Essay
Essays, as compared to other types of papers, do not require too much effort to write. They are generally short and brief, and references are not usually required. Essays are mostly part of examinations or homework assignments. Writing this kind of academic paper does not always involve compressive research and endless hours of reading. There are different kinds of essays including persuasive/argumentative, comparison, descriptive, evaluation, and narrative essays. In a persuasive/argumentative essay, students are supposed to take a stand regarding a certain issue and provide evidences for his or her claim. A comparison essay associates two subjects and indicates their similarities and differences. On the other hand, a descriptive essay illustrates a particular subject and tries to explain its nature and everything associated with it. For example hen a professor requests that his or her students are to review something, someplace, or someone. This means that he or she wants an evaluation essay, which can show the negative or positive aspects of the subject being evaluated. Students are supposed to relate a story with a lesson meant for its readers with a narrative essay.
Although essays are typically simple and short, it does not mean that they are not supposed to be good or that students should not put in the necessary effort to write them. Students need to remember that all papers should look and sound professional as if it was written by someone with a master's degree in writing. To be able to come up with the best essay that will surely earn a good grade, students need to learn how to write in an effective way. As mentioned earlier, writing is not as easy as it looks. Numerous aspects need to be considered like grammar, style, and audience in order to properly write an academic paper.
There are three steps in writing a good paper. First is the prewriting, which requires the students to analyze and anticipate. The purpose of the paper should be analyzed by the writer. If he or she does not know what the paper is for, then he or she will have a hard time writing it. Students should also think who their audience is because by knowing who will be reading the paper, they will have an idea on how to write it and how extensive their research needs to be. They should consider what the message they want to convey to their audience. In doing so, they can arrange their thoughts in a cohesive manner that will be understood by their readers in a much easier way.
The second step is the writing the paper itself. To be able to write an academic paper, gathering data is important. Every resource should be exhausted including books, magazines, or journals. Students should also learn how to evaluate a source if it is reliable or not. After researching the required information, students should organize them, make an outline, and take down notes. Following a writing plan will help produce a clear paper that is not confusing and difficult to understand.
Lastly, students should keep in mind that a first draft is never enough. They should master the process of revision and proofreading to look for mistakes. To evaluate that the paper is complete then there should be no grammatical errors and the message should be sent to the reader flawlessly. The reader may or may not agree with the message but if he or she was able to understand it, then the writer did a good job.