Saturday, December 29, 2012

Conquering Essay Writing To Pass Your Praxis II Test!

The Praxis II test has a reputation among future teachers as being a tough test to pass. And for many, the part that is the toughest is the essay part. The essay section in the Praxis II test is meant to test your writing skills. You have only around one hour in which you have to write a grammatically correct and informative essay.

When it comes to essay writing, there isn't anything much that you can study for. However there definitely are some tips that you can use to prepare yourself to score big on your Praxis II essay section. These simple techniques have been taught by Praxis II test experts to countless test candidates and so far these techniques have not let anyone down. Read on to learn them.

Four Steps To Score On Your Praxis II Essay Section

Here are four main steps that you should take if you want to write a good, informative essay:

1. First, make sure you understand the topic given to you.

2. Create the main theme of your essay.

3. Write the outline of your essay down.

4. Finally, you're ready to write your essay.

Understanding your essay topic is the most important step to take before you start writing. If you don't know what your essay should be about, you'll end up writing an essay with a different theme altogether. So take a few minutes to read the topic given to you and understand it. This shouldn't take more than three to four minutes as the Praxis II essay questions are usually easy to understand.

After you've read and grasped the topic of your essay, it's now time to think of your theme. It's also known as the main argument or the thesis statement; however you want to call it. This is important because your main theme is the foundation of your essay. This should also take a short time only if you've understood your essay topic well.

In writing an essay, you'll need to write down your outline for the essay. This should just take around five minutes as you only need to write down what is your main argument, an introduction to it, your supporting points and also your conclusion to further strengthen your argument. You are scored mostly on how well your supporting points strengthen your essay.

The only step left is to write your essay. You should have enough time to write a clear and grammatically correct essay if you have already a good outline. Also don't forget to read through your essay again to correct any mistakes if there are any.

With these steps, I'm sure you'll ace the essay part of your Praxis II test. Don't forget to practice your writing and do a lot of reading as well. All the best!

Monday, December 24, 2012

English Essay Writing

A few observations could be made on English essays and English essay writing. The first thing about the essay is that it is a literary work that is indefinable in nature. It is a definitely a type of literature, but it is not exactly possible to be analyzed, and that is the reason for which literary men and critics differ widely in their assessment of the nature of an essay. Secondly, an essay may be written on any subject irrespective of it being high or low, slight or great. The art of English essay-writing is dependent on the adequate treatment of the concerning subject. The third relevant issue is the importance of the manner in writing an essay. In fact, it is the very manner, as a customary practice, a few observations may be made on essay and not the subject itself that counts in the essay, which has to be impressive and attractive enough in expression. The mode or the pattern of writing is the fourth aspect in the essay. There are no golden rules in terms of the narrative, reflective, subjective and so on, and the essayist may have his own choice of method. The golden key to good English essay writing is freedom of writing.

The writer is given the liberty to choose his own technique in order to make his writing impressive and attractive at the same time. The final observation in English essay writing is that there the style of the essay writer that cannot grow under the fetters of instructions. The style with which the essayist writes is the product of his independent self and may differ from other essay writers. It is needless to mention that English essay writing is a distinct form of literary art, and needs a very creative spirit as well as well as a creative way of writing. A good English essay writing depends, too, like other successful literary form, on the right interpretation of the matter and the manner, of the content and the form. Informality and freedom are the qualities of an essay as distinguished from a dissertation. The want of an organic quality and the absence of that orderly and logical mode of procedure that we look for in the more ambitious kinds of literature may be reckoned among the most pronounced structural peculiarities of the English essay writing. Essay rose because men felt a desire to express through a vehicle in which they could enjoy something of a freedom of expression.

The well-marked tendency among modern English essayists towards greater logical regularity and consistency of structure is only one among many other signs of the evolution of the literary type of English essay writing in response to changing conditions. With Lamb, Hazlitt and De Quincy, the English essay writing became the popular form in which the mind roams independently, soars and sinks. The mantle has fallen on the modern essayists.

Lucas says:

"His body lies a-moldering in the grave

But his soul goes marching on"

Friday, December 14, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - Learn How to Develop Creative Writing Abilities

Creative writing prompts are something that can help you develop creative writing abilities in you. You can develop your inherent talent of writing in a better manner using writing prompts.

Develop Your Writing Abilities:

Not everybody is capable of writing creative stuff. It is something that one is born with. However, you can develop your talent if you think that you have got that potentiality in you. With right exercise or training, you can develop your aspect of creative writing and nothing can serve this purpose better than writing prompts.

What is the Writing Prompt All About?

If you are not familiar with the term "writing prompt", then you will think that what it is all about. Well, it is simply an idea or a phrase you can use as a starting point to write your stuff. In other words, it is a technique or a way to get started with to let your innate creativity unfold. If you are not sure that you are having some kind of writing ability, then these prompts can help you bring out your latent or potentiality.

How Do Writing Prompts work?

Writing prompts are not something that will tell you how to write and what type of words you should employ into your writing. All depends on you how to translate your ideas, thoughts and feelings into creative writing. The prompts just provide you with a starting point to expressing your imagination. They are a great help especially when you are feeling blocked or empty of inspiration. When you use prompts, your mind will learn to anticipate what the prompt might have been, and it helps in filling in the gaps.

Reflecting on Your Past Writing:

It is very crucial to have confidence in you that you are capable to write creatively. And for that reason, you should reflect on your past writing. Find out some of your past writing stuff and assess them which will help you learn that the creativity you are talking about, you are capable of. Even from your immature works, you can learn the instances of your creative potentiality.

Believe in You and Start Writing!

Once you realize that there is a creative writing potentiality in you, you can start writing straightforward. You can develop your ability slowly and gradually. You can also read some pieces of creative writing to get the ideas. But using creative writing prompts, you can give your writing a brilliant head start!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts Can Help You Get Started - Re-started & Finished In Your Writing Projects

Whether you've been struggling for ideas for new creative writing projects, getting stuck with where to take existing work, or trying to find the best ways to finish off your writing, using writing prompts can help.

A writing prompt is just a phrase or idea that gives your imagination a little boost to get going, and sets you off in a new direction, that you may not have thought of yourself. Think of writing prompts as a squirt of fuel on the fading embers of your writing that you thought were were about to die out for good.

Here's how prompts can help at each of the following stages of a writing project:

Getting Started

As writers we often complain of a lack of ideas, having nothing to get us going. How to have more ideas is a topic for another article, and in the mean time, a great way to get your creative juices flowing again is to use a writing prompt.

It's best to be spontaneous and go with what inspires you at the time, so scan through a few prompts you've found, or compiled yourself, and go with the first one that grabs your attention. Then start writing. The important part is to get going, don't worry about where your writing is heading, focus just on enjoying the story and ideas that are unfolding before you.

Getting Re-Started

There will always be writing projects you've begun that have come to a standstill for some reason. Sometimes they've reached a natural conclusion, but often you'll know that there's more potential there to explore. Which is where creative writing prompts come in.

Re-read the last section of your writing, then browse through a few prompts and take the first one that interests or inspires you. Just start writing. You don't have to begin from the precise point where your writing project ended. As you set off on your new piece of writing, because your unfinished piece is fresh in your mind, you'll naturally find ways of connecting the two. It may take 10 words, it may take a few hundred, but the energy inspired by the writing prompt will connect with the point where your writing project paused, and you'll be off again.

Getting Finished

Maybe you're someone who finds it easier to begin writing projects than to end them? This is the case with many other writers, you're far from alone. Again you can use a creative writing prompt to help you, but in this scenario it's a little back to front.

Familiarize yourself with how your current piece of writing ended. With this fresh in your thoughts, pick a writing prompt that catches your interest. Now imagine this prompt being the final sentence or point where your writing will end. How can bridge you the gap between where your writing finished and where the prompt is? Just asking this question will spur your creative mind into action. Try this with a few different prompts and you build up plenty of possible endings for your writing. Then go with what feels best.

Creative writing prompts are a very valuable tool for any writer, and can help whichever stage of a writing project you're at.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Best Ways for English Essay Writing

Dr. Johnson defines English essay writing as "a loose sally of the mind, and irregular, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly performance". It has also been called, "the after-dinner monologue of an interesting and well-informed man". It has been called by Saintsbury as, "a work of prose art". These definitions do not apply to such philosophical essay as Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding or to Pope's Essay on Criticism and Essay on Man. Hugh Walker has divided essay into two types-Essays per excellence and compositions to which custom has assigned the name. the true essay is essentially personal. English essay writing belongs to the literature of self-expression.

Alexander Smith in his paper on English essay writing has characterized the essay par excellence as a literary form which resembles a lyric in so far as it is molded by some central mood-serious, whimsical or satirical. "Given the mood, and the essay from the first sentence to the last grows around it as the cocoon grows around the silkworm". Essays are "attempts", and the guiding principle is determined by the mood of the essay writer. Just as in a lyric, the poet pours out his whole heart delighting in the passing mood of the moment, so the literary English essay writing has a pre-eminently subjective character.

Charles Lamb is the perfector of the Literary type of essay-- subjective, literary and personal. Leigh Hunt in his Indicator revived the manner, quiet narrative and the style of Steele. Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review and Hazlitt in his Table Talk took to literary criticism and raised the standard of literary taste. But Hazlitt has to much bitterness to be affable; De Quincey is often too imaginative in his conceptions and florid in his style. But Lamb is critical, imaginative and romantic. The central subject matter of the Essays of Elia is Lamb himself-Lamb's mind re-acting to his studies and environments-to life itself. This another interesting attribute to English essay writing.

Walter Pater would say, "With him as with Montaigne, the desire of self-portraiture is, below all the more superficial tendencies the real motive in writing at all-a desire connected with that intimacy, the modern subjectivity, which may be called the Montaignesque element in literature". The egotism of Lamb is blended with a sweetness all its own. There is the unmistakable stamp of his lovable personality in his essays and his essays are enlivened by genial humour and impish wit. The English essay writings of Lamb may be called confidential chatters as they are rich in autobiographical pathos and wide sympathy for humanity.

In the modern century the mantle of Lamb has fallen on many writers. Stevenson in the later Victorian age inherited the tradition of Lamb. He may not have the same humour and whimsicality of Lamb, hut he has the same urbanity in his style, the same informal and fresh approach to commonplace subjects. Chesterton writes on trifles but makes the trifles tremendous by his inimitable style while the writings of Hilaire Belloc are on nothing, on something, on everything. He has a clear incisive style in which humour plays an important part in his English essay writings.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Ten Ways to Improve Your Grades For Essay Writing

It is possible to improve your grades by self-editing your essay or assignment before you hand it in. Many students fail to look over their work once they have completed it, or they do not know what to look for.

This means that students are handing in work that contains spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, unclear or clumsy writing, and referencing and formatting errors. Some students have even greater problems with issues like the clarity and consistency of their argument or their essay organisation. These types of mistakes are costing you grades!

You might be very surprised how much your grades can be improved through editing your own work before you hand it in. This article will explain ten ways you can improve your essay writing yourself.

