How to Write a Good College Application Essay in 6 Steps?

Want to learn how to write a college application essay? Writing a college admissions essay is one of the more challenging aspects of the college application process. Unfortunately, writing a great college essay is not like writing a term paper. If you want to submit an effective essay, you need to make an effort to breathe life and personality into your writing. Below are 6 steps you can take to ensure that your college essay is the best it can be.

1.) Pick a Topic and understand it

Most college application essays are written based on a topic. Colleges typically provide essay questions that suggest one or two topics to focus on. One of the most important aspects of writing a college application essay is to make sure that you truly understand the topic and properly address it in your essay. Once you are done brainstorming, comb through all of your ideas and narrow them down to three options that you think are the best fit for the essay prompt. Pick an option that demonstrates your abilities, perseverance, beliefs, and other redeeming qualities.

2.) Think Ideas

Brainstorm all of your ideas, so you know exactly what you are going to be writing about. There are many experiences and events in your life that you can draw from when writing. Reflect on those experiences and jot down any and every idea that comes up. It is important to take good notes when brainstorming, so you can come back to thoughts that you would forget about otherwise.

3.) Write an Essay Outline and Start Writing

The next step to writing your essay is to create an outline. A college essay should have an introduction, body, and conclusion, so it progresses naturally and is easy to read. An outline will help to give your essay structure and allow you to determine where each idea should be placed.After you have created an outline, start writing your essay. At this point, you should already know what you are going to write and how you are going to write it. Write in your own voice and keep the focus of your essay personal. Be specific and avoid cliches. You should strive to maintain focus on the main idea of your essay by supporting it with vivid details, facts, quotes, and events.

4.) Proofread Your Work

The last thing you want is to submit an essay riddled with typos and grammatical errors. You should let your writing sit for a while before proofreading it in order to approach it with a fresh perspective. It is best to read your essay out loud, because it increases your chances of finding errors.

5.) Get a Second Opinion

Once you have finished editing your essay, you should ask another person, such as a parent, teacher or essay editing service to read over your essay. This second party will be able to ensure that your writing is clear to an outsider. He or she might be able to provide suggestions on how you can make certain parts better, and they may pick up on grammar mistakes that you originally overlooked.

6.) Make Revisions

After you have gotten feedback, go back to your essay and apply all of the corrections that you received. Give it another review to make sure that you are satisfied with your work. You might also want to pass it back to your parent or a friend for a second once-over just to make sure that your changes are on point before you go on to submit it.

If you want to learn how to write a good college essay that sets you apart from the crowd, follow the above steps. Writing a college application essay requires significant time and effort, but when you are done, you will feel extremely accomplished. Good luck and good writing!

Guidance for Students: 5 Steps toward Better Writing

Writing well is easily one of the most sought-after and useful skills in the business world. Ironically, it is one of the rarest and most undervalued skills among students, and few professors have the time, resources, or skills to teach writing skills effectively. What follows are a handful of tips and general principles to help you develop you’re writing skills, which will not only improve your grades but will help develop your ability to think and explain the most difficult topics. Although directed at students, most of this advice applies equally well to any sort of writing; in the end, good writing is not limited to one context or another.  

1. Rate yourself.

 Far too many students start their papers the night before they are due and write straight through until their deadline. Most have even deceived themselves into thinking they write best this way. They don’t. Professors give out assignments at the beginning of the semester for a reason: so that you have ample time to plan, research, write, and revise a paper. Taking advantage of that time means that not only will you produce a better paper but you’ll do so with less stress and without losing a night of sleep the evening of the due date. Block out time at the beginning of the semester.

2. Plan, and then write.

For some reason, the idea of planning out a paper strikes fear deep into the hearts of most students  it’s as if they consider themselves modernist artists of the word, and any attempt to direct the course of their brilliance would sully the pure artistic expression that is their paper. This is, in a word, dumb. There is no successful writer who does not plan his work before he starts writing and if he says he does, he’s lying. Granted, not every writer, or even most, bothers with a traditional formal outline with Roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numerals, lowercase letters, lowercase Roman numerals, and so on. An outline can be a mind map, a list of points to cover, a statement of purpose, a mental image of your finished paper even, if you’re good, and the first paragraph you write. See the introduction to this post? That’s an outline: it tells you what I’m going to talk about, how I’m going to talk about it, and what you can expect to find in the rest of the paper.

