an essay on my writing skills

Essay Papers Writing Online

Mastering the art of essay writing – tips, tricks, and strategies.

If you want to enhance your essay writing abilities, remember to:

1. Practice regularly: The key to becoming a better writer is to write consistently. Set aside time each day to write and refine your craft.

2. Read extensively: Reading a variety of genres and styles can help you develop your own voice and improve your vocabulary.

3. Get feedback: Share your essays with peers, teachers, or writing mentors to receive constructive criticism and learn from your mistakes.

4. Outline your ideas: Before you start writing, create a structured outline to organize your thoughts and ensure your essay flows logically.

5. Edit and proofread: Always review your work for errors in grammar, punctuation, and coherence. Revision is key to polishing your essays to perfection.

Develop a Strong Thesis

One of the most important aspects of essay writing is crafting a strong thesis statement. Your thesis serves as the main argument of your essay and sets the tone for the rest of your paper. Here are some tips to help you develop a strong thesis:

• Be Clear and Specific: Your thesis should clearly state your position and provide a roadmap for your readers to follow.
• Be Concise: Keep your thesis statement concise and to the point. Avoid unnecessary words or vague language.
• Be Original: Your thesis should be original and reflect your own ideas and insights on the topic.
• Be Supportable: Make sure your thesis is supported by evidence and examples throughout your essay.

By developing a strong thesis statement, you can create a foundation for a well-structured and coherent essay that effectively communicates your ideas to your audience.

Conduct Thorough Research

One of the key elements of writing a high-quality essay is conducting thorough research. To ensure that your essay is well-informed and credible, follow these tips:

• Utilize credible sources: Make sure to use reliable sources such as scholarly articles, academic journals, and books to gather information for your essay.
• Explore different perspectives: It is important to consider various viewpoints on the topic and incorporate them into your essay to provide a well-rounded argument.
• Take detailed notes: Keep track of important information, quotes, and references during your research to make it easier to refer back to them when writing your essay.
• Verify your information: Double-check the accuracy of the facts and data you include in your essay to ensure that your arguments are backed up by reliable sources.
• Give credit where it’s due: Make sure to properly cite the sources you use in your essay to give credit to the original authors and avoid plagiarism.

By conducting thorough research, you can enhance the quality and credibility of your essay, making it more compelling and engaging for your readers.

Organize Your Ideas

Once you have gathered all your research and brainstormed your thoughts, it’s crucial to organize your ideas before you start writing. Creating a clear and logical structure for your essay will help you convey your argument effectively.

One effective way to organize your ideas is to create an outline. Start by outlining the main points you want to cover in your essay. This will help you see the overall structure and flow of your essay.

Consider using bullet points or numbering to clearly outline each section of your essay. This will make it easier for you to focus on each point individually and ensure that your ideas are presented in a coherent manner.

Remember to check your outline to ensure that your ideas are presented in a logical order and that your argument flows smoothly from one point to the next. This will help you create a well-structured and cohesive essay that is easy for your readers to follow.

Use Clear and Concise Language

When writing essays, it is essential to use clear and concise language to effectively communicate your ideas to the reader. Avoid using unnecessary words or overly complex sentences that may confuse your audience. Instead, focus on conveying your thoughts in a straightforward manner.

One way to ensure clarity in your writing is to use simple and direct language. Avoid using jargon or technical terms unless they are essential to your topic. Instead, opt for words that are easy to understand and convey your message clearly.

Additionally, make sure to structure your sentences in a way that is easy to follow. Start with a clear topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph, and then provide supporting details in a logical order. This will help your reader easily comprehend your argument and follow your line of thought.

By using clear and concise language in your essays, you will make your writing more accessible and engaging for your audience. Remember, the goal is to effectively communicate your ideas, so keep it simple and to the point!

Revise and Edit Carefully

Once you have finished writing your essay, it is important to revise and edit it carefully before submitting it. Editing plays a crucial role in improving the quality of your writing.

1. Read Aloud: Reading your essay aloud can help you identify awkward phrasing, run-on sentences, and grammatical errors that may have gone unnoticed.

2. Check for Consistency: Ensure that your arguments and ideas flow logically throughout the essay. Check for consistency in tone, style, and formatting.

3. Proofread for Spelling and Grammar: Carefully proofread your essay for spelling and grammar mistakes. Use tools like spell check and grammar check, but also manually review each word and sentence.

4. Get Feedback: Ask a friend, classmate, or teacher to review your essay and provide constructive feedback. Another set of eyes can catch errors or suggest improvements that you might have missed.

By revising and editing your essay carefully, you can ensure that your writing is clear, coherent, and error-free, making a strong impression on your audience.

Seek Feedback and Learn from it

Receiving feedback is an essential part of improving your essay writing skills. Whether it’s from your teachers, peers, or online writing communities, feedback can provide valuable insights into your writing style, structure, and clarity.

When seeking feedback, be open to constructive criticism and actively listen to suggestions for improvement. Pay attention to areas where you may have weaknesses or areas for growth. Taking the feedback into consideration and incorporating it into your writing can help you enhance your skills and become a better writer.

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How to Improve Essay Writing Skills

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If you've been told time and time again that you express great ideas in your essay writing but your writing needs polishing, you aren't alone. The following tips will help improve your writing skills and turn you into a great writer.

Avoid repetition: It's an essay killer

Though it may seem difficult when writing a five-page term paper on a single idea or character, avoiding repetition is essential to improving your writing skills. When you use the same words ad nauseam, your reader views it as a sign of laziness. Here are three tactics that will help eliminate wordiness and eradicate repetitive words and phrases:

• The simplest approach to improving your writing skills is to eliminate the repetitive word or phrase from your essay.
• If you feel you need to keep the idea, replace the word or phrase with something similar. This may mean substituting a pronoun for a proper name, such as he instead of George; or it may mean searching for an alternative. Use a thesaurus only to remind you of words you already know but have temporarily forgotten. Don't select unfamiliar words that merely sound good; this risky path often leads to the use of words with different underlying meanings, which ultimately can hurt you more than the original repetition.
• The last of our techniques for improving your writing skills is more difficult, but usually the most effective. Begin by crossing out the offending repetition. Next, circle key words in the sentence (skip words such as a, of, while, it, etc.). Now craft a new sentence that retains the circled words but discards the repeat ones. This may require you to add more ideas to round out the thought, but our term paper editors have found that expanding on your new sentence in this manner will improve your paper.

Active voice: Breathe life into your essay writing

In order to improve writing skills, we encourage students to write in the active voice . For those of you who have misplaced your grade school grammar book, this means that the subject of the sentence performs the action; it does not receive the action. Compare the following examples:

• Tom tossed the ball (active)
• The ball was tossed by Tom (passive)

To find the dreaded passive voice, look for a "to be" verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, or been) followed by a past participle (often a verb ending with -ed). Ask yourself who is performing the action (the verb). Move that person or subject in front of the verb and make the necessary grammatical changes.

Trite phrases: Banish the banal

In order to improve your writing skills, force yourself to delete all idioms and clichés. Your reader wants original thoughts, not processed or canned sentiments. Yes, this means you must replace those mundane words with something clever of your own. Reduce—perhaps to zero—the number of similes and metaphors, particularly if they are common ones.

There may be instances in which you have devised the perfect comparison, one that highlights the essence of your argument, but chances are that an experienced reader won't be as impressed with your creativity as you are. While certain types of writing (advertising, speeches, etc.) may call for this, such phrases are anathema in formal writing. Eliminate these to improve your writing skills.

Literary present: Just do it

When writing about literature, you must write in the literary present. Your natural inclination will be to write:

The river symbolized freedom and enlightenment for Huckleberry Finn.

But the literary present demands that you write:

The river symbolizes freedom and enlightenment for Huckleberry Finn.

A key tip to improving your writing skills is that everything should be in the present tense. It doesn't matter that you read the book last week, or that the author wrote it a century ago. Write about the characters and events as though they exist in the here and now. This is one of those conventions that is just easier to accept than to question.

Mechanics: Sweating the small stuff is important when improving your writing skills

Always run a spell check. It only takes a moment, and it will save you the embarrassment of turning in an analysis of Julius Caesar in which you consistently misspell Caesar. Pay attention to the suggested replacements when editing your essay, however, as these canned wizards do not always understand your meaning. Even Bill Gates can't turn "it" into "in" or "you're" into "your" for you, so you also need to comb through the paper carefully with your own eyes to find every error before handing it in. Brilliant essays receive lower grades if simple mistakes are left unchanged.

Ask for a second opinion

If you're thinking that this seems like a lot to remember, you're right. But focusing on one or two areas at a time will help you steadily improve your writing skills.

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• Tips for Reading an Assignment Prompt
• Asking Analytical Questions
• Introductions
• What Do Introductions Across the Disciplines Have in Common?
• Anatomy of a Body Paragraph
• Transitions
• Tips for Organizing Your Essay
• Counterargument
• Conclusions
• Strategies for Essay Writing: Downloadable PDFs
• Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines

Essay and dissertation writing skills

Planning your essay

Writing your introduction

Structuring your essay

• Writing essays in science subjects
• Brief video guides to support essay planning and writing
• Writing extended essays and dissertations
• Planning your dissertation writing time

Structuring your dissertation

• Top tips for writing longer pieces of work

Advice on planning and writing essays and dissertations

University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions. 

You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:

Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.

However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:

Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principal tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’

Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:

The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.

• Conclusion: An essay should end with a conclusion that reiterates the argument in light of the evidence you have provided; you shouldn’t use the conclusion to introduce new information.
• References: You need to include references to the materials you’ve used to write your essay. These might be in the form of footnotes, in-text citations, or a bibliography at the end. Different systems exist for citing references and different disciplines will use various approaches to citation. Ask your tutor which method(s) you should be using for your essay and also consult your Department or Faculty webpages for specific guidance in your discipline. 

Essay writing in science subjects

If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:

A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.

Short videos to support your essay writing skills

There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:

• Approaching different types of essay questions  
• Structuring your essay  
• Writing an introduction  
• Making use of evidence in your essay writing  
• Writing your conclusion

Extended essays and dissertations

Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.

Planning your time effectively

Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.

Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.

The structure of  extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:

• The background information to - and context for - your research. This often takes the form of a literature review.
• Explanation of the focus of your work.
• Explanation of the value of this work to scholarship on the topic.
• List of the aims and objectives of the work and also the issues which will not be covered because they are outside its scope.

The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.

The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources. 

Tips on writing longer pieces of work

Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.

For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work . 

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How to Improve Essay Writing

Last Updated: December 28, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 42,647 times.

Do your teachers always mark up your essays with red ink? Are you eager to learn how to express yourself clearly and effectively? If so, there are plenty of steps you can take to improve your essay writing skills. Improve your grammar, refine your style, and learn how to structure a well-organized essay. Since academic essays are especially tricky, learn the ins and outs of formal, scholarly writing. Be sure to read as much as possible; seeing how other authors use language can improve your own writing.

