How to write an academic essay (with photos) - tips

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Content

Steps
Advice
Warning

Academic essay writing is an important skill for college and university students. That skill will also continue to aid you in your academic career or any other career that requires analytical and persuasive writing. For a successful essay, start by reading the requirements carefully. Before you start writing, you need to learn about the topic with good and reputable sources. Organize your essay clearly and support your points with convincing examples and arguments. After your draft is finished, you should review the entire article and make the necessary adjustments to get the best results before submitting it.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: Follow the instructions in the request

Carefully read the request. Before you start writing your essay, it's very important to understand the requirements and understand all the principles that you need to follow. Read the title carefully and determine what you need to do. Such as:
- Does the essay need to answer any specific question (s)?
- Does an essay need to present critical analysis of some source, such as a book, movie, poem or work of art?
- Is the essay's goal to demonstrate the ability to present a new argument from research?
- Are you asked to compare and contrast two ideas, facts, works of art or literature?
Note any formatting requirements. Each instructor has specific requirements for the essay format. Check carefully the formatting instructions for the topic you are assigned to. These may include space requirements, overall length (in words, pages and paragraphs), font size, page numbering, and cover and header requirements.
- If you don't specify a format requirement, check out the textbook or ask your instructor.
Note the rules on citation. Depending on the instructor's topic and personal preferences, you may be asked to use a particular citation style. For example in the US:
- Essays on social science topics often use the APA citation type.
- Essays on humanities, such as literature and history, often use MLA or Chicago style.
- Essays on topics related to health and medicine may use the AMA style, while other disciplines use a specific type.
- You can consult online for the fundamentals of most popular citations. To learn more about a particular type of citation, look for instructions for that type of citation in the bookstore or school library.
Clarify when there is a problem. Do not hesitate to ask your teacher any questions about the topic. Most teachers will be happy to explain anything that isn't clear, or give you helpful advice on how to approach the problem.
Narrow topic. Unless you are assigned a very specific topic, you will usually have to choose to focus on one particular topic. Before you start writing, define the main point of your essay and how you will approach it. Choose a topic that interests you or that elicits a particular question you want to answer. advertisement

Part 2 of 4: Learn about your topic

Make use of the school's resources to build your reference portfolio. The first step in writing academic papers is to find good sources. Start by going to your library's website and finding keywords related to your topic. You can also use e-scholarly materials like WorldCat, JSTOR, Google Scholar, or ResearchGate.
- You may have to sign in with your student or academy code or use your library or school computers to access many online academic databases.
- Or you can start building a catalog of references by looking at the reference list in your topic's overview, such as an encyclopedia section.
- Your instructor, or the school librarian, may be able to suggest some good resources for your topic.
Choose the right reference source. Look for sources that are reputable, have a clear origin, and are up to date. Ideally, most of your references should have been published within the past 5-10 years. Academic books and reviews from academic journalists as well as articles from major newspapers are generally accepted sources. Avoid using popular publications and user-contributed websites, such as Wikipedia.
- While Wikipedia is often unreliable and is not seen as the right reference for most scholarly articles, it can still be a good starting point for your research. Check out the “References” section of the Wikipedia article on your topic for helpful resources.
Read the source carefully. An information coming from reputable sources (such as a peer-reviewed journal, academic book or news article) is not necessarily accurate. Consider the following points in the research process:
- Where did the author get the information? Have they come up with reliable sources?
- Can the author give convincing arguments to support their point?
- Is the presentation or interpretation of the author's information clearly influenced by certain prejudices or agendas?
Incorporate primary sources if possible. Primary references are any kind of direct argument about your topic. Depending on the topic, it could be a video of the event, data from a lab, interviews with witnesses, or historical documents such as monuments, works of art or memoirs.
- For secondary sources, such as scholarly articles or news articles, data is presented from the perspective of someone else. As for the primary data, you will have the opportunity to interpret the argument yourself.
- Your instructor will indicate if you need to incorporate elementary resources into your research and if so how to find and use them. If not sure, you can ask again.
Review your online reference resources carefully. Although the internet has a wealth of information that is useful for researchers, it is not easy to separate the high-quality source from the rest. In general, you should look for sources published on academic websites (such as university, library or museum websites), published by reputable news agencies (such as BBC, NPR or Associated. Press) or government entities (such as the EPA and FDA). When using articles and other online resources, you should also consider the following questions:
- Does the author provide evidence? Do they have the authority to write about that topic?
- Did the author mention where they got the information? Can you clarify the source of that information?
- Is the article presented in an impartial and objective way?
- Is the subject of the article scholarly? Is its content for educational purposes?
- How do URLs end? Often times the .edu, .org, and.gov extensions are more authoritative than the.com.
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Part 3 of 4: Essay construction

