Writing essays is difficult. In fact, essay writing is the single task that college students universally dread. More so than almost any other part of college life. But essays aren’t objectively more difficult than other types of assignments, or than other parts of the college experience. So, what accounts for students’ dread of writing essays? The answer to that is simple: Students hate writing essays because most students lack essay writing skills. Indeed, students frequently arrive on campus ill-prepared for the rigours of academic writing.

The reasons for this are obvious: High schools aren’t preparing students for college-level writing assignments because high schools are struggling to ‘teach to the test’ and meet the growing number of testing requirements to demonstrate that students are able to read and do the math. Consequently, when students arrive on campus, they often have only basic writing skills. A majority of colleges now enrol half or more of their incoming first-year students in remedial writing courses. At some schools, that number can reach two-thirds of incoming students.

This is a remarkably large number of students who need help building their essay-writing skills. That’s why so many students are seeking out an online essay writing service to pay a professional academic writer to create custom papers for them. They feel that they need a reliable company to deliver the writing that they aren’t comfortable producing themselves.

So, what can you do to help build your writing skills as a college student? In this article, let’s take a look at seven ways to improve your essay writing skills. This way you can start to develop the type of high-quality essay writing that will mark you as an academic superstar.

Photo, Christin Hume.

How to Improve Essay Writing Skills Right Away

Some of these tips may sound familiar or even banal. However, we want to remind you that knowing how to do something doesn’t necessarily mean you actually do it. So use these tips like a checklist for what you are already doing to improve your writing skills and what you should add to your program.

Read a lot.

The best way to build your writing skills is to become a strong reader. The more that you read and the greater the variety of material that you read, the better you will be able to handle the English language and the writing process. Look at how great writers assemble their work. From this you can draw lessons about how best to assemble your own essays.

Each year, publishers assemble books that contain the best essays published on specific topics. Reading the volumes devoted to the topic of your major can help you to get a feel for the right way to develop a great essay on the topic and how exceptional writers make use of information and style to convey information to an audience. The more that you read, the better your writing will be.

Write every day.

The more you write, the better you will write. That doesn’t mean that you need to produce an academic essay every day. But it does mean that you should constantly be using the written word to help communicate. Post on social media. Keep a diary. Even writing emails and texts are all ways to use writing. The more that you write, the easier and more fluid your writing will become.

Avoid wordiness.

In academic writing, there is a tendency to try to sound smart by larding each expression with quintessentially verbose elocutions in order to tantalise the reader’s cerebellum. But using big words like that, and using too many words, makes writing difficult, unclear, and uninteresting. Say what you need to say using as few words as possible. Use just the right words to convey your exact meaning.

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Be careful with autocorrect.

Automatic grammar and spelling correction can be a good shortcut to help you write more quickly and catch basic mistakes. But autocorrect can also create its own problems. Particularly when it can’t distinguish between homophones or when it recommends awkward or incorrect phrasing because it doesn’t understand a particular construction. Don’t automatically trust the machine to get it right. Review changes by hand.

Pay special attention to the first sentence.

The first sentence of any essay is your first, and sometimes only, chance to spark the reader’s interest. To make them sit up and pay attention. You should give your opening line special attention to make sure that it is compelling. Some great opening strategies are those that generate surprise or intrigue. A compelling fact, a dramatic statistic, a fascinating anecdote, or a provocative question for example.

Try to think about what will make the audience want to know more and to keep reading.

Outline before you write.

Outlining your essay before you write might seem like extra work, but it will make your paper much stronger. When you make an outline, you force yourself to carefully plan each part of the essay. You can work through the challenges of structuring your paper and supporting its key points.

By doing the hard part before you write, you’ll be able to solve these problems early on and be able to write fluidly from beginning to end without having to stop and start as each new topic or new challenge arises.

Write when you are well-rested.

Many students try to write their papers late at night, after completing all of the other activities of the day. But writing when you’re tired can lead to costly mistakes. Instead, set aside time when you are most alert and rested. This is typically in the late morning. You’ll write better and faster.

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Summary: How to get Better in Essay Writing

If asked what it is the one thing one should do to become better in essay writing, we would point out that you need to be attentive at every stage. You need to pay attention to research, in order to choose only relevant sources and make sure citations are academically valid.

Also, pay attention to how you summarise the information and come up with original thoughts for your paper. You need to be attentive to so many things so your academic paper is excellent and gets the highest grades. If you are not sure you can do it right now, you may decide to delegate this task to a professional writing service. It is a legit way to win some time for tasks you find important to do well with assignments you want to pay your undivided attention to.

In the end, attention is the main currency, and you will always be bankrupt if you don’t have enough spare time.