Improving Your Grammar and Style

• For example, while writing, you might not know whether to use “who” or “whom,” so you check the rule online. You’d use “who” for a person doing an action (called a subject), and “whom” for someone who gets something done to them (called an object). “Who called you,” and “Whom did you call” are grammatically correct.
• Find a general guide on grammar at https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/index.html .
• If you’re a student, see if your school has a writing lab. If so, they’ll have useful resources on grammar and tutors who can help you improve basic writing skills.

• That said, some exceptions apply. If you’re discussing a scientific study, “The subjects were divided into control and experimental groups,” is better than “Researchers divided the subjects into control and experimental groups.” This is because passive voice emphasizes the object of the action rather than the subject. In scientific writing, the object is more important than the subject.

• For example, “The author of the selection establishes the foundation of the work’s controlling metaphor in the initial stanza,” is packed with unnecessary words. A cleaner version of this example could be, “The author introduces the poem’s controlling metaphor in the first stanza.”
• Instead of “The animal sleeps during the day and is active at nighttime,” write “The animal is nocturnal.”
• Rather than "The fox ran very fast," write "The fox sprinted."
• In the sentence, “The argument is compelling and convincing,” compelling and convincing are close enough in meaning. Using one would get the point across, but using both is repetitive.

• Keep in mind the clause that follows a semicolon needs to be a complete sentence. It should also continue the idea conveyed in the clause before the semicolon. Proper use would be, “The platter dates to 1790; examples of British transfer-ware from this period are rare.”
• Use punctuation strategically. A complicated sentence, like this one, with too much, or confusing, or misplaced, punctuation is hard, for most readers, to follow. Aim instead for clear, easy-to-read writing.

• For example, “The platter dates to 1790. It is in pristine condition. There are no nicks or cracks,” are choppy and repetitive.
• Better phrasing would be, “An impressed back-stamp indicates that the platter was made in 1790. With no nicks, cracks, or discoloration, its condition is pristine; few pieces of this age and quality exist.”
• Keep in mind repetitive sentences aren’t necessarily choppy. For instance, “Since the platter has a maker’s mark, accurately determining its age is possible. Since it has no nicks or marks, it is in excellent condition,” are repetitive sentences, even if they’re not short and choppy.

Using Academic Language

• For example, instead of, “I think it’s pretty crazy how the artist made the painting so detailed,” write, “The artist achieves an impressive level of detail.”
• Note that you can use the first person and contractions in less formal essays, such as an autobiographical sketch or college application essay. However, your writing still shouldn’t be too casual. “I found myself questioning my assumptions” is fine but, in most cases, “I was like wow I didn’t know what I was talking about” is too casual.

• Say you’re writing an essay about school uniforms. “Uniforms are good because they make it easier to get ready in the morning,” might be a fair point, but it's not the strongest argument you could make. Backing up your point with objective evidence would be more convincing.
• On the other hand, “According to a 2017 study, schools reported an average of 44% fewer disciplinary referrals the year after implementing mandatory uniforms,” cites a specific, concrete fact.
• Additionally, use specific quantities whenever possible. In this example, “an average of 44% fewer disciplinary referrals,” is more effective than “a significant decrease.” [5] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

• Learning how to properly use subject-specific terminology can help you express yourself clearly and effectively. Academic writing is a dialogue, and learning the language of a scholarly dialogue is essential.
• For instance, if you’re writing a literary analysis, you might discuss how an author makes a comparison. While technically correct, the word “comparison” isn’t as precise as literary terms such as “metaphor” or “simile.”

• Using convoluted jargon or big words just for the sake of it will make your writing clunky. Furthermore, you’ll lose credibility if you misuse a complex word or technical term.
• For instance, “By utilizing efficacious examples, the author elucidates an irrefutable argument” is verbose. Simpler phrasing would be, “The author presents a convincing argument by using effective examples.”

Mastering the Writing Process

• Note that an essay prompt’s keywords have distinct meanings. Analyze, for example, doesn’t mean to describe; it means to pull apart and examine something’s structure.
• Suppose you have to analyze an argument. Your essay needs identify the argument's rhetorical elements, such as pathos (appeals to emotion), logos (employing reason or logic), or ethos (relying on authority or credibility). After breaking down the argument's structure, you'll then need to explain how the author uses these devices to make their case.

• Remember to check your sources’ credibility. If you’re writing about a former president, find the biography scholars consider most authoritative. Check the authoritative biography’s footnotes and references, which will help you track down more reputable sources.
• You won't conduct thorough research if you’re writing an essay for a test. Instead, read the sources provided with the exam. For example, if a literature essay test requires you to analyze an excerpt, read the passage carefully.

• For instance, “Schools should implement mandatory uniforms because they reduce disciplinary issues, help students focus on learning, and promote school spirit,” is clear and specific.
• The thesis, “Mandatory uniforms are beneficial, so schools should implement them,” makes a claim, but “beneficial” is vague. It doesn’t convey why uniforms are good, so it’s not a strong thesis.

• For the next Roman numerals, write the subtopics, citations, and other details that you’ll cover in each body paragraph.
• In the following example, Roman number II. would be an essay section, and letters A. through D. are body paragraphs that each focus on a sub-topic: II. Uniforms reduce disciplinary issues   A. 44% decrease in detentions after introducing uniforms (Smith, 2017)   B. Suspension decreased by 60% (Smith, 2017)   C. Absenteeism and tardiness decreased (Pew, 2013)   D. 66% of students report less bullying (Ohio Board of Education, 2016)

• Topic sentence: School uniforms may reduce the number of serious behavioral problems.
• Explain: Evidence suggests dressing alike lowers peer pressure, promotes discipline, and prevents the display of controversial or offensive imagery.
• Evidence: For example, according to the Ohio Board of Education, schools that introduced uniforms reported 44% fewer disciplinary referrals, such as detentions and suspensions. Furthermore, 66% of surveyed students said they witnessed fewer bullying incidents after they started wearing uniforms.
• Link: These findings suggest that implementing uniforms is an effective way to foster a disciplined school environment.

• A counterargument could be, “Opponents claim that mandatory uniforms stifle self-expression and lower self-esteem. Although uniforms do prevent personal expressions of style, studies show they actually improve confidence and encourage the expression of ideas. Rather than harm self-image, research suggests that uniforms positively impact mental health. In a 10-year Oxford University study, a majority of students reported that wearing uniforms boosts their self-esteem. With a level playing field, they worry less about choosing clothes that fit the norm.”

• First, revise your essay’s content. Check for unclear language, unorganized spots, awkward sentences, and weak word choices. Next, proofread your work and fix any spelling or grammatical errors.
• For important essays, like a term paper or an admissions essay, have someone read your work and offer feedback.
• In general, try to leave a day for edits at the bare minimum. For a big research paper, scheduling a week or more is ideal.
• For a quick, paragraph-long assignment that’s due the next day, you might only need 15 or 20 minutes for revisions. If you're taking a timed essay test, set aside the last 5 to 10 minutes to check your work.

Expert Q&A

• To improve your writing, read as much as you can. Reading a mix of fiction, newspaper articles, and scholarly works will help you learn new ways to structure sentences, refine your grammar skills, and improve your vocabulary. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• You might not have to conduct thorough research or develop a scholarly thesis if you’re writing an informal essay. However, basic elements such as strong word choices, varied sentence structures, and concise language still apply. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/passive-voice/
• ↑ https://slc.berkeley.edu/nine-basic-ways-improve-your-style-academic-writing
• ↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/academic_style.pdf
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/sciences/
• ↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/vocabulary.pdf
• ↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/Essay_writing_process_accessible_2015.pdf
• ↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/super%20essay.pdf
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis
• ↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/paragraph-structure

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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing

• Mark Rennella

It’s called the “one-idea rule” — and any level of writer can use it.

The “one idea” rule is a simple concept that can help you sharpen your writing, persuade others by presenting your argument in a clear, concise, and engaging way. What exactly does the rule say?

• Every component of a successful piece of writing should express only one idea.
• In persuasive writing, your “one idea” is often the argument or belief you are presenting to the reader. Once you identify what that argument is, the “one-idea rule” can help you develop, revise, and connect the various components of your writing.
• For instance, let’s say you’re writing an essay. There are three components you will be working with throughout your piece: the title, the paragraphs, and the sentences.
• Each of these parts should be dedicated to just one idea. The ideas are not identical, of course, but they’re all related. If done correctly, the smaller ideas (in sentences) all build (in paragraphs) to support the main point (suggested in the title).

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Most advice about writing looks like a long laundry list of “do’s and don’ts.” These lists can be helpful from time to time, but they’re hard to remember … and, therefore, hard to depend on when you’re having trouble putting your thoughts to paper. During my time in academia, teaching composition at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I saw many people struggle with this.

• MR Mark Rennella is Associate Editor at HBP and has published two books, Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders and The Boston Cosmopolitans .  

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Essay writing skills: examples

When writing an essay, there are different elements and skills to consider. For example:

The essay format - this refers to the physical appearance of your essay. How will it be arranged on the page?

The essay content - this refers to what you will write. What will your essay be about and what points will you make?

Essay writing skills - this refers to the ability to turn your ideas into words. How will you convey your thoughts and argument to the reader in a clear, concise way?

Now, let's explore these in more detail!

Essay writing skills: format example

It is important to understand the basic format of an essay. This way, you will be able to plan your content around the basic format of an essay: the introduction , main body , and conclusion .

The introduction is the opening paragraph of your essay. It tells the reader about the topic you are writing about and briefly states the main points you will expand on throughout the main body of your essay. An introduction usually contains:

• A hook: a memorable sentence to draw your reader in and give them something to think about.
• Background information: contextual information that gives your reader a better understanding of the topic you are exploring in your essay.
• Essay brief and outline of main points: this tells the reader what your essay is about and the things you will be writing about throughout the main body of the essay.

Other words for 'essay brief' that you may be familiar with include 'thesis' or 'main argument'.

The main body is split into different paragraphs. This is where you expand on your ideas or your argument to show the reader that you are able to analyse and interpret information effectively while also forming your own opinion on the topic. A good structure to follow when writing the main body paragraph is PEE. This stands for: point, evidence, explain:

• Point: a statement relating to your essay brief.
• Evidence: back up your point with examples (this is where your research comes in handy!). This can be in the form of a quote or paraphrase, both of which must be properly cited.
• Explain: analyse your evidence; go into detail about what it shows and how it relates to your topic.

The conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay. It summarises the main points made throughout your essay and gives the reader something to think about when bringing the essay to a close. A conclusion usually does these three things:

• Reviews the main point of your essay brief.
• Summarises the main points of your argument.
• Offers a recommendation/improvement/question.

Critical Thinking Skills in Essay Writing

In the main body of your essay, it's your chance to show off your critical thinking skills and let the reader know how knowledgeable you are about your essay topic !

But, what is critical thinking ? Let's begin by looking at the meaning:

• Critical thinking refers to the process of analysing and evaluating information in a skilful way.

Critical thinking helps to strengthen your point of view and enhance the way you express your ideas. It also helps you to reflect on your own opinion and also to question the views of others. In short, critical thinking involves not just taking things at face value.

Critical thinking also enables you to read between the lines, i.e., by considering meanings that may not be initially obvious. When thinking critically, you should consider the following:

• What does the evidence suggest or imply?
• Are there any positive or negative connotations?
• Do I agree or disagree with other points of view?
• What is my own opinion on the topic?
• Who wrote the evidence; are they biased?
• Is there anything the researcher/writer missed or didn't acknowledge?
• Is the research credible and reliable?

Improve your English Essay Writing Skills

We will now look at a few things you can do to help improve your English essay writing skills. It is important to note that these are simply suggestions; everyone writes in different ways and will find different things helpful!

Steps to writing an essay

There are different steps you can take before, during, and after writing an essay to ensure that your thoughts are well organised and your work is clear.

Before writing an essay, it can be very helpful to write down your initial ideas to help you plan out what you want to focus on in your writing.

Planning for an essay can be done in various ways. You could organise your thoughts by creating a mind map like the one shown above, for example, or you could write a list.

Whichever way is best for you, you should begin by focusing on your essay brief or question. It is important to have a good understanding of the main purpose of your essay or the question you will be answering. This will make it easier to plan out the rest of the writing. It may be useful to highlight any keywords in the brief/question so that you know what to focus on when writing.

You could highlight instruction verbs as these can help you to understand exactly what the question is asking you to do. Examples include:

When planning your essay, you should also ask yourself the following questions:

What is the brief/question telling me to do?

Do I understand the purpose of my essay?

Do I have to argue for or against something?

Can I develop this in the main body of my essay?

You could separate your plan into different sections to help determine the main points you will make in each paragraph:

Essay brief/question: Explore the ways slang can either have a positive or negative impact on teenagers.

• Body paragraph 1 : helps to build a sense of community and belonging
• Body paragraph 2 : encourages independence away from older generations
• Body paragraph 3 : (counter argument) teens could be perceived as lazy and too informal

Now you've finished your plan, it's time to look at each section of your essay in more detail and start writing.

When stating the brief in your introduction , consider the following questions:

What is my essay about?

What is the purpose of this essay?

When outlining the main points and/or argument you will make in your introduction, consider the following questions:

Am I arguing for or against something?

What am I trying to prove to the reader?

What key points will I further expand on in the body of my essay?

Am I going to be discussing/analysing any theories?

During the writing of the main body of your essay, you should ensure that your ideas are clear and flow well. A good way to do this is to link your writing back to the brief . Linking back to the brief is important to show that you understand it fully and your argument clearly relates to it.

If you are answering the question:

'Do you agree or disagree that the internet has positively impacted communication?'

You could link your paragraph back to the question by writing:

'This shows that the internet has/has not (depending on your argument) positively impacted communication because…'

Linking can also be done between paragraphs – think of your paragraphs like a chain!

You could link the final idea of one paragraph to the next idea of the following paragraph. This will help to create a coherent flow and will ensure that all of your ideas relate to one another.

Another way to make sure your ideas are clear is to make sure your vocabulary is not too complicated. Although you may think that advanced vocabulary is more impressive, it is often unnecessary! Complicated language may cause confusion between you and the reader, as they may not understand the meaning of the words and could get distracted from the main purpose of your essay.

Because of this, it is better to stick to vocabulary that you are familiar with, as this will ensure your writing is concise and your main points are easier to understand for the reader.

When writing your conclusion , you could consider the following questions:

What is the main message of my essay?

What ideas did I raise in the main body of my essay?

What is my overall opinion of the topic?

How did I contribute to the study of my topic?

After you have finished writing, you should allow yourself time to proofread your work to ensure that you have not made any obvious mistakes such as spelling or grammar errors.

Put your proofreading abilities to the test! Can you spot the errors in the following essay writing example?

It could be argued that the internet has had a positive impact on communication one reeson for this is ability to contact people quickly. Social media platforms such as facebook and instagram have enabled people to to engage in instant messaging, which lets people eficiently send and receive messages at a fast speed.

Below is the correct version of the text. The parts that have been corrected are highlighted:

It could be argued that the internet has had a positive impact on communication . One reason for this is the ability to contact people quickly. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have enabled people to engage in instant messaging, which lets people efficiently send and receive messages at a fast speed.

Essay Writing Skills - Key Takeaways

• An essay usually follows the following format: introduction, main body, and conclusion.
• Before writing an essay, it is useful to create a plan, e.g., with a mind map or list.
• To make your essay flow well, make sure to link back to the question and provide connections between paragraphs.
• To ensure your ideas are clear, don't use vocabulary that is too complex.
• After writing, proofread your work to check for mistakes.

Flashcards inEssay Writing Skills 184

What does PEE stand for?

Point, evidence, explain.

What is a point?

A statement relating to the question you are answering.

What is evidence?

Examples used to back up your point.

What does 'explain' refer to?

Going into detail about how your quote backs up your point and considering what it suggests/implies. 

Fill in the blank:

You should  ____  your explanation back to the question.

A quote should be long.

True or false?

Try to keep quotes short and succinct!

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Frequently Asked Questions about Essay Writing Skills

How to write an essay?

To write an essay, you should first be aware of the essay format: introduction, main body, and conclusion. The introduction tells the reader about your essay brief and the main points you will make. The main body expands on your main points. It allows you to analyse information, develop an argument, and form your own opinion. The conclusion summarises your essay brief and the main points of your argument. 

What is an essay?

An essay is a piece of writing that explores a topic by evaluating ideas, analysing evidence, and building an argument.

How to improve essay writing skills?

There are different steps you could take to improve your essay writing skills. For example:

• Plan out your argument before writing your essay. 
• Link your writing back to your essay brief (this ensures your writing will flow well and your ideas will be clear to follow).
• Don't use vocabulary that is too complex (stick to what you know!).
• Proofread your work and change spelling/grammar errors.

What are the 5 writing skills?

5 good skills to have when writing an essay are as follows:

• Planning out and researching your topic well
• Having a strong argument and purpose
• Linking your writing back to the brief
• Using critical thinking
• Editing spelling and grammar mistakes

What are the 5 parts of an essay?

Typically, the 5 parts of an essay are as follows:

• Main body paragraph 1
• Main body paragraph 2
• Main body paragraph 3

(This may differ depending on the type of essay or the word count).

Test your knowledge with multiple choice flashcards

A good skill to have when writing the body of your essay is _____ thinking.

Put your proofreading skills to the test:Which word is spelt correctly?

Critical thinking helps you to read ____ the lines.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Writing Skills — Improving My Writing Skills

Improving My Writing Skills

• Categories: Writing Skills

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 572 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

The importance of writing skills, strategies for improving writing skills, the impact of improved writing skills.

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7 Essay Writing Skills All Writers Need To Master

Whether for college or an examination, knowing how to write an essay is important. Read our guide to learn our top seven essay writing skills.

Essay writing is an important skill to have when going to college. This common writing assignment allows you to sort ideas and information into logical conclusions rather than simply memorizing and spitting out facts. Writing essays is also essential for many standardized tests, including college entrance exams and immigration testing. Therefore, knowing what makes a good essay and how to write one well is vital to your academic success. Essays have three main parts. These are:

• Introductory paragraph
• Body of the essay
• Concluding paragraph

Knowing this structure is just the first part of writing effective essays. As you learn to write this paper, consider building additional essay writing skills to help. Here are seven that will come in handy as you build your writing abilities for college and beyond.

1. Develop Your Brainstorming Abilities

2. try out new researching skills, 3. practice proper organization, 4. use key analytic skills, 5. show good mechanics, 6. expand your vocabulary knowledge, 7. enhance your proofreading and editing skills, how can i improve my essay writing skills for ielts, why do students need to improve their essay writing skills, how can i improve my essay writing skills for gre.

Writing a great essay starts long before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. It starts the minute you start thinking about your essay question. The question or topic you write on may come from your professor, or you may have the freedom to choose for yourself. If you have the freedom to choose, write down a list of topics that interest the subject area you need to write on. This is your first brainstorming step. Next, you need to brainstorm the answer to the question or argument of your essay. You can try many different brainstorming techniques for this part of the process. Some popular ones include:

• Mind Mapping – A mind map starts with your main essay topic or idea in the middle. From that point, you draw lines and boxes or bubbles that contain your thoughts on the topic. Then, you add additional branches if a new thought connects to one of those.
• Rapid Ideation – You set a time limit for this brainstorming technique and write down as many ideas as possible on your topic. After the time is up, you can look at your ideas and see which ones will work to make a winning essay.
• Bullet Lists – This technique is quite simple. Spend a few moments writing bullet lists of words, phrases, or ideas that go with your main topic. From those, pull out ideas to build your outline and essay.
• Journalistic Questions – Like a journalist, ask who, what, when, where, why, and how, and jot down your ideas and answers. Use this as the basis of your essay.

The more you learn to brainstorm, the better your final draft of your essay will be because you will have the opportunity to dig into your ideas before committing them to paper. Use the information from your brainstorming session to create a tentative outline, which you will fill in as you do your research.

Research is the key to writing a good essay. You have to find information to write your essay, no matter what type of essay you have to write. Research skills should involve both digital and non-digital content. If you have a lot of skills in researching online, that’s great, but you’ll also need to be able to use databases and libraries to find additional research materials.

As you learn to research, you will need to distinguish between a sound source and a poor one, especially if you are focusing on academic writing. Many websites, like Wikipedia, are user-generated, unreliable content. Therefore, you must be able to decipher what should be used as a source for your academic essay and what should not. Finding sources is the first part, but you will need to learn how to organize those sources so you can draw from them to verify your thesis statement. When you find a source, read through it to pick the important parts supporting your essay topic. Then, write the author’s ideas down with clear guidance to the original reference.

Keeping organized research will help you draft your essay and build your references list. Many writers will use notecards that they can use to organize their ideas and keep those ideas accessible during the writing part.

Another skill set you need to write a good essay is organizational skills. You need to know how to organize an essay to make sense to the reader and organize your reference list so readers can find the sources you used. Organization starts with following the proper essay structure.

In English, essays start with an introductory paragraph. The introduction puts forth the problem or argument you will discuss in your essay. You may use facts and statistics to show why you are writing your argument or performing your research. This grabs the audience’s attention. This first paragraph ends with a thesis statement, your basic premise, or your argument. Next comes the body paragraphs. Each body paragraph will cover one main point from your outline or one main support for your argument. It should start with a topic sentence and have additional sentences that support that main point. Traditionally, an essay will have three supportive points and three body paragraphs.

