How to write a good essay

(Recommendations for students)

By Galina Vitkova

I believe that every intermediate student is able to write a good essay. Nevertheless, there are several aspects that you should take into consideration to be successful in writing. Some of them are as follows:

1. Study carefully the topic (e.g. a given technical text). Sometimes it is not so easy. If you are going to write an essay about computers or the Internet, use as much as possible the dictionaries Definitions of technical terms and general computing terminology and Internet technical terms.

2. Resolve about main ideas, based on an original text, which you would like to expose. Reserve for each idea one paragraph. One idea means one paragraph.

3. Write shorter sentences. Avoid long phrases widespread through the entire paragraph. You can always divide a long sentence into 2 or 3 shorter sentences. Connect these short sentences with the help of connectors like however, moreover, furthermore, nevertheless, so that etc.

4. Use synonyms as much as possible. Employ a thesaurus or a dictionary to find synonyms. Repeating of the same words and expressions in your writing as, for example, “so”, “use”, “in my opinion”, “I think” etc is annoying and doesn´t give the quality to any essay.

5. Don´t forget about articles. Check thoughtfully your essay from this point of view (see e.g. Students do not care about articles, Some details concerning a (an) and the) and prepositions (Prepositions in English).

6. When writing, remember English sentences have the fixed word order and do your best to keep it. If you aren´t sure about your English grammar, consult Ask about English,http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/askaboutenglish/

7. Reread the text and make improvements if necessary.

Good luck!