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Category: Essay Writing

  • How to Ace Your Essay Exam With Ease

    Exams are one of the reasons some students quit school. They are scary! I have yet to meet a person who is not anxious or worried about exams. They may put on a brave face but deep inside, everyone is afraid to fail. Exams require you to remember and write so much, and sometimes it’s hard to know where exactly to start or what to do. Essays are specifically difficult and require one to have the necessary skills required when writing an essay. They are common in subjects like literature, history, sociology, political science, philosophy, and many others.

    Exam Essay writing help
    image source: The Perfect Score movie

    However, you can survive by following these guidelines:

    1. Do not memorize

    It might be a great thing to do if you have a fantastic memory, but retaining lots of information word for word might be difficult for most of us. It would be bad, too, if the essay you memorized is not part of the essay questions. Panic! What I’d advise you to do is learn what you need for the essays. Read and revise thoroughly. Gather all the information you need for the subject, and you will be good to go.

    1. Plan

    After you get your question paper (and the panic phase is gone), read carefully through the entire paper. Read all the questions provided on the paper while noting down (if possible) what order you will follow when answering them. Start answering from the one you find simplest (the one you have enough information on). You don’t have to start from the first question on your paper unless it’s the simplest. Planning how you will answer the questions gives you a feeling of control, and you can remain calm throughout the exam. Plan your time too so that you don’t spend more time on one question. You don’t have to write everything you know on a topic; just pick out what is necessary and relates to the question. Your aim should be to get the best mark you can on the whole paper and not only on one question.

    1. Brainstorm questions before answering

    Before you start answering a question, create an outline of the points you will provide. Outlining will save you time and will make the answer easier to write down. When you have an outline, the hassles of having to rewrite an answer are ruled out. As you jot down the points, you are able to think about the question critically and provide the best answers. Crossing out an answer or a whole paragraph shows you are not well prepared, and that’s not what you want the instructor to conclude. The outline or marginal notes will, in fact, impress him. However, do not write them so as to impress him; write them as a guide.

    1. Avoid getting stuck

    If a question presents problems in the middle of answering it, leave it and move on to the next. Time is important here, and it’s not going to work out any better for you if you spend half the time on one question. After you have finished all the other questions, get back to it, and you will be surprised at how clearer it becomes then.

    1. Answer the question correctly

    Knowing what the instructor expects of you from a question is very crucial. You may be asked to analyze, explain, define, compare, contrast, or illustrate the subject or topic of a question. Focus on answering the question with the right mindset. To understand what these words and more mean and what is expected of you, read this article: Understanding What Is Expected on an Assignment.

    1. Include all key elements of an essay

    When answering an essay question, make sure to include all key elements required in an essay.

    • Have a thesis. A main idea that is clear and precise. What does your answer say?
    • A developing idea. How well have you explained the ideas provided for that particular question?
    • Strong support. Do you have good information on the topic? Do you have facts? How are your ideas supported?
    • Flow. Have you organized your points logically? Does the essay have ideas presented and supported to create flow?
    • Proofreading. Have you edited your essay after completion? Are all the essential sections required in an essay included?
    1. Proofread your essay

    Go through the answer after completion and get rid of all grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, stylistic errors, and punctuation mistakes. Make sure your work is neat and legible too.

    Your essay should be developed sufficiently and include an effective introduction paragraph, a body, and a conclusion. Make the essay brief and concise. Write it for the right audience and provide sufficient and relevant support. Try to manage your time properly. In case you run out of time, provide bullet points, and you can get points for knowing what answers were required. In case you still have two questions unanswered, provide the first half of both. That way, you won’t leave any questions unanswered, and you will get marks for the first half of each question.

    All the best in your exams!

