UK Essay Writing Advice: November 2009

Writing Essays to Educate

One purpose of your essay is to be able to impart knowledge to your readers about a certain subject or topic. Aside from providing the answers that the professors require, you must also be able to write it in an approach that is more accessible to your readers. Thus, you should be clear on the messages that you wish to deliver through your essays. Each sentence and paragraph should be properly integrated and written in a logical organisation.

An important thing that you should remember when putting sentences together is to maintain the unity of thought. This means that the sentences that develop a paragraph should relate to one another as a cohesive unit. You can start with making the three-part structure as comprehensive as possible. The essay must have an interesting introduction, a convincing body and a strong conclusion. To ensure that the thoughts are properly deposited to the readers, you can simplify new terms and specific concepts introduced in the essay by providing definitions and examples.

To keep the readers from getting confused and misinformed, you can also make use of transition words that often help iron out the transition between two paragraphs. Examples of these words and phrases include however, therefore, as a result, in conclusion, thus, on the other hand, in comparison and in spite of, among others. This is especially useful if you have to introduce an opposing view or a different aspect of your topic. Using transition words prevents your readers from getting unexpectedly confused with an abrupt shift of ideas.

You must also be able to validate the authenticity of research data you have included in their essays to prevent your readers from acquiring faulty information.

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Where to Look for Essay Writing Services

If the students’ coursework becomes too tough for them to handle, they are inclined to look for help elsewhere. An example would be their essay writing task. If they feel that their essays are not good enough to be passed off to their professors, they can ask for feedback from their friends and colleagues. Another person can always look for additional errors that have been overlooked by the original writers, and that is the advantage of having somebody else look over one’s own work.

There is a loophole to this kind of system, however. Though there are second opinions made on the essay that was written, a colleague’s opinion can only get so far. Some of them may also be worrying about their own essay writing assignments. They can spot grammar errors and some faulty logical points, but the critique that they will offer will not be as sound as the ones students can get from professionals. Students can also look for free sample essays and essay help tips from online sites, but they may not be as specific as those that the students really need.

A viable solution that students can opt is to look for essay writing services online. There are online freelance essay writing consultants who they can contact for their essay writing concerns. There are also several online essay experts who have blogs of their own; students can look through the posts to loom for pointers and other essay writing tips that they can use. Another viable—and quite prominent –option that students can take is to make use of essay writing services from legitimate UK essay writing companies. Custom essay writing services have in-house professional writers and researchers who have the experience and extensive academic background to write the essays that students require. Essay writing services can write custom essays that students can use as a reference for their own essay writing task. A custom essay is a good source for creating effective essay outlines, drafts and other viable references. Aside from custom writing, essay writing companies may also offer editing and marking services for students who want well-rounded professional feedback for the essays they have written.

The World Wide Web provides a wide source of sites that offer essay writing services. To make sure that the company you have chosen to commission is legitimate, take careful note of the company profile and the rates that they offer—professional writers do not charge low fees for their expertise.

The Importance of an Essay Outline

An essay writing task is hard to complete if you do not know where or how to start. It is important that you already have an essay outline you can use so you have a guide on how you can start your essay draft before it is revised and passed off to your professor. It is exactly called the skeleton of your essay since it notes the points that you want to include in your essay, including what you want to add in your three-part essay structure.

The advantage of an essay outline is that you can easily add ideas into your essay without fear that any information you have added will be lost. It also enables you to organise your ideas before writing—and that makes your entire essay writing task much easier. With an outline, you can easily see what needs to be strengthened in your essay and what points need to be omitted to maintain the flow and focus of your essay. Your mind can also easily recall the flow of your essay writing assignment since you have created an outline beforehand. The essay outline also allows you to focus on your research. Since you already noted the points that you need to expound and support with facts, you also know what resources to look for.

There are different kinds of outlines according to purpose and structure. Essay outlines that are used according to purpose are called preliminary and final outlines. A preliminary outline is the one you prepared before doing your research. It can take form—either with arrows, lines or diagrams—as long as you include the direction of your essay and the points you need to add to completely answer your essay question. You must also be able to indicate what points need further research. The final outline is written after you have done your research. Your outline takes on a more formal structure that lists the topics and subtopics of your essay and show they are connected in your essay. You can either use topic phrases or sentences for your final outlines.

You can find many sample essays that contain outlines in libraries, the Internet and other databases. If you want to have an essay that easily fits your own essay requirements, you can easily commission the services of UK essay companies—thereby assuring you that the outlines you get are of professional standard.

Judging Content of Your MBA Essay

When you write an MBA essay, it is very important that the content you have written is more specialised and in-depth as compared to your previous essay writing assignments. It is also wise that you start judging your own content so you will gain more experience in writing excellent MBA essays at an earlier rate. As you start going over your MBA essay draft, do not lose sight of the focus of your MBA essay like your purpose, your readers, and the three-part structure of your MBA essay: the introduction, body, and conclusion.

Your MBA essay must also have a well-organised composition since you want to convey our desired information clearly and effectively. You also have to take note of the style of your writing. Your MBA essay must be able to capture the attention of your readers through your introduction; keep them interested throughout the entire reading process with the MBA essay body and leave the reader satisfied and filled with insightful information at your essay conclusion.

To make sure that the content you wish to include in your MBA essay is complete, you can make a checklist and see if your MBA essay already has the necessary information:

Is your MBA essay thesis statement expressed clearly through your introduction?
Is your introduction as interesting and effective as you aim it to be that it could easily pique your readers’ interest?
Does your MBA essay body contain enough facts, events, examples and other details to support your statement or position?
Are there loopholes in your work that need further explaining so your points can be strengthened further?
Does your MBA essay contain irrelevant and invalid data that provide more weaknesses to your entire essay content?
Is there concrete referencing to the resources that you have included in your work?
Is your MBA essay coherent and comprehensive enough for your readers to understand it?
Is your conclusion as impacting as you would have wanted it?
Is your conclusion leaving enough impression to your readers? Did it give them enough closure?

