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Writing Skill Tips
What is an essay?
The definition of an essay is rather broad and includes all forms of short creative writing. The informal or familiar essay type is the most popular and best for young writers. This form is the expression of the writer’s own thoughts on his chosen subject, while at the same time the style of writing is in keeping with the mood of the theme. Some suggestions in writing the informal essay are:
- Select a strong theme that will appeal to readers.
- Write to make readers understand your ideas.
- Choose appropriate words and vary usage, keeping it interesting.
- Vary sentences – length and complexity.
- Use quotations and figures of speech.
- Revise often for clearness and effectiveness.
- Start with a clear and definitive topic sentence.
- End with an excellent closing sentence.
Think – Imagine – Construct
Think about an essay just as building a house and the writer is the builder. An effective essay needs a beginning, middle, and a good ending in order to keep it together. So, think and write notes, think and write notes, then create an outline before starting to scribe the essay.
Concentrate and Focus
Every element of essay writing should backup the overall theme or topic, and writers should concentrate on exactly what they want to convey.
Beginning & Ending Sentences
Good essays start with a strong topic sentence, which is often placed at the beginning of the first paragraph, but it can occur at any point, and its position should be varied to avoid monotony. End an essay with a strong closing sentence. Restate your conclusion or theme in different words.
Spelling & Dictionary Use
Experienced writers keep a dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia close by when writing. Essay writing offers a perfect opportunity to learn the value of these useful writing tools. Although we live in the world of computer technology and spell checking, there is much to be learned and gained by writing the “old fashioned way” – paper, pencil, and dictionary. Dictionary use is an excellent way to build vocabulary.
Mechanics & Punctuation
Good writers are careful to use correct capitalization and punctuation. Punctuation includes proper use of: period, semicolon, colon, comma, quotation marks, apostrophe, dash, parenthesis, brackets, question mark, exclamation mark, hyphen, abbreviations and contractions, italics, and numbers. Make sure sentence structure is accurate. Avoid fragments and run-on sentences.
Transition
Creative and logical ideas must work together for a convincing essay. Each new idea or paragraph should make an easy and natural transition from one thought to another, and build upon the overall theme.
Edit and Revise
Write, write, write, and write even more! Revising and rewriting builds writing skills and confidence while improving the final product. Improvement is always possible. As the old saying goes: Excellent writing is 90 percent perspiration and 10 percent inspiration!
Proofreading
In addition to learning to get one’s thoughts written logically and correctly, a writer must learn to detect mechanical errors in his writing as well, which can be difficult at times. Laying the essay writing aside for a short time and picking it up later with a fresh look will aid in detecting errors. Using the assistance of others in proofreading and critical review can also be helpful in finding mistakes.
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