In an age governed by technological innovations, essay writing is an art oft relegated to the sidelines. People seem to be too busy spending their working hours attending to their business and trying to cope with new gadgets after another to appreciate prose. The only ones who are still interested in essay writing, and art in general, are the writers and their fellow artists.
However, there is a group of reluctant writers who are required to compose essays – students. Students are unwilling scribes who need to come up with essays, research papers, and/or thesis in order to complete their academic requirements. Unfortunately, most students enter the university ill-prepared for academic writing.
To help students, here are some essay strategies they can adopt. These are basic steps in writing – crucial yet taken for granted:
1. Outlining
Most students still underestimate the power of outlines in ensuring the quality of their essay. Most students think that drafting an outline is waste of time while the reality is contrary. Formulating an outline before going on with the actual essay writing process can save the students a lot of time in thinking of what they are going to write on their paper. Having an outline is tantamount to having a blueprint for a house and students need only to flesh out the essay later on to see it come to life. Most importantly, having an outline enables the students to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their paper outright while seeing the directions where the text would lead.
2. Free Writing
Free writing is a crucial strategy that enables the students to communicate effectively the thoughts and the ideas that they want to impart to their readers. To engage in free writing is to take a step back from being a grammar nitpicker and to simply let the ideas flow freely. The problem is that most students think too deeply of what and how to write. In an attempt to reach the expectations of others, they trap their creativity to the deepest recesses of their minds.
3. Proofreading
In their haste to submit their essay, students often forget to proofread their paper. At most, they let the spelling and grammar checker in word processor do the job for them. The drawback of this is that the software cannot delineate between homonyms (e.g. here and hear) and neither can it see through omitted words. Hence, it is still advisable the students read the entirety of their essay paper and proofread thoroughly.
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Essay Writing Strategies
Dear Johanna,
Thank you for sharing this practical help list that is valuable for students of all ages.
As someone clearly interested in education - I want to invite you, and others, to join our upcoming November on-line dialogue that will feature “Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience”.
The on-line dialogue will take place from 19 to 25 November 2008 and will specifically feature ideas, experiences and methods from human rights higher education programs for incorporating practical experience into human rights curriculums to better prepare human rights advocates for doing “on the ground” and “in the trenches” human rights work.
Your "tips" for essay writing are very valuable points to remember for a wide variety of post education writing - for example human rights reports, advocacy writing, donor reports and policy development, to name a few.
In the upcoming dialogue, we want to explore the academic and training requirements needed to prepare both the young “next generation of advocates” as well as maximizing the experience of human rights activists that are seeking to expand their educational portfolio to enhance their work.
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager