Tricks to Help You Write Better Essays or Papers

Good writing is a learned skill, a discipline that requires practice and strategy. Whether you’re a student trying to gain control over your essays and papers or a professional looking to improve the strength of your written communication, the following tips are quick practices you can perform to help tighten up your writing.

Table of Contents

Start with a Clear Outline

You should never underestimate the usefulness of a good outline: starting with an outline is simply the best way to ensure you organize your thoughts and keep your essay coherent. Before you get to the writing, list the main points you want to cover.

Logically arrange your points: for instance, determine their hierarchy based on whether they need to come before other points to support your thesis statement. Then, assign some research elements to each part of the outline so that additional details and all topics that balance each end of your argument are covered thoroughly.

You could use an essay writing service from academics that can offer feedback and help edit the drafts you want to work with to perfect. It is helpful if you’re stuck with some complex topic or working with a tight deadline.

Instead of spending hours and hours perfecting every tiny detail of each sentence, you can just let the professionals handle the technical aspects like formatting, grammar, tone, and whatnot, and focus on perfecting the idea.

Focus on Thesis Clarity

Your essay is only as good as your thesis, so dedicating time to create a strong one is a great “return on investment.” In a survey about common difficulties with academic writing, “developing thesis statements” was the answer most often cited by 27% of students.

This statistic reflects a significant amount of time and effort in your essay that is not a given but has to be earned – that is, dedication to crafting a solid and clear thesis.

Remember that your thesis should clearly state your position or conclusion, precise and direct rather than vague and general. Placing it at the end of the introduction will segue perfectly into the body of your essay and set the stage for a great discussion.

Enhance Your Argument with Credible Sources

Suppose you quote concrete and direct evidence from secondary and primary sources, such as books, journals, and reliable Websites, as examples. In that case, it convincingly supports the argument you are developing in your essay.

Usually, two or three examples will do the job. Books and academic journals must be the most reliable sources. Moreover, you will lose credibility with your readers if you don’t cite these sources correctly – without plagiarising them. How should you quote these sources? Quotations must occur in your essay like a breathing part of it.

Craft Engaging Introductions and Conclusions

Your introduction and conclusion should establish and strengthen the structure of the argument in your essay: four elements to keep in mind are:

Nail Your Intro: Start with a juicy hook that grabs your reader’s attention and sets the perfect tone for the rest of the essay.
Leave a mark: End with a call to action or a quote or comment that prompts the reader to reflect or act upon the topic.
Reinforce Your Argument: In your introduction and conclusion, repeat your thesis statement in different words to drive home your argument for your reader.
Summarize Main Points: In the conclusion, concisely summarize the main points of your essay, highlighting their importance and how they interconnect to support your thesis.

Attend to these aspects, and you’ll ensure your essay begins and ends with a bang rather than a whimper. Your reader will know what you’re trying to argue right from the start. A good beginning is one-third of a good essay. A good ending is twice that.

Revise and Edit Thoroughly

Make sure that your ideas flow from one paragraph to the next. Check that each paragraph leads to the one following it and the thesis. Look for ambiguity and blurriness of wording. Sharpen your writing. Modify your tone according to your essay’s audience and purpose.

Read aloud to see where your eye slips when reading in silence. Finally, proofread your essay for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

As Justice Brandeis, a lawyer, famously said, “There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” Remember that reviving, revising, and rewriting are necessary to transform raw thoughts into a well-organized and persuasive essay.

Critical Steps in Essay Writing

Outline Creation	Always plan an outline so you don’t write down your thoughts randomly, which could lead to chaotic information. Decide your main points and allocate your research to each section as you write your paper.
Thesis Clarity	Here is your assignment: write a polished and organized argument with a short and clear thesis that expresses your opinion in the last sentence of the introduction.
Use of Sources	Back that up with references to primary and secondary sources, properly cited.
Introductions & Conclusions	Open with a compelling hook and conclude with a summary of your main points and a thought-provoking statement.
Revision & Editing	Paraphrase while retaining quotes, revise for logic and clarity, adjust tone for audience and purpose, and proofread for mechanical accuracy.

This four-paragraph framework should get you started writing coherent, persuasive, and engaging essays.

In Summary

Through these moves, it will become possible to write essays and papers of much higher quality than you currently do. Good writing isn’t about rules but the endlessly more complex task of getting ideas across.