1. Spelling and Consistency

Spelling is a very important aspect of essay writing that many students overlook. Usually this is because of spell-checking programs, upon which many students rely. However, it is important to remember that if you have mistyped a word that is not a spelling mistake, the spell-checker will not find it. For example, you could mistype 'hole' instead of 'whole', 'four' instead of 'for', or 'though' instead of 'thought'. Once you have completed writing your first draft, read your work through carefully to look for these kinds of mistakes.

It is crucial that you are consistent throughout your essay. This applies to many things such as the spelling of words (some people switch between American and Australian/British English), the spelling of names, and the capitalisation of words. For example, if you are using Australian/British English you must do so throughout your essay. You cannot use the word 'recognise' and then later use the word 'organize'. You must stick with 'organise.' If you capitalise the first letter of 'Church' the first time, you cannot refer to it as 'church' later in your essay.

2. Grammar

It is very difficult to write an essay with perfect grammar, as there are many rules that must be followed and thousands of exceptions to these rules that you must know. However, there are many things that you do yourself to improve the grammar in your essay and assignment writing.

Ensuring consistency of tenses is one of these. Often students change tenses in the middle of an essay without realising; changing from present to past or vice versa. A quick check at the completion of writing your essay can ensure that you have used the correct tense throughout the essay.

Here is another grammar tip: When writing about a decade, you must write (for example) 1980s not 1980's. If you write 1980's, this indicates something belonging to the year 1980, because you are using a possessive apostrophe. To indicate a decade, you must write 1980s.

3. Paragraphing

Many students write paragraphs that are too long. A paragraph should only contain one main idea. There is no definite length for a paragraph, but normally you would have at least three paragraphs on one type-written page. Long paragraphs can cause confusion for the reader, since they would contain several ideas, and they make your essay look poorly planned.

4. Repetition

Developing a sophisticated and creative writing style can take time. One thing you can do immediately to improve your writing style is ensure that you do not repeat the same words too often in your essays. Using varied language to express yourself with mean that your writing is interesting, and will appear more stylish.

5. Essay Organisation

For some reason, many schools and universities do not spend sufficient time teaching students how to organise their essays properly. Beyond the knowledge that an essay must contain an introduction, a body and a conclusion, many students do not have a clear understanding of how to organise an essay correctly.

Here are a few tips. When writing an argumentative essay, your introduction must do two things to be considered an introduction. It must first answer the essay question. It must then introduce all the main ideas you will discuss in your essay to convince the reader why your answer is correct. An introduction should be roughly ten per cent of your essay length. So for an essay of 1,000 words, write an introduction of 100 words.

Use topic sentences. These are sentences at the beginning of each new topic that tie your essay together. They introduce new topics and explain why they are relevant to the essay question. Topic sentences give your essay an internal logic, and help you to write a convincing argument.

6. Direct and Indirect Quotations

This is an example of a direct quotation: Dr. Lisa Lines argues that 'the role of women in combat during the Spanish Civil War is highly significant'.

This is an example of an indirect quotation: Dr Lisa Lines believes the women played a very important role in combat during the Spanish Civil War.

It is preferable not to include too many direct quotations in an essay. Essays of a very high standard are written almost entirely in the student's own words, with many references to the sources they have used (using indirect quotations). You should only quote directly from a source when it is absolutely necessary, for example, if you had a need to point out a particular person's opinion on an issue, or if an issue or opinion is particularly controversial. Otherwise, it is highly favourable for you to demonstrate that you have read, understood, and assimilated the source into your own knowledge of the subject. The best way to do that is to present the ideas in your own words and then provide the reference.

7. Formal Language

When writing an academic essay, you must use formal language. You cannot use contractions such as 'don't', 'can't' or 'won't'. You must write these words out in full ('do not', 'cannot' or 'will not'). You should also refrain from using any colloquial language (slang) in an academic essay.

8. Your Research

The research component of writing an essay should take up the majority of your time. It is the longest stage of the essay writing process. How much time you spend will depend on your year level, the word length of the essay, the type of essay (minor, major or tutorial paper) and what percentage of your grade it is worth. It also depends on what grade you are aiming for.

The way that you record your research is vital to the essay writing process. If you do not record your research properly, you could spend hours (or even days or weeks) doing your research, and then when you begin to write your essay you may discover that you have to go back and re-do things, like search for page numbers or correct quotations. This is a waste of your time!

You must record your research in a way that makes essay writing easier for you. It must be accurate, include all the information you need, and give you a chance to record your own ideas and thoughts on the material you are reading as you go along. Do not leave this to the end!

9. Referencing and Bibliography

(This point may not be relevant to high school students who are not yet required to include references in their essays.)

This stage is crucial to essay writing; however, it is often over-looked by students. If you do not reference properly at university you can get in serious trouble for what is called 'unintentional plagiarism'. One type of unintentional plagiarism is when students have found information during their research and included it in their essay (even if they have completely re-worded it) but then did not provide a reference. If you do this, you are actually claiming someone else's work as your own, which is plagiarism. Unintentional plagiarism is very different to deliberate plagiarism, which is when students are cheating on purpose. However, it can get you in just as much trouble. This is why you must learn how to reference correctly!

You must find out from your school or university which referencing system you need to use for each subject you study. Then, spend some time learning how to reference using that system correctly.

Once you know how to do it, and if you have organised and recorded your research properly, referencing your research as you are writing your essay should be simple. You should have all the information you need right in front of you. That is why it is so important for you to keep track of which books you use and on which page numbers you find information while you are doing your research.

10. Polish Your Writing

After you have written your first draft, you should edit it yourself before you have anyone else look at it. This means that you should read it very carefully; looking for mistakes and things you can improve. Since editing requires that you look for a number of different things, it can be a good idea to read over your essay several times.

The first time you read your essay, just concentrate on the writing itself. Look for spelling mistakes, things that are not explained clearly, and grammar that could be improved. Do not look for anything else at this stage.

The second time you read your essay, look for problems with your content. This is the point at which you check to see if the information you have used to write your essay is correct, if you have answered the question properly, and if you have argued your case successfully.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Essay Writing Importance - Breaking Student's Delusion

Essay writing remains to be one of the hardest and complicated tasks that the marvel of modern technology has yet to make easier for man. Everything nowadays is simply keystrokes away, but the process of assembling thoughts into an engaging written piece still proceeds at an old fashioned pace.

Since the days of paper and pencil, essay writing has never really changed a lot. It still entails tons of hard work, in-depth research, logical organization of thoughts, and sophisticated style of writing. As a lot of students continue to hate this writing activity thinking it's just a time-consuming worthless activity, there are four good reasons why writing essays is to be considered as more beneficial than burdensome. Here are some important purposes of essay writing:

* knowledge internalization

* intellectual development

* feedback generation

* good practice

Barely listening to a lecture or simply reading is not an assurance of knowledge internalization. Knowledge has been really internalized if it has been taken by someone as his own. Knowledge possession is best achieved through writing. Essay writing is a good way to internalize the facts that has been heard or read. Eventually, writing activity stimulates the intellect and leads to intellectual development. Aside from that, writing essays is a healthy way to improve writing skills. It is a good practice for future written exams.

Essays are essential for development and evaluation of students' skills - writing and reading skills, analytical and critical thinking skills, research skills, and the ability to write under time pressure. All these skills are assessed in the entire essay writing process.

Therefore, essays are tools to gauge students' level of knowledge and skills that greatly affect their grades and academic performance.

Essay writing remains to be a big challenge to students and even to the most consummate writers. However, essays affect too many things in a student's academic life: grades, reputation, admissions, and abilities. Essays produced by students serve as reflection of their thinking skills.

Students find essay writing to be a burdensome activity. There is a great need to let students understand the importance and benefits that the writing essay brings - that it is intrinsically valuable to their academic growth.

As many students think that the essay writing experience is just a waste of time and simply another great means to add burdens in their academic life, appreciating the skills and knowledge it offers breaks this futile delusion.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Great College Essay Writing Tips

One of the most challenging tasks college students face is essay writing. Many students dread hearing the words and immediately freeze when they do. College essay writing is actually not that difficult. The problem is probably more psychological for students. This article will introduce a few college essay writing tips and hopefully show that essay writing needn't be such a traumatic experience.

Let's look at the layout of the essay. Let's make it as easy as possible by dividing the essay into three parts:

The first part is the introduction. Make it pretty simple and simply introduce the reader to your plans for the essay. Tell the reader what you are going to talk about in the essay and your own opinion statement, if applicable.

The next part of the essay will be the paragraphs that talk about what you said you'd talk about in the introduction. If you made an opinion statement, you will also use these paragraphs to show evidence, statistics, etc. to support your claims.

Finally, close the essay with a paragraph or two that recap what you just finished telling them. It will be similar to your introductory paragraph and your last words on the matter.

College Essay Writing Tips

Prior to writing your essay, you should make an outline of what you will be talking about. An outline will help you layout and organize your thoughts. Many people like to do outlines on paper. I prefer to use an app I found for my iPad which allows me to rearrange the different parts of my planned essay.

My favorite college essay writing tip is using free flow writing. Sometimes I get really "plugged" in the head and am not sure what to write about. I find that if I start typing anything that pops into my head, the road block is cleared and soon words related to the essay are flowing nicely.

The essay writing process is a much worse if you are writing about a topic that you have little or no interest in. In cases like these, one of my favorite college essay writing tips is to look to the internet to research my topic. I try to read about the background of the topic with the hope of finding an aspect of the topic that interests me. When I find something interesting about the topic, I zero in on that and focus my essay writing on that aspect. It does help to make the process a bit less painful.

The best thing to do, however, is to try to approach writing with an open mind and not see it as a nightmare. You'll soon find different aspects and topics of writing that are enjoyable to you and the pain of writing a college essay will fade away.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - Give Your Writing The Green Light For GO Using Creative Writing Prompts

Have you been frustrated lately that your creative writing has seemed repetitive or stale, that you seem to have become some kind of writing robot, churning out the same kind of words and lines time and time again?

Or, worse still, has your writing inspiration dried up completely?

Where there was once a raging river there's now only a dry and cracked riverbed, littered with the debris of unfinished writing projects?

One of the biggest causes of this kind of writer's block is that you're simply not giving yourself permission to write freely.

Your creativity is like a 6 year old boy who's been taken to the front of a huge toy store, only to then be told he can peer in but he's not allowed to go inside! Torturous!

So how can you give this permission again to your creativity, so it can rise up and show you all it's capable of? How do you give your creative writing the green light for go instead of feeling permanently stuck on red?

Creative writing prompts are a great way of unlocking your writing ability and giving it a fresh surge of inspiration.

The way creative writing prompts work is by giving you a short phrase or idea to get you started in a new direction you might not have thought of. It's that little push you need to get you flowing again, so your creativity can shine once more.

That 6 year old kid with his nose pressed up against the window of the toy store has now been shown the way in. In fact more than that, he's also been told - "You might want to check out the new electronic action figures on the 2nd floor, they're not like any you've seen before" and pointed in the right direction. So off he rushes.

Many writers aren't comfortable trying writing prompts because they feel it's like taking a short cut and they should be able to come up with their own ideas.

Back to the toy store kid again - if he didn't have a clue where those action figures were, or even where the toy store was, he could spend forever trying to get there. Once he's there, he doesn't need any encouragement to go off and explore!

