There are several things a student must do in order to write a high-quality essay to meet today’s academic standards. Some are easier to forget than others, and as a result students are turning in papers that could have easily earned them a high grade… if only they had remembered these key tricks:
- Don’t Review the Essay Prompt
- Don’t Do Enough Research
- Don’t Brainstorm Thesis Statements
- Don’t Create an Outline
- Don’t Start a Rough Draft
- Don’t Revise the Outline
- Don’t Revise the Content
- Don’t Edit the Paper
- Don’t Proofread the Work
- Don’t Put in Finishing Touches
The first thing that is easily forgotten takes place before you even start composing your paper. Don’t forget to review the essay prompt. It might hold some special instructions you need to address. If you don’t take note of these you might be doing the whole assignment incorrectly.
One of the biggest things students forget is that their work needs to demonstrate credibility through evidence based research of academic and government resources. Some students think that a simple online search is sufficient. It’s not. One needs to conduct high level research preferably done at a library.
After gathering research material, a lot of students forget to spend time to simply go over the information and come up with a few good thesis statements. Your paper needs direction and the best way to achieve this is to draft a thesis statement you can reference throughout the process of composition.
Organization is key to the best academic papers. And organization is made much easier through the creation of an outline. It helps you gather your thoughts and ideas and keeps you on track when you start composing your first draft.
Some students forget about staring off by writing rough and skip instead to writing what will become their final version of the essay. Forgetting to write a rough draft is one of the worst things that could happen. No paper will ever earn a top notch grade if there isn’t time spent first getting all of your ideas down in a straightforward first draft.
After reviewing your first draft you may find some ways in which you can make your paper better by rearranging some of the content. Instead of simply getting straight to the revisions stage, don’t forget to also revise your outline beforehand. This will make the entire revision process much easier to complete.
One of the most important steps towards writing a great assignment is revising your first draft. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked and most students generally submit poor work as a result. When revising look for as many ways to make your argument more logical. Consider removing, adding or rearranging content.
It’s easy to forget to do a complete edit of your assignment. Editing is an active exercise in which you look at ways to improve sentence construction and your use of language. Remember that when you do this you should aim to write clearly and directly. Don’t confuse the reader with complicated language.
After you’ve worked on your paper for a few days it’s possible to make several minor mistakes you can easily miss. Even the best and most experience writers make mistakes that go unnoticed without proper proofreading. Check for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
It’s easy for students to forget this final step because most students simply want to submit their work and be done with the assignment. Putting in the finishing touches such as page numbers and ensuring all margins and line spaces are consistent will make a big difference in the final presentation of your work.
It might help to create a checklist for each of the tricks mentioned above. Doing so will aid in all of your writing efforts and help composing a great paper much easier.