An academic essay is, by definition, a detailed and valid text describing a particular problem or phenomenon. It is logical and demonstrative. An academic essay refers to the genres of science, as well as course and theses, reports.
Advantages of an Academic Essay
Currently, the academic essay is becoming increasingly popular among university teachers who have extensive experience in the field of academic writing. They point out the following positive aspects of an academic essay:
- students learn to write scientific texts on the topic of research;
- require students thoughtful understanding of the subject, structuring thoughts in the process of its written statement;
- help the student to master the vocabulary of a certain scientific field faster, train literacy, individual responsibility;
- develop interdisciplinary communication;
- form the individual style of the student. Although students sometimes use writing services, they still write works based on their thoughts and skills.
- help the teacher to observe the intellectual development of students.
Preparing and writing an academic essay
First of all, you need to assess your ability to the concise, clear and competent presentation of the issue. You need to have enough knowledge to write an academic essay on a specific topic. You need to correctly formulate your point of view within the framework of the problem and be able to defend it on the basis of the existing knowledge and skills. It is important to remember that there are no right or wrong answers to questions, but there are more or less reasoned points of view.
When the problem is selected and a viewpoint at it is formulated, it is necessary to prepare materials that will be used when writing an academic essay. In this capacity, there can be lecture notes, scientific literature, and records of one’s own thoughts. All this material must be studied, worked out and correctly stated.
When used in writing academic essay excerpts from the works of other authors, you must provide links to these works. Plagiarism is not allowed when writing an academic essay.
When used in writing academic essay excerpts from the works of other authors, you must provide links to these works. Plagiarism is not allowed when writing an academic essay.
Major mistakes while writing an academic essay
Students make some mistakes when writing academic essays. Here are the main ones:
- error when selecting themes. Sometimes students choose topics for the essay that are not usually discussed in terms of ethics – politics, religion, personal preferences;
- arguing about well-known truths, such as the roundness of the earth, students go beyond the genre;
- often, students use in the essay quotes of famous people, jokes or facts from the media, from which teachers are already tired over the years of work;
- dry and unemotional statement of facts. Do not forget that the essay is a genre, which is characterized by brightness and emotionally;
- often students expressing the thesis do not take a clear position, and this turns the essay into abstract reflections;
- lack of integrity of the text. All structural parts of the essay should be stylistically related;
- invalid volume. Sometimes students forget that the essay should be brief and turn it into an opus;
- do not develop the same idea in two paragraphs, it contradicts their isolation. A new paragraph is a new argument;
- make sure that any of the proposals directly related to the main topic. Even if You have an irresistible desire to write an incredibly interesting fact, read it several times and think about whether it relates to the topic;
- do not add to the conclusion of new arguments, because it is not inflammatory and the summary part;
- it is not necessary to describe the structure of the written work in conclusion – if the reader has reached it, he has already read it.