Some General Advice On Academic Essay-Writing

Miscellaneous observations on a topic are not enough to make an accomplished academic essay. An essay should have an argument. It should answer a question or a few related questions (see 2 below). It should try to prove something—develop a single “thesis” or a short set of closely related points—by reasoning and evidence, especially including apt examples and confirming citations from any particular text or sources your argument involves. Gathering such evidence normally entails some rereading of the text or sources with a question or provisional thesis in mind. When—as is usually the case—an assigned topic does not provide you with a thesis ready-made, your first effort should be to formulate as exactly as possible the question(s) you will seek to answer in your essay. Next, develop by thinking, reading, and jotting a provisional thesis or hypothesis. Don’t become prematurely committed to this first answer. Pursue it, but test it—even to the point of consciously asking yourself what might be said against it—and be ready to revise or qualify it as your work progresses. There are many ways in which any particular argument may be well presented, but an essay’s organization—how it begins, develops, and ends—should be designed to present your argument clearly and persuasively. They don’t try to write an essay from beginning to end, but rather write what seems readiest to be written, even if they’re not sure whether or how it will fit in. Despite writing so freely, they keep the essay’s overall purpose and organization in mind, amending them as drafting proceeds. Something like an “outline” constantly and consciously evolves, although it may never take any written form beyond scattered, sketchy reminders to oneself.

Everyone at Hubpages would find this very useful. Voted up and sharing. Joyette Fabien: I’m so glad you found the information useful. Thanks for your comment and votes. Really useful information shared here. I use some of them , but I will be happy to visit the new sites and use some of the new tips. The video was quite impressive. Thanks for sharing. Voted up! I’m brand new to Hub Pages and I just wanted to say that you’ve quickly become one of my favorite Hubbers. Thanks for your wonderful content and thank you so much for the advise you provided on this particular hub. I can’t wait to keep up with your work! Flourishanyway: I’m sure you will enjoy them and find them useful. Thanks for your comment. Yes it can mean that or just an idiot! Thanks for these resouces. They are new to me for the most part and much appreciated. That’s too bad. don’t give up just because a few people are twits.

See I’m using British slang. I’ve made comments before (politely) and got lambasted so I don’t do forums. In fact, I hesitate to do grammar hubs very often now! Think I’ll stick to the easy stuff! I left quite a few resources out for reasons of space. I wanted to do the ones I liked best and the ones that were free or very low cost. I’m glad you found the resources useful. Maybe you should post in the forum about American/British differences to make others more aware of this issue. Thanks you so much for your praise, votes, and share. I’m grateful to you for providing this information. I’m going to look at all of these, some of which I’ve heard of before but not yet followed up. What I’m also grateful for in your writing is that you always include the British side of things (grammar, prices, etc.).

It makes us feel more included. Often, hubs have an American bias; that’s understandable but when writing for a global audience it’s good to reach out to all of us. Thanks Mel. I give HubPages credit for teaching me a lot about writing, so I included it in my list of free tutorials for writers. Thanks for your comment and praise. I too find that hub pages is an excellent resource for writers, mostly through user hubs like this. One thing hub pages does not do is censor information about competing writing mediums. I have also subscribed to the online version of writers digest, which is very helpful and not expensive at all. I’m so glad you found the information useful. These resources have taught m a lot and been very useful and fun. Enjoy. And thank you for the comment, votes, and shares. This is packed with great information and very timely for me, so thank you lots.