Finally, an essay ends with a conclusion paragraph. The concluding paragraph will restate the essay’s main points and paraphrase the main argument or thesis. It draws all of the body paragraphs together into one concluding thought. That said, a well-written conclusion will not simply restate everything you have already said. Instead, it will bring a new, concluding thought to the passage.

For example, if your essay is research-based and uses original research or experiments you performed, then use your conclusion to show the implications of that research. If the essay is an argumentative essay, use the conclusion to draw the reader to your point of view by reiterating your points. Finally, show how the essay topic connects to the big picture of the niche you are writing about if you can.

To write a high school or college essay well, you not only have to be able to research, but you also have to be able to analyze the information you discover in your research. If you are not pulling your thoughts and ideas from your research, you could be guilty of plagiarism, which is a severe offense. Remember, simply paraphrasing is not enough to avoid this blunder. You have to use your own words, properly reference your sources, and make conclusions from your references.

To develop your analytic skills, practice reading someone’s work, then drawing your conclusion from it. Then, think beyond what the writer says and consider what they might mean. Practice analyzing everything you read. Then, put your analytic skills to work in your writing to draw solid conclusions and ideas.

Proper grammar is important in an essay, but mechanics go beyond grammar rules alone. Mechanics also covers tone and writing style. You need to ensure that your style and mechanics fit your audience. While there are many parts of mechanics when it comes to writing, some things you should focus on include:

• Active voice : Write in the active voice, not the passive voice. Active voice occurs when the sentence’s subject does the sentence’s action. In a sentence that uses the passive voice, the item doing the action is not the subject and may.
• Sentence structure: Learn how to write effective sentences with a subject, verb, and object. Learn how and when to use modifiers to emphasize the topics in the sentences without overdoing them.
• Subject/Verb Agreement: Make sure all subjects and verbs agree in number. Plural subjects require plural verb conjugations, and singular subjects require singular verb conjugations.
• Transitions: Transitions are words used between sentences and paragraphs to help the essay flow. For example, words like “therefore” and “in light of that” can guide the reader to your next point. Learn to use these well as you write.
• Writing style: Use the proper writing style and voice for your audience. Some essays require a more formal tone for academic settings, while others can take a more casual approach for informal settings. Being able to vary your tone to fit the situation indicates that you have good, solid writing skills.

A great essay writer will have the vocabulary necessary to convey ideas in an easy-to-read but easy-to-understand format. The best way to build your vocabulary is not by sitting down with a list of words to memorize but rather through reading. Reading works especially works from the world of higher education, will help you grow your vocabulary. Also, studying other essay writers’ work in your niche can help you build your vocabulary.

You can also use your thesaurus to increase the vocabulary you use in your essay. For example, if you’re over-using any particular word, look it up in the thesaurus to find a synonym that would make sense as a replacement.

Before you submit an essay to your teacher or publisher, you must proofread it. No writer should ever submit their first draft of any work, even something that seems simple, like an essay. Proofreading involves rereading and changing the essay so that it reads more clearly and perfectly explains your stance on the topic. Try to read it as if you are someone who knows nothing about the topic unless your audience is made up of people who know the topic area well. As you proofread, check for:

• Grammar and spelling errors
• Syntax errors
• Confusing or wordy sentences
• Poor essay structure
• Missing punctuation

Your final draft should be free from these common errors. It should also clearly convey your ideas and points so the reader can quickly grasp them. Then, edit and rewrite it several times until you reach this goal.

FAQ About Essay Writing Skills

Essay writing is an important part of the IELTS. If you are taking the International English Language Testing System exam, consider these essay writing tips: 1. Stay within the word count. 2. Know what the task asks you to write by carefully reading the instructions. 3. Logically organize ideas with an introduction, body, and conclusion. 4. Use a style appropriate to the type of writing you are asked to do on the exam. 5. Build strong grammar fundamentals before taking the exam.

Essay writing is an important part of the modern education world. It not only shows up in high school but also in college. A well-written essay shows the reader that you know how to take your ideas and break them down into a logical format. In addition, it gives you a platform to build arguments and encourage others to understand your point of view.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) aims to show if someone has the analytical writing, mathematics, and vocabulary skills to succeed in graduate or professional school. To improve your essay writing, if you need to take the GRE, consider these writing tips: 1. Practice your essay writing before the exam. 2. Choose a solid stance. 3. Build your essay around relevant but real-world examples. 4. Use declarative sentences to make your point strong. 5. Avoid referencing yourself as the writer. 6. Use your conclusion to refute your opposition.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers .

If you’re still stuck, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Nicole Harms has been writing professionally since 2006. She specializes in education content and real estate writing but enjoys a wide gamut of topics. Her goal is to connect with the reader in an engaging, but informative way. Her work has been featured on USA Today, and she ghostwrites for many high-profile companies. As a former teacher, she is passionate about both research and grammar, giving her clients the quality they demand in today's online marketing world.

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How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills

Writing of academic articles and term papers has often been a challenge to many students and I am not an exception. Academically, excellent writing skills aid in getting satisfactory grades. Sadly, I did not only have poor writing skills, but also a poor command of English. To improve my writing, I had to learn how to write proficiently by taking writing skills as an extra unit. Besides allocating more time to my extra unit, I had to do research on ways of improving my writing skills.

Tutors at a writing center, my lecturer, and frequent analysis of my low-graded papers assisted in improving my writing. Overcoming the hurdle of my writing inadequacy was not an easy task; however, collaboration between my lecturers and other experts in the writing center proved vital in ameliorating my writing skills especially in organization, spelling/grammar, and the overall quality of my work among others.

The first step in improving my writing skills was to analyze my written work critically. I had to rely on other students with strong writing skills to correct my papers. Most of my term papers had poor grades because of the spelling and grammar mistakes, lack of clarity and poor content. Rarely did the lecturer award any mark on the spelling and grammar slots. For example, the common comments on my papers included, “read your work before submission” or “read widely to improve your grammar”.

The last remark on my papers was always “below average”. Consequently, the disheartening comments resulted into terrible low-grades. From the comments and the results of the papers, my education was in crisis. Therefore, I had to read novels widely, and other articles to improve the grammar and spelling. While reading the novels, I had to note the spelling of new words and check their meanings from the dictionary.

The new advanced learner’s dictionary was my companion. Furthermore, I collected papers from my colleagues who performed better in class. Through reading and analyzing their papers, I was able to note the significant difference between the organization and content of their papers with mine. Eventually, I started receiving positive comments from my lecturer.

Secondly, I had to form a positive student-teacher relationship between my teacher and I. with my goals well outlined the lecturer was not hesitant in assisting me in improving my writing skills. The lecturer had to give me extra lessons and assignments to make sure I was picking up his comments.

Besides, rewriting my poor graded papers, I had to write extra papers as a practical lesson. At least I had to write a new paper every single day to check on my skills. My lecturer marked all the extra papers instructing me on, which ways to follow. I had to peruse through many English text books to learn about verbs, adverbs, and sentence construction among other issues. More over, I had to learn on the method of writing different essays (descriptive, expository, and argumentative) from books and read journals to improve my writing.

Although I killed my social life to create time for improving my writing skills, my papers started showing better comments. For instance, in one of the assignments I was happy when my lecturer commented, “cogent points”, which meant the paper was not only clear, but also the content was compelling. A clear paper means the audience or reader understands both the language and message of the writer, which is a quality of a good writer.

Thirdly, I had to learn on how to organize and construct an academic paper. All papers have a similar format , where the introduction, body and conclusion are mandatory. However, the content of these sections always seemed to be challenging especially in formulating a strong thesis.

The arrangement of the body paragraphs always seemed to be poor. Each paragraph has to have a topic sentence, which describes a specified point. Nevertheless, through continuous practice and reference from other well-written papers, I was able to sail through smoothly.

Due to the inability to construct a persuasive paper, I always submitted my assignments late, a fact, which led to the deduction of marks. Even writing a single page seemed tough to me. Nevertheless, currently, I can write more than a 1000 words within two hours and the paper will be devoid of errors. Therefore, the mastering of organization skills as a way of improving my writing has worked miracles. My papers are at per with other top students in my class.

Finally, I had to visit a writing centre to interact with the tutors and to learn from them on how to improve my writing skills. Before giving me a lecture on the basic qualities of a good paper, my tutor asked for my term papers to ascertain my level of skills.

He noted all the areas, which needed improvement guiding me on the way forward. For example, to improve my organization ability, he gave me written papers to go read and write the main points in each paragraph. From the small practical, I was able to master on how to organize my papers.

On the other hand, the quality of a paper is also a crucial element for a person who has decent writing skills. However, reading a variety of papers and books improves a person’s ability in writing an excellent paper. The last task in the writing centre was to write a 1-page paper on ‘how to improve my writing skills”.

By reading the paper, the tutor at the writing centre wrote comments on how to improve the quality of papers. I can clearly remember a comment in which he said, “read more on tenses”. In my paper, I had mixed both present and past tenses, which is a taboo in English. Finally, I had to read on all English tenses while taking practical exercise on each of them.

In a recap, the journey to an excellent has been a tough, but an exciting one. I had to learn from my mistakes to improve my writing skills. Reading a variety of books was not an exception.

Frequent consultations from the expert gave me the way forward. My lecturer and the writing centre are among the people I thank for the excellent writing skills I possess now. Luckily, I was not only quick, but also ready to learn, which enable me to grasp everything that a brilliant writer needs.

By taking negative comments positively, I rectified all the mistakes I had made in earlier papers. When compared to my previous results my papers contain positive comments like, “exemplary or average”. Occasionally, I emerge among the best in my class during assignments. In brief, although I have better writing skills, I still read articles, newspapers, peer reviews and other materials to improve.

• Peer Reviews Cycle and Its Stages
• English Spelling- Time for Change?
• First English Textbook in Saudi Arabia
• Best Online Research Practices
• Cheating Plagiarism Issues
• Plagiarism Definition and Effects
• The story of Jackson
• "Everything's An Argument" text
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2018, October 17). How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills. https://ivypanda.com/essays/my-improvement-in-writing/

"How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills." IvyPanda , 17 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/my-improvement-in-writing/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills'. 17 October.

IvyPanda . 2018. "How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills." October 17, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/my-improvement-in-writing/.

1. IvyPanda . "How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills." October 17, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/my-improvement-in-writing/.

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IvyPanda . "How Has My Writing Improved – Essay About Improving Writing Skills." October 17, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/my-improvement-in-writing/.

How to Write an Essay about Your Skills

If you’re aiming to write a meaningful essay about your skills, you’re in the right place!

Writing an essay about your skills allows you to showcase your talents, abilities, and the experiences that have helped you develop them. In this tutorial, I will guide you through five simple steps to write an effective essay about your skills. Additionally, we’ll use a sample essay to illustrate how these steps work in action.

Let’s do this!

Step 1. Plan the word count for your essay’s paragraphs.

The first step is crucial for simplifying your writing process. You’ll know precisely how many words each paragraph will contain, making the process more efficient.