Whatever form it takes, an effective outline accomplishes a number of things. It provides a ruler to measure your progress against as you’re writing. It acts as a reminder to make sure you cover your topic as fully as possible. It offers writing prompts when you get stuck. A good outline allows you to jump back and forth, attacking topics as your thinking or your research allows, rather than waiting seeing what you write on page six before deciding what you should write about on page seven. Finally, having a plan at hand helps keep you focused on the goals you’ve set for the paper, leading to better writing than the “making it up as you go along” school of writing to which most students seem to subscribe.

3. Start in the middle.

 One of the biggest problems facing writers of all kinds is figuring out how to start. Rather than staring at a blank screen until it’s burned into your retinas trying to think of something awe-inspiring and profound to open your paper with, skip the introduction and jump in at paragraph two. You can always come back and write another paragraph at the top when you’re done — but then again, you might find you don’t need to. As it turns out, the first paragraph or so are usually the weakest, as we use them to warm up to our topic rather than to do any useful work.

4. Write crappy first drafts.

 Give up the fantasy of writing sterling prose in your first go-around. Write secure in the knowledge that you can fix your mistakes later. Don’t let the need to look up a fact or to think through a point get in the way of your Whiteley flow just put a string of x’es or note to yourself in curly brackets and move on. Ignore the rules of grammar and format just write. You can fix your mistakes when you proofread. What you write doesn’t matter, what you rewrite is what matters.

5. Don’t copy.

 Plagiarism is much more than lifting papers off the Internet it’s copying phrases from Wikipedia or another site without including a reference and enclosing the statement in quotes, it’s summarizing someone else’s argument or using their data without noting the source, it’s including anything in your paper that is not your own original thought and not including a pointer to where it comes from. Avoid ever using another person’s work in a way that even suggests it is your own.

Be sparing in your use of other people’s work, even properly cited. A paper that is essentially a string of quotes and paraphrases with a minimum of your own words is not going to be a good paper, even though each quote and paraphrase is followed by a perfectly formed reference.

How Writing Services Make College Life Easier?

From their first year of study the graduates get ready to work on their final paper which has to demonstrate their professional qualification and right to work in their major. Still from the initial preparation alumni run into constant disaffection for that kind of assignments: essays, dissertations, research papers etc. Such sort of work is executed recklessly and is often done the night before the deadline. That evokes a dilemma: whether the student is too lazy to blame or the institution is so imperfect?

The most important role of the term paper is real only if the student accurately processes many links and does everything alone. In case you copy and paste the content found via the web, it makes more sense to purchase it than wasting your time in such a useless manner. Preparing a task by you takes a lot of time and effort. Possibly, if the terms were more down-to-earth, more students would have tried to finish the papers without any assistance. It is extremely hard to review and process that amount of materials or mark every possible excerpt when writing the assignment.

Whenever student is given with the task to write a college essay, then he is been expected by the teacher to show creativity as one he shows in his works as well as college essay is been taken seriously. Main idea to make student write a college essay is seeing how much that he has learnt at that period. The college essay need to be sound and essay writing remains one of most written assignments that college students have since it reveals consciousness of problem, and presents their capability for think logically & critically, and demonstrates & develops writing skills. Knowing all good intentions, which your teacher has while assigning that custom essay writing to the students, we are aware of the possible problems that might stop students to copy with task. Problems stated above will not give anyone right to call any students lazy bone or else something of that type. On contrary, the students are proud of ability to find out right application to the skills.

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6 Simple Steps to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

Many bloggers find writing threatening. Even if their idea for a post is great, its completing might not always be easy. The good news is writing skills can be perfected. It takes lots of motivation, discipline and a willingness to learn, but the results can substantially improve your style and help you create more engaging posts. Here are 6 simple steps to set you on the right track to help you improve your writing skills.

Perhaps you have dreams of becoming the next Great Novelist. Or maybe you just want to be able to better express your thoughts and ideas more clearly. Whether you want to improve your writing skills as a creative writer or simply perfect your skills for schoolwork, you can take some steps to learn how to be a better writer. Becoming a great writer or even a good writer takes practice and knowledge, but with enough hard work perhaps someday somebody will aspire to be the next you

1. Get your basics

This is the first step every writer should take to improve their skills. If you want to excel at writing, you’ll need to have a firm grasp on grammar, spelling and syntax. Always write with your spell-check on to avoid typos and don’t hesitate to use a thesaurus tool for enriching your wording. Always proofread your post before publishing it. Only then will you be able to spot grammar mistakes like mixed tenses. Using present and past or future tense in one paragraph might seem like a good idea, but readers might find it confusing.

2. Use strong words. 

Good writing, whether it’s in a novel or a scholarly essay, is precise, evocative and spiced with the unexpected. Finding the right verb or adjective can turn an uninspired sentence into one people will remember and quote for years to come. Look for words that are as specific as possible. Try not to repeat the same word over and over unless you are trying to build a rhythm with it. Practice makes perfect, but in order to gain an insight into what good writing is supposed to look like, make sure to follow blogs that offer top-notch content. Reading on a regular basis is the first step to developing writing skills. Don’t be afraid to imitate those who you consider masters of the craft.

3. Join training or writing cluster

This is probably the best idea for writers who want to polish their skills. If you think a writing workshop is like therapy, where people read excerpts of their journals and basically bare their souls to the world, you’re simply wrong.
4. Find a writing partner & be it simple

Having your post proofread by another person is really important. The perspective of a writing partner is crucial to make your post work for larger audiences. If your post is too difficult to understand or its structure is unclear, your writing buddy will let you know. Use simple language to clearly communicate your idea. You’re writing for the web, so avoid unnecessary embellishments. Instead, be illustrative and write to the point. When choosing your wording, don’t go for advanced or archaic terms nobody understands – you won’t inspire anyone to keep reading if they need a dictionary handy.
5. Cut the josh.
Good writing is simple, clear and direct. You don't get points for saying in 50 words what could be said in 20, or for using multi-syllable words when a short one does just as well. Good writing is about using the right words, not filling up the page. It might feel good at first to pack a lot of ideas and details into a single sentence, but chances are that sentence is just going to be hard to read. If a phrase doesn't add anything valuable, just cut it

6. Check your own writing

Sometimes it’s a good idea to take a trip down the memory lane and review your past writing. Seeing the way in which you structured your first post will help you to realize how you’ve progressed and developed your skills. Don’t shy away from admitting your development. Acknowledge your achievement and congratulate yourself on all the hard work done to get where you are right now as a writer.

How to Make a Longer Essay

It’s somewhat difficult to make demands on essays for students – demanding that they have 500 words, for example, leads to really, really, very, extremely superfluous lists of adjectives and describing words like this sentence to up the word count. Other teachers use the page count as a metric of completion. But what happens when you have 4 and half pages done of your five page essay? There are plenty of writing techniques to flesh ideas out and make it longer, but I’m assuming that your essay is perfect as it is and you want a more technological answer. Here are a few techniques that have served me well. I use them all the time.

FONT CHOICE &SIZE

First, font or font size is a fairly easy way to make an essay longer. Some teachers demand that Times New Roman size 12 be used. However, when they forget to add that to the rules, you can change it to whatever you want .You want to choose a font that maximizes height. Obviously you don’t want to choose a font that’s too difficult to read, as it may annoy the person grading it.

SPACE BETWEEN LINES

The spacing between lines is very difficult to measure because although in most fonts the top and bottom edges vary significantly. In some fonts, there is a common edge except for letters that hang above or below the line, but in fonts that are meant to look more like handwriting, there is not. In any case, even with common edges, it’s not likely that your teacher will whip out a ruler and measure. Too large a gap may arouse suspicion, but changing an essay from double spaced to 2.1 spacing may actually make a large difference. The thing to remember is that the longer the base essay, the more they amplify the length. So for instance, if your essay is 10 lines with double spacing, and you change the spacing to 2.1, you get an extra 0.1 of a line for every line you’ve written, and 0.1×10 = 1. So, for every ten lines you actually write, you get the effect of having written eleven instead. For an essay that’s 4.5 pages, this tiny change can easily bring you over the 5 page mark and is virtually undetectable. Below is two paragraphs, the left with single spacing and the right is 1.1 spacing. This really demonstrates the potential of the small change.

BORDERS

Changing the margins of a page is another great way to change the length of your paper. By decreasing the amount of space the words can take up per page, you increase the number of pages required to fit your existing content. Changing the left margin is a bit risky since most papers are left-justified, meaning that the left edge will be relatively the same for all papers. The right margin, however, can be changed to your heart’s content, since the length of words, number of letters, and number of spaces greatly affects each line’s right edge. You can also increase the amount of space taken up by the header and footer of a document.

EXTEND TITLE CONTENT

One final way you can make a paper appear longer is by adding more lines to the header of your document. If you make it too long, be sure to have it on only the first page and not every page, as this would be incredibly obvious.

