How To Write An Academic Essay – Guide For Dummies

Students write dozens of essays over the course of their college education. Interestingly, many students still have difficulty writing proper essays. In fact, some dread the tasks and choose to hire academic helpers. This is unfortunate, considering that it is easy to write a perfect essay from scratch. So, what goes into writing the perfect academic essay? Here are some tips.

How To Write An Essay For Dummies

• Always Have an Outline

Every essay writing for dummies guide emphasizes the need for an outline for several credible reasons. The most important reason is that the outline functions as a guide for your essay. It directs you on what to write and how to write it. It also makes writing easier and quicker as you know exactly what to write.

An ideal outline should highlight all the important points you wish to elaborate on in your essay. They should be arranged in the different sections that will make up your essay.

• Your Title Should be Concise

The first thing you should note when learning how to write an academic essay is that the title is the reader’s first impression. It captures the whole essay in one brief phrase. Your reader should have an idea of what your essay is all about just from reading the title.

As such, choose your title well and make it as concise as possible. Make it catchy so that it arouses readers’ interests.

• Your Introduction Should be Brief and Concise

An introduction can make or break your essay. If your essay’s introduction is disorienting, then it will almost certainly erode the body’s credibility. If, however, it is engaging, it will entice the reader to read some more. Your essay’s entire credibility can hang on its introduction, so get it right.

The introduction is where you lay bare your cards. You introduce the reader to the subject matter in brief words and highlight what the essay is talking about.

• Conduct Extensive Research

Knowledge has been growing and accumulating as more and more scholars make new breakthroughs. Researchers base their findings upon yesterday’s breakthroughs. This is why essay for dummies guide insist particularly on the need to back your arguments with extensive research.

Your professor will be keen on finding out what you know about the given topic, so it needs to be spot-on. The best way to make sure it is correct is by researching extensively. Consult your notes, text books, and scholarly journals for credibility. Unless you are a renowned expert on the topic, it will be difficult for anyone to take your word for it.

• Reference All Your Research

While it is important to research, it is also important not to appear to plagiarize other researchers’ work. This is why referencing is important. It highlights that your arguments are inspired by a researcher’s findings. This doesn’t mean that you have not contributed any ideas to the essays – to the contrary, it shows that your ideas have been inspired by research.

There are specific guidelines for referencing research. You need to include both the in-text citations as well as the bibliography – the bibliography page has unique formatting requirements as well. You can further consult essays for dummies guides to get the full picture of how referencing works.

• Make Your Conclusion Brief

Once everything is done, it all boils down to the conclusion. The conclusion should be brief. It should be a summary of whatever your essay is talking about. Most people mistakenly use the conclusion to make recommendations – recommendations are reserved for reports and research papers while essays are meant to discuss a certain topic.

• Get Grammar and Vocabulary Correct

Presentation matters a lot too. You need to communicate as clearly as possible, and to do this, you will need to make your words concise and coherent. Always proof-read your essays and if necessary, get an editor to weed out all the mistakes.

• Mind Formatting

There are different essay styles. Common examples include APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard. Each style has strict formatting guidelines that dictate factors such as font, spacing, and even margin sizes. Different styles also have different requirements for formatting. Again, you can further consult writing essays for dummies guidelines to get a better understanding of academic formatting styles.

Learn how to write a good academic paper by following this format. You can seek professional help if you need any clarification. Moreover, you can hire the services that write essays for money in case you’re stuck.