Essays generally consist of three main parts:

• The introductory paragraph
• Three body paragraphs
• The concluding paragraph

For example, if you want a 300-word essay, here’s a way to distribute 300 words across five paragraphs:

That’s all you need for your essay — five nice paragraphs.

Step 2. Select your main idea and supporting points.

You’ll need a central idea to anchor your essay. Begin by thinking about your skills. What are you good at? What experiences have helped you to develop these skills?

For instance, are you a leader? You might be good at decision-making, problem-solving, and inspiring others.

Your skills and experiences form the thesis of your essay.

For our sample essay, let’s use: “My skills in communication, problem-solving, and team collaboration have been honed through my experiences in various roles.”

We’ll then apply the Power of Three to break this main idea into three supporting points. The Power of Three is a three-part structure that helps you craft your body paragraphs.

Here are our three supporting points:

• Communication has always been one of my strengths.
• Problem-solving skills have been crucial in my personal and professional life.
• Team collaboration has helped me achieve more than I could alone.

With this, we’re ready to start writing our essay. On to the next step!

Step 3. Write the introductory paragraph.

To write an introductory paragraph , just follow the diagram below:

Write an introduction that briefly sets the context of the essay. Then, write your thesis and three supporting points.

Here’s an example:

Introductory Paragraph “Different experiences help us develop and hone various skills. For me, my skills in communication, problem-solving, and team collaboration have been honed through my experiences in various roles. Communication enables me to interact effectively with others. Problem-solving allows me to navigate challenges effectively, and collaboration has helped me achieve more than I could alone.”

Step 4. Write the body paragraphs.

Our essay will have three body paragraphs to expand on our supporting points.

Each body paragraph starts with a topic sentence, then explains and illustrates your point using examples.

Paragraph 1 “Communication has always been one of my strengths. It has enabled me to create and maintain strong relationships, both personally and professionally. For instance, during my time as a project manager, I had to communicate effectively with team members, stakeholders, and clients to ensure the project’s success.”

Paragraph 2 “Problem-solving skills have been crucial in my personal and professional life. They’ve allowed me to tackle complex situations and find effective solutions. For example, during a major project, we encountered unexpected technical issues. My problem-solving skills enabled me to devise a plan to resolve these issues without delaying the project’s completion.”

Paragraph 3 “Team collaboration has always been an integral part of my success. By working closely with others, I’ve been able to accomplish more than I could alone. While leading a project, my team and I managed to exceed our goals through effective collaboration and collective problem-solving.”

Step 5. Write the concluding paragraph.

The simplest way to write a conclusion is to paraphrase the points from your introduction. Let’s do this for our sample essay:

Conclusion “Our skills are shaped by our experiences. In my case, experiences in various roles have honed my skills in communication, problem-solving, and team collaboration. Communication has been vital for maintaining strong relationships, problem-solving has helped me navigate challenges, and collaboration has led me to achieve more.”

And we’re done! I hope this tutorial proves helpful in your essay writing journey.

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

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Academic Essay Writing Made Simple: 4 types and tips

The pen is mightier than the sword, they say, and nowhere is this more evident than in academia. From the quick scribbles of eager students to the inquisitive thoughts of renowned scholars, academic essays depict the power of the written word. These well-crafted writings propel ideas forward and expand the existing boundaries of human intellect.

What is an Academic Essay

An academic essay is a nonfictional piece of writing that analyzes and evaluates an argument around a specific topic or research question. It serves as a medium to share the author’s views and is also used by institutions to assess the critical thinking, research skills, and writing abilities of a students and researchers.  

Importance of Academic Essays

4 main types of academic essays.

While academic essays may vary in length, style, and purpose, they generally fall into four main categories. Despite their differences, these essay types share a common goal: to convey information, insights, and perspectives effectively.

1. Expository Essay

2. Descriptive Essay

3. Narrative Essay

4. Argumentative Essay

Expository and persuasive essays mainly deal with facts to explain ideas clearly. Narrative and descriptive essays are informal and have a creative edge. Despite their differences, these essay types share a common goal ― to convey information, insights, and perspectives effectively.

Expository Essays: Illuminating ideas

An expository essay is a type of academic writing that explains, illustrates, or clarifies a particular subject or idea. Its primary purpose is to inform the reader by presenting a comprehensive and objective analysis of a topic.

By breaking down complex topics into digestible pieces and providing relevant examples and explanations, expository essays allow writers to share their knowledge.

What are the Key Features of an Expository Essay

Provides factual information without bias

Presents multiple viewpoints while maintaining objectivity

Uses direct and concise language to ensure clarity for the reader

Composed of a logical structure with an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion

When is an expository essay written.

1. For academic assignments to evaluate the understanding of research skills.

2. As instructional content to provide step-by-step guidance for tasks or problem-solving.

3. In journalism for objective reporting in news or investigative pieces.

4. As a form of communication in the professional field to convey factual information in business or healthcare.

How to Write an Expository Essay

Expository essays are typically structured in a logical and organized manner.

1. Topic Selection and Research

• Choose a topic that can be explored objectively
• Gather relevant facts and information from credible sources
• Develop a clear thesis statement

2. Outline and Structure

• Create an outline with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion
• Introduce the topic and state the thesis in the introduction
• Dedicate each body paragraph to a specific point supporting the thesis
• Use transitions to maintain a logical flow

3. Objective and Informative Writing

• Maintain an impartial and informative tone
• Avoid personal opinions or biases
• Support points with factual evidence, examples, and explanations

4. Conclusion

• Summarize the key points
• Reinforce the significance of the thesis

Descriptive Essays: Painting with words

Descriptive essays transport readers into vivid scenes, allowing them to experience the world through the writer ‘s lens. These essays use rich sensory details, metaphors, and figurative language to create a vivid and immersive experience . Its primary purpose is to engage readers’ senses and imagination.

It allows writers to demonstrate their ability to observe and describe subjects with precision and creativity.

What are the Key Features of Descriptive Essay

Employs figurative language and imagery to paint a vivid picture for the reader

Demonstrates creativity and expressiveness in narration

Includes close attention to detail, engaging the reader’s senses

Engages the reader’s imagination and emotions through immersive storytelling using analogies, metaphors, similes, etc.

When is a descriptive essay written.

1. Personal narratives or memoirs that describe significant events, people, or places.

2. Travel writing to capture the essence of a destination or experience.

3. Character sketches in fiction writing to introduce and describe characters.

4. Poetry or literary analyses to explore the use of descriptive language and imagery.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay

The descriptive essay lacks a defined structural requirement but typically includes: an introduction introducing the subject, a thorough description, and a concluding summary with insightful reflection.

1. Subject Selection and Observation

• Choose a subject (person, place, object, or experience) to describe
• Gather sensory details and observations

2. Engaging Introduction

• Set the scene and provide the context
• Use of descriptive language and figurative techniques

3. Descriptive Body Paragraphs

• Focus on specific aspects or details of the subject
• Engage the reader ’s senses with vivid imagery and descriptions
• Maintain a consistent tone and viewpoint

4. Impactful Conclusion

• Provide a final impression or insight
• Leave a lasting impact on the reader

Narrative Essays: Storytelling in Action

Narrative essays are personal accounts that tell a story, often drawing from the writer’s own experiences or observations. These essays rely on a well-structured plot, character development, and vivid descriptions to engage readers and convey a deeper meaning or lesson.

What are the Key features of Narrative Essays

Written from a first-person perspective and hence subjective

Based on real personal experiences

Uses an informal and expressive tone

Presents events and characters in sequential order

When is a narrative essay written.

It is commonly assigned in high school and college writing courses to assess a student’s ability to convey a meaningful message or lesson through a personal narrative. They are written in situations where a personal experience or story needs to be recounted, such as:

1. Reflective essays on significant life events or personal growth.

2. Autobiographical writing to share one’s life story or experiences.

3. Creative writing exercises to practice narrative techniques and character development.

4. College application essays to showcase personal qualities and experiences.

How to Write a Narrative Essay

Narrative essays typically follow a chronological structure, with an introduction that sets the scene, a body that develops the plot and characters, and a conclusion that provides a sense of resolution or lesson learned.

1. Experience Selection and Reflection

• Choose a significant personal experience or event
• Reflect on the impact and deeper meaning

2. Immersive Introduction

• Introduce characters and establish the tone and point of view

3. Plotline and Character Development

• Advance   the  plot and character development through body paragraphs
• Incorporate dialog , conflict, and resolution
• Maintain a logical and chronological flow

4. Insightful Conclusion

• Reflect on lessons learned or insights gained
• Leave the reader with a lasting impression

Argumentative Essays: Persuasion and Critical Thinking

Argumentative essays are the quintessential form of academic writing in which writers present a clear thesis and support it with well-researched evidence and logical reasoning. These essays require a deep understanding of the topic, critical analysis of multiple perspectives, and the ability to construct a compelling argument.

What are the Key Features of an Argumentative Essay?

Logical and well-structured arguments

Credible and relevant evidence from reputable sources

Consideration and refutation of counterarguments

Critical analysis and evaluation of the issue 

When is an argumentative essay written.

Argumentative essays are written to present a clear argument or stance on a particular issue or topic. In academic settings they are used to develop critical thinking, research, and persuasive writing skills. However, argumentative essays can also be written in various other contexts, such as:

1. Opinion pieces or editorials in newspapers, magazines, or online publications.

2. Policy proposals or position papers in government, nonprofit, or advocacy settings.

3. Persuasive speeches or debates in academic, professional, or competitive environments.

4. Marketing or advertising materials to promote a product, service, or idea.

How to write an Argumentative Essay

Argumentative essays begin with an introduction that states the thesis and provides context. The body paragraphs develop the argument with evidence, address counterarguments, and use logical reasoning. The conclusion restates the main argument and makes a final persuasive appeal.

• Choose a debatable and controversial issue
• Conduct thorough research and gather evidence and counterarguments

2. Thesis and Introduction

• Craft a clear and concise thesis statement
• Provide background information and establish importance

3. Structured Body Paragraphs

• Focus each paragraph on a specific aspect of the argument
• Support with logical reasoning, factual evidence, and refutation

4. Persuasive Techniques

• Adopt a formal and objective tone
• Use persuasive techniques (rhetorical questions, analogies, appeals)

5. Impactful Conclusion

• Summarize the main points
• Leave the reader with a strong final impression and call to action

To learn more about argumentative essay, check out this article .

5 Quick Tips for Researchers to Improve Academic Essay Writing Skills

Use clear and concise language to convey ideas effectively without unnecessary words

Use well-researched, credible sources to substantiate your arguments with data, expert opinions, and scholarly references

Ensure a coherent structure with effective transitions, clear topic sentences, and a logical flow to enhance readability 

To elevate your academic essay, consider submitting your draft to a community-based platform like Open Platform  for editorial review 

Review your work multiple times for clarity, coherence, and adherence to academic guidelines to ensure a polished final product

By mastering the art of academic essay writing, researchers and scholars can effectively communicate their ideas, contribute to the advancement of knowledge, and engage in meaningful scholarly discourse.

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A 10-Step Guide to Writing an Outstanding Personal Statement

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Applying to college can be daunting, especially when it comes to writing a personal statement. This essay showcases not just your writing skills but also your unique personality, achievements, and aspirations. Understanding that while grades are crucial, a personal statement often becomes the differentiating factor in your application. To navigate this essential component, we’ve compiled a ten-step guide, replete with examples, to ensure your personal statement leaves a lasting impression on admissions officers.

Applying to college can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to writing a personal statement. This essay not only showcases your writing skills but also highlights your unique personality, achievements, and aspirations. While it may seem unnecessary, tedious, time-consuming, and just another tick-the-box, know that as each application is processed, grades are just one of the criteria of selection, more often than not a personal statement becomes the differentiating factor.

To help you navigate this crucial component of your application, we’ve compiled a ten-step guide, complete with inspiring examples to ensure your personal statement makes a lasting impression on admissions officers.

• Start Early and Brainstorm Begin the process early to give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm. Reflect on your experiences, achievements, and motivations. Think about what makes you unique, both in terms of personality and life experiences.
• Understand the Prompt Make sure you clearly understand what the college is asking for. Each institution may have different prompts or questions. Tailor your response specifically to each prompt, ensuring you answer it fully and directly. Be comprehensive and succinct in your answers, choosing words that convey your candidature the best.
• Create an Outline Draft an outline to organize your thoughts and ensure a coherent flow of ideas. This will help you structure your statement effectively, making sure every part contributes towards presenting a compelling narrative.
• Exhibit, Don’t Tell Use specific examples to demonstrate your qualities and achievements. Instead of stating that you’re a great leader, describe a situation where you demonstrated leadership. This method makes your statement more engaging and believable.
• Focus on Your Strengths While it might be tempting to cover a wide range of subjects, focusing on a few key strengths or experiences can have a stronger impact. Depth over breadth is crucial in personal statements.
• Be Authentic Admissions officers can tell when a statement is genuine. Write honestly about your experiences and passions and let your natural voice shine through. Authenticity is key to making a personal statement stand out.
• Get Feedback After drafting your statement, seek feedback from teachers, mentors, or friends. They can provide insights on clarity, grammar, and the overall impact of your essay. They all have a perspective of you from an external viewpoint, so do not skip this step.
• Revise and Edit Use the feedback to revise your statement. Look for areas where you can clarify your points, eliminate redundancy, and correct grammatical errors. This step is crucial for polishing your final submission.
• Keep It Concise Adhere to the word limit. Being able to express your thoughts concisely and effectively is a skill appreciated by admissions officers.
• Final Review Before submitting, do a final review. Read your statement out loud to catch any remaining errors or awkward phrasing. Make sure it sounds natural and is easy to read.

Examples of Exemplary Personal Statements:

Example 1: The Innovator Jane’s personal statement begins with a vivid description of her tinkering with a broken radio at age eight, which sparked her interest in technology. She intertwines her personal journey with her academic achievements, such as leading her school’s robotics team to a national competition. Jane uses specific examples, like designing a new robot navigation system, to demonstrate her passion and skill in engineering.

Example 2: The Community Leader John opens his statement with a powerful recount of organizing community relief efforts during a local flood. Highlighting his role in mobilizing volunteers and coordinating with local authorities, he demonstrates strong leadership and commitment to his community. His narrative includes feedback from the community and the personal growth he experienced, providing a well-rounded view of his character.

Example 3: The Attentive Listener Emma’s personal statement explores her profound appreciation for music and its role in shaping her interpersonal connections. She describes an afternoon spent sharing playlists with a group of international students, which turned into a deep discussion about cultural expressions through music. This experience not only highlights her listening skills but also illustrates her ability to forge meaningful relationships through shared interests.

Example 4: The Compassionate Leader David writes about his high emotional quotient and how it spurred him to lead a community initiative focused on animal welfare. His personal statement recounts organizing local workshops to educate people about animal kindness and launching a successful campaign for a local shelter. David’s story reflects his empathy and leadership in translating compassion into actionable community improvement.

Commentary: Every life is extraordinary; it’s how you narrate your story that captures the reader’s eye. Your personal statement should reflect your unique experiences and aspirations.

Conclusion:

In crafting your personal statement, remember, you don’t have to be extraordinary in the usual sense—honesty and transparency are key. Be a dreamer of the art of the possible; dream as big as you can and let those dreams articulate themselves in your words. This approach not only reveals your true self to admissions officers but also shows your potential to contribute meaningfully to their academic community. Start your adventure today! Use these steps as your guide to find the university that best fits your future goals. Dream big and achieve even bigger.

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Getting Started on Your Paper: The Skills Nobody Taught You

by Mary Dahl

What are you avoiding right now?

Come on. There’s no way you’re reading this unless you’re avoiding something. You’ve got an Overleaf document open. You’ve copy and pasted the abstract that was accepted into the conference you applied to months ago. You’ve got your literature review spreadsheet, your results, and code open. You’ve locked in on your favorite song, “ 8 Hours Super Deep Brown Noise Sleep, Study, Focus NO ADS.”

And you’re in another tab. Any other tab.

If you’re anything like me, actually getting started writing is harder than any other part of the writing process. For most writing assignments in undergrad and through my masters, I would consistently find myself waffling through writing something, unable to focus and make significant progress. Suddenly, when the due date was upon me, I’d finally find my focus, as the time pressure gave me no choice. One miserable all-nighter later? Paper done. Never punished. 

Maybe this was sustainable when I was an undergrad, but I’m old now. My body can’t run off of stale brownies pilfered from free food events and tea flavored by the crusty remnants of previous cups anymore. 

I have bad news: those habits are a large reason why focusing on starting writing is hard now. My brain has been wired to associate writing with painful crunches. Trying to start writing tells my brain it’s time to go into crisis mode, and the stress puts me off of it entirely. 

I had to find another way, and you can too. 

Here are 7 tips I’ve found that are helpful for coping with getting started. Not all of these may work for you, since everyone is different, but you won’t know until you try. 

1. Understand why you can’t focus

The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem. We treat focus as something you choose not to do, but that isn’t the case at all. If your solution to being unable to focus is to yell “FOCUS” at yourself, you just stress yourself out, which makes you want to relax, which puts you on Instagram, which makes you mad for “wasting time,” ad infinitum. Your limited focus is a resource that you drain the more you allow yourself to multitask.

Set yourself up for success by structuring your time . If you have a set amount of time for working on something before you can take a break, it is easier to avoid doing your “break” things while working. I have a little extension on my browser , as well as this website , that I can click to start a 25 minute timer. During this time, I only work on a single task and mute everything else. Once it’s over, I take a short break. I emphasize this to myself by listening to different kinds of music in work and break blocks. Building this habit helps disincentivize mind wandering.

You can take this a step further by structuring your entire day. Break up projects and tasks and mark which hours you’re going to work on each in your calendar. Extend this beyond work too – from 8-9 PM tonight, you’re reading a book!

When you do find your focus drifting during a work block, don’t get mad at yourself, but also don’t indulge it. You don’t do things for no reason: whatever you’re getting distracted by matters. Are you distracted by another piece of work? Makes sense: has to get done too. Are you distracted by a recommended YouTube video? Also makes sense: you like them. Don’t punish yourself for liking things! Write down what you got distracted by, why (and yes, your why can just be “I like Pikachu”) , and then go through the list during your next break.

If you are interested in finding out more, in much more detail, I recommend this YouTube video. It’s witty, well researched, and thorough, and discusses this better than I ever could. 

2. Put everything you have in one place

Now that we’re actually in a work block, what do we do? Don’t just jump right into writing a piece on page 1 – that will land you in the frustration-distraction-anger-nothing done loop. Instead, let’s do a productive thing that isn’t the productive thing you’re “supposed” to be doing. 

Take out a blank document or a notebook and start noting what resources you have, where they’re located, and a brief summary of what they are. These can be anything relevant to your task. Sure, you have your results and your literature review, but you also might have a slide deck on this topic you made for a lab presentation, or a statement of work from proposing the project. Assess what in them is useful and, more importantly, what is missing. Finding these gaps can be very helpful to give you direction on where to work from.

Once you have all of your resources, put them into buckets. Which pieces are useful for which topics? You have some snippets of work that go into your methods. You have some data that you have half a plotting code written for that would go in this section.

You can structure these into a flowchart if you’re feeling really ambitious. Again, nothing too fancy. Mark how your ideas lead logically into each other and make notes on what’s missing. 

This is a model for an organizational flowchart from “How to Write a Paper” by Mike Ashby, another fantastic resource about the more technical aspects of paper writing. Ashby organizes the ideas and needs for the paper into different areas. All rights reserved by author.

Okay great. Guess what you just made?

An outline.

That’s right. I tricked you into making your outline.

Plenty of people find the act of “making an outline” useless, but, more often than not, it’s because they were never taught how to properly make one. If all you think an outline is is INTRO METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION bulleted list, yeah, that doesn’t give you any direction. By instead connecting your actual content to it, you make less of a map for your paper and more of a guided tour. This not only gives you important to-dos (concrete tasks beyond “write a paper!” huzzah!), but also gives you assurance that you have already done work. 

3. Chunk your tasks

Telling yourself that today you’ll work on your paper is nebulous and scary, but what about telling yourself that today you’re working on three paragraphs of your literature review?

As we have stated already with our foray into focus, the biggest hurdle to getting something done is multitasking. When you’re facing “writing a paper,” there are dozens of substeps you need to handle in order to get it done. If you end up spending 3 minutes on writing a lit review but then 2 minutes looking at requirements for the paper but then oh wait you need to spend another minute on rereading this one paper and – and – and – 

Well, you’re left with a bunch of disorganized notes all over the place. Odds are, you’ll forget exactly what was done during this time and may need to do it all again. Be more disciplined and organized about this. If you’re working on your literature review, that is all you’re working on.

The bonus to this tip is it works fantastic with tips 1 and 2. Tip 2 (sneaky outlining) gives you specific TODO tasks that can really easily be chunked into these microtasks. Tip 1 (focus time) suggests making specific blocks of time for yourself to do things. You can assign those chunks to 25 minute long work periods! Now you know precisely what you’re working on, when you’re working on it, and how long you will be working on it. 

4. Write it terribly

Have you ever noticed that it’s a lot easier to criticize things than it is to make things? You can probably give me a hundred reasons why The Rise of Skywalker was a bad movie, picking out specific scenes and plot points you would change if you could. But if I shoved you in a time machine, sent you back to 2018, and assigned you to write the ninth Star Wars movie from scratch, you’d almost certainly fail, possibly just as spectacularly. Starting fresh is much harder than starting off a baseline. 