Build a clear thesis. Thesis is the most important part of the essay. You will explain in concise, clear terms the main thesis you will present in your essay. Please state the main topic in 1 to 2 sentences and then start up the outline and articles to support that thesis.
- Your thesis should be presented at the end of your introduction with a brief outline of the arguments you will use to support your thesis.
- The thesis might be similar: “There is growing evidence that‘ Ode to a Tufted Titmouse ’could have been written by Georgina Roodles, Huffbottom's less famous contemporaries. In addition to the numerous poetic stylistic similarities with Roodles's known work, the private letter between Roodles and her brother shows that she was very interested in ornithology at the time the 'Tufted Titmouse' was published.
Outline. Once you've narrowed down the topic and done your research, now is the time to start organizing your ideas. Write a list of the most important points you want to address in order in which you plan to address them. The basic structure of the outline might be similar to the following:
- Opening
- Body post
  - Argument 1, supporting argument
  - Argument 2, supporting argument
  - Thesis 3, supporting argument
  - Opposition views
  - Reviewer
- Conclude
Present your thesis in detail. After opening the essay is the "body" of the essay. This is the main part of the essay, including some paragraphs presenting the main thesis and justification of the thesis.
- Each paragraph should have a "topic sentence" stating the main point of the paragraph. For example: "Poems are characterized by several stylistic traits that appear in many of Roodles' works, including acoustics, humorous metaphors and puns."
Support each argument with example, argument, and analysis. Just making a claim isn't enough. For a thesis to be persuaded, you must have a concrete argument and go into the analysis of it. For each body paragraph, you need a topic sentence (which represents the main idea of the whole paragraph), the supporting argument for the topic sentence, and the argument analysis that is linked to the topic of both the essay and the topic sentence of the paragraph.
- For example, “You can compare the phrase 'timid and tremulous twittering' in the first stanza of 'Ode to a Tufted Titmouse' with 'mild and melodious meowing' in the second verse of 'Sadie: A Cat' in the morning. created in 1904 by Roodles. On the contrary, acoustics is almost completely unused in the contemporary works of Reginald Huffbottom.
Write the opening paragraph. Before you get into the body, the main body of your essay, you need to present some general information about your topic. Usually, working on the introduction after drafting the rest of the essay is the easiest way to do it. It doesn't have to cover every aspect of your topic, it just has to have enough information to pave the way and let the reader know the basics they need to know. It should also summarize the main point of the essay and outline your topic approach. For example:
- “In 1910, the anonymous poem titled‘ Ode to a Tufted Titmouse ’appeared in the winter edition of Bertram's Bogus Ballads Quarterly. Subsequently, the poem was re-published in the collection compiled by D. Travers (1934, pp. 13-15). Reginald Huffbotton is credited as author. In this essay, we will combine poetic style analysis with arguments from private conversations by authors in an effort to identify the true author of ‘Tufted Titmouse’.
Use a change of mind. Essays should not be interrupted and discrete. Find ways to make transitions between paragraphs fluently and smoothly. You can start each paragraph with a brief sentence that links the paragraph to the topic of the previous paragraph (or end each paragraph with a sentence linking to the next). For example:
- “In addition to the consonant spell,‘ Ode to a Tufted Titmouse ’also uses metaphor many times, which has been a frequent occurrence in some of Roodles's earlier works.”
Cite the source accurately and clearly. It's important to identify your source every time you bring up information from other sources, whether it be in the form of a direct quote or a summary of someone else's idea, is extremely important. Follow the citation style rules you are using to determine how each citation should be formatted (such as direct in-text comments, footnotes, or footnotes).
- Don't forget to make a clear distinction between quotes (re-expressing other people's points with your own sentences) and direct quotes (using exactly the other's sentences).
- If you are quoting, you need to re-express the idea or argument of the source in your own words, but still state the source with a footnote or in-text quote. For example: Percival Bingley claims that 'Ode to a Tufted Titmouse' has the most similar style to Roodles' first works and most likely, this piece was born between 1906 and before (2015 , page 357).
- For a short direct quote, enclose the body of the quote in quotation marks (“”), and the source comment immediately after the quote with the footnote at the bottom of the page or in the text itself. Example: In May 1908, in a letter to her brother, Roodles said she felt “rhyme with Bay-breasted Warbler was impossible” (Twistleton, 2010, p. 78).
- Quotes longer (3 lines or more) should not be enclosed in quotation marks. Instead, each line should be indented from the left margin.
Mention opposing points. If you come across persuasive but contrary to your thesis, note them in your essay. If possible, provide arguments to refute those points. Mentoring of other insights shows that you have studied the topic thoroughly. At the same time, it also allows you to present your understanding in an objective and just way. Convincingly criticizing other big points will make your point more appealing to the reader. Eg:
- “Since no known Roodles work mentions birds, Vogle assumes that she is not the author of‘ Tufted Titmose ’(2007, p. 73). However, in some letters Roodles sent to her brother between 1906 and 1909, she mentioned 'the damn poems I was doing' (Twistleton, 2010, pp. 23-24. , 35, and 78) ”.
Write the ending. After you've covered your thesis and argument, it's time to put everything together in a concise summary. Point out clearly and confidently why you think your thesis is well supported by your thesis and summarize some of the main points or discoveries you have just found. If there are final ideas, such as ideas for further research on the topic or question to be answered, this is the place to present them.
- Don't just shuffle what you wrote in the introduction.Use a few sentences that demonstrate the importance of your thesis and its potential influence with future research on a given topic.
Create a catalog of references. Your bibliography should include a list of all the references you have used in your article, no matter how few. The formatting of the bibliographic section may be inconsistent, depending on the citation you used, but each item should include (at least) the following:
- The writer's name.
- Name of work.
- Publisher's name and (often also) publisher.
- Publication date.
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Part 4 of 4: Complete your essay

