Building your career as a freelance writer is quite an uphill task as the industry is very competitive. You have to know the rules and the attributes that you have to exhibit so as to make your way from a beginner to a professional essay writer. First, you need to be highly motivated and very determined. You also have to be focused and be able to manage your time well, but that is not the end of it.
Listed in the stages below are tips that when followed, can help improve your essay writing skills.
Contents
Stage 1: Analyze the topic
Make sure you understand the title of the essay
Your interpretation of the topic will determine the structure of your essay. Analyzing the title will save you time as you will know what exactly to look for. If you understand the topic, you are likely to come up with a good plan of how to write an essay. Most writers go straight to research, and in turn, they end up taking a lot of notes without clearly knowing which information is relevant.
Come up with a thesis statement
Form a statement and let it pose as the question that the essay is meant to answer. Note down all the possible angles or perspectives from which you can view the title and select the one that interests you the most. As you write the essay, you can come up with other questions based on the thesis statement and from your interpretation of the topic. This way, you may probably end up venturing into what has not been researched on before, making your essay more interesting.
Stage 2: Research
To write an informative essay, you should collect as much information on the subject as possible. There are dozens of websites where credible information can be found. The information you gather from these sites can help you to back up your arguments in the body of the essay.
When researching, note down all the sources so that you can have an easy time when citing. It is the responsibility of every writer to acknowledge where he or she has gotten the help from. Therefore, you have to cite all the sources of information that you use from the beginning.
The three skills applied when researching are;
Reading
You get more time to process your ideas when you read. The quality of your essay will depend on how you interpret what you read.
You should know when you are supposed to read passively to save time, or when to read purposefully whereby you analyze the arguments and come up with your own ideas.
Taking notes
Notes help us to organize our thoughts so that we can recall quickly and use the information accurately. The two techniques used when taking notes are; linear notes, which can be used for analysis and pattern notes which can be used for evaluation and criticism.
Stage 3: Planning
Apart from making your essay more coherent, planning will make the writing process much easier. Without a proper plan, your essay is likely to have a poor structure, which will give the reader a difficult time understanding.
It also helps to figure out which ideas you have to focus on the most in terms of explanation and illustration. This way you will be certain that the most important parts of the argument are not left out. Main steps in planning are;
Editing
Sometimes you may find it hard to let go of information that you worked hard gathering, especially when we personally think that the material may be interesting to the reader. This ends up clouding most writers’ judgment. They end up adding a lot of irrelevant content to the essay which often weakens strong arguments.
You should be ruthless with your own editing so that what you write answers the question.
Ordering
Sort your ideas in an orderly manner, like from the weakest to the strongest points. This will help when a more complex point will depend on a simpler point for clarity. Furthermore, using your stronger points towards the end of the essay will leave your reader with thinking that the entire essay was of the same high quality.
Stage 4: Writing
A typical essay has three main parts; an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
In an introduction, you should use your understanding of the thesis statement/question to present a map of the entire essay so that your readers can follow your arguments without getting lost.
Content
Every paragraph in the body section should begin with a clearly stated topic sentence that is connected to the introduction.
Simplicity is a key factor when writing an essay. Make your words and sentences as simple as possible so that you can express your ideas clearly. It has to feel like you are talking directly to the reader.Use short sentences and punctuation marks to make sure that your readers do not get lost in the sentence.
Other factors that you should keep in mind in the body include;
- a) Use the active voice. Passive voice should only be used when necessary.
- b) Avoid using slang or abusive language in your essay.
- c) Using evidence to back up your arguments make the essay more persuasive and interesting.
Conclusion
What you include in the conclusion should summarize the arguments presented in the body. It should mostly reflect on the strong points. You can also use the theme that you used in the introduction because tying these two parts will show how coherence of your essay.
As a writer, learn to deal with negative feedback and use it to motivate yourself, rather than over-thinking and letting it get in your head. You have to be patient and consistent to perfect your writing skills. In the long run, you will be a lot more experienced because of the lessons you learn along the way.
You have to properly manage your time. With the help of a timetable, allocate enough time for each of the stages above. Sometimes completing an essay on time may be impossible. Websites like https://ukwritershub.com/ offer essay writing services where anyone can buy essays online. The site has a pool of professional essay writers who follow the client’s instructions to the latter.
