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Top 10 Tips for Writing Academic Essays

Sitting in class and the syllabus gets handed out. One goes through the calendar and realizes that there are essays do throughout the semester. No need to panic: there are tips out there to help write the best essay possible and make sure that the person will pass. Here are the top 10 tips for writing academic essays.

Tip #1: Check the Requirements of the Essay

By knowing what the requirements are for the essay, it will save time on what research needs to be done. For example, if one is required to write an essay on media ethics, it will save time researching on what media is.

Tip #2: Research the Subject or Topic

Now that the requirements of the essay are established, it is time to do the research. Without the research, the paper is basically an opinion piece and will not be taken seriously. Pick research that supports whatever the claim is and if writing an argumentative essay, be sure to pick research that supports both sides.

Tip#3: Narrow the Topic Down

The research is done and a lot of ideas are going on inside the writers head. It is time to narrow it down so this way the person knows what they are going to write about especially in the subject. An example of this would be researching media and journalism and the idea of print versus broadcast and online.

Tip #4: Pick the Topic

There is the subject that has been narrowed; now it is time to pick the topic. An example of this would be that the subject is media but now the writer wants to do media ethics.

Tip #5: Organize Notes

Organizing notes is important. Regardless of whether or not the essay is one page or 20, the notes that go with the research is an important key in order to make sure that all of the sources will be used. For example, difference case studies will back up what lying to the public in journalism is a violation of media ethics.

Tip #6: Make an Outline

After getting the notes organized, it is now time to sit and write an outline of what the paper will be about. It is important to have an outline not only to help further organize thoughts and notes, but to also help make writing the paper a lot easier and not as time consuming.

Tip #7: Write a Rough Draft

Writing a rough draft allows for ideas to be brought forth as well as allowing the writer to basically free write and get the ideas down about where they should go. After that, go back through it and look at the outline to see what needs added or taken away.

Tip #8: Revise and Edit

Check for grammatical errors such as punctuation errors or word choice. Is it in the same person or did the writer bounce around between second and third? This would be a good opportunity to re check the requirements to make sure that it is in one person. Typically it is third person for academic essays. Is the paper clear or could it be better? Is there present tense verbs? Is there a bibliography for the sources as well as footnotes? Did the writer plagiarize?

Tip #9: Do a Final Draft

After marking up the rough draft, go back through the draft and turn it into a clean product. It is hard to read a paper full of marks, so it is important to have a clean copy.

Tip #10: Proofread

Always double and triple check before turning the paper in because nothing is more frustrating than a paper full of errors.