Rest for a while. When you have finished your first draft, leave your essay aside for a moment. It's hard to objectively reread an article once you've been working with it for hours. If possible, close your books and wait until tomorrow: this will allow you to see the writing from a new perspective.
Read the entire draft. As you read, look for obvious mistakes in writing style, change of ideas, and writing style. If it feels helpful, you can read aloud. Make a note of any improvements you find. You should note the following questions while reading:
- Is your article concise enough? Can you reduce any more sentences, words?
- Is the article clear enough? Is everything reasonable?
- Is the article well organized? Is there anything else you can rearrange to make the circuit smoother?
- Do the parts need to be transitions smoother?
Check your essay's language and tone. As you read through your essay, you need to consider whether the language you use is appropriate for the academic writing. Avoid using slang, idioms, clichés, and overly judgmental or emotional language. Your language and tone need to be genuine and objective.
- For example: “Compared to writing later, Roodles's previous work is awful!” Not suitable for use in academic writing.
- Instead, you could write: "Roodles' poems composed before 1910 do not have the same depth and depth of knowledge of poetry and rhythms as later works."
Essay editing. Once you've read everything and made note of any important changes that need to be made, now is the time to check back and revise your essay. When finished, read it again.
- Make sure to save another copy in case you make a lot of editing and then change your mind.
Check. Here you will find and correct errors like formatting, typing, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Read your essay slowly, line by line, and correct any mistakes you find.
- Reading out loud can help you spot problems that your eyes might miss if you just read silently.
Have someone check it out for you. In the editing of a post, two pairs of eyes are obviously better than one pair. If possible, have a friend or classmate read through the essay before you fold your textbook and hand in it. They may find mistakes you missed or point out passages that need clarification or reinterpretation. advertisement

Advice

Don't use good / and justified fonts to make your essay look longer. Some teachers may deduct points for such articles.
Use formal language. Slang, idioms, and spoken language are not appropriate for academic writing.
Manage your time. Unless you are able to write essays quickly under great pressure, spend a lot of uninterrupted time completing your essay.

Warning

Don't plagiarize. If you use other people's words or ideas and don't state their sources, you are deceiving your readers. It is dishonest work, is a form of fraud and is often very easy to spot. Plagiarism can have serious consequences on your academic career.
If you are concerned about unintentional plagiarism, use a website like Turnitin.com to check your article before submitting it.