You can make your own baseline: instead of writing something good, write your paper as bad as humanly possible to start. 

I was struggling on an introduction once and wrote this instead:

Satellite data collection – what can’t it do? It has blessed us mortals with the ability to spy on our marble from the heavens as if we were gods. Even blurry, smudged pictures taken from cameras strapped to pizza boxes delight and amaze. The curve of the Earth is more beautiful than… no, I shan’t say it. 

This isn’t a usable piece of text, but you can break it apart to find what is usable in it. The ideas are in there: all you need to do is doctor them into something useful. 

You can also turn this method down somewhat. Instead of writing poorly on purpose, word vomit. Rip the backspace key off of your keyboard and get typing. Do not let yourself edit as you go: just get it all down. Even if you have mistakes, keep going. Even write “oops nope not that.” Get it all out of your system and don’t care one bit about quality.

There are two main reasons that these methods are useful. First, as I said, ripping apart and editing things you know are bad is easier than generating new things. A blank page is terrifying, but a page full of words is progress. The other reason these methods work? You actually wrote something. You have now turned your brain into “writing mode” instead of “not wanting to write” mode. If you’re familiar with brainstorming techniques, you may have done something similar. In effective brainstorming sessions, you always take “no bad ideas” seriously to a fault. You write everything anyone comes up with down, even if they are clearly just joking. The idea is to get everyone into a mindset where they’re firing their brain up to think of things, which can then spark “real”  good ideas. Writing is just the same way!

5. Don’t start at the beginning

Introductions to papers get progressively more boring the longer you’ve been in a field. If I have to read about how CubeSats have revolutionized space one more time, I might eat my computer. They are necessary : they ground what you are writing for unfamiliar readers and clear up common assumptions for experienced readers. This doesn’t make it any easier for you to write it when you’ve read the same type of intro over and over.

Start anywhere else. I usually start with the literature review, since it requires me to think about the topic without having to think about my own work, where I can get caught up on little details. Maybe it’s easier for you to start by summarizing an experiment or a result you have. This can help break up the writer’s block and get you writing. 

Another reason that you shouldn’t start at the beginning is to distribute your energy. Be honest with yourself about past papers you have written: have you ever allocated the right amount of time to writing them? You probably spend far too long writing and rewriting the beginning, while you feel like you have plenty of time to get the paper out. As you run out of steam as the due date approaches, your writing quality suffers. Shuffle up the order you write things so you can ensure that you keep some of that early-writing energy for every section of the paper.

Typically, when we write a paper in order, our energy level decreases as we write. Because of this, the quality of our writing peaks at the beginning, which is relatively less important to the paper, and declines as we go. By mixing up the order we write the paper, we can ensure that some of that high energy is dispersed.

6. Move your internal due date up

Oh, that paper is due in a month? Cool, cool, cool.

Nah, it’s due in 2.5 weeks now. 

Wow, this sucks! Now you need to be a lot more efficient about getting it done. Now you need to pressure yourself into focusing. The way that you would… do… if… it was last minute… the only time you could write…

Haha, tricked your brain again.

This one can be difficult to actually get done, since you are fully aware you’re trying to trick yourself. (I know that Mary is a liar and that I can in fact have that brownie whenever I want it, thank you very much.) The exact amount of time you trim for your due date is difficult to figure out, but I’d recommend trying to get it done in ⅔ of the time you actually have.

With that extra time, you can actually do substantive edits. Give the whole thing a thorough read through and have better ideas about what needs punching up. It’s even better if you can get your advisor extra time to read it. If you’re really lucky, you might even manage to be able to use that extra time to relax. I mean, probably not, but it would be great!

7. Talk about your paper with someone in a new location

If you are really struggling to get things started or to keep your synthetic due dates, turn to your officemate, your best friend, your milkman, your pet rock, anyone, and ask them if you can grab a coffee and summarize your paper for them. This is the same idea as we’ve been saying: you’re so caught in your own head about the topic that you can’t figure out how to get the words out. You’ve been working on this for so long that you’ve forgotten that you enjoy the topic. 

But look at me: you are talking about the paper.

I know, breaks are supposed to be for resetting your brain, but all talking about other things does is make you not want to go back to work. Sorry I have to be a bummer here, but I’m here to try and help you to write your paper. Go to a new location and set an end date for your chat. Just talk about it. The ins and outs, what you’re stuck on. Treat your friend as a sounding board until you’re thinking again. Set your synthetic due dates during this meeting, and check back in with them to show progress.

Man, if only there was a convenient location on MIT campus where you could talk with a colleague about your paper. If only there was some resource where your colleagues have been trained to discuss technical writing at length. If only you could sign up for a half hour or hour long block to discuss your paper, no matter what stage you’re at. Hmmm… oh wait, you could always go to the MIT AeroAstro Communication Lab !

That comes to the end of our list. Hopefully, some combination of these strategies will be helpful to you. In short, remember these two things:

• Make specific time to do specific things. 
• Force yourself to get something out, written or out loud.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a thesis proposal to get started on.

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When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence

The downward spiral of one inmate, Markus Johnson, shows the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill.

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By Glenn Thrush

Photographs by Carlos Javier Ortiz

Glenn Thrush spent more than a year reporting this article, interviewing close to 50 people and reviewing court-obtained body-camera footage and more than 1,500 pages of documents.

• Published May 5, 2024 Updated May 7, 2024

Markus Johnson slumped naked against the wall of his cell, skin flecked with pepper spray, his face a mask of puzzlement, exhaustion and resignation. Four men in black tactical gear pinned him, his face to the concrete, to cuff his hands behind his back.

He did not resist. He couldn’t. He was so gravely dehydrated he would be dead by their next shift change.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“I didn’t do anything,” Mr. Johnson moaned as they pressed a shield between his shoulders.

It was 1:19 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2019, in the Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security prison a few hours south of Chicago. Mr. Johnson, 21 and serving a short sentence for gun possession, was in the throes of a mental collapse that had gone largely untreated, but hardly unwatched.

He had entered in good health, with hopes of using the time to gain work skills. But for the previous three weeks, Mr. Johnson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, had refused to eat or take his medication. Most dangerous of all, he had stealthily stopped drinking water, hastening the physical collapse that often accompanies full-scale mental crises.

Mr. Johnson’s horrific downward spiral, which has not been previously reported, represents the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill. Many seriously ill people receive no treatment . For those who do, the outcome is often determined by the vigilance and commitment of individual supervisors and frontline staff, which vary greatly from system to system, prison to prison, and even shift to shift.

The country’s jails and prisons have become its largest provider of inpatient mental health treatment, with 10 times as many seriously mentally ill people now held behind bars as in hospitals. Estimating the population of incarcerated people with major psychological problems is difficult, but the number is likely 200,000 to 300,000, experts say.

Many of these institutions remain ill-equipped to handle such a task, and the burden often falls on prison staff and health care personnel who struggle with the dual roles of jailer and caregiver in a high-stress, dangerous, often dehumanizing environment.

In 2021, Joshua McLemore , a 29-year-old with schizophrenia held for weeks in an isolation cell in Jackson County, Ind., died of organ failure resulting from a “refusal to eat or drink,” according to an autopsy. In April, New York City agreed to pay $28 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Nicholas Feliciano, a young man with a history of mental illness who suffered severe brain damage after attempting to hang himself on Rikers Island — as correctional officers stood by.

Mr. Johnson’s mother has filed a wrongful-death suit against the state and Wexford Health Sources, a for-profit health care contractor in Illinois prisons. The New York Times reviewed more than 1,500 pages of reports, along with depositions taken from those involved. Together, they reveal a cascade of missteps, missed opportunities, potential breaches of protocol and, at times, lapses in common sense.

Prison officials and Wexford staff took few steps to intervene even after it became clear that Mr. Johnson, who had been hospitalized repeatedly for similar episodes and recovered, had refused to take medication. Most notably, they did not transfer him to a state prison facility that provides more intensive mental health treatment than is available at regular prisons, records show.

The quality of medical care was also questionable, said Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, Sarah Grady and Howard Kaplan, a married legal team in Chicago. Mr. Johnson lost 50 to 60 pounds during three weeks in solitary confinement, but officials did not initiate interventions like intravenous feedings or transfer him to a non-prison hospital.

And they did not take the most basic step — dialing 911 — until it was too late.

There have been many attempts to improve the quality of mental health treatment in jails and prisons by putting care on par with punishment — including a major effort in Chicago . But improvements have proved difficult to enact and harder to sustain, hampered by funding and staffing shortages.

Lawyers representing the state corrections department, Wexford and staff members who worked at Danville declined to comment on Mr. Johnson’s death, citing the unresolved litigation. In their interviews with state police investigators, and in depositions, employees defended their professionalism and adherence to procedure, while citing problems with high staff turnover, difficult work conditions, limited resources and shortcomings of co-workers.

But some expressed a sense of resignation about the fate of Mr. Johnson and others like him.

Prisoners have “much better chances in a hospital, but that’s not their situation,” said a senior member of Wexford’s health care team in a deposition.

“I didn’t put them in prison,” he added. “They are in there for a reason.”

Markus Mison Johnson was born on March 1, 1998, to a mother who believed she was not capable of caring for him.

Days after his birth, he was taken in by Lisa Barker Johnson, a foster mother in her 30s who lived in Zion, Ill., a working-class city halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Markus eventually became one of four children she adopted from different families.

The Johnson house is a lively split level, with nieces, nephews, grandchildren and neighbors’ children, family keepsakes, video screens and juice boxes. Ms. Johnson sits at its center on a kitchen chair, chin resting on her hand as children wander over to share their thoughts, or to tug on her T-shirt to ask her to be their bathroom buddy.

From the start, her bond with Markus was particularly powerful, in part because the two looked so much alike, with distinctive dimpled smiles. Many neighbors assumed he was her biological son. The middle name she chose for him was intended to convey that message.

“Mison is short for ‘my son,’” she said standing over his modest footstone grave last summer.

He was happy at home. School was different. His grades were good, but he was intensely shy and was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary school.

That was around the time the bullying began. His sisters were fierce defenders, but they could only do so much. He did the best he could, developing a quick, taunting tongue.

These experiences filled him with a powerful yearning to fit in.

It was not to be.

When he was around 15, he called 911 in a panic, telling the dispatcher he saw two men standing near the small park next to his house threatening to abduct children playing there. The officers who responded found nothing out of the ordinary, and rang the Johnsons’ doorbell.

He later told his mother he had heard a voice telling him to “protect the kids.”

He was hospitalized for the first time at 16, and given medications that stabilized him for stretches of time. But the crises would strike every six months or so, often triggered by his decision to stop taking his medication.

His family became adept at reading signs he was “getting sick.” He would put on his tan Timberlands and a heavy winter coat, no matter the season, and perch on the edge of his bed as if bracing for battle. Sometimes, he would cook his own food, paranoid that someone might poison him.

