by Simon Wright

Created on: April 30, 2009

One of the good things about essay writing is that it provides an opportunity for you to display your best work, outside of the pressured exam environment. That's not to say that there aren't pressures around essays but you do have the luxury of being able to research your answer and devote more time into constructing an answer that will enhance your prospects of getting a good grade.

Do your research:

It's often said that good novel writing is 80% perspiration and 20% inspiration and the same applies to good essay writing. It might sometimes be tedious but the single biggest secret to getting good essay marks is to have put in the hard work researching your topic. This applies whether it's a university thesis or a high school mid term that you are facing.

A useful tip for research is to use more than one reference source. Not only will this give you a broader range of opinions and facts on your subject matter but it will also look good when the person marking your essay sees that you have gone beyond the basic study textbook. Time constraints will limit the amount of sources that you can consult but, in most cases, you can get a good feel for a topic by checking out two or three different reference texts.

Students often have access to a computer which means that information is at your fingertips instantly. However, it's important to be aware of the limitations of some online information. For example, whilst Wikipedia is a great website and is probably 95% accurate, there are occasions where it contains false information. A trip to your local library can therefore be a very useful supplement to your online research, offering free access to books that have been meticulously researched.

Think before you start writing:

Having done your research, the temptation is to leap straight into the writing stage. However, if you haven't properly organised your thoughts, then this often leads to a disjointed essay that will be hard for the examiner to read and won't enable you to achieve the marks that you deserve based on your talent and the amount of research that you have done.

It's often helpful to write down a skeleton plan of the points that you want to cover off in your essay. For example, you may have an idea for an introduction to the essay and then you may want to outline two competing theories on the topic before rounding things up with your measured conclusion. Taking just a little time to organise your thoughts will often have a dramatic effect upon the results that

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>