Understand the task
A very common mistake students of all levels make is either misunderstanding the task question or not answering the task question. You can waste time researching irrelevant information if you do not know what to focus on and you will never get a good mark if you do not answer the question.
Analyse the task carefully. Try to rewrite it in your own words. Highlight the key words and think about what you are being asked to do (for instance, do you need to give your viewpoint, discuss different sides of an argument or evaluate someone else’s ideas?). Do you have to write a specific text type, such as a report or an article? Also consider how the task relates to what you have studied.
If you can choose your own question you will need to spend time formulating it so it is concise and clear. If it is not clear in your own mind, it will not be clear in your writing nor to the reader.
Organise – be organised and organise your writing
Allow yourself enough time to research, draft, review and edit – this often takes longer than you think. As you research, keep an accurate record of the sources you use to avoid wasting time looking for them later.
Plan the structure of your essay before you start writing a first draft (see the previous post ‘Planning makes perfect’ for different types of plans). Think about the best order for your points, trying to achieve a fluent argument where one point logically flows from another. Well-organised writing enables the reader to see how your points relate to each other and therefore understand your meaning more clearly.
As you are writing, use linking words and phrases (e.g. nevertheless, furthermore or as a consequence) to join your ideas together and help make your writing more fluent.
Write clearly
One should not aim at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.
- Quintilian (Roman rhetorician, c. 35 – c. 100)
The purpose of your essay is to communicate information. For example, you may need to show you have understood the key concepts of a subject or that you are able to convey your own ideas. Regardless of your essay’s specific purpose you will also need to show you can write well and communicate your ideas.
Make sure your reader cannot misunderstand anything you write. Nor should the reader have to guess or search for meaning; tell him or her exactly what you mean. Check for unnecessary repetition and unnecessary words (we can often eliminate the word that from phrases), be specific rather than general or ambiguous, avoid sentences which are too long, and support your points with relevant examples. Be careful of using opinion words, such as interesting or arguably, without explaining why you have chosen to use them, and check that any pronouns you have used clearly refer to the correct noun.
Proofread and edit
Allow yourself enough time to thoroughly review your writing. It is best not to do this immediately, but to come back later with a fresh mind. It is even better if you can also give it to someone else to review.
Start by looking at the essay as a whole: have you answered the question? Do your points/ideas flow logically? Are you paragraphs correctly divided and clear? Then look at smaller details: is your meaning clear in every sentence? Are there any words or phrases which do not add anything to the meaning and so could be deleted? And finally the smallest features: spelling, grammar and punctuation.
What you should now have is an essay worthy of the time and effort you have put into it.
Posted by EditingAngel 