He graduated six months early, on the dean’s list, but was rudderless, and hanging out with younger boys, often paying their way.

His mother pointed out the perils of buying friendship.

“I don’t care,” he said. “At least I’ll be popular for a minute.”

Zion’s inviting green grid of Bible-named streets belies the reality that it is a rough, unforgiving place to grow up. Family members say Markus wanted desperately to prove he was tough, and emulated his younger, reckless group of friends.

Like many of them, he obtained a pistol. He used it to hold up a convenience store clerk for $425 in January 2017, according to police records. He cut a plea deal for two years of probation, and never explained to his family what had made him do it.

But he kept getting into violent confrontations. In late July 2018, he was arrested in a neighbor’s garage with a handgun he later admitted was his. He was still on probation for the robbery, and his public defender negotiated a plea deal that would send him to state prison until January 2020.

An inpatient mental health system

Around 40 percent of the about 1.8 million people in local, state and federal jails and prison suffer from at least one mental illness, and many of these people have concurrent issues with substance abuse, according to recent Justice Department estimates.

Psychological problems, often exacerbated by drug use, often lead to significant medical problems resulting from a lack of hygiene or access to good health care.

“When you suffer depression in the outside world, it’s hard to concentrate, you have reduced energy, your sleep is disrupted, you have a very gloomy outlook, so you stop taking care of yourself,” said Robert L. Trestman , a Virginia Tech medical school professor who has worked on state prison mental health reforms.

The paradox is that prison is often the only place where sick people have access to even minimal care.

But the harsh work environment, remote location of many prisons, and low pay have led to severe shortages of corrections staff and the unwillingness of doctors, nurses and counselors to work with the incarcerated mentally ill.

In the early 2000s, prisoners’ rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against Illinois claiming “deliberate indifference” to the plight of about 5,000 mentally ill prisoners locked in segregated units and denied treatment and medication.

In 2014, the parties reached a settlement that included minimum staffing mandates, revamped screening protocols, restrictions on the use of solitary confinement and the allocation of about $100 million to double capacity in the system’s specialized mental health units.

Yet within six months of the deal, Pablo Stewart, an independent monitor chosen to oversee its enforcement, declared the system to be in a state of emergency.

Over the years, some significant improvements have been made. But Dr. Stewart’s final report , drafted in 2022, gave the system failing marks for its medication and staffing policies and reliance on solitary confinement “crisis watch” cells.

Ms. Grady, one of Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, cited an additional problem: a lack of coordination between corrections staff and Wexford’s professionals, beyond dutifully filling out dozens of mandated status reports.

“Markus Johnson was basically documented to death,” she said.

‘I’m just trying to keep my head up’

Mr. Johnson was not exactly looking forward to prison. But he saw it as an opportunity to learn a trade so he could start a family when he got out.

On Dec. 18, 2018, he arrived at a processing center in Joliet, where he sat for an intake interview. He was coherent and cooperative, well-groomed and maintained eye contact. He was taking his medication, not suicidal and had a hearty appetite. He was listed as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 256 pounds.

Mr. Johnson described his mood as “go with the flow.”

A few days later, after arriving in Danville, he offered a less settled assessment during a telehealth visit with a Wexford psychiatrist, Dr. Nitin Thapar. Mr. Johnson admitted to being plagued by feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness and “constant uncontrollable worrying” that affected his sleep.

He told Dr. Thapar he had heard voices in the past — but not now — telling him he was a failure, and warning that people were out to get him.

At the time he was incarcerated, the basic options for mentally ill people in Illinois prisons included placement in the general population or transfer to a special residential treatment program at the Dixon Correctional Center, west of Chicago. Mr. Johnson seemed out of immediate danger, so he was assigned to a standard two-man cell in the prison’s general population, with regular mental health counseling and medication.

Things started off well enough. “I’m just trying to keep my head up,” he wrote to his mother. “Every day I learn to be stronger & stronger.”

But his daily phone calls back home hinted at friction with other inmates. And there was not much for him to do after being turned down for a janitorial training program.

Then, in the spring of 2019, his grandmother died, sending him into a deep hole.

Dr. Thapar prescribed a new drug used to treat major depressive disorders. Its most common side effect is weight gain. Mr. Johnson stopped taking it.

On July 4, he told Dr. Thapar matter-of-factly during a telehealth check-in that he was no longer taking any of his medications. “I’ve been feeling normal, I guess,” he said. “I feel like I don’t need the medication anymore.”

Dr. Thapar said he thought that was a mistake, but accepted the decision and removed Mr. Johnson from his regular mental health caseload — instructing him to “reach out” if he needed help, records show.

The pace of calls back home slackened. Mr. Johnson spent more time in bed, and became more surly. At a group-therapy session, he sat stone silent, after showing up late.

By early August, he was telling guards he had stopped eating.

At some point, no one knows when, he had intermittently stopped drinking fluids.

‘I’m having a breakdown’

Then came the crash.

On Aug. 12, Mr. Johnson got into a fight with his older cellmate.

He was taken to a one-man disciplinary cell. A few hours later, Wexford’s on-site mental health counselor, Melanie Easton, was shocked by his disoriented condition. Mr. Johnson stared blankly, then burst into tears when asked if he had “suffered a loss in the previous six months.”

He was so unresponsive to her questions she could not finish the evaluation.

Ms. Easton ordered that he be moved to a 9-foot by 8-foot crisis cell — solitary confinement with enhanced monitoring. At this moment, a supervisor could have ticked the box for “residential treatment” on a form to transfer him to Dixon. That did not happen, according to records and depositions.

Around this time, he asked to be placed back on his medication but nothing seems to have come of it, records show.

By mid-August, he said he was visualizing “people that were not there,” according to case notes. At first, he was acting more aggressively, once flicking water at a guard through a hole in his cell door. But his energy ebbed, and he gradually migrated downward — from standing to bunk to floor.

“I’m having a breakdown,” he confided to a Wexford employee.

At the time, inmates in Illinois were required to declare an official hunger strike before prison officials would initiate protocols, including blood testing or forced feedings. But when a guard asked Mr. Johnson why he would not eat, he said he was “fasting,” as opposed to starving himself, and no action seems to have been taken.

‘Tell me this is OK!’

Lt. Matthew Morrison, one of the few people at Danville to take a personal interest in Mr. Johnson, reported seeing a white rind around his mouth in early September. He told other staff members the cell gave off “a death smell,” according to a deposition.

On Sept. 5, they moved Mr. Johnson to one of six cells adjacent to the prison’s small, bare-bones infirmary. Prison officials finally placed him on the official hunger strike protocol without his consent.

Mr. Morrison, in his deposition, said he was troubled by the inaction of the Wexford staff, and the lack of urgency exhibited by the medical director, Dr. Justin Young.

On Sept. 5, Mr. Morrison approached Dr. Young to express his concerns, and the doctor agreed to order blood and urine tests. But Dr. Young lived in Chicago, and was on site at the prison about four times a week, according to Mr. Kaplan. Friday, Sept. 6, 2019, was not one of those days.

Mr. Morrison arrived at work that morning, expecting to find Mr. Johnson’s testing underway. A Wexford nurse told him Dr. Young believed the tests could wait.

Mr. Morrison, stunned, asked her to call Dr. Young.

“He’s good till Monday,” Dr. Young responded, according to Mr. Morrison.

“Come on, come on, look at this guy! You tell me this is OK!” the officer responded.

Eventually, Justin Duprey, a licensed nurse practitioner and the most senior Wexford employee on duty that day, authorized the test himself.

Mr. Morrison, thinking he had averted a disaster, entered the cell and implored Mr. Johnson into taking the tests. He refused.

So prison officials obtained approval to remove him forcibly from his cell.

‘Oh, my God’

What happened next is documented in video taken from cameras held by officers on the extraction team and obtained by The Times through a court order.

Mr. Johnson is scarcely recognizable as the neatly groomed 21-year-old captured in a cellphone picture a few months earlier. His skin is ashen, eyes fixed on the middle distance. He might be 40. Or 60.

At first, he places his hands forward through the hole in his cell door to be cuffed. This is against procedure, the officers shout. His hands must be in back.

He will not, or cannot, comply. He wanders to the rear of his cell and falls hard. Two blasts of pepper spray barely elicit a reaction. The leader of the tactical team later said he found it unusual and unnerving.

The next video is in the medical unit. A shield is pressed to his chest. He is in agony, begging for them to stop, as two nurses attempt to insert a catheter.

Then they move him, half-conscious and limp, onto a wheelchair for the blood draw.

For the next 20 minutes, the Wexford nurse performing the procedure, Angelica Wachtor, jabs hands and arms to find a vessel that will hold shape. She winces with each puncture, tries to comfort him, and grows increasingly rattled.

“Oh, my God,” she mutters, and asks why help is not on the way.

She did not request assistance or discuss calling 911, records indicate.

“Can you please stop — it’s burning real bad,” Mr. Johnson said.

Soon after, a member of the tactical team reminds Ms. Wachtor to take Mr. Johnson’s vitals before taking him back to his cell. She would later tell Dr. Young she had been unable to able to obtain his blood pressure.

“You good?” one of the team members asks as they are preparing to leave.

“Yeah, I’ll have to be,” she replies in the recording.

Officers lifted him back onto his bunk, leaving him unconscious and naked except for a covering draped over his groin. His expressionless face is visible through the window on the cell door as it closes.

‘Cardiac arrest.’

Mr. Duprey, the nurse practitioner, had been sitting inside his office after corrections staff ordered him to shelter for his own protection, he said. When he emerged, he found Ms. Wachtor sobbing, and after a delay, he was let into the cell. Finding no pulse, Mr. Duprey asked a prison employee to call 911 so Mr. Johnson could be taken to a local emergency room.

The Wexford staff initiated CPR. It did not work.

At 3:38 p.m., the paramedics declared Markus Mison Johnson dead.

Afterward, a senior official at Danville called the Johnson family to say he had died of “cardiac arrest.”

Lisa Johnson pressed for more information, but none was initially forthcoming. She would soon receive a box hastily crammed with his possessions: uneaten snacks, notebooks, an inspirational memoir by a man who had served 20 years at Leavenworth.

Later, Shiping Bao, the coroner who examined his body, determined Mr. Johnson had died of severe dehydration. He told the state police it “was one of the driest bodies he had ever seen.”

For a long time, Ms. Johnson blamed herself. She says that her biggest mistake was assuming that the state, with all its resources, would provide a level of care comparable to what she had been able to provide her son.

She had stopped accepting foster care children while she was raising Markus and his siblings. But as the months dragged on, she decided her once-boisterous house had become oppressively still, and let local agencies know she was available again.

“It is good to have children around,” she said. “It was too quiet around here.”

Read by Glenn Thrush

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro .

Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice. He joined The Times in 2017 after working for Politico, Newsday, Bloomberg News, The New York Daily News, The Birmingham Post-Herald and City Limits. More about Glenn Thrush

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