Essays are a part of every student's life, but for international students in Australia they can pose an extra challenge. If you're unsure about how to write yours, here are some helpful tips to get you started.
1. Make your essay unique
If 50 other students could have written your essay, then it isn't as interesting as it could be. Make it unique, by using your own opinion where appropriate, or appealing to the reader's senses.
If you do this, you can write an essay that stands out from all the others your professors are reading. It could even come up with some new ideas that they haven't come across before. As long as you can back up your ideas with evidence, dare to do something a bit different.
2. Stay focused on the question
Many a student has had problems with their essay, because they haven't stayed focused on the question. It can be easy to get distracted and wander off onto another topic as you write, but this can lead to lower grades.
As you write, refer back to your question. Is the point you're making relevant? If not, rewrite or remove it.
3. Make your writing accessible for Australia based readers
If you're using references that are specific to you or your culture, they can alienate the reader as they're not from the same background. When writing, make sure that you're explaining or introducing references in a way that the reader can understand.
For example, a student from the UK may say that they had an article published in the Guardian. If they want to ensure this is relevant to readers, they'll need to add that the Guardian is a well respected newspaper in the UK, and so being published in it is an achievement.
4. Get a second opinion
Once you're written your essay, ask someone you trust to read it over for you. Ask them what they like about it, and what could use improving. This is an important step, as you can be too close to the text to notice some errors that need correcting. The second opinion can help you improve your essay and really polish it up into a high grading piece of writing.
5. Always proofread your work
No one writes a perfect essay on their first try. That's why it's so important that you proofread your essay once you've written. Take several passes at it, making sure that you look for a different type of error every time you look. That way, you can be sure that you haven't missed anything.
It's important that you don't skip this step. If you do, you can submit an essay with glaring errors that a professor will spot right away. If you make sure you check it first, you can ensure that this doesn't happen.
These tips will help you write a well informed, polished essay. Try using them the next time you need to submit an essay for university.
