Secrets of writing academic essays: developing your writing skills

Writing an academic essay is much easier to do when you have developed your writing skills. There are several easy ways to improve your skills, but you simply need to know what to do and how to do it. Basic awareness of writing requirements is the key to growing your skills. Like all skills that you want to improve, the best way to improve is through practicing and paying attention to what you are doing.

Learn how to write an introduction. The introduction is the first place that your reader gets to see what you are doing and how you are going to do it. There are several different types of hooks to write, but introductions do not end there. It is important to learn how to write the hook and the bridge that comes before the thesis statement. While students are usually successful with their hooks and thesis statements, they often are challenged with the bridge; so, you should take time to practice writing bridges.

Perfect the format for body paragraphs. Every body paragraph should start with a topic sentence that connects to the thesis. After that, the formatting gets confusing for students. The best way to tackle the rest of the body paragraphs is to think about writing evidence in the form of facts that are paraphrased or directly quoted and then writing an explanation of the evidence. The evidence and explanations should be written in a logical order that supports the topic sentence.

Do not forget about the conclusion. Academic essays need to have conclusions that act as the finishing touch of the entire piece. In many cases, the conclusion is the place for a sudden realization or new learning that occurs. Without the conclusion, the essay will feel incomplete.

Always follow the requirements. Students often lose points on their academic essays because they fail to follow some requirements. Instructors assign requirements because they are looking for specific writing skills or bits of information. If you make the requirements into a checklist, you will have a better chance of getting them all in the essay.

Take time to complete the essay. Students often fail essays because they do not give themselves time to complete the essays. It is important to give yourself time to think about the essay, plan and organize the essay, write the essay, and revise it. Following the writing process is one of the best ways to get the essay completed to the best of your ability.