9 Tips for Crafting Outstanding College Essays and Research Papers

Writing is a skill that is always useful no matter the job or industry you are in, but when it comes to assignments like college essays or research papers, it becomes even more apparent. This is because essay writing helps you develop universal skills for any area of work you might be in.

Essay writing has less to do with raw intellect or genius, and more to do with perseverance. It is easy to start, but hard to see through to the end. Which is why, in this blogpost, I will share some tips to craft outstanding college essays and research papers; be they application essays, standard assignment essays, or research papers.

All of these tips can be applied to the other essay types but should be adapted accordingly. However, what's most important is that you need to understand the purpose of your essay, different priorities and all.

College Application

Applying for college can be stressful at times. We all want to get into the college of our dreams, but rarely do we realize what our essay is supposed to accomplish. Now, when we write a college application essay we need to keep in mind that there are many ways to write one, but also that different colleges look for different things when they ask for one.

1. Keep in mind the significant challenges that you have gone through. Use them as inspiration for your writing. You don’t have to write about them in your personal statement but they can be very useful material.

2. Don’t focus only on one experience because it could distract from other elements from your personal story. It’s all about the impression that you want to give in your college essay. What will you contribute to our campus? Can this person write competently?

3. Something you can do to make your college application essay more unique is to choose an uncommon topic, make uncommon connections and use uncommon language to link the topic together. You can make these connections through a model of chronology or theme. The former is based on one event after the other, while the latter is about a theme (e.g resilience) linking the events together.

Whatever theme you decide for your essay is what connects everything together, regardless of what type of essay you are writing. You can choose any thread, such as laptop stickers, or a love of cooking, and linking this to what questions you want to answer with your essay. The way in which you deliver the information is just as important as the information itself.

Standardized Academic Essay

Essays are a wonderful way to explore your understanding of a topic. Most of the advice in this section of the blog can be used for all other types of essays, and is mostly universal. This is divided into stages of preparation, writing, revision and general advice to create an iron-clad essay that can survive the scrutiny of your academic mentors.

1. PREPARATION: Do your best to understand the essay guidelines, define the topic of the essay, research primary and secondary sources and read them to completion and understand what they are trying to say. After this you can decide the thesis central point for the essay.

• OUTLINE: Depending on the length of your essay, your outline might change, but you can structure it with an introduction, body paragraphs with supporting details, a possible counter-argument, and a conclusion.

2. WRITING: Making the introduction, paragraphs of proof and discussion, and a conclusion seem pretty simple but require a lot of in-depth thought process.

• When writing, focus on reflection, rather than just recounting on a topic.
• Start early and write several first drafts, get attached to the vision, not the words on the page.
• You can start with a cliche version of your essay, be as direct as you want, as flawed as you can. The revision comes later.
• Return to your thesis when you come up with your conclusion.
• Tie all of your main points together.
• While you write your essay, keep in mind that you have to show why your argument matters.

3. REVISION: Something you do for a start is reading your essay outloud, helping you discover passages of your essay that sound clumsy, long-winded, too wordy, or are straight up false.

• Put your draft aside for a while so you can look at it with fresh eyes and be honest with yourself when you return to it.
• You must evaluate how you have organized your essay, paragraph by paragraph. Examine the balance of your paper, are some parts out of proportion with others? Proofread it as much as you can.
• Don’t be afraid of rethinking your thesis, you won’t come up with the best thesis possible at first, if possible, but the best theses evolve. Remember that.

When writing an essay, it is important to be persuasive, to start the argument in your mind and end it in the reader’s. There might be complications with your argument and it's perfectly fine to highlight disagreements or complications. If you make an argumentative academic essay, you can include a counterargument, identifying problems with your thesis or the evidence gathered, if only to provide a new perspective. Then, counter the counterargument, steel-manning your own argument.

Of course, citing sources and evidence is paramount, and you should always ask what the citation format for your teacher wants you to put them in, and if you find it difficult to write in such a format, there are guides online that can help with that; or generators (), for that matter.

Research Papers

Now these are scary. Very few things strike fear into a college student like a research paper, something that requires long hours of hard work. Usually consisting of in-depth analysis, evaluation and interpretation of a single topic, based on data and empirical evidence. Research papers are similar to analytical essays but most people are not familiar with them.

The length of these papers should be between 4,000 to 6,000 words but this is just the standard as sometimes it can go even further, like 10,000 words. Besides understanding the assignment (length, formatting-requirements and citation style), you must also pay attention to the particulars. The gist of the writing process is the same, but different techniques may apply.

1. SKIM SOURCES: When you go out to find primary and secondary sources, do not read one after the other as you find them. Instead, skim them, reading each part will be more efficient as you do your research. And if a source shows promise, set it aside for more in-depth reading later.

• In-depth research from reputable sources such as academic journals, books and credible websites.
• Statistics and opinions of experts are also great.

2. SOURCE FORMATTING: There are different forms of formatting sources when you write an essay. Be it MLA, APA, Chicago, you need to be aware of how each of these work and which of them your teacher wants you to use.

3. PEER FEEDBACK: Getting feedback from your peers is another important step you should take before you put the finishing touches on your research paper.

• Take the feedback of your peers calmly and write it down for later.
• Ask questions for clarification, don’t hesitate to ask your instructor or other readers if you have questions about their feedback.
• If the criticism nags at you, then that means it matters.

Ensure that your ideas are conveyed clearly and that your arguments are easy to follow after you have taken their feedback into account.

Conclusion

When you finish an essay, after tying back all of your points together, which in the best case would push your thesis forward and make it credible. Let your readers understand exactly what you stand for and what your point is. In the end, a stunning final sentence also helps to make your essay more hard-hitting while still holding on to the point of your essay. Good luck writing!