It's the same with writing prompts. They may show you a technique you haven't used before or point you in a direction you've not thought of exploring in your writing, but once you're off there's no stopping you! All the writing, all the creativity, comes from within YOU.

Try using some creative writing prompts today, and you'll give your writing the green light it needs to produce something amazing once again.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - How To Dive In To The Ocean Of Creative Writing Talent Within You

Each of us are more creative than we realise, the amount of talent we have is not what holds us back form creating to our full potential. What hold us back from writing as deeply and as rewardingly as we're capable of is fear.

Your creative writing potential is a vast ocean.

The only problem is, most of the time you don't get much further than dipping a couple of toes in the edge then finding the water too cold and intimidating!

So how can you discover and put to use more of your creative writing talents?

How can you dive bravely into the ocean and discover the depth and breadth of what you're capable of writing?

Creative writing prompts are a fantastic tool for this. A creative writing prompt is simply a phrase or an idea or a technique that you can use as a starting point to write from, a way to begin to let your natural creativity unfold.

Creative writing prompts are the equivalent of being given a little boat to set sail in out on the vast ocean, and a friendly push off from the edge of the shore.

If you had to swim out on your own, that would be far more dangerous and intimidating. By using the boat, you have a safer way to get out into that vast ocean, a way that will mean you don't run back to the security of the beach at the slightest suggestion of getting your hair wet.

Some of us are put off by using creative writing prompts because we feel it's cheating, like we're using someone else's writing and claiming it as our own. But it's simply not true.

The writing prompts are not the ocean itself. They are not giving you more talent and ability. Also they are not writing all of your stories, poems or songs for you, perfectly packaged with absolutely no input from you.

The ocean is already there, and it's always been there.

You know from some of your past writing the kind of creativity you're capable of, even if you've only seen tiny glimmers here and there. And so you know once you're brave enough to venture out, you can see that kind of creative writing again, and much more of it.

Start experimenting with creative writing prompts today, take that brave step, hop into your boat and set sail!

Friday, October 26, 2012

The Strategic Use of Essay Writing Examples

If you're ever stuck trying to write an essay, one of the best tricks you can use is to find essay writing examples. The old chestnut "the best way to learn how to write is to read" didn't gain its cliche status for nothing; reading reorients you to the perspective of reader, making you a more mindful writer.

Your essay writing samples can be friends' essays, essays published in books, or just essays you find online. It is important to make sure that any essay writing examples you use are from quality sources, otherwise they might serve as poor examples on which to base your own work.

Once you have your hands on one or many samples, you can use them to give yourself a crash-course in essay writing. Look at your essay writing samples. How are they formatted? Notice the structure of the writing sample. Does it have an identifiable beginning, middle, and end?

Also try and pay attention to the way the author has organized his or her ideas into a cohesive argument. If the essay involves an emotional appeal, identify what strategies the author used to get a reaction out of you. Think about what kind of language is being used and the effect it has on you, as a reader, and how you might manipulate language to your benefit when you are writing your own essay.

Finally, decide whether or not you think the essay is any good. Is the essay's point well made? Are there things you would change? If so, what? It's important to remember that you're using essay writing examples as just that-examples. Copying someone else's work without their permission and passing it off as your own is never a good idea, but if used responsibly essay writing samples can help a great deal if you are having a rough time with your essay.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Developing Outline For Essay Writing

A strong outline makes a meaningful original essay. Developing outline for essay writing makes a student write his essay faster and efficiently. It is the major part of the prewriting process of an essay. The time you spend to develop an outline for essay writing can be saved when you actually write the essay. An essay outline is a list of all required information that you plan to include in your essay and it doesn't necessarily rule out any points that you feel unnecessary at the time of preparing your outline for an essay. Preparing an outline helps you order your information to support the thesis statement most effectively.

Since writing an outline can sometimes be tedious job because this is where you actually start thinking about your essay seriously. Following some basic guideline can be of help here. Your essay combines three major parts, the introduction, the body and the conclusion. Let's look how you can prepare an outline for your introduction, you need to state the thesis statement and two to three major points. When preparing outline for introduction get the most important points to be included here so that you can generate the curiosity in the reader and get his attention. When you develop outline for the body of your essay, it should have points specified depending on the length and requirements of your essay. You should identify points that support the thesis statement of your essay. Each point should then be noted to explain when you actually write your essay. You should also find suitable examples that clearly explain your point. You can find more than one example for each point as you can choose the most suitable ones when you are finally writing it. Other than examples you should also collect facts and quotations that prove your major supporting points. You should also plan and outline how to show the point is relevant to your thesis statement. Depending on the requirement of your essay there should be points ranging from three to unlimited and each point should be given all the above mentioned supporting factors like examples and relevance proving statements. The conclusion should also be included in the prewriting process. You conclusion should tie points together to prove your thesis statement and it important not to include any new ideas in the conclusion. Another major pre-writing requirement is the formation of transition statements from one point to another. When you outline your essay, you should spend time to develop transition phrases and it helps to keep your essay in order and well organized.

There are some students who don't bother to spend time on developing an outline for essays and start writing right away. Here are few benefits of writing an outline for your essays. The most important benefit is that an outline helps you organize your thoughts and develop the essay from it, rather than start writing out of the blue. Once you develop an outline for your essay, you will be able to identify gaps in your research and supporting points and you get enough time to fix them. By developing a strong outline you are actually taking the stress away because you know what you are doing when sit to write the essay. It would always be beneficial to present your outline to professors so that they can make sure you are in the right track and can suggest you changes which would make your essays outstanding.

