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College Essay Writing: 10 Tips for Freshmen

Being a first year student at any institution means there is a large learning curve to master. Everything from where to eat to how to navigate the campus is a challenge. How to appropriately write an essay might be a challenge, but if a freshman follows these simple ten tips, writing interesting and informative essays will become second nature.

  1. Start with a Clear Idea
  2. One of the first things that will have to be developed is a thesis statement or a main idea that you will be writing about. Doing a little research will allow you to know which topics have enough information to support a whole essay and which ones won’t. Make it clear what the essay will be about.

  3. Organization is Key
  4. Much like building a building, constructing a good essay is going to involve a solid blueprint to follow. This will act as a navigational beacon for your writing. Create an outline to follow of main ideas and the ideas that support these big ideas.

  5. Use Your Knowledge- Write about what You know
  6. When first writing essays in college, it will help to choose topics that you have an intimate familiarity with already. This will allow you to focus on your form, organization and learn the process for writing a good essay.

  7. Be concise, Don’t overwrite
  8. One of the mistakes an inexperienced writer makes can be to write too much. In the quest to sound intelligent, an inexperienced writer gets too wordy, losing focus. Don’t overwrite, just say what needs to be said.

  9. Double Check Mistakes
  10. As the writing process winds down, make sure that the transcript is checked not only for spelling errors but for grammatical errors as well. Take the time to carefully read and correct the essay. It leads to credibility and academic prowess.

  11. Draw Readers In
  12. An important part of creating a good essay is to write a good introductory paragraph. It will outline all of the interesting information being presented and provides incentive to keep reading.

  13. Be Consistent
  14. As the essay is developed, keep writing from the same perspective and be true to the thesis of the essay.

  15. Be Original
  16. Being one of a kind and presenting a topic in an entirely new way can help make a good impression to the instructor and help establish the credibility of the student.

  17. Brainstorm
  18. Brainstorming is the best way of collecting your ideas and putting them into one place. Take some time in the writing process to just list all of the ideas that come to mind. This list needs to be adapted but keeping all brainstorming ideas can help with topics for future projects as well.

  19. Experience Makes you Better
  20. There is no better teacher than experience, participating in the writing process is the best way to learn how to do it. Once you begin to attempt to write essays and gain experience the better writer you will become.