Scholarship essays should be of the best quality and a lot of diligence is needed to make a proper one. But hard work alone is not enough and you also need to know the techniques of writing a best quality essay. In the coming paragraphs we will limit our discussions about some of the techniques of writing best quality essays with optimum effort.
Some of the practical hints on essay writing are:
1) Read the title carefully. Understand its meaning, implication and scope. Observe any qualifying words and keep yourself within the limits, which these impose.
2) Does a little thinking on the subject before you start writing? Note down the points on a piece of paper as they come. Then make selection and arrange them in the form of an outline.
3) Never lose sight of the central thought.
4) Increase your vocabulary by wide reading.
5) Avoid the following
a) Vague generalization and sermonizing
b) Hackneyed or vulgarized expressions
c) Rhetorical or journalistic phrases
d) Slang or colloquialisms
e) Abbreviations and
f) Unseemly and careless repetition of the same phrase.
6) Learn a straight forward manner of saying things. Do not beat about the bush. Tell a plain thing once and plainly.
7) Divide the essay into paragraphs and adapt the style to the subject and the mood, humorous or grave, in which way you are going to treat it.
8) If the subject of an essay is a question, it should be remembered that a question is, at its best, a half truth only. Understand it clearly before you begin to write. If the meaning is obscure, explain it before you discuss its truth. You can answer it negatively or positively or on both the sides, as you think proper. For example, if the question is “ Is honesty the best policy?” express your views freely as you choose, ”Yes” ”No”, or both.
9) In a controversial essay discuss the pros and cons- points in favor and against the subject- dispassionately and give your conclusion. Do not be unfair to the other side. You can do this without, in any way, weakening your own position. You can either deal with the points in favor and against, or exhaust pros first, and then take up the cons, or vice versa. The most convenient way is that you should state the case of your opponent, as fairly as you can, in the first part of the essay and then answer it point by point. It naturally leads you to your conclusion. Never be biased. Avoid controversial statements as far as possible.
10) Always remember the type of people you are writing for and adapt your style or ideas to their taste or understanding.
11) Never forget to revise carefully what you have written.
12) Sometimes students are puzzled with regard to the length of the essay. Usually a subject decides its own length. It also depends upon the purpose of your writing the essay. It also depends on the course for which you are writing.