  • Guide to Resume Writing for College Students

    Resume Writing for College Students
    A resume is your introduction note to your potential employer

    It’s a challenge to write a resume when just out of college or while in college. However, most employers know you may not have a lot of experience. A resume is your introduction note to your potential employer. Write it with consideration, great care, and with your career goals in mind. It’s like marketing yourself-you showcase your achievements, skills, and qualifications that relate to the type of job you are looking for. The resume should have descriptions of your capabilities and achievements. Many students will be applying for the same position you are and, therefore, you have to make yours stand out from the rest. There are several things an employer is looking for on a resume:

    Resume appearance

    The first thing the employer will look at is the appearance of your resume. The poor appearance of your resume will have it thrown into the ‘NO’ pile in a minute. Make it a maximum of one page with clear font. Contact information should be easily readable. Include an official email address (one that contains your name and not fancy names like cutechick890), your permanent address, and your school address. If possible, put a permanent address that’s close to the job location.

    Education

    List education from your most recent, giving the exact degree attained. You can list relevant coursework completed if you have not had work experiences. This, however, should only be included if they are relevant to the job you are applying to.

    Experience

    Begin with the most recent job you had or are working at. Include the date you were employed, the company or employer, the title you held, and the location of the job. Write a list of accomplishments and responsibilities you had at these jobs. Include, if available, internships and volunteer positions if they relate to the job you are applying for. Include leadership roles you held, team projects, interests, and skills, if and only if they are relevant. If your GPA is greater than 3.0, you can include it too, but not necessarily.

    Proofread your resume.

    Get rid of mistakes in spelling, grammar style, and punctuation. Errors will also get you into the ‘NO’ pile, so make sure you rid your resume of them. Have someone go through it and help you edit. Make use of active verbs like ‘designed,’ ‘created.’ Avoid words like ‘helped,’ ‘audited,’ or ‘assisted.’ Be brief and concise.

    Be honest when writing about your achievements and skills. Only include those you have mastered. To improve your skills, read sample resumes templates and sample resumes for college students to get an idea of what is expected. You can also contact us at Bestpaperwriters.com and have your resume written for you by professional writers.

  • Why Good Grammar Is Important

    Importance of Good Grammar
    Most students don’t take good grammar seriously.

    Most students don’t take proper grammar seriously. They just want to write the essay/ assignment, finish it, and hand it over. They forget that proper grammar might be the only explanation as to why they keep getting Fs. Writing your essay on time is not enough; you have to make sure you proofread your work before you hand it in. Proofreading means you have to correct spelling mistakes, stylistic mistakes, punctuation mistakes, and make sure your grammar is good. I hope the following reasons make you take grammar seriously in your next essay.

    1. Good grammar makes you look smart
    You do not need to use big words when talking or writing to appear smart. Understanding words, their usage, and pronunciation is more important. Good grammar will protect you from looking or sounding foolish, and your professor will understand the points you are trying to put across in your essay. This will lead to good grades, a good college/ university, and probably a great job. Conversations you have with friends will also be understood better. No one wants to be the joke of the class for using poor grammar when constructing a sentence, so work on your grammar!

    2. Good grammar leads to good communication
    Imagine trying to explain a point for five minutes to a friend, and even after countless repeating, they still have no clue what you are saying (or even worse, they keep getting it wrong). It’s frustrating, right? Poor grammar does that- it breaks down communication. It makes the reader or listener not get the point. It weakens your idea, and in most cases, your point is interpreted wrong.

    The reader will get frustrated if they have to keep rereading and reorganizing the sentence so that it makes sense. If they have to do this in more than one sentence in your essay, you are doomed. If the professor understands what you are saying, then they can understand how you have organized your thoughts, leading to a good grade.

    3. Good grammar will help you get into a good university/ college
    Colleges/ universities usually look out for smart students. Your application essay and, in some cases, follow-up interviews are the determiners of that. An application essay full of mistakes and poor grammar will not get you into the college of your choice. Speaking poorly with grammatical errors will make you look stupid. Continuous use of poor grammar when talking will make the administrators think you do not have a proper education. This could be one of the reasons (or the only reason) you get disqualified. Good grammar will also reflect in your grades, especially your writing score.

