Learning how to write an academic essay is essential for students who are planning to attend college. Most professors require critiques of bookd and films, research papers, and formal reports related to the content of their courses. When I first started college, I was excited about facing these challenges and pursuing my major, media and communications. I was determined to improve my writing. To achieve this goal, I focused on three points: the content of an essay, correct grammar, and advanced level vocabulary.
As soon as I started to write for college, I realized that college writing was different from the writing I was used to doing. In high school, most of my writing dealt with my personal experiences. I wrote mainly about my family, childhood, and friends. In contrast, college writing focused on a variety of issues that I was unfamiliar with, such as reacting to a piece of literature or writing about the community. Therefore, the most important thing for me was to understand the assigned topic before attempting my first draft. In some cases, I would have to read and do research to build a foundation. I wanted to include examples, statistics, and direct quotations whenever possible to support my opinions. By giving specific examples, I realized that my essays became more detailed, easier to read, and much more interesting. However, grammatical problems in my writing were still an issue.
I realized that I had to improve my understanding of grammar in order to write for college. Before I came to college, grammar was not my strong point. For example, I often created run-on sentences, or sentence fragments. I was more concerned with what I want to say than with how it was said. In fact, my professors would not accept this type of writing and made me revise many times. Consquently, I made grammar my second priority. I reviewed the basic grammatical structures such as subjects and verbs and checked all my work for veb tense consistency and punctuation. As a result, my sentences became more complex because I included transitional words, gerunds, and embedded clauses. The more I wrote, the more my writing improved.
Furthermore, because I was accustomed to writing letters and informal essays, I usually wrote the way I spoke with my family and friends. It was quite common for me to include slang and abbreviated terms, which were appropriate in social contexts but were unacceptable in formal essays. I soon realized that academic writing required a much more sophisticated vocabulary. Not surprisingly, improving my vocabulary became my third and final goal. Thus, I bought a new dictionary and thesaurus to help expand my knowledge. I became more aware of how often I repeated the same words and phrases throughout my essay. I often searched for synonyms to replace words that I thought were too simple for a college essay. I also focused more on the rules of spelling and corrected any errors I found before submitting my assignment to the instructor.
Academic writing requires critical thinking skills, an understanding of the topic, high level vocabulary, and correct grammar. Having these skills is empowering since it has made me a better communicator and student. I have come a long way since I started college, and I am now proud of the writing that I produce.
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