5 Writing Tips to Make Your Papers 100% Better

Why do teachers often counsel against using the first person in an academic paper? Used too frequently or without care, it can make a writer seem self-centred, even self-obsessed. A paper filled with “I,” “me,” and “mine” can be distracting to a reader, as it creates the impression that the writer is more interested in him- or herself than the subject matter. Additionally, the first person is often a more casual mode, and if used carelessly, it can make a writer seem insufficiently serious for an academic papers

1. Choose simple words to Write use instead of utilize, near instead of close proximity, help instead of facilitate, for instead of in the amount of, start instead of commence. Use longer words only if your meaning is so specific no other words will do.

2. Write short sentences -You should keep sentences short for the same reason you keep paragraphs short: they’re easier to read and understand. Each sentence should have one simple thought. More than that creates complexity and invites confusion. Pay attention to punctuation, especially to the correct use of commas and periods. These two punctuation marks regulate the flow of your thoughts, and they can make your text confusing even if the words are clear.

3. Use the active voice In English; readers prefer the SVO sentence sequence: Subject, Verb, and Object. This is the active voice. While spell-checking programs serve as a good tool, they should not be relied upon to detect all mistakes. Regardless of the length of the article, always read and review what you have written.

4. Keep paragraphs short Look at any newspaper and notices the short paragraphs. That’s done to make reading easier, because our brains take in information better when it’s broken into small chunks. In academic writing, each paragraph develops one idea and often includes many sentences. But in casual, everyday writing, the style is less formal and paragraphs may be as short as a single sentence or even a single word.

5. Edit ruthlessly Shorten, delete, and rewrite anything that does not add to the meaning. It’s okay to write in a casual style, but don’t inject extra words without good reason. Try not to edit while you’re creating your first draft. Creating and editing are two separate processes using different sides of the brain, and if you try doing both at once you’ll lose. Make a deal with your internal editor that it will get the chance to rip your piece to shreds; it will just need to wait some time

Really Simple Ways to Impress Your Teacher in Colleges

Some of the most important people you will ever meet are the teachers who teach your college classes. But these folks do more than impart knowledge. They also serve as judges of your academic work and in many cases, of your potential to succeed in the future. Undoubtedly, it’s in the best interest of every student to make a positive impression. You may have another year to go, but you’ll realize that you’re in college the first day you walk into a lecture hall that holds 50, 100 or 300 students. Your teachers won’t necessarily greet you by name. They won’t ask how your last soccer game or debate tournament went. They may not even learn your name before the semester ends.

Most teachers care about their students, and they want to be personally connected. But you may be one of 500 students they teach in a semester. How can you stand out as an individual without seeming like you’re just buttering up? Here are my suggestions, based on my 25 years in all kinds of universities.

1. Get off to a good start

Although everything covered in a given course is pretty important, the first few days are crucial. If you get off to a good start, chances are the instructor’s initial impression of you will be a positive one. The phrase “first impressions last” may be cliche, but the sentiment still holds true.

2. Be visible

It’s easy to remain anonymous as a college student. You can sit quietly in class, complete all the assignments, and probably do okay. But if you want to be remembered, you need to make yourself visible. The best way to do this? Participate.

3. Put in the work

Everybody knows that it takes hard work to succeed in college. But it’s a fact of life that every student doesn’t work hard all the time. In fact, teachers often complain about students who skip readings, miss assignments, or submit work that shows a lack of effort.

4. Build relationships

For many students, individual contact with faculty is limited. Yet most teachers are highly approachable. If you take the time to interact with them, they will remember you.

5. Communicate about problems

If you’re having problems that affect your role as a student, don’t keep them to yourself. Otherwise, a positive impression could turn into a negative one.

6. Pay attention to details

Among your academic responsibilities is staying informed. Keeping tabs on class-related details will reinforce your image as a serious student. You can keep pace by regularly reviewing the syllabus for each course, keeping track of your grades, and checking e-mail and course websites frequently. And be sure to question instructors about any details that might not be clear.

7. Thank the teacher for a particularly interesting class

Don’t do this often, and don’t do it when you don’t mean it. But if you find a class particularly interesting, say something.

8. Smile and greet your teachers by name outside class

When you see your teacher in the lounge or walking across campus or in the hall, greet her by name. If the class is a large one, also tell her who you are. She will appreciate the reminder and the opportunity for personal contact.