    4. Good grammar will get you a job
    Some employers insist on proper grammar by employees. In the article I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar by Kyle Wiens, he says, “Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re. Good grammar makes good business sense — and not just when it comes to hiring writers.”

    In the eyes of an employer, an applicant who uses proper grammar on their resume is intelligent and not lazy or stubborn. When looking for a job, you want your image to be projected right and not be defined by grammatical errors.

    Check your essay for errors before submitting it to your professor. When you perfect your grammar during writing, you are able to concentrate on the structure and content of your work. Your reader also understands your point of view and does not have to keep correcting your errors. Good grammar is mandatory for any student and makes you appear intelligent. Practice writing proper grammar, and your spoken grammar will also improve.

  • How to Write an Effective Paragraph

    Essay Writing TipsA paragraph is made up of a group of sentences that are related to a single main idea. When writing, paragraphs should be carefully developed and contain focus. There should be a relation between individual sentences. This can be achieved by focusing on the paragraph’s main idea and providing transitions to connect ideas. The main idea is represented by the topic sentence and occurs at the beginning of the paragraph. Sentences that follow (supporting sentences) should be related to this main idea and contribute to it. These pointers in creating an effective paragraph will make you a professional writer:

    1. Deciding on the main idea

    Choose a topic for your paragraph that gives it unity and focus. Decide on the genre of the topic ( is it a story, question, description, etc.?). Note down issues you will cover with the intended audience in mind. Does the reader have prior knowledge of the topic at hand, or do you have to give the whole account of a topic?

     2. Outline creation

    Create an outline of ideas to help you decide what ideas are relevant and which ones are not. Do thorough research on the topic to get supporting ideas and information for your topic. Rearrange the points from most important to ease the writing process.

     3. Choose a topic sentence

    This sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is about. It’s a very important sentence as it has the ability to influence your reader to read the rest of the paragraph. Make it captivating and let it represent a summary of what the rest of the paragraph is about. Most experienced writers are able to place the topic sentence at different stages of the paragraph but as a beginner, make sure it’s the first sentence in the paragraph.

    4. Supporting sentences

    These should expand and discuss in detail the topic sentence. They should all relate to the topic sentence and should be simple, short, clear to the point, and not ambiguous. Make use of facts, statistics, figures, quotes, and examples to make these supporting sentences strong. A paragraph can be made of three, five, or more sentences, but this is dependent on the topic you are writing about or the type of paper.

    5. Conclusion

    Make the conclusion sentence a summary of points covered in the supporting sentences. It should reinforce and re-word your topic sentence. It should also emphasize information given in the supporting sentences. The concluding sentence is a signal to the reader that you are about to move to the next paragraph.

    6. Include coherence

    After collecting all the information, organize your ideas coherently. A coherent paragraph flows, and the content fits together in an understandable way for the reader. Transitions such as also, after a while, again, although, but, after all, above, granted that, as a result, for example, etc. can be used. Repeating keyword phrases and maintaining the same point of view throughout a paragraph also leads to coherence. With paragraph coherence, the reader moves easily from one sentence to the next and feels that the ideas are unified.

    7. Proofread your work

    This is the most important part in creating a paragraph that flows. Proofreading will help you get rid of mistakes in style, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. It also rids your paragraph of information that is irrelevant and not related to the main topic. When editing a paragraph, make sure it’s written in one tense, that it has subject-verb agreement, and that the nouns are capitalized. Make sure that none of the main points you had outlined is left out. Your paragraph, after editing, should contain all the elements of a great paragraph: coherence, unity, order, and completeness.

  • Essential Sections Required on an Essay

    As a student, you have to write an essay or a research paper at one time in your school life. Essays play a big part in determining the grade you get. They have guidelines, though, and it’s important to know them before starting work on your essay. There are some universally accepted essential sections required on your essay, especially if it’s 6,000 words or more long. They include:

    1)      A title page

    This should be the first page attached to your work. It should be filled in correctly in case a departmental cover sheet is offered.  If not, provide the essay title in caps at the top of the page, your name and student number, the course, the examiner’s name, and the date you hand in the essay.

