What Tips Do You Need In Order To Write A Successful College Essay?

When you start college you may find that work expectations are different to what they were in school

. You will be expected to produce a lot more independent work than before, which some students find this difficult. Once you settle in you'll soon get used to the new routines. You'll probably be asked to write your first college essay early in the term because this will give your professors an idea of your work standard.

Writing essays in college may be a bit different to the compositions you wrote in school, so here are a few tips to get you started.

College essays should have a clearly defined structure, the good old beginning, middle and end, this may sound a bit basic but you'd be surprised at the number of essays that have no clear introduction and that simply fade away rather than finish with a strong conclusion.

Most college essays will require you to take a point of view and then use appropriate sources to structure your argument. Your argument should show a clear progression from one point to the next, don't be tempted to leave loose ends. Professors and eventually examiners like to see how you get from one point to the next; an essay without a sense of continuity is very difficult to read.

Once you have a title for your essay or a question that the essay needs to answer, study it carefully. Make sure that you know what you're being asked to do and if you are not clear on this, ask your professor, that is what he or she is there for.

Don't leave your work until the last minute, careful preparation will show through in the finished essay, as will a rushed and incomplete argument. As soon as you are clear about what you are being asked to do you should start researching suitable sources to help you answer the question.

In most colleges it's an academic offense not to give credit to the sources that you have used. Most institutions will give you a little time to get used to implementing a particular referencing system, and then you will be expected to use the system properly in every piece of work that you submit.

You will probably be using either the American Psychological Association guidelines or the Chicago system, both of which tend to use end notes. It's less likely that you will be asked to use the Harvard referencing system, but you should acquaint yourself with how each system works.

You should spend some time on searching for source material for your essay; your college library should have a good selection of books and academic journals. Internet sources are allowed but should be kept to a minimum. Decide on your sources and construct your bibliography, which is a list of the books, journal articles and websites you have used to help construct your argument. A rule of thumb for most essays is as follows;

Introduction: Lay out what you are going to say

Middle: Say it.

Conclusion: Say that you have said it.

This is a general system that works for most college essays and is a reminder to stay on topic and produce a clearly argued and suitably referenced piece of work.

by: Jason Bacot

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