Being able to write a persuasive academic essay is a critical aspect of every University students life. However, writing a persuasive essay is not as easy as it seems. It’s a skill set that students from university and college can make use of even after they have passed out. The most critical skills required for writing an academic essay is persuasive and analytical writing. One can find a lot of essay writing meme on the web today, stating the same. To be true, essay writing becomes lesser of a task once you understand the basics of the essay structure.
The best way to writing an essay introduction is by sticking to the guidelines provided. One needs to start researching and strategizing well before starting to write. Essay writing for dummies include a lot of aspects, like state arguments and give examples to support them. An academic essay is all about writing a brilliant introduction, a thesis supported by examples and writing a conclusion for an essay.
Here are the best ways of writing an introduction to an essay:
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Provide some background information and context
The best way of writing an introduction to an essay is by providing some background information to the provided topic. This shall give an idea about what problem statement you are targeting and why it needs addressing. But it’s crucial that the introduction is brief and direct in all essay writing for dummies. This is the wrong section to introduce key terms and definitions.
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Limit the scope of discussion:
You want to tell about the topic, but you certainly can’t cover every aspect. Give a perspective to what you are covering in the introduction, so that the reader knows what to expect.
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State your position in the essay question:
State your opinion of the question asked before you started writing a reflective essay. It could be your main argument, thesis statement or contention. Write 2-3 sentences on the same.
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Outline the structure of the whole essay:
Give a brief idea about how you are approaching the topic of your academic essay. You should include details of case studies and sources that you have referred to etc. Also, you can use this section to provide a rough outline of all the points that you will be covering.
Now that you understand how to write the introduction, let us learn some tips on writing an essay conclusion.
The conclusion allows you to summarize your academic essay in an organized manner. You can use this section to remind the reader of all the crucial points that you have covered. In simpler terms write about what “take away” you would want your readers to take from your essay. Here are some tips for writing a conclusion for an essay:
- Start with the rephrased thesis statement to remind the reader of your initial statement or problem statement.
- Summarize all the points you made earlier and add examples that supported your statement. This is your chance to put all the stray pieces together.
- Talk about what the significance or importance of your statement might be. Things like what value add it will create or how it will improve a certain thing etc. Also, make a suggestion to your readers about what you would want them to do with the information you gave them. It could be a healthy practice or a sustainable habit, that you want the reader to take up.
Now that both the introduction and conclusion is done, let’s focus on the overall essay. Here are some tips on how to improve essay writing:
Understand the question first and start writing, second:
This might sound very basic but this is the reason behind most failures in essay writing. Read and re-read the question multiple times. Understand if you are being asked to evaluate critically evaluate something. Be careful about specific phrases that might say what is being expected out of you.
Plan and schedule accordingly:
It is important that you understand the question but it is also important to evaluate and schedule the essay. As a student, you might have a very tight schedule. You don’t want to mess up other crucial tasks because of your academic essay. This is why you need to evaluate how much time you have in your hands. Make clear steps that you would need to complete your essay. Like make the essay chapters and collect articles etc. Now allocate how much time you can a lot to each of this and also set a deadline. Make sure that you stick to your deadlines and also have some time left between your final proofreading and finishing your first draft.
Be critical for your own good:
A perfect theory or a perfect academic approach is a myth. As a student, you can choose to be descriptive in your essay and still manage to pass. However, if you are looking at being better you will have to be critical. You know that the suggestions or the theories that you have may have certain limitations. It’s obvious that it will be evident to the one evaluating it too. This critical thinking will help your essay stand out. You don’t want to sound repetitive, you want to be unique. This is why add aspects that are fresh and is your own critical perspective.
Be mindful of your essay’s structure and flow:
Understand that having a clear and structured flow will help your essay from not diverting from the main question. It’s easy to get distracted and cover a lot of unrelated topics while writing an essay. A defined structure is what will save the day in such times.
Read widely and wisely:
You will have to acquire a lot of knowledge from multiple sources before you form your own opinion for your essay. Most reflective writing essay examples go wrong by not having a firm opinion and mixing things up. Read from reliable sources and also remember to quote them in your essay.
Understand that “quoting, paraphrasing and plagiarism “are all very different things:
You can certainly not complete a whole essay without referring to someone else’s work. This becomes a boon because you can refer to someone else’s hard work without having to invest in it. However, understand that it’s crucial that you give credit to the original writer or author.