All of us have to write an essay or do a presentation at some point. For some of us, it’s an opportunity to show off what we know. For most of us, it’s synonymous with painstakingly sitting at a desk for hours. Frustrating as it may be, there are several ways to improve your academic writing and, with practice, make it less painful to do. Here are five tips I’ve seen success with as an English teacher.
Tip #1: Read the Prompt
I know. It sounds so basic. However, you’d be surprised just how many students (and adults, when faced with a writing assignment) don’t really read the prompt. It makes sense. You want to jump right into the essay and get it over with. The problem is that this is like listening to half of your boss’s instructions and then trying to start a task. You’re going in half blind!
What I like to do is follow this process:
- Read the prompt
- Mentally summarize it: what is it asking you?
- Re-read the prompt and highlight/underline everything it is asking you, ideally in different colors
- Start your outline based on these highlights
An Example
Let’s say the prompt is this:
Fitzgerald explores the differences between “old money”, “new money”, and “no money” throughout The Great Gatsby. What is his message about this changing wealth distribution, and how does he deliver it? You will respond with a well-written, MLA formatted 3-5 page essay.
Immediately, I understand that I’m supposed to write a 3-5 page essay using MLA formatting about wealth in The Great Gatsby. Now, I go through and highlight it to make it clearer to me as I write my essay.
Fitzgerald explores the differences between “old money”, “new money”, and “no money” throughout The Great Gatsby. What is his message about this changing wealth distribution, and how does he deliver it? You will respond with a well-written, MLA formatted 3-5 page essay.
Now I see that I have four things to do. Two are logistical: use MLA formatting and make sure it’s between 3-5 pages (you’d be surprised how many students ignore these two!). The other two will take more time to flesh out, as I have to figure out the what (what is Fitzgerald’s message) and the how (how does he make this message clear to us as readers). When I go to outline the essay, I already know where to start.
Tip #2: Pay Extra Attention to Your Thesis
Your thesis is the center of your paper, and it’s easily the most important part. If you really want to improve your academic writing, this is where to focus the majority of your initial energy.
Consider your thesis as the roadmap for your paper. When you put it at the end of your introductory paragraph, you’re telling the reader what to expect in your paper. Essentially, you’re saying, “I’m going to answer your prompt of X, and my argument is Y.”
Your thesis should do the following:
- Make your position/argument/focus clear to your reader
- Be specific
- Be 1-2 sentences long
- Give your reader an idea of the structure your essay will follow
Your thesis should NOT do the following:
- Be super vague
- List every single thing you’ll talk about in your essay
- Include quotes/evidence
- Be more than 1-2 sentences
- Literally say, “I will talk about X, then Y, then Z.”
- Use first person
- Ignore the prompt and focus on something else
All of these are mistakes I saw often from students, and some of them aren’t even their fault. Often, students don’t get a lot of direct instruction on writing or they are given temporary tools (i.e., lots of signpost words) that they continue to use in secondary or post-secondary school. If you want to improve your academic writing, it might take a bit of habit-changing, but it is possible.
Our Example
Let’s return to the Gatsby prompt. I know that this is a literary analysis essay, and I have to give argue and support my take on Fitzgerald’s message regarding money and class in The Great Gatsby. This is where the color coding is helpful, as I know that I have two parts to answer. Given this prompt, I now have to brainstorm the message and the how. I like to write down my ideas:
Message: money does not translate to happiness, and often destroys or corrupts happiness
How: characterization (one character from each of the three classes/settings–Daisy, Gatsby, and Wilson)
Now, I’ll put it together in a sentence and make it a little more specific. Here’s a literary analysis thesis frame that I like to use. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it’s a good start if you need help.
In ______ , _____ utilizes _____, _____, and _____ to illustrate/argue/posit that __________.
With our example, it will look like this:
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilizes the class-centered characterization of the characters Daisy, Gatsby, and Wilson to illustrate the corruption and destruction that lurk behind the surface of wealth.
Your thesis could be a million different things in this situation; this is just something I chose to illustrate the point. I also highlighted using the same colors so that you can see how it correlates to the prompt.
Please note that this is a one sentence outline of what I’m proving in my paper, that it responds to the prompt, and that it is specific! If you’d like another resource, this article from Purdue OWL (a great writing resource) also goes over how to write a thesis and gives you some examples of different types of theses. I recommend checking it out–if you want to improve your academic writing, it helps to read up on the subject.
Tip #3: Outline. Always.
So many people skip the outline, and it shows. Once upon a time, I used to skip it, too. I didn’t want to spend more time on essays than I had to, so I figured that I’d just get to the meat of it.
Instead, it ended up taking much longer.
That’s why I recommend, both for your sanity and your writing, that you spend a bit more time upfront to make the process easier in the long run. Your thesis basically does the hard work for you. There are different structures for different types of essays. It’s useful to acquaint yourself with these. For this example, which is a literary analysis essay, it’s easiest (and most logical) to go based on my “how.”
Although you are certainly not limited to the typical five paragraph essay (intro, three body paragraphs, conclusion), I suggest starting there. Remember that it’s a process to improve your academic writing, not an overnight switch.
