visual memory are no longer able to remember almost every sentence and accidentally let typo errors go unnoticed.
10. Get help if you need! After all this tips, if you feel you still need some help to start, if you feel your time is rushing, or even if you are already working hard but results are not corresponding to your efforts, then it is time to seek professional help. Boost my Course provides academic writing services in a variety of subjects and academic degrees. There is no reason to be ashamed if you need help, we work under absolute confidentiality. Contact us today and know how we can help you!
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