Often students find it difficult to start the outline writing process. You can start by gathering all the information you have collected on the essay through your research and sort the information you find beneficial. Next step could be a working thesis statement and selecting points that support it. Make sure you have covered all the major parts of the essay in your outline as introduction, body and conclusion before you actually start writing the essay.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - The Secret To Transforming Your Creative Writing

Is there a magic formula that enables anyone to instantly write the most wonderful writing of their life, some tiny technique you can read about then transform your writing overnight?

Well, not exactly. But the good news is, although each of us are unique in who we are, what we write and how we write it, there are certain key techniques that all of us can use to improve our writing, and to make it easier for us to reach our creative potential more consistently, more often.

One of the ways of becoming a better writer is to use creative writing prompts.

A writing prompt is simply a few words or a phrase that give you a starting place to write from, a springboard to dive into the deep pool of writing talent that lays within you.

Writing prompts don't tell you how to write, which words you should use, how long your sentences should be and so on. That's all up to your own creative expression. The prompt just provides an entry point to unlocking your imagination, and this can be invaluable, especially during times when you're feeling particularly blocked or short of inspiration.

Another benefit of using writing prompts is that they gradually make themselves redundant.

The more you use writing prompts, the more easily you'll be able to come up with the starting point yourself.

This works because your creativity is something that can be trained and developed. When you use prompts often, your creative mind learns to pre-empt what the writing prompt might have been, and it loves to fill in the gaps.

So instead of thinking "I'm really stuck, I think I'll use a writing prompt to get my creative juices flowing", you start to think: "I'm really stuck. What kind of writing prompt would work to get my creative juices flowing?". And then you come up with it!

This sounds too simple and obvious to work, but it does. In effect your saying "I don't think I know the answer to this question. But if I DID know the answer, here's what I think it would be..."

Because you're putting faith in your creativity to come up with something, it will, it loves the challenge. You've just got to present it with the challenge in the right way.

And this is how creative writing prompts can help, by training your creativity to come up with new ideas, new perspectives and different outlooks in the way you write.

Start using some creative writing prompts today and trust that your creativity is as deep a pool as you need it to be. You'll be amazed at how resourceful and creative you can be in hardly any time at all.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Take Advantage of These Essay Writing Tips

In case you have an assignment to hand in, then you will be very well advised to rely on essay writing tips. Using these tips, you will be able to perfect your essays and ensure that you get top marks once your assignment is returned to you after grading. This way, your chances of getting that 1st Class Honors or graduating Summa Cum Laude are greatly enhanced.

Most students are of the view that essay writing is one of the hardest tasks in college. Others view it as being trifling and boring. Therefore, as a result they end up getting the lowest grades since they are intimidated by writing. However, using the tips you will learn, chances are high that you will give better essays to your lecturers and get better marks as a result.

1. Essay Types

The first thing you need to note is that there are different kinds of essays. This means that you should consult your writing tips to differentiate between these essays. Each essay kind comes with its own detailed description and peculiarities. The structural parts are also different as are the expectations of the lecturers.

2. Writing Stages

You should also keep in mind that there are a number of stages through which any written work- colleges included- have to pass through before they can be considered to be complete. It is highly recommended that you ensure that you do not miss any stage. All stages must also be accorded the necessary attention. This way, you reduce your chances of making errors and your writing will turn out to be efficient and faultless.

3. Common Subjects for Essays

There are various kinds of subjects into which all essays fall. All of these subjects are different and unique in their own way. They also require different approaches and logical organization skills which can be scrapped up from the writing essay tips.

4. Formatting Style

On the other hand, every essay that you will be required to research on, write and submit has its own formatting style. For you to hand in perfect essays, you will be wise to ensure that you use writing an essay tips to discover the kind of format that any given essay should follow. This way, your will avoid making errors.

Finally, once you submit your essay, it will be perfection personified. Lecturers often review the essay even before they mark it to check the formatting. Therefore, ensure you order your work well to raise your chances of wining over the marker.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Examples of Creative Writing Prompts

Doing creative writing exercises is a great way to get over writer's block and get those "writing muscles" back into shape, so to speak. Writer's block is after all just the result of getting lazy and not writing daily, which is, by the way, something that every serious writer should make a habit of.

And doing writing exercises is a great way of achieving this goal. So even if your writing has gotten a bit rusty, rest assured that the talent is still there, it is just a little atrophied and nothing that some writing exercises can't cure.

Many books exist, which offer quality creative writing prompts and other exercises aimed at helping writers perfect the craft of writing. However these are usually focused on a specific area of fiction writing such as plot, character development, setting, descriptions and more intangible aspects of writing such as style, tone, alliteration and others.

If you are primarily looking to simply get started on the writing I would personally suggest you take advantage of some great creative writing prompts. These represent great exercises and normally involve a set of random words or phrases, which you must in some way incorporate into a story, or they can be in the form of a story starter sentence. Pictures also make great creative writing prompts.

The great thing about prompts as creative writing exercises is that they allow for a lot more creativity and offer much more free reign in the direction and form of your writing. This is because they are not as targeted at a certain aspect of creative writing as the more classic writing exercises, leaving you a lot more freedom in the direction and form your stories can take. They also allow for free writing, which is like the number one writing exercise, since it silences your critic and lets the artist come out and play.

Some examples of creative writing prompts:

Here are examples of random word creative writing prompts, random phrase writing prompts and story starter sentence writing prompts. Feel free to try you hand at writing a story from any one set of these, just make sure you use all the words or the phrases and try not to stop writing until the first draft is complete.

