6 Essay Writing Things You Better Try Doing Before Actual Writing
17 Mar 22Essay writing is easy when you think you have to express your humble opinion and be free from this assignment. Objective reality, nevertheless, is drastically different. When it comes to actual essay writing, you uncover that it requires a load of small skills.
The development of skills required for essay writing won’t take long. On one hand, you can learn how to do this and that in the process. On the other hand, if you don’t know how to do all this stuff, it gets too laborious.
So, what to do before writing an essay? Try learning how to do at least 2 things from this list before you start working on your essay assignment!
Source Searching – Basis of Essay Writing Things
Some essays require research. This research should be media-literate at its maximum. That means you should use only those sources that:
- Come from scientific researchers. For instance, their articles in open-system journals. You can also read their works in intellectual repositories of the educational institutions they work at.
- Are in official statistical databases. Here you might get confused because professional workers usually operate unbelievably long numbers. Still, statistics are precise and always have factual backup based on research. Of course, even numbers might lie to us because it’s always plus-minus something. Yet, numbers are at least close to objective reality.
- Come from journalists and other media workers. Who said you can’t rely on a good newspaper in essay writing? Media provides us with the most relevant information, backed up with factual evidence. But note that information is always selective. Thus, pay attention to the information policy of each medium you want to cite in an essay.
And in addition, if you are looking for how to prepare for writing an essay, don’t forget the significance of fact-checking. Sometimes even the most reliable sources make mistakes. So, take two extra minutes to see what other resources exist that support this one.
Quotations and Rephrasing
Full exact quotations are tasks of elementary complexity. When you need it to be exact, you copy and paste a part of the text with minimal design. For example, you can make the font smaller and make this part in italics. Well done!
When you need rephrased quotes, the task becomes more difficult. Sometimes even minimal changes alter the whole meaning of another’s quote. So, be sure not to distort the extra content you use in argumentation. And don’t forget that you still have to tell who the author is, of course.
Wordcount Management
The best number of words in a single sentence is 7. You can add or delete 1-2 words, and this volume of information will be good too. Sure, some sentences can’t be shorter than 10 words, which is still good.
Why only 7 words plus-minus 2? That’s because that capacity is a standard cognitive numeric limit. It’s problematic when you notice that your sentence is more than 15 words long. This will be the case you have to work on extra. Try writing the same thing in 13 words. If you can reduce it to 8, then you are a master!
Writing Solely in Active Voice
It’s more difficult than it seems. The thing is, the active voice gives more dynamics to a text. More than that, it will emphasize the actants of action. Passive voice, on the other hand, emphasizes the action. But it distracts the reader from the actors.
In essay writing, you will probably combine active and passive voice. But you should always keep this balance. That is why it’s a good idea to try writing solely in an active voice.
Different Tones
Essay tones play a big part in essay writing. For some reason, many students neglect this tool. Tone decides many things, for instance:
- how you perceive the object of your elucidation;
- how you can see a potential way out of a problem;
- how your readers will react;
- is there hope to solve the problem or is it a lost case;
- if the text carries positive or negative vibes.
There is a wide spectrum of emotions you can use. Still, don’t combine contrasting tones. Tone can enhance your text by making it livelier or deteriorate it by confusing the readers. So, it’s better to try writing in a specific tone in advance. For instance, try writing positively about a problematic case to give your readers hope. Or vice versa, try expressing fear of something that you consider harmful.
Bibliography
This is a technical component no student likes. Unfortunately, there is no versatile scheme on how to do it. Every educational institution has the right to establish its own rules. For example, some colleges and universities start the list right under the word “References”. Other colleges require two spaces between the title of the page and the actual list. Even the page number’s position here matters. So, you won’t do it all for the first time.
Try using references. That is the easiest way out.
Before Goodbyes
There are many small, even tiny things you need to know if you want to write a perfect essay. Those microscopic details require knowledge and skill. Thus, it’s only better if you prepare for them in advance.
You don’t have to know 101% of everything but learn how to do at least 2 things on this list. We recommend bibliography and source searching to be the first two topics of your pre-writing practice.