How to Write an Essay

Write an Essay

Tips on writing that all-important A-grade college essay

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CONTENTS
 

Edit your essay draft

Editing your draft is an important last stage in writing your essay. Good essay editing can turn a B-Grade essay into an A-Grade essay indeed its often the difference between the grades.

Here are some examples of edited essay paragraphs. The redrafts use the ideas of clear writing you have just read. Youll see most editing cuts wasted words to put the students ideas into sharper focus making the writing style clearer and more authoritative.

Original
 
Redraft
             
 

Many authors receive their inspiration for writing their literature from outside sources. The idea for a story could come from family, personal experiences, history, or even their own creativity. For authors that choose to write a book based on historical events, the inspiration might come from their particular viewpoint on the event that they want to dramatize. George Orwell and Charles Dickens wrote Animal Farm and A Tale of Two Cities, respectively, to express their disillusionment with society and human nature. Animal Farm, written in 1944, is a book that tells the animal fable of a farm in which the farm animals revolt against their human masters. It is an example of social criticism in literature in which Orwell satirized the events in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities also typifies this kind of literature. Besides the central theme of love, is another prevalent theme, that of a revolution gone bad. He shows us that, unfortunately, human nature causes us to be vengeful and, for some of us, overly ambitious. Both these books are similar in that both describe how, even with the best of intentions, our ambitions get the best of us. Both authors also demonstrate that violence and the Machiavellian attitude of the ends justifying the means are deplorable.

(215 words)

     

Authors may gain inspiration from history where they describe, interpret and dramatize it from their own viewpoint. Both George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities express their disillusionment with society and human nature. Orwell wrote Animal Farm in 1944 as a social criticism and satirical comment on the Bolshevik Revolution showing farm animals revolting against their human masters. Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities uses the French Revolution to show how human nature is vengeful and often too ambitious. Both books describe how our ambitions get the best of us and that violence and the Machiavellian attitude of the the ends justifying the means are deplorable.

(110 words)

 
             

 

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One of the criterion that was used to evaluate which of the test six search engines returns results the quickest was speed. However, it is important to note that the speed test is both a test of the Internet connection to the remote machine, as well as the time taken by the search engine to perform the search. Furthermore, tests of Internet speeds are very variable and are dependent upon time of day, other Internet traffic etc and are therefore of only limited accuracy. For this reason, no 'hard numbers' were calculated (ie timed searches). Instead, each search engine was rated based on 5 searches per engine at the same time, same day.

(113 words)

     

Evaluating six search engines for search speed caused problems. The speed test depends on the Internet connection to the remote machine, the time of day and amount of Internet traffic. Therefore, rather than use standard, timed searches, the test used rated each engine on five searches taken at the same time on the same day.

(55 words)

 
             
 

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Essay Know your Essay Subject
Essay Structure your Essay to Help your Reader
Essay Answer the Essay Question
Essay Show your Analytical Skills
Essay Write in a Clear Style
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Use active verbs
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Keep your sentence length under control
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Use simple words
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Avoid jargon
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Avoid abstract terms
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Keep abbreviations under control
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Avoid Padding
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Use topic sentences
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Link your ideas and paragraphs
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Use examples to explain difficult points
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Use quotations in your writing
Essay Edit your Essay Draft
Essay StyleWriter editing software
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StyleWriter Demonstration
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Recommended Writing Software
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