#1 Random words as creative writing prompts:

Yesterday, Done, Orchard, Merry-go-round, Thesis, Problem, Ecstasy, Church, Boy

#2 Random phrases as prompts:

The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Poo

Fear of Walking Slowly

A Very Good Friend Called V

Green-Top, Occasionally Red, Trying to Remember Jersey

Global Whoring

Black Suits You, It Matches Your Teeth

The Mysteries of the Pomegranate

Victoria, Cross

My Maidservant's Anne

Chocolate and the Science of Seduction

#3 Story starter sentence:

Last night the rain fell like it was never going to stop, but I was happy.

Anyway, those are just some examples of creative writing prompts as writing exercises, but if they helped you to get that first drat of a story, poem of flash fiction piece written I am glad. Now just keep at it and remember that just as physical muscles diminish if you don't exercise so does the "writing muscle."

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Great Essay Writing Process

Many students find essay writing a cumbersome and painful assignment. That is because they are still not sure how to approach essay writing. If you get the approach right, you find that essay writing is not painful at all. In fact, it can be a very fun and fulfilling process.

Essay writing is often referred to as an art and with good reason. It can take years of practice to perfect the craft. Most often students really become good at writing essays when they reach the end of their school careers. Here is a basic guide to essay writing.

1. Read and comprehend the essay topic/question

This is the most important part of the essay writing process. Once you have properly understood what the essay question is asking you can analyze what kinds of supporting research you will need. There is no need to formulate your entire argument yet save that for later in your essay writing sample. For now you need to understand exactly what the question is asking you. Highlight key terms and brainstorm some possible angles.

2. Research the topic

Go to the library, internet, read some books, look over your notes. Hone in on the specific question at hand and read information pertaining to it.

3. Write an outline

As elementary as it seems sometimes, outlines are the scaffolding for all successful writing. It does not have to be a formal outline, but just sketch out the order of your essay in some method that you understand.

4. Write a thesis statement

The thesis statement is the foundation of your essay. Write that one sentence that argues the point, the debate, and the crux of your essay. It will be the final sentence of your introduction and the starting point for the rest of the writing.

5. Write the paper

Just write. It does not have to be a masterpiece as you write that first draft. Just get something on paper that you can eventually mold into a final product.

6. Edit the paper for content

Edit the paper to make sure you are staying on target, following your thesis, and have enough supporting evidence to prove your thesis.

7. Edit the paper for grammar

Give your essay a quick look solely for grammatical problems (spelling, punctuation, transitions, and so on).

The easiest part and definitely the most enjoyable. Going through your essay with your own red pen and editing it ruthlessly will ensure that you have a perfect essay to turn in when the deadline comes.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Essay Writing Tips - 6 Steps to Writing a Great Essay

If writing an essay seems like a daunting experience, then learning how to break the process down into a number of easy steps will give you the confidence you need to produce an interesting, high quality piece of work. This article provides 6 essay writing tips that will take you from an initial idea through to the finished product.

1. Select your topic carefully

If your topic has many different aspects, then a very useful essay writing tip is to narrow it down to one specific area, and make sure you explain this in your introduction. This will make for better reading than if you try to cover everything, and will definitely improve the quality of your work. If you get to choose your own topic, make it something you are interested in. This way the research will become much easier and your enthusiasm will 'rub off' on your readers.

2. Do Your Research

Another useful essay writing tip is to make sure you spend sufficient time looking into all the aspects of your chosen topic. Read as much relevant material as possible, and make notes along the way so you don't forget anything. Also note down where you have got your ideas from; i.e. author name, book or article title and page number.

3. Write Down the Main Arguments

Once you've researched your subject, summarise the main arguments and ideas you have read. Do not copy other people's words, just choose the important points and summarise these in your own words. This is a highly important essay writing tip - whatever you do, make sure you don't plagiarise another author's work.

Prepare the basic structure of the essay in dot point headings, using only a few words to describe each main point. Play around with the structure until you feel that the sequence is right. Put the most important point first, followed by the next most important point, and so on.

Then paste your research summaries under each heading (you can delete these later).

4. Fill Out the Body of the Essay

This is where you discuss in detail your thoughts and ideas on the chosen topic, and 'fill out' the summaries you wrote earlier. Under each main point, introduce the evidence supporting your theories, together with arguments and any other points you wish to make. A good essay writing tip is to make sure these are thought provoking and interesting, as well as informative.

End each paragraph or section with some type of conclusion, or 'lead in' sentence to the next paragraph.

Now that you have written the main body of the essay, you can go back to writing the 'Introduction', followed by the essay 'Conclusion'.

5. Write Your Introduction

In some ways this is the most important part of your essay. One of the best essay writing tips is to use the introduction to grab the reader's attention and give them a 'taste' of the information to come that will make them want to keep on reading.

Describe briefly what the essay is about, and your research sources, and explain what the reader will get out of reading the essay. Finish the introduction with a clear explanation of your point of view, or of the main essay idea.

6. Write Your Conclusions

Start this section by briefly summarising the results and conclusions of your research. Tell the reader what your main conclusion is, and why. Make sure you have also checked and formatted your references that will go at the end of the essay.

A great essay writing tip is to end the essay with a memorable, thought provoking statement that in some way 'sums up' your findings.

These essay writing tips will help you to produce a well structured essay, but don't forget to edit and proof read your work thoroughly to ensure there are no spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - But Isn't It Cheating To Use Prompts To Enhance My Creative Writing?

A creative writing prompt is a simple technique or a few words or phrases you can use as a starting point for your creative writing.

Once you've begun to write, and used the prompt for inspiration, you're off on your own.

Where your writing goes after this is entirely up to you and your imagination.

Many creative writers feel uncomfortable using creative writing prompts.

They think it's cheating or taking a short cut and all their ideas should be 100% new, original and their own.

On the surface that sounds like an honourable point of view. Of course we all want to be able to compose work that's uniquely ours and the fruits of our creativity alone.

