Last week we talked about writing format. This week I’d like to talk about selecting a topic for your essay or report. The topic of your essay needs to accomplish two things. First it needs to focus your essay to a narrow enough scope that it is manageable, and secondly it needs to fit within the scope of your assignment, be it a work assignment or school assignment.
The first step in selecting a topic for your essay is to read your assignment thoroughly and make sure you understand what your professor, teacher, boss or client needs. Generally you will be given a fairly broad range of possible topics to select from, however, occasionally you will be given a very definitive topic that you will need to write about.
After the general topic is identified, your next step is to narrow down your topic choices to something that is manageable for the number of pages that you need to write. For example, if you are writing a three page essay on the Civil War, you don’t want to handle the entire Civil War, as you will not have enough space to cover this broad a topic adequately. Instead, you will want to focus on a single event, person or element of the war. However, if your professor or teacher tells you to provide a general report on the Civil War in three pages, then you will want to select a few elements of the war and provide a brief summary of that element.
Writing is used by teachers to evaluate their students’ skill level and understanding of the curriculum. If you are having a difficult time writing an essay about a specific topic then the problem may be that you need help comprehending the topic instead of the writing process. In this case you can enlist the help of a private tutor, an online tutor or a school provided tutoring service to help you acquire the academic skills needed to become a successful student.
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Last week we talked about the importance of developing quality researching skills. Today I’d like to talk about some easy essay writing tips that you can use to improve your chances of passing a writing or college course. If you are out of school, then essay writing may still be a part of your life, however, you will need to edit the format of your reports to the specifications of your boss or client.
This paragraph will be for student writers. The first thing that you need to know about essay writing is that your essay format needs to fit what your professor thinks is correct. This is one of the most frustrating stumbling blocks about college. Each of your professors will have a citation style and formatting style that they like, and they may also add a few of their own requirements for your paper that don’t fit what you are taught in your writing course. The point is, that whoever assigns the paper is right. Just accept that and format your paper accordingly. This will help you when you are a professional.
When you are out of school you will need to format your essays, now referred to as reports and transmittal letters, according to professional guidelines, according to your boss’s preferences and/or according to the guidelines provided by your clients. Now you can see why you need to be flexible in college when writing your essays. Life simply does not fit within a single set of guidelines, and neither will your writing.
Next week we will talk more about writing tips that will help you improve your writing. If you need help with the technical aspects of writing consider hiring a private tutor or a language tutor to help you out. If you are a professional, then you may even need to enlist the help of a math or accounting tutoring service to help you learn the correct format for financial statements.
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