Let’s look at how this would work.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilizes the class-centered characterization of the characters Daisy, Gatsby, and Wilson to illustrate the corruption and destruction that lurk behind the surface of wealth.
Intro Paragraph
Body Paragraph 1: Daisy (Old Money/East Egg)
–Evidence 1
—-Commentary
–Evidence 2
—-Commentary
Body Paragraph 2: Gatsby (New Money/West Egg)
–Evidence 1
—-Commentary
–Evidence 2
—-Commentary
Body Paragraph 3: Wilson (No Money/Valley of Ashes)
–Evidence 1
—-Commentary
–Evidence 2
—-Commentary
Conclusion Paragraph
Just pop your quotes in there, come up with some commentary explaining how they prove your thesis, and you’re set to write. See? It’s not that hard to improve your academic writing. Sometimes it just means approaching it a little differently.
Tip #4: Make Sure Your Commentary Connects to Your Thesis
This is where students struggle the most, especially at first. Commentary can be a tricky beast, but the formula is basically this:
Commentary=explanation of evidence + how it is relevant to your thesis
So often, students just paraphrase the quote/evidence they chose and they don’t add why they chose it. You can’t do this. As a teacher, it’s always sad when students lose points for something that they could have easily connected back to the thesis. This might actually be one of the easiest ways to improve your academic writing.
When you’re writing commentary, ask yourself why you chose the evidence you did. What connection did it have to the thesis? How did it support it?
For my example, I might ask myself how my quote illustrates Daisy’s class and corrupted relationship with money. Then, once I had the idea in my head, I would clearly illustrate that to my reader.
Here’s another way to think about it. In a trial, you can’t just present evidence and say, “Alright, so that’s it. The defendant definitely committed the crime.” You have to explain to relevance and prove how the evidence definitely shows that the defendant committed the crime. Writing is the same way.
Tip #5: Use All of the Resources Given to You
You might be surprised how much your teachers go out of their way to give you resources to make that essay easier. If you want to improve your academic writing, pay attention! I’m not just saying this as a teacher, but also as a student.
The First Resource
The first resource that is invaluable is the classic example or model. This is a sample piece that a teacher might show to the class and walk you through. If they do this, pay attention. Take notes. This is what your teacher is looking for in a paper, and it’s basically the key to success. They often tell you how they grade and what they want to see, and since part of writing is subjective, this is excellent.
If they don’t give you a model, I’d encourage you to look up a sample (analytical/argumentative/narrative) essay. Do not cheat, but use it to learn from. See how they structured it, used commentary, found quotes, and started/concluded the essay. This is one of the most helpful things you can do.
The Second Resource
The second resource is a bit more general. During class or after school, you’ll generally do assignments related to the unit. Use these! Did you do a graphic organizer about the setting or characters? Get it out! Notes for each chapter? Find it, now! A shorter writing prompt about the topic? It’s so useful!
The students who succeed are almost always the ones who put effort in and stay organized, and it’s no secret why. Improve your academic writing by not only engaging, but by also recognizing the value in the resources you’re given.
Tip #6: Nail the Conclusion
You’ve finally made it to the end–almost. This is the part that so many students want to skip. However, it’s also the part that separates a good essay from a great one. This article goes over some ways to conclude and some tips to write a good conclusion.
My advice here is pretty simple. I always tell my students to answer two questions:
- What did you say?
- Why should I care?
For me, the most impressive conclusions don’t just summarize. While the summary is important, I’d argue that the relevance is even more crucial. This tells your reader that you really understand your topic. After all, that’s what literature does: it tells you something about the human condition.
Let’s use my topic. For my conclusion, I could easily relate the dangers of wealth/class to our world today. I could connect it to the influencers and celebrities chasing an empty life filled with money and fame; the contrasts that we see between the old rich, new rich, and the regular people even today; or any of the many modern films and books we see about this.
The most important thing is that your reader understands that you understand the big picture of the essay.
Tip #7: Proofread and Revise
Again, it requires effort to improve your academic writing. They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and a good essay usually isn’t, either. Your first draft is rarely perfect, and it shouldn’t be what you submit.
Before you turn it in, hold your highlighted prompt side-by-side with your essay and check that each paragraph connects to your entire thesis. Better yet, highlight the connections. If you don’t have many highlighted sections within your body paragraphs, it means that you either have a weak support or a weak essay. A fresh pair of eyes, such as a peer critique, is even more helpful. This article has suggestions of what to do during a peer critique, and they are also helpful for critiquing your own work.
You also need to proofread your work. No teacher wants to wade through essays filled with typos, bad grammar, and obvious mistakes. It shows that you don’t care. My best tip is to read the piece out loud to yourself. You’ll catch most of the mistakes there. One or two typos isn’t the end of the world, but do your best to avoid having them.
Finally, make sure that your citations and formatting are what your teacher is requesting. There are tons of sites out there to help you with formatting, and even more citation generators (check in Microsoft Word or Google Docs). Use them! Don’t lose easy points and credibility because you didn’t do due diligence.
A Final Word
While this isn’t a definitive list of tips to improve your academic writing, it is one formed by years of experience helping students. I hope it’s helpful. Writing may not be easy, but the more you work at it, the better you will become.
With that said, happy writing! Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or other tips you’ve found useful to improve your academic writing.