9. Show how you feel by how you look

Teachers are not supposed to notice your personal appearance, and most colleges and universities gave up dress codes long ago. Sometimes, though, your appearance does count.

How to Write a Philosophy Essay: Rules

What is philosophy, and how is it to be prepared? The answer is difficult. Writing Philosophical essays is different from the writing another essays. A good quality philosophy essay is self-effacing and makes a small point; but it makes that point evidently and easily, and it offers excellent reasons in support of it.

Many people find the thought of writing philosophy intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We’ve put together some rules to help you understand what a good philosophy essay is, and how to write one. We’ll take you through what preparation you need to do and how you need to structure your essay and we’ll give you some tips on how to avoid some common errors. Some of the rules apply to good essay writing in any subject and others apply specifically to philosophy.

1. Make out the study material

Time spent planning is always time well spent. Work out what the question is asking for, and from that, work out which parts of the study material you will need to focus on. Then re-read the study material, making a note of where you will be able to find stuff that is useful for your answer .And although you need to show familiarity with the study material, your tutor will not be looking for mere regurgitation. Read on to find out what they will be looking for.

2. Write a prepared essay plan

Before writing, plan out what you want to say and what order you want to say it in. Get this bit right and the actual writing should be plain sailing. The structure of your essay will depend in part on the question asked and in part on how you set about answering it. But typically you’ll need to have sections where you present someone’s view, and sections in which you assess that view, giving your own view in the process. One thing you need to be absolutely sure of is that your essay plan addresses the question asked, and that you’re not going to be going off on an irrelevant tangent.

3. Declare what you are going to do

Write an introductory paragraph laying out what you’re going to do. You don’t have many words, so keep this short. State your conclusion, and spell out the various stages of your argument. This provides your reader with a map of what they can expect when they read the essay and it also inspires confidence that you know what you are doing.

4. Argue to your conclusion

The introduction was where you said what you are going to do. Now is where you start to do it, and the key word in this rule is ‘argue’. The conclusion you decide to defend matters less than how well you defend it. The tutor reading your essay is going to be looking for convincing arguments. With a solid essay plan, the arguments you need to make your case can just be written out. In reality complications or changes of mind nearly always emerge as you go along, so you’ll need to adapt when things don’t go quite to plan.

5. Notice your argument

A car journey is less stressful if, at any time in the journey, you know where you are going, and the same is true for reading a philosophy essay. So as well as arguing to a conclusion, you need to let your reader know where they are in your argument. Sentences such as the following can be useful: ‘Having shown that such and such, I will now show that so and so or ‘Smith has two arguments for this position. In the first he says this and in the second he says that.

6. Write visibly and concisely

Philosophy is complex enough as it is, so aim for a straightforward style in which you say what needs to be said in as clear a way as possible before moving on to the next point. Novels and poems call for an evocative style. In philosophy the opposite holds: you want your reader to be focusing on what you say, not on how you say it. Ideally, the reader won’t even notice the style.

7. Rephrase your final essay.

Before submitting your essay, read it through and check for the various pitfalls we have mentioned. Does everything you have written play a role in the argument? Is there repetition? Would an example help? Is the structure and content as clear as it could be? It helps your reader if you write clearly, concisely and elegantly. Watch out for ill-formed sentences and for grammatical or spelling errors.

Top 10 Tips for College Admissions Essay Writing

In the admissions process, US colleges and universities generally use three criteria for determining which students to accept and which to reject.  

1.      Previous coursework 

2.      Standardized test scores 

3.      Entrance essays

The college entrance essay provides you with the greatest opportunity to distinguish yourself from your competition and show off the person behind the statistics

1: Recognize the Admissions Board Psychology

When you have compiled all the pieces of your application and sent it to the college/university of your dreams, all of your hard work gets placed in a pile with hundreds of other applications. Then a small group of admissions officers will review each application, looking over the scores and coursework and reading the college application essays.

2: Decide Your Essay Goals

Most students want the college admissions board to view them as responsible, dependable, and academically ambitious. These are excellent essay goals, but you should also consider the essay in relation to your class work. If your class work already shows that you are studious and determined, then you may want to highlight another feature of your personality. Along with developing an image of your character, writing the college admissions essay allows you to feature other aspects of your life that are not reflected in your pre-college coursework.

