While it is obvious that essays are an inevitable part of college life, it is the knowledge of the little essay writing tips and tricks that makes college professors happy. They know what they want to see from the college essays, but majority of students play the guessing game and hope for the best. There are secret ingredients like topic sentences and the introduction hooks that are obvious, but what about knowing what should be included and what to avoid?
Going through the college essays of all types, topics, and the levels of complexity, we have approached our tutors and asked them to share their secrets. How do they tell and know what college essay is right and not? As it is known, the best way is to learn by the actual examples. Read on to find out, my young Padawan and may the force be with you!
#1: What Makes The Best College Essay Writers?
One of the reasons why college essays become obligatory for the college students is because they help the professors see how well a student can understand a topic, argument, and voice an opinion. As an example, we have a persuasive essay, so the task is to persuade the audience (more on that coming up!) that an opinion is valid and supported by the facts.
Let us take a student who had to write a persuasive essay on Women’s Rights in Pakistan. Looking through the paper, the college professors saw that there are only the facts and statistics listed, but no argument, no ideas for improvement, and no opinion of whether it is acceptable or not.
Tutors help students follow the core purpose of every college essay — state a clear idea, make a strong statement, follow the structure, formatting, and argumentation.
When the Tutors look through such paper, they instantly see the flaws and understand what is missing from the paper, helping the struggling student to improve. You may have all the facts collected and the evidence backed up, but without your own voice, accurate structure, and a strong thesis statement, it all fails. According to statistics, it is one of the reasons why most college professors decrease the final grade. They see a collection of already available information and known facts, but no argumentation or an idea stated.
A strong essay is the one that makes the audience engaged and interested by having a clear argumentation and an opinion.
#2: Knowing Your Audience As You Plan Your Essay for College
Another secret ingredient that tutors unintentionally keep inside is that they always check college essays for compliance with the target audience. In most cases, your audience is the college professor who checks it. Yet, it is only natural that if you are to write an essay about environmental issues, you have to make sure who you target as a writer.
You may either speak to the general public or make a statement for the scientific community to highlight a certain issue. In the case of a later, you may get technical and use specific environmental terms. The key here, according to the Tutors, is planning in advance. Indeed, one should never underestimate the role of advanced planning when writing a college essay.
To make it clearer, here is an essay writing checklist:
- Choose several topic ideas and working titles before you start
- Always start your work with an outline to see if you can challenge yourself with specific ideas and find sufficient information
- Make it clear who your audience is: fellow college students, general public, scientists or politicians. Always make sure to act accordingly to the essay type requested.
- Use the classic “Introduction — 3 Body Paragraphs — Conclusion” format unless specified otherwise.
- Make sure that your thesis statement makes a proposal or addresses an issue by taking a side or voicing an opinion.
- Use only academic sources that relate to your topic and make sense as you quote or use a reference.
#3: The Role of Academic Sources In College Essay Writing
The best part about Personal Nerds is work with the sources. The Nerds will not only help you to find the fitting sources, but will also make sure that what you already have fits the rules. It is no secret that a lot of college professors take a quick glance at the sources and, if they are good enough, approach the paper differently. That is even if the paper itself is rather weak! The Nerds know of this little trick and so they pay great care to how the sources are selected.
The sources is what makes college essays unique in the eyes of the college professors. It happens because its not only allowing a student to provide an evidence and back up the facts, but also show that some research has been done. Knowing how difficult it may be to find the right sources, the Personal Nerds guide every student through the course contents by showing what sources are most appropriate. From formatting the Works Cited page right to showing at what part of the essay to include a quote, the Nerds care for helping you make the essay logical.
#4: Logic and Coherence Make Good College Papers Stand Out
This is the most frequent comment that the Nerds make when they approach college essays.
The secret trick here is to proof-read the essay and make sure that the following is not there:
- Avoid using repetitions and two words instead of one. Like saying that “the sea was blue in color” is wrong because we all know that blue is a color!
- Use the phrases and words that are not necessary. As an example, “this is because…”, “as a matter of fact…”, and similar phrases.
- Make sure that the reference to the pronoun antecedent is clear. Like “Andrew told John that his smartphone keeps ringing”. Who is “he”? Andrew or John? When writing an essay, when you say “them” or “they”, it has to be clear who or what you mean.
This is one of the reasons why we have mentioned starting your essay with an outline! This way you can clearly outline all the ideas and make sure that you will not suddenly jump from one idea to another. There is “one paragraph — one idea” rule that college professors like, so what you have to do is start each paragraph with a topic sentence. It is like an introduction that speaks of a summary of what’s to come.
Doing so allows your essay to have smooth transition from paragraph to paragraph, helping your audience to stay aware of ideas and the arguments.
#5: Personal Nerds Provide Help With College Essays at Any Stage of the Writer’s Block
Now what about situations when half of the college essay is already written and you just do not know how to continue? What to do when you do not know how to start with reflective or persuasive college essay writing? They call it “Writer’s Block”! As the true Nerds, we know that if a student is assisted in finding of good essay topic ideas, it is already half of a paper done.
In order to help you overcome the writer’s block of any kind and at any stage, Personal Nerds assist you with:
- Finding of a strong college essay topic idea and a good title
- Proofreading of your final essay paper for grammar, coherence, and logic issues
- Checking your work for strong argumentation and adherence to grading rubric
- Helping you find and polish already existing essay’s sources
- Formatting issues and structure that fits the required college essay type
This is far not complete list of the tricks that tutors have up their sleeves, yet we tried to help you see why and how professional tutoring can make a difference in your college life.
College essays are the little educational blocks that allow you to speak out and show how well you can approach individual writing and thinking. With the help of a Personal Nerd, you receive expert assistance in doing your best, progressing both as a writer and a skilled personality.
To learn more about the escapades of Nerds, please check the following articles:
