<p>My essays suck, so can anyone recommend anything to help improve them? I'm considering buying Sparknote's How to Write an Essay. Has anyone used it or know of a better book?</p>
<p>english essays? philosopy essays? history essays? what kind?</p>
<p>Writing essays is completely different, depending on the department, discipline, and professor.</p>
<p>well, any essay you write, you have to have a thesis. and one of the things most people miss are actually to answer the prompt. some people stray from answering the question, and that's why they get docked points. don't focus on flowery language. what you should do before you even start to write is to draft an outline. the outline should have what you want to write about. and be sure to answer the question in your outline. if you have a good outline, you can have a good paper. some teachers might not read your essays before you turn them in, but they will most likely look at your outline.</p>
<p>Mainly writing English essays, but I just really need help on how to organize them, make them interesting, and make my sentences longer. It's pretty much just the basic stuff I need help on and then I really need help on writing a thesis (btw, do you have to use them on all essays?) and the opeing and closing paragraphs.</p>
<p>I'm going to be taking college comp 1 this semester and I am so scared about not doing good on the essays. On my senior term paper, the teacher said that my sentences were too short and my paragraphs were too small. I just don't really know how to help myself get better on them and my class will be online, so I doubt I'll be able to get much help from him.</p>
<p>Evaluate your teacher/professor to see if s/he is just interested in the subject, or also knows how to write (with a sizable vocabulary). I got docked a ridiculous number of points last semester (in a required writing class) for using "big" and "technical" terms like axiomatic/contingent/contingency/etc. As for basic writing tips... I don't know really, you'll improve through experience, I suppose. Ask people you know (whom you consider to be good writers) to critique your essays/papers.</p>
<p>maybe you should consider taking it in person if you can. just to have a one on one interaction. but if not, your campus should have a writing center. (mine had several general ones, and a writing center for almost every department). </p>
<p>do you understand the texts? sometimes it's hard to expand your thoughts if you don't really understand what you just read or you don't know what you want to say. </p>
<p>yes. you should have a thesis (some people call this something else) in every paper. but a thesis is really what the point of your essay is. and every essay should have some point to it, otherwise why write it? theses usually argue or prove something. however, some are harder to detect in others' essays. </p>
<p>i don't know if i should recommend this, but one way i write my conclusion is to just rephrase the introduction, and add a little more. i mean, the intro is just introducing your paper topic, and the conclusion is just quickly rephrasing your paper in one paragraph. and i might start a little intro first, but i can add to it more after i've written the body paragraphs.</p>
<p>Oh, with conclusions, I usually (if it's applicable to the particular paper) rewrite my intro while looking ahead to the future, if you get my drift. I tend to give it a slightly different (and perhaps less objective) tone than my introduction.</p>
<p>Don't worry too much about the conclusion. My high school English teacher told us that a good conclusion won't save a bad paper, and a mediocre conclusion won't destroy a good paper. After all, you're not doing any analysis or introducing new ideas in the conclusion; you're just reiterating everything in a concise manner.</p>
<p>Outlines work for longer papers. I prefer having a brief outline in my head and just going with it for shorter assignments. But since you have organization problems, it might be a good idea to have a detailed outline (and like someone suggested, ask your professor to go over it).</p>
<p>As for making sentences longer... Well, another high school English teacher told my class that sometimes the complexity of your ideas is reflected in the complexity of your sentences. (And when you say short, how short are you talking?) That doesn't necessarily mean that you have bad ideas, but maybe this problem isn't entirely separate from your trouble with organization and forming theses.</p>
<p>Just wondering, do you read for pleasure? Poor writers usu. never read.</p>
<p>There are actually plenty of good writing guides out on the internet. You could also ask your professor for one.</p>
<p>It's best to use a thesis in most formal papers. A thesis needn't be in a specific place. A lot of English teachers in junior high teach their students to make it "the second sentence in the first paragraph" or whatever, but that's just to simplify things.</p>
<p>For example, my senior thesis (college) was on the ethics of mass persuasion and manipulation. The first 2 pages (out of 20) were an introduction to the topic and established the importance of the topic. It wasn't until the end of the 1st paragraph of the 3rd page, that I stated the thesis; however, the thesis was predictable based on the previous 2 pages of writing. Additionally, the thesis was followed by a procedural statement that gives the reader a structure he or she can expect me (as the writer) to follow for the remainder of the paper.
The thesis and statement was as follows:
[quote]
Considering the power of these direct attacks on human nature, it is imperative that ethical limits be set on the use of psychological warfare in various areas of society, including marketing and advertising by businesses, as well as manipulative efforts on the part of religious and charitable organizations.
...
This paper, then, strives to answer the question of what is ethical in terms of the use of persuasion by marketing and advertising campaigns and religious organizations. The use of each major type of manipulative persuasion will be examined. Furthermore, it will be argued through Kantian ethics that the use of persuasive techniques that bypass a person’s rational thinking are ethically wrong.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>FYI... a bad conclusion WILL destroy a good paper, although nothing can save a bad one except a rewrite (and possibly a topic change)!</p>
<p>Your conclusion is where you tell the world how to actually make use of your paper. If your paper concludes poorly, then you may as well have not written the paper, since anyone who reads it is likely to forget about it very quickly.</p>
<p>Niddumas has a good point w/ the question about whether you read for pleasure! Reading others' writing can drastically improve your own!</p>
<p>1) Go to writing center at your college or, if you have one at your high school, go there
2) Get: On Writing Well by William Zissner
3) Get Strunk/White
4) Read good writers on whatever topic you're writing about: EB White for essays, essays in the Economist for academic papers, etc.
5) Good luck! Writing is hard work, it won't come easily.</p>
<p>I think that if I read for pleasure that my writing could be better, but I just can't ever seem to find a book I want to read or have the time to read. I've been asking people for names of some good books and I have started a To Read list. I try to read my local newspaper, but it seems like the writers are just as bad as me and I'm really not interested in any of the subjects.</p>
<p>I've thought about taking a college writing class, but I'd hate to take a class that is solely writing and it hurt my GPA, but I think thats maybe just a risk I need to take. My college does have a writing center and I think I'll try it out before I sign up for the college writing course.</p>
<p>I think my problem with the short sentences and paragraphs on my term paper might have had something to do with my inability to find a whole lot of information on the subject and my complete lack of interest.</p>
<p>I think I might just have to make time to read books during the weekends.</p>
<p>You don't have to read books to write well.</p>
<p>Read a lot of the sports section in newspapers. That REALLY helps.</p>