3: Differentiate Yourself from the Other Applicants

This bit of strategic thinking should be fairly easy. As an international student, you by definition are different from the bulk of American citizens who apply to American universities. However, it is not enough to simply say, “Well, I’m not from around here.” Instead, you need to reference the strengths of your home culture. You don’t need to elaborate at length; a sentence or two should be enough to ensure that the admissions board pays attention to you. Remember that you are more than just an international student from an interesting background; you are a complete person with a lifetime of experiences. You should take some time to think about what else makes you different from most the other hundreds of students writing college admissions essays. 

4: Donate to the University

Remember that one of the goals of the admissions board when reading college admissions essays is to find students who will enhance the educational experience of other students. In other words, how can you contribute to other students’ learning? One of the general goals of education is to broaden people’s experiences, so that they come to realize the limits of their own intellect, and then grow beyond those limits. As an international student, you offer other students an opportunity for cultural diversity. As with Tip #3, it is not enough to assume the college admissions board will recognize this benefit. You need to highlight it in your essay. Again, a sentence or two should be enough to accomplish this goal.Again, remember that you are more than just an international student. You have so much more to contribute to the campus social and learning environment than just your home culture. Take a few moments to consider what else you may contribute.

5: Realize and Answer the Essay Prompt

At this point, you’ve come up with more ideas than you can possibly fit into one essay. Now you need to focus your goals to only three or four ideas – the ones that will make you the most attractive to the college admissions board. No matter what the prompt asks, you want to ensure you include those three or four ideas in your college admissions essay. The concept is to present a few ideas very well, rather than list all your ideas poorly. A narrowly focused essay will be much more effective than a general, vague one.

6: Write with Specific Details

The key to excellent and memorable writing is to write in fine detail. The more specific your essay, the stronger an impression it will make on the admissions board.

7: Express College-Level Diction

Diction is the fundamental structure of writing. Your word choice reveals a great deal about your personality, education and intellect. Furthermore, as an international student, you want to reassure the college admissions board that you have an excellent command of the English language

8: Express College-level Style

American proverb states, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” In other words, you want to present yourself as being ready for the next job. In this instance, you want to show that you already have college-level writing skills. So, in writing your college application essays.

9: Have Someone Proofread Your Essay

This is one of the most important tips on this list. Everyone who writes knows that the words in your head don’t always make it onto the page the way they should. Because you know what it should say, it’s easy to trick yourself into thinking the essay says something that it doesn’t. For this reason, you should ask a friend or a relative to look over your essay and check your Grammar, Diction, and Organization.

10: Pay Attention to Deadlines

College admissions essays require a tremendous amount of work. As you work and rework the essay, pay attention to the admission deadlines and requirements. Every school has their own system for how and when to file your application. Do not assume that, because one school uses e-mails and PDFs, that another school does as well. The best way to stay organized through the college admissions process is to rigorously maintain a calendar that includes, Final deadlines, Reminders of upcoming deadlines, Process deadlines

How to Write an Attractive Essay - 8 Top Tips for College Students

Writing an essay often seems to be a dreaded task among students. Whether the essay is for a scholarship, a class, or maybe even a contest, many students often find the task overwhelming. While an essay is a large project, there are many steps a student can take that will help break down the task into manageable parts. Following this process is the easiest way to draft a successful and attractive essay, whatever its purpose might be.

1. Pick a topic.

You may have your topic assigned, or you may be given free rein to write on the subject of your choice. If you are given the topic, you should think about the type of paper that you want to produce. Should it be a general overview of the subject or a specific analysis? Narrow your focus if necessary.

If you have not been assigned a topic, you have a little more work to do. However, this opportunity also gives you the advantage to choose a subject that is interesting or relevant to you. First, define your purpose. Is your essay to inform or persuade?

Once you have determined the purpose, you will need to do some research on topics that you find intriguing. Think about your life. What is it that interests you? Jot these subjects down.

Finally, evaluate your options. If your goal is to educate, choose a subject that you have already studied. If your goal is to persuade, choose a subject that you are passionate about. Whatever the mission of the essay, make sure that you are interested in your topic.

2. Prepare an outline or diagram of your ideas.

In order to write an attractive essay, you must organize your thoughts. By taking what’s already in your head and putting it to paper, you are able to see connections and links between ideas more clearly. This structure serves as a foundation for your paper. Use either an outline or a diagram to jot down your ideas and organize them.

To create a diagram, write your topic in the middle of your page. Draw three to five lines branching off from this topic and write down your main ideas at the ends of these lines. Draw more lines off these main ideas and include any thoughts you may have on these ideas.

