Writing Overview

Writing Overview Once these questions have been answered, you can begin constructing your essay. Giving students the reading, writing and thinking skills required for a process like this is, to put it mildly, challenging -- for students and instructors alike. We’re asking students to give up certainties and formulae, to dive into the unknown. We’re taking away the safety of falling back on generalizations, personal experience and conventional wisdom. The process work we’re advocating here is multistaged, iterative, messy work. Library staff can direct you to valuable material. Choosing a powerful topic will set a right tone for the whole paper. There’s a simple guide that can help each student to write any type of an essay, regardless of the requirements and purposes. Whether your task is to present your point of view on a specific issue or compare different things, the basic structure of your work will be the same. Writing skills are one of the main abilities you’ll develop during your college years, from the first weeks to the very end of your degree programme. This part could take anywhere from hours to days. Background research is vital for the formulation of your thesis. Through background research, you can make connections between sources and discern which sources are most valuable to your topic. Sites like JSTOR and Google Scholar are great places to find academic sources. Make sure that the sources you find support and develop your thesis statement. The student may move from the text to questions to freewriting or brainstorming to drafting, then go back to the text and so on, deepening her analysis by asking questions. She may use a range of visually rich, active-learning methods to generate ideas, get her thoughts in order and fill gaps. Don’t start with the introduction.The introduction is where some students struggle the most, so to avoid getting bogged down, create the introduction later. This will allow you to fully form your thoughts and ideas and come back and integrate the main ideas into your introduction. If your instructor has specific requirements for the format of writing assignments, check them before submitting your essay. You may find many trustworthy academic resources there. To know what to look for, familiarize yourself with the library sections relevant to your topic. Use your writing skills to apply for scholarships. Check out our Scholarship Match to find scholarships that are write for you. Make sure you look for any spelling or grammar errors that you might have missed while writing. Before you start writing, take a minute to organize your thoughts. Write down important points that you want to make in your essay. Most college students turn their attention to the letter grade or percentage score. Many students end the review process at this point. If you want to succeed in your education, you should master these skills as soon as possible in order to craft brilliant essays. Based on your thesis, continue doing research, now with a focus on sources that support the thesis statement you have developed.