    2)      A front section.

    This one should contain the table of contents, a list of illustrations/tables, and an abstract.

    3)      An introduction

    The introduction should restate the essay question using a hypothesis and provide a clear outline of the essay. This is where you give the reader your point of view on the essay question and how you will support your view. You inform the reader what your discussion will be about, what you will not discuss, and why. The introduction topic should convince the reader to read the rest of your essay.

    4)      A body

    Follow the outline you provided in the front section. Provide evidence that substantiates your thesis on the body. Provide a different idea related to the topic for each paragraph. Paragraphs must be well constructed and start with a topic sentence. A topic sentence gives the main idea of a paragraph and summarizes it. The paragraphs should relate and provide a smooth flow to your essay. They should be clear, concise, and contribute to the main argument.

    5)      A conclusion

    Your conclusion should be a summary of the main points in your essay. It should clearly show how these points relate to the topic question. Do not introduce any new material in the conclusion section.

    6)      Appendix

    The appendix contains any information that may be of help to the reader and is optional. This information, however, is not part of the overall word count.

    7)      A bibliography/ reference list

    This appears at the end of the essay. It contains a list of sources you used when writing your paper. State the title of the source, the author, year of publication, publisher, place of publication, and pages depending on the citation format your examiner asks you to use. Different citation formats include APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, Harvard, etc.

  • 3 Easy Tips on How to Edit Your Own Essay

    Editing your essay
    Editing ensures the reader focuses on what you have to say and not your errors.

    “That’s the magic of revisions – every cut is necessary, and every cut hurts, but something new always grows.”  Kelly Barnhill

    Editing is tiring, but the best editors revise. It’s a necessary pain that makes written work better. It helps you clarify, deepen, and strengthen your arguments more objectively. It also helps you express them in a powerful, coherent manner. When you edit, you ensure the reader focuses on what you have to say and not your errors.

    Newspaper and magazine editors ensure that the reader does not get bored, distracted, annoyed, or confused with content. You have to do the same with your essay. Anticipate the responses of your reader/ teacher- what they will feel or think as they read your essay.  These steps will help you edit your essay with ease.

         1. Distance yourself from the essay

    Give yourself time after you finish writing your essay before you can edit it. You can give yourself an hour, a day, or a week depending on the time you have before you hand in your essay. This will make your paper look fresh to your eyes and will not be so familiar. I would recommend printing out the essay and marking up mistakes as you read, but you can also edit from your computer. Make sure you are in a quiet environment with no distractions, as these may affect your editing concentration.

           2.  Edit  your essay

    Check that you have the full essay structure: introduction, body, and conclusion. Make sure your essay content covers everything your assignment requires of you. Your introduction should clearly state your intentions. Paragraphs should have clear topic sentences, with each explaining a point. Your conclusion should answer the question by summing up your argument. All your points should have supporting evidence and relate to the topic. Read your essay aloud to hear how the sentences sound. Your ears will pick out errors your eyes missed.  After this, read your essay backward from the last sentence to catch awkward words and phrases. Ensure you have written with the correct style and that your sources are correctly cited.

            3. Proofread your essay

    In this final stage of your editing process, focus on grammatical, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. You can use grammar and spellcheckers available online, but you should not rely on them entirely. Check each of the errors individually. You could decide to start with spelling, punctuation, and then grammar. It will be a lot easier to catch the errors this way. Read slowly to hear how different words in your essay sound together. Read each sentence individually, starting from the first one and again from the last one, to help you identify the errors.

    Note down the most recurring errors in your essay to make it easier for you to edit them easily in the future. Eliminate words or sentences that seem wrong, although you cannot pinpoint the mistake. Make sure that your essay flows. One point should lead to another, and if it distorts the flow, get rid of it. You can have a friend or teacher go through your essay and pinpoint mistakes you have left out.

    Have any pointers to add to the above? A method that works for you during editing? Share with us. You can also entrust our proofreading and essay writing services to score a good grade on your essay.