If you prefer to create an outline, write your topic at the top of the page. From there, begin to list your main ideas, leaving space under each one. In this space, make sure to list other smaller ideas that relate to each main idea. Doing this will allow you to see connections and will help you to write a more organized essay.

3. Write your thesis statement.

Now that you have chosen a topic and sorted your ideas into relevant categories, you must create a thesis statement. Your thesis statement tells the reader the point of your essay. Look at your outline or diagram. What are the main ideas?

Your thesis statement will have two parts. The first part states the topic, and the second part states the point of the essay

An example of a thesis statement is this one for the “Winning Characteristics” Scholarship essay: “During my high school career, I have exhibited several of the “Winning Characteristics,” including Communication Skills, Leadership Skills and Organization Skills, through my involvement in Student Government, National Honor Society, and a part-time job at Macy’s Department Store.”

4. Write the body.

The body of your essay argues, explains or describes your topic. Each main idea that you wrote in your diagram or outline will become a separate section within the body of your essay.

Each body paragraph will have the same basic structure. Begin by writing one of your main ideas as the introductory sentence. Next, write each of your supporting ideas in sentence format, but leave three or four lines in between each point to come back and give detailed examples to back up your position. Fill in these spaces with relative information that will help link smaller ideas together.

5. Write the introduction.

Now that you have developed your thesis and the overall body of your essay, you must write an introduction. The introduction should attract the reader’s attention and show the focus of your essay.

Begin with an attention grabber. You can use shocking information, dialogue, a story, a quote, or a simple summary of your topic. Whichever angle you choose, make sure that it ties in with your thesis statement, which will be included as the last sentence of your introduction.

6. Write the conclusion.

The conclusion brings closure of the topic and sums up your overall ideas while providing a final perspective on your topic. Your conclusion should consist of three to five strong sentences. Simply review your main points and provide reinforcement of your thesis.

7. Add the finishing touches.

After writing your conclusion, you might think that you have completed your essay. Wrong. Before you consider this a finished work, you must pay attention to all the small details.

Check the order of your paragraphs. Your strongest points should be the first and last paragraphs within the body, with the others falling in the middle. Also, make sure that your paragraph order makes sense. If your essay is describing a process, such as how to make a great chocolate cake, make sure that your paragraphs fall in the correct order.

8. Review of the essay

Review the instructions for your essay, if applicable. Many teachers and scholarship forms follow different formats, and you must double check instructions to ensure that your essay is in the desired format. Finally, review what you have written. Reread your paper and check to see if it makes sense. Make sure that sentence flow is smooth and add phrases to help connect thoughts or ideas. Check your essay for grammar and spelling mistakes.

How to Write a College-Level Essay?

It's one of the most important skills required at the college level: the ability to write a strong essay. From biology to political science, essays are used in nearly every field of study to express research and ideas. A college-level essay presents complex material in an easy-to-follow format without oversimplifying the content. Essays come in many shapes and sizes at the college level. For students, it could be a term paper or in-class exam. For professors, it could be departmental research. Whatever the case, college-level writing is simple. It just takes some work.

1. Research: First, choose a topic. Then, make sure to research it as much as possible. Know the material inside and out and become an expert on it. This will help connect the dots between various points in order to form a compelling argument. Within the essay and develop an outline. Research facts, statistics and academic writings that relate to your topic through your school library or Internet.

2. Study: After immersing yourself in your research and learning all there is to know about the topic, analyze the information. Don’t think just surface level- what is the author actually saying? What is his or her argument and why is he or she trying to prove that point? Is the author accurate? Credible? Dissect their piece and read like the author.Conventions are methods used in writing to enhance the product and make it more readable and understandable. They also determine what category or genre the piece belongs in. Types of conventions include but are not limited to mechanics, format, sentence structure, and word usage

3. Take your stance and form your argument: While researching and your argument are forming, mark pieces of evidence in the research that could be useful pieces of evidence for your paper. Don’t be afraid to mark more than you need because it’ll give you more options later on when you finalize what evidence you’re using.

4. Free write: This is a part of brainstorming. At this point, a million different ideas and connections are forming in your head and it is important to get them all out. Don't pay attention to the format or flow. In fact, use a pen to keep yourself from erasing anything because everything that comes out is important. Just write and write for ten minutes straight and get everything in your head on paper. Later, you will shift through it all and pick out the most important points that fit together the best.

