Essay Writing Skills: The Art of Effective Essay Writing
Word “essay” has been originated from the French language which means “trial” or an “attempt”. It has no definite, range, limit, style, or explanation due to its wide range of variety in its context. However, an essayist named Aldous Huxley noted down that essay is a literary device that is used to express almost everything and about almost anything. Hence essay is generally considered a short piece of writing to a long piece of systematic discourse.
Similarly, there are two distinct forms of essay which are known as formal (academic) and non-formal (non-academic) essays. Academic essays are the most significant form of testing the ability of students for academic assessment and admission purposes. Whereas, all sorts of major testing examinations including IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GAT, CAT, etc., require essay writing to judge the analytical and academic performance of the students.
On the other hand, all the competitive exams (civil service exams) test the individuals’ ability through essay writing. In simple words, we can say that essay is a pure form of prose writing and mostly newspaper, magazine, research articles, blogs, and autobiographies are common forms of an essay.
How to Write an Effective Essay?
An essay is the most composite form of testing the knowledge, skills, abilities, analysis, and evaluation level of the students/individuals hence it requires certain specific skills and mastery to write an essay.
In this context, there are following mentioned ten (10) key terms which are prerequisites for writing an essay but before writing an effective essay it is equally important to understand the nature or form/kind/type of essay which is selected for the essay writing. That is why it is important to identify that whether the selected topic is a narrative, descriptive, expository, or persuasive essay before properly writing it.
1. Prior & Purposive
Reading:
Prior and purposive reading means that individuals should predict and foresee certain specific topics before starting preparations for any particular exam as Francis Bacon had said that reading makes a full man. Similarly, reading must be done for conceptual purposes but not for cramming and route learning because an essay is a personal statement and viewpoint of a writer hence it must be a unique and pure piece of writing.
In this context, Bacon says that “read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider”. Prior reading is an integral part of effective essay writing however it should be done purposefully and conceptually as memorizing the other viewpoint is never ever given any credit rather it is considered plagiarism.
2. Writing Practice:
Most of the time it happens that students even after having enough background knowledge about the topic fail to compose an essay due to a lack of writing experience. Keep in mind the words of Bacon again who said that to read without reflecting (writing) is like eating without digesting.
This is why he made a statement that writing makes an exact man. Therefore individuals must develop writing habits from an early stage and focus on their innate style of writing as well as shaping their ideas in proper flow and sequence. It is considered an added advantage for the individuals who get checked their writing pieces by the experts and improve their writing skills after following certain recommendations and suggestions offered by the experts.
3. Grip on Grammar:
Writing habit helps to understand and realize the importance of grammar which is considered the backbone of essay writing. Grammar makes writing effective and attention seeking hence if there are so many grammatical mistakes, it will lose the charm and taste of reading, and as a result, the reader will soon fade away.
On the other hand, it is observed that those individuals who are quite good at grammar tend to write effective essays therefore one must pay attention and focus on certain grammatical rules which are so important for essay writing skills. Proper use of subject and verb agreement as well as proper adverbs and adjectives placement are key in this regard including other parts of speech.
4. Vast Vocabulary:
Vocabulary is the primary skill required for any type of writing. It is generally believed that a person with a poor vocabulary is actually a poor thinker and a poor visionary hence a poor writer/author. On the other hand, most of the time individuals write in order to impress the reader, and use classical and difficult vocabulary which is a very common mistake.
Never ever use too difficult and classical vocabulary in your writing rather prioritize common, simple, and current vocabulary in your writing because the more simple and modern language you use the more the reader will understand your point of view easily and hence will award you a good score.
5. Proper Use of
Conjunctions:
Conjunctions which are one of the parts of speech correlate and coordinate the links between the paragraphs. Conjunctions must also be used very carefully keeping in view the verb and noun agreement. Generally, individuals make mistakes while using conjunctions, particularly in complex sentences therefore certain conjunctions like either/or, neither/nor, and not only/but also need to be carefully used in essay writing.
6. Importance of
Punctuation Marks:
It is very commonly observed that particularly young essay writers ignore the importance of punctuation marks and hence get low scores in essay writing. Punctuations not only shape your written expressions but also impact the readers including seeking their attention towards certain statements, facts, and figures. Similarly, punctuation marks beautify your essay and make it more effective and hence productive. Therefore an effective essay writer is always excellent at using punctuation marks in his/her writing.
7. Flow of
ideas/Thoughts:
Every reader or examiner likes the proper flow of ideas. When there is cohesion in the paragraphs and they are properly set and connected, the reader gets deeply involved in that particular piece of writing. Hence for every effective writer flow of proper thoughts and ideas is key until and unless the writer will never ever able to explain his/her viewpoints properly which eventually causes low scores including labeling him/her as an immature writer.
8. Sentence Structuring:
Essay writing is a game all about proper paragraphs which are constructed and developed through proper sentence structuring. Every single essay writer requires to write complex and compound sentences including using conditional sentences therefore sentence structuring must be kept in mind while writing an essay. The flow and eloquence of the ideas are only reflected through sentence structuring which requires mastery including proper grammar, vocabulary as well as punctuation.
9. Paragraphing:
In academic essay writing paragraphing plays a very key role especially as per the type and form of an essay. For example, expository essays are always written in third person pronouns (he, she, it, and they) therefore while quoting the key terms/figures/data of other writers, paragraphing must be done as per the demand of the particular type of an essay.
Similarly, proper use of narration and voice is vital in paragraphing. Being an effective essay writer one must ensure proper paragraphing otherwise he/she will never get good scores in essay writing.
10. Use of Idioms & Proverbs:
One can use idioms and proverbs in any part of an essay as there is no hard and fast rule to use them either during the introduction or in the conclusion. Similarly one can use them either at the very beginning of a paragraph or in between the paragraph as per need and requirement. However, idioms and proverbs must be used properly and effectively otherwise they can ruin your viewpoint and make your piece of writing as ineffective.
Similarly, always try to fit idioms or proverbs in your writing and avoid using too many of them. Individuals in order to impress the reader excessively use idioms and proverbs which is never ever a good thing rather it reflects your negative impression as I have already explained use simple and effective language and keep in mind that the reader finds your piece of writing easy and interesting rather complex and full with classical language.
Conclusion:
An essay is your personal, experience, understanding, opinion, thought, idea, approach, argument, and analysis, therefore, it must be from your side and not something that has already been written and expressed by someone else. However you can share key figures, data, statistics, and statements as per the need and requirements of your piece of writing. Therefore, you need to do prior and purposive reading to make up your mind and support your viewpoint with substantial references.
Similarly, essay writing is the most concrete and composite form of judging and assessing someone's academic and intellectual abilities. Hence in order to become an effective essay writer one should have a grip over all the above-discussed key points. Finally, always make sure that your essay is plagiarism free otherwise your piece of writing will never be credited in terms of better scores.
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