writing a good essay

Writing to explain

Writing to explain may seem a simpler task to tackle than some of the other writing styles you may be asked to adopt, such as writing to argue, persuade and advise. However it is sometimes the essay writing styles which sound the simplest that require the most technique to get them just right and score maximum points, whether you are writing to explain GCSE or explaining a theory as part of an undergraduate dissertation. So read on below for our top tips on writing to explain!

Writing to describe

Writing to describe is a very important skill for both English literature and English language students, and may be extremely useful in all kinds of academic essay writing, from writing to describe GCSE to dissertation writing amongst many others. Unlike the similar styles of writing to , writing to describe uses very different assignment writing techniques and must be tackled with completely different skills. Read on for top tips on what to include in your descriptive writing.

Art History essay writing guide: top tips!

Although the general information given on how to write an essay goes a long way to helping the Art History student, there are some parts of essay writing technique which are particular to the Art History essay.  Here are a few pointers to keep in mind:-

Essay guide: types of essay

Essays can be divided into different types and each type requires a particular skill in approach. Some styles of descriptive essay writing (such as narrative) are less useful in an academic environment since they do not encourage the student to display critical thinking. However, you might use pieces of all these essay styles within the confines of one essay or a dissertation, for example, the overall essay may be a discussion, but you may need a section of definition to explain terms. Here’s a brief overview of the sorts of essay you might come across during your studies.

Essay help – by remote e-learning

Virtual learning environments or course management systems have become popular with many higher education colleges. A software package can be used by thousands of educational bodies worldwide (e.g. Blackboard is used by over 3700 colleges and other educational bodies). These systems provide software which tutors can use to upload course information and the more sophisticated platforms allow tutors to set up a forum for each course, so that classmates can discuss the course or essay writing remotely.

Effective essay writing: academic style

One top essay writing tip is to use hedging. In your writing, ‘to hedge’ means that you protect yourself from criticism by using language that doesn’t commit you firmly to a particular point of view.

This means you use words and expressions like “It may be”, “Mitchell’s work appears to say”, “It could be concluded that”. Academic writers use careful words so that they don’t make claims that are definite when the evidence is uncertain. This may be particularly useful when you want to criticise another writer’s work. You don’t want your assertion that their work is wrong to sound like a personal attack, so writing something like “Mitchell’s work seems to ignore the changing economic circumstances” is not as combative as “Mitchell’s work completely ignores the changing economic circumstances”.

Exam essay techniques: planning under time pressure

It’s that time of year again; exams are looming and revision is your highest priority. But don’t forget, just learning the facts isn’t enough to score you the high marks you deserve. It’s also crucial to spend some time brushing up your exam essay writing technique, to save valuable minutes when you are under time pressure and stop you from panicking when you get into the exam room.

Punctuation: commas, apostrophes and quotation marks

As an editor, I see the same simple punctuation mistakes time and again costing students valuable marks when the overall quality of their work deserves a much higher grade. Whether it is everyday essay writing or an undergraduate dissertation, correct grammar punctuation is the quickest way to see a huge improvement in the quality of your work (not to mention better grades!)
The good news is that help is at hand! Listed below are examples and explanations of the most common errors in using punctuation marks, along with some simple tricks to help you remember how to correct them.

Essay writing guide: How to select an essay topic

Sometimes, instead of giving you a list of essay topics to choose from, a tutor will ask you to come up with your own essay questions. How can you come up with something suitable for the essay format?

1. Brainstorm. What are you interested in? What would you be excited to research? If you love the topic it’s going to make your research for the essay so much more enjoyable.