Definitive Guide: Top Five Ways To Improve Your Essay Writing Skills
When we say, assignments, projects and essays, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Tiring all-nighters with a dreadful-looking word count to accomplish! Assignments are inevitable! No matter how hard you try to avoid them, they always seek their way to you one way or another. So, even if you try to dig your head into the ground, dread it or run from it, destiny still arrives with a shitload of assignments!
Despite all the problems and challenges, students have a separate aversion towards essay writing tasks, especially when the word count requirement is more than enough to haunt them in sleep. It’s difficult, time-consuming and requires every ounce of our brainpower to get it done on time.
An engaging introduction, well-researched body paragraphs and a striking conclusion are the fundamental parts of an exceptional essay. However, what makes your essay outstanding is the words you use to compel your readers. Words are the ultimate weapon to seize the reader’s attention and help to enlighten them with your wisdom and knowledge. The use of an appropriate set of words can give you an edge over other students who are writing about the same topic.
But you know what the main problem is?
Not every word from Thesaurus is useful! Some of them are clunky and redundant to use in essay writing. And if you’re thinking of flooding your essays with such complicated words, then stop! Stop right away! We know it’s an old tactic to meet the word count requirement by using redundant words & phrases to explain something that could have been otherwise said in just a few words.
But, such practice not only makes your essay incoherent and redundant but also defeats the whole purpose of writing an essay. What’s the point of filling tens of hundreds of pages, when the readers could not understand any of it.
To improve essay writing skill, here is the list of words and phrases that you should avoid writing in your next essay.
1. Stop using contractions
According to academic writing guidelines, it is essential to use full words rather than abbreviations like don’t, won’t, and can’t. So, the correct way of writing an essay is to avoid contractions and, instead, use proper words in the sentences.
2. Avoid using flowery idioms
It may be tempting to use flowery language with colorful idioms in the essays, but it’s better to use them only for narrating colorful tales, blog posts or fiction and imaginative stories. An academic essay is primarily based on a serious factual discussion aiming to enlighten readers with a strong analysis of previously established theories and information. However, using irrelevant idioms can only pull in negative impressions from the readers and look poor to your overall ability of writing.
3. Henceforth, So on and etc.
Okay, let’s just admit this once and for all, students deliberately use such continuation expressions only when they run out of more examples. The unsaid meaning of etc is probably like I don’t know what else to say, but I am gonna write this one so that you know that I know! The use of such phrases in academic writing only illustrates your inability to generate arguments, examples and detail information. So, it’s better to avoid writing them in your essay!
4. This, that, things and stuff
People who smoke marijuana and stuff tend to have higher IQ levels.
In this sentence, your readers know marijuana increases IQ level but how on earth would they get to know what other “stuff” really is? Such vague phrases are usually inappropriate to use in academic essays. While it’s completely fine to use them in daily conversation, when used in academic essays, these words reflect your limited stock of vocabulary and sound too elementary.
5. Avoid using passive sentences
Academic experts usually do not recommend using passive voice sentences for two reasons:
1. It creates confusion, “lacks explicit information about the reference or source.”
2. Disrupts the follow of essay and weakens writing style.
Passive sentences are usually vague because they do not account for a specific speaker or who is really responsible for the action.
For example, Both Jack and Michael desire Rose. she is courted. (who courts Rose? Jack? Michael? Or both of them?
Academic essay writing is usually centered on the differences between the opinions, ideas and theories of various researchers, or between your own opinion and those of the researchers you’re discussing. The excessive use of passive sentences can generate confusion.
For example, A study has been carried to discard this theory. (whose study? Your instructor’s? Yours? Or any other researcher’s?)
Words are your greatest allies when it comes to constructing a convincing essay. Use correct sets of words to communicate your ideas and opinion to the readers easily. Be precise, improve your vocabulary, consider using active sentences and clear sentence structure. Make sure to use original ideas and let your essay writing skills capture the hearts of your readers!