We know how bad we'd feel if we simply copied someone else's writing and claimed it as our own.

But the fact is, nothing is completely new.

Everything creative builds upon the works of those who've gone before us.

For example, think about when a major car company begins designing a new model.

They may introduce many new features, some of which are truly revolutionary in car design and innovation. They'll most likely use cutting edge technology to design each new element of the new model.

But that new car, even after all the millions spent and the thousands of man hours of design and labour invested, will still have four wheels and an engine.

It's the same with creative writing.

At the most extreme fringes of creative writing, you might invent new words, you might even invent new letters. But they'll have meaning in some form.

Creative writing is about the expression of ideas and emotions. Yes it can be as experimental as you want to make it, but it'll always return to being about that human expression.

Creative writing prompts help us explore that creative expression.

If you're a dressmaker, do you make the material from nothing. Do you have your own factory that processes the raw fibres into larger pieces of material? Unlikely. You probably buy material that's already been woven and then make your dress from that.

If you're a musician who composes using computer software, do you write a completely new software program from scratch each time you want to start a new composition? It's not very probable. You find software that works for you, and use it to help you explore your creative music ideas from there.

If you're a photographer who specialises in photographing buildings and architecture, do you go and erect a new building each time you want to take some pictures? Do you build a new camera, piece by piece? No. You have cameras you're comfortable using, then you find buildings that inspire your photography.

Would you consider any of the 3 artists described above as "cheating" or "not being original"?

So if you have any concerns about whether using creative writing prompts is cheating or somehow not allowed, think again.

You'll no doubt realise that in fact creative writing is in many ways already one of the simplest and purest forms of creating, because we need so little equipment, tools or technology to begin.

So using a few words or techniques as a starting point is even less of a possible concern.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Successful Steps to Good Essay Writing

Often students try to avoid essay writing in their normal study course. However, they forget that essay writing is the most important part of the curriculum. Today due to competition there is a high expectation from students. With the burden of academic subjects, students often become careless about essay writing. They do not get enough time to think about developing a good essay writing skill.

However, with the advent of technology, things have become quite easy for students. The online essay writing services educate the students how to write a good essay.

Consider these simple steps and become a professional essay writer:

1. Consider essay as a process and not a task bounded with deadlines. You have to consider reading, thinking, planning and organizing your thoughts. You have to understand the topic and study about the topic. Primary research is very important before drafting your thoughts. Once you are finished with research process, start thinking creatively about the topic and make notes or pointers, which will help you during documentation process.

2. The blank screen or paper in front of you while drafting essay is the most difficult part of the process. You must sketch out a plan before writing. Once you have written down your points, start assembling these points. Give each point a logical heading; this will help you to elaborate your points. These will later develop into paragraphs of your essay.

The most important subheads will include:

An introduction, which will explain the sources of your study

Main body, which is an analysis of your topic. It will include the opinions, comments and findings. You can quote about some scientific research or media studies.

Conclusion is where you force the reader to accept your points. You can conclude with quotes or even end with a question that will boggle reader's mind.

All these points will give you an outline to your essay writing. Do not stick to one point. This makes the reader disinterested in your writing.

3. Your correct English is the most compelling part of essay writing. Use simple but correct English. Your essay may not be flowery in writing but must have substance in the subject. If it is argumentative, you must collect enough data to make it genuine. To improve on these points you must read many editorial sections from magazines or newspapers.

4. Try to make a rough draft of your essay before submission. You must read it aloud and look for any changes if required. If your essay is long or it is a dissertation, you must prepare small drafts of paragraphs and then try to focus on each paragraph. Try to make pointers on these paragraphs, which will help you during the assembly of all paragraphs. Do not lose track of your point or argument. In case if you are lost, refer to points.

5. Essays are small samples of knowledge. You cannot elaborate on an endless discussion. You must give it a strong voice and back up with supportive arguments and discussions. The essay must invoke reader's thought process. Keep everything in moderation. Do not lose your focus.

Essay is an array of thoughts and ideas. Right alignment of thought process with strong command over English develops a person from good essay writer to professional essay writer.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - How To Inject New Life At ALL Stages Of Your Creative Writing Projects

Creative writing prompts are short phrases, ideas or techniques you can use to give your creative writing a boost when you're finding it difficult to find inspiration.

There are 3 main stages of a writing project that creative writing prompts can be used for:

1. To start a brand new project. Most of the time creative writing prompts are used as a starting point for a brand new writing project.

This way they can be a very stimulating and exciting tool, because you have no preconceptions about what you want to write. You start with the prompt, jump on board and write, and see where the words take you.

2. To expand an outline for a project. Maybe you already have an outline for a story but are struggling to get words down on the page? Use a prompt to get your creativity off and running.

With your outline for your story in the back of mind, this will subconsciously influence what you write as a result of the prompt anyway. So it's likely that some point soon after you start writing, your words and ideas will coincide with those you have already in your outline.

3. To resume an existing project. You can use also use a creative writing prompt to help you resume an old project that you got a little stuck with and put away to continue at a later date.

Again, you could start writing from the prompt, then as thoughts and ideas from your other project will be in your mind anyway, there will be a point where these intertwine with the new parts you're writing.

You can play around with the parameters and experiment too, it's up to you.

That's one of the great benefits of creative writing prompts. You can input as much or as little from other projects into them as you want.

Sometimes you'll want to have a break from a major project and write freeform using a writing prompt.

Other times you'll get to a difficult point in a larger project and use a prompt specifically to help you move forward with this project.

These are the 3 main stages of a project that creative writing prompts can be used for.

Try some out yourself and discover what an invaluable tool they can be for your creative writing.