5. Construct your thesis: What your essay is going to be about. The thesis sentence is generally located in the final sentence of your introduction. Synthesize your main points and argument of the paper into a coherent sentence or two. This doesn’t need to be permanent and is subject to change. It will serve as a guideline for the paper in the time being.

6. Create an outline: Next, make an outline of your essay. Separate your points into appropriate paragraphs and write notes about what you are going to include. After you have this all written down, ensure your ideas flow and you have enough points by picking evidence for each point.

Go back through the evidence you marked earlier or flip through your research again to find additional evidence if it does not sufficiently back up your claims. After this is complete and your outline logically flows, you are ready to begin writing.

7. Write your introduction: Provide a preview of what you're presenting in your essay. Explain what you're arguing and how you're going to argue that point. Compose your introduction that starts with a hook to capture the reader’s attention. In the paragraph, include your sources, thesis, and a “road map” for your essay.

8. Expand with body paragraphs: Make sure each body paragraph has a single main idea. If there are more than one, the paragraph can get confusing and one point will get overpowered by the other. Each paragraph should also have a topic sentence that tells the reader what that paragraph is going to tell them. Once again, don’t explicitly say, “In this paragraph I will explain.

9. Form your conclusion: Tie together your essay with a final conclusion of your argument. Give your reader something to walk away with after reading your essay. For example, have a call to action, leave them pondering a question or with something memorable, or maybe you’ll even end up blowing the reader's minds with something they’ve never thought of or considered.

10. Revise your piece: First, set your paper aside. Give yourself a little break to refresh your mind and then come back to revise. One helpful technique is to slowly read your essay out loud to yourself. The key is to read it out loud because you will catch more mistakes that way.

11. Take time to reflect: Reflect on your writing, the process of how you completed it, and how you feel about your work. This process identifies the positives and the negatives of the paper, which could help improve it. Write down what you consider to be the downfalls of your paper and you can even go back to the revision stage and fix these once they are identified.

Why are Students Poorly Prepared to Write Essays?

When students lack skills in these areas, their writing may be unsatisfactory in multiple ways – from poor grammar and syntax to unclear organization to weak reasoning and arguments. Complicating matters is the fact that many students’ reading skills are also poor. For example, if they cannot recognize the main point of an argument in their reading, they obviously cannot respond to this point in their writing. In addition, students often lack the meta-cognitive skills to recognize the areas in which their prior knowledge and skills are insufficient – and thus which skills they need to work to improve.

During their high school careers, most of our students were not writing with the frequency we might expect, nor were they doing the types of writing that we will require of them in their college years.
One of the essential skills of students on every level of education is writing. The process of writing involves a bunch of various skills. All these skills have to be mastered completely and should include: 

- Analytical comprehension
- Reading comprehension
- Writing skills
- planning a writing strategy
- organizing ideas effectively
- Effectively marshaling evidence and using sources appropriately 
- communicating ideas clearly and concisely; o constructing a reasoned, demonstrable argument; 
- writing mechanics: grammar, sentence structure, spelling, etc.

These skills represent writing from various aspects and lacking only one of the skills can be very unsatisfactory. For example, if a student does not have an ability to understand the main point of the text listening to it, he definitely cannot write a good response to the text. Reading and listening skills are very important components of writing. 

The problem of writing also has another educational aspect. During previous years in school the students are required mostly to support and offer opinions, which are relatively easy tasks if compared to that they are going to write in college. If they enter college or university, the papers they need to write are much more difficult. They will require not only personal opinion of the writer but selecting the best of works in the subject area, prioritizing discoveries and use others to prove own point. For example, they are required to propose a complex solution, criticize a point of view of another writer, discover a problem and offer ways for resolving. All these goals by students may be only achieved if supported by relevant works in the area. 

Furthermore, the students need to shape their essay writing to capture attention of other viewers and revise if necessary. As survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed, more than a half of students that enter college have never written an essay that is longer than five pages. This suggests that many students do not have necessary skill set because they do not understand the complexity of college writing. In order to build a reasonable argument, you have to use works of other scientists, results from studies and personal observations. Everything that is written should be supported.

Besides, students may have many bad habits that need to be UN-learned in college. For example, some student may use awkward grammatical instructions because they were told to avoid first person writing in school by their teachers. It is fair to say that it is normal for a student to come to college and continue to improve his or her skills because college writing is a complex process that requires most of the knowledge and skills of young writers. So all mentioned aspects are the reasons why school students have poor writing skills. Be sure to improve your own abilities before you enter a college. It is an important stage in life so you need to be prepared as much as you can.