If all these questions are answered yes, then you are sure to have written an effective MBA essay.

How to Prepare for an MBA Application Essay

Your MBA application essay is probably the determining factor in securing for an MBA degree. If you cannot write it in the style that your prospective university may like, you already failed without even starting yet. It is even harder in the recent times where universities get stricter in their chosen applicants. If your MBA application essay cannot convince the university enough to include you, you cannot start studying your MBA degree. You are again, another step farther from achieving your academic and professional dream.

It is not a surprise as to why most students encounter inner turmoil when they are faced with writing an MBA application essay. Recent statistics show that only two out of 10 applicants get admitted for an MBA program. While some universities require specific credentials, you may still not pass their screening process if your MBA application essay is weak and dispassionate. You have to be able to capture your readers with your MBA application essay. If you truly are interested and ready to take a higher educational step of your academic career, you have to clearly show it in your MBA application essay.

Most universities reveal that a student with lesser credentials but with a more persuasive essay will be most probably chosen over an overachiever with a bland application essay. There is a formula in writing the perfect MBA application essay so you can be easily accepted by your chosen university. The first thing to do is to prepare for it. Prepare the content you want to include in your MBA application essay. You may even make a checklist to make sure that all these things have been covered.

Essentially, an MBA application essay must provide the following:

• Statement of purpose. If you really find the MBA course interesting, then prove it. Cite reasons, events and examples that show how interested you are with the MBA course and why you wanted to pursue an MBA program. You can even include your own hobbies and previous activities that also demonstrate your interest for the subject specalisation you have chosen for your MBA. You must also be able to provide sufficient reason at your chosen university.

• Proof of credentials. For most universities, it is not enough that you are interested; your aptitude results must also have a say regarding it. This is where your GPA (Grade Point Average), GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) results and relative work experience come in full play. The results you reveal must show your readiness and capability in studying for an MBA degree.

Using the Harvard Referencing System

In academic essay writing, there are two things you have to remember to input: citation and referencing. Without them, your essay might garner a failing mark due to plagiarism. The advantage of having citations and references in your essay is that it establishes your written work to be well-researched and not plagiarised. You have also helped other readers by providing them the sources of your cited passages so they can do their own research on a related topic.

Although used and interchanged most of the times, citations and references are two different matters altogether. Citations are those passages you have included within your essays. References include the location of the source you have taken as additional input.

Usually it is your professor who will assign you with the referencing format to use depending on the subject or topic of the essay. The most common formats are the MLA, APA, Chicago, OSCOLA and Harvard referencing systems, among others.

The Harvard referencing format, particularly, is the most commonly used system for essays pertaining to education and social sciences. It basically includes an in-text citation within the body of the essay and a bibliography at the end of the essay. The in-text citation will include the passage used, enclosed in quotation marks, and the name of the author and the year of publication, enclosed in brackets. The bibliography provides all the details of the in-text citations you have used, like the title, publisher and location of publication, among others. The details are arranged not by order of appearance but alphabetically.

The reference you have included in your essay will vary depending on where you have acquired the information itself and how you have presented the information. When you directly write the author’s name, the reference following it will only include the year of publication. If you did not mention the author in the essay, both the author’s name and year will be written in your reference. When making direct quotations from the source or author, you also include the year of publication and page number, enclosed in brackets.

The same rule goes for writing bibliographic entries. For printed sources, the author’s name is mentioned including the name of the book/article, the pages where the passages were found, the publisher and the location and year of publication. For electronic sources, however, the bibliographic entry will include all the details required for citing print journals or books, this time added with the name of the Web site address and the date you have accessed the material.

The Expository Technique Writing

The development of a skill takes three stages: the cognitive, psychomotor and affective stages. In the cognitive level, you have to grasp the essential elements and concepts that make that skill important and how to possess them. After the cognitive process, you have to perform practices and drills to make sure that you have mastered the skill you wish to develop. It is only after the affective stage, where you have fully valued the skill and what it can do for you, can you say that you have mastered the skill.

The same process goes for developing your essay writing skills. You have to learn the basics of writing the essay and continue to develop your essay writing skills with a series of drills and practices to make sure that you have developed, through actions, what you have learned in theory.

If you are able to develop your writing skills, you will be able to completely avoid other issues as well, such as the feeling of frustration and helplessness. And any essay writing task to you will come as an ease.

Part of what you have to tackle is the technique you have to use with regard to the type of essay you have to pass. One of the techniques you can learn is expository writing. It is, perhaps, the most common technique used in any essay writing task. Whenever you pick up a book, magazine or journal, there are pages where a certain author informs you, readers, about a certain issue, topic or lesson. That is the basic element of expository writing: by providing information to your readers by explaining an idea or a process.

At school, you are required to submit essays and dissertations as a means for your professors to grade your academic progress. When you have to explain concepts, there are different ways you can use and that would depend on the writing format you have chosen. You can expound on a topic by definition, by providing parallels using compare and contrast, or by employing cause and effect. You may also provide examples and reasons depending on what your essay has specified. Whatever format you have to use, make sure that you have answered the questions that start with who, what, when, where, how, and why.

Identify what your professor is looking for in your essay first before you can come up with any format. You will be able to remain focused on the main topic while providing other details as support into your work. It must remain coherent, organised and clear with smooth transitions so your essay will become more understandable to your readers. You also have to take note that in an expository technique of writing, you must think of your readers as those who have no prior knowledge of your topic so you can use simple words that have specific meanings.

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