Over my many years of being an English tutor, I’ve noticed that many high school students have trouble with essay writing.

Some don’t understand the format, some don’t know how to start it, some are frightened by it, and some are just confused by the entire thing.

I’ve given a lot of advice and recently thought that they could be helpful to others as well.

So, here are some tips and tricks for how to write essays:

Always Plan and Organize

Prior to writing your essay, you should plan it out and organize your thoughts.

This is commonsense, but there are so many students who don’t do it. They just jump right into writing because they think it’s a waste of time to brainstorm and plan.

But in reality, planning your essay out will save you time.

You’ll have all the info you want to use laid out so you won’t have to waste time thinking about your argument or figuring out the support for it.

In addition to that, if you thoroughly organize and format your essay beforehand, all you’ll have to do when writing is put your points into complete sentences and connect them.

So, plan out your essay.

Write FBR

I have this one student who keeps fixating on the intro paragraph.

He keeps saying that it’s not good enough and wastes a bunch of time trying to make it better rather than working to complete his essay.

So, I keep reminding him to finish writing the essay first, then try to make it better after.

This method that I’m telling him to use is called Write FBR.

Write FBR is a writing method that encourages people to write fast and bad, and then review it.

It’s meant to get people to get their ideas down first and to not worry about the quality.

The reason why is that they have to proofread and edit their writing after anyway, so there’s no point fixing it as they write.

If you want to learn more about this method, click here.

Write the Essay One Paragraph at a Time

I’ve noticed that some students get nervous with essay writing because they believe it’s this huge assignment.

But it really isn’t, especially if you break it up.

Instead of thinking of it as one big writing, see it as 5 paragraphs that you have to write.

Break the essay up into manageable tasks and write one paragraph at a time.

For instance, write the intro paragraph fast and bad (and with minimal review) and then go on to the first body paragraph once you’re done.

(P.S. if you’re curious about the essay format, read this blog post.)

Continue this process until you finish the essay. Then proofread and edit it as best as you can.

This will take a load of pressure off of you because you’ll start to view the big essay as a few small paragraphs.

Final Thoughts

Essay writing can be intimidating.

Many times, it’s a big assignment that’s worth a lot of marks.

But essays aren’t that scary… if you do the things that I suggested above.

Thus, plan out your essay; break it up into smaller pieces of work; then write it fast and bad, and review it.

I once had a student write me a paragraph telling me what they did over spring break.

About 30 minutes after I gave her the assignment, she handed it back to me. I looked at and it was only two sentences.

I read it and it said:

“Spring break was boring. I didn’t do much and didn’t have fun.”

I handed it back to her and asked her why she wrote so little. I told her there must have been something else that she could’ve added.

She said that’s all she did. She didn’t have anything else to write.

So, I asked her to think and to try to be more descriptive and detailed. Maybe talk about an actual event that happened.

She told that she didn’t know how to make her paragraph better.

I stood there and pondered.

“What can she do to make this longer?”

Then, it hit me. I told her to answer these questions to make her writing longer:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

I also gave her these specific questions as examples:

• Why was spring break boring?
• Where did you want to go but didn’t?
• What did you want to do but didn’t get to do?

She said okay and got to writing.

After about 15 minutes, she handed the writing back to me.

I read it through and it was much better than the original (however, I will add she didn’t come up with her own questions. But the important thing is that she actually tried and did her work).

She added all these details and it increased the length of her paragraph. But, more importantly, it made the writing more descriptive.

Here’s what she wrote:

“Spring break was boring. I didn’t do much and didn’t have fun. I wanted to go to the rec centre, but I wasn’t allowed. My mom said she didn’t have time to take me. I also wanted to watch a movie. But my mom was busy with work.”

She could’ve added more to it, but this is not bad at all.

How You Can Use This Method

If you have trouble meeting word requirements or have problems with putting enough detail into your writing, try this method.

Be a journalist and ask yourself variations of those questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how), and try to see if you can fit the answers into your writing.

You will have to be creative with it and it will take time to inquire.

But that extra little bit of time will make your writing much better. It’ll make your piece longer and more compelling.

Additionally, this method will help make your story more elaborate, convincing, and informational, which will be more beneficial to the reader (which can get you better grades).

Final Thoughts

Writing descriptive content with loads of information is valuable.

It’ll help you paint a vivid picture that’ll influence the reader.

So, if you have trouble making your essay, for instance, longer and more detailed, use this method.

Punctuation marks can be confusing.

There are so many and some marks have multiple uses. It can be become difficult to remember all of the rules.

I remember in college, I took an English literature class and had to write a mid-term essay. A couple of weeks before the essay was due, the professor had taught us about comma splices.

I had never learned about this error before.

So, as I was writing my essay, I kept second-guessing myself. I didn’t know if the comma I was placing was actually going to turn out to be a comma splice or not.

And what made matters worse was that I was only allowed to make like, 5 grammar mistakes in my essay before I got an automatic F.

It was intense.

But had I known my punctuation rules better, I wouldn’t have felt that anxiety.

I’m sure many of you aren’t feeling as much pressure as I did to get a hold on how to use punctuation marks.

But you are reading this article for a reason. And I’m pretty sure it’s because you want to get a better understanding of them and how to use them correctly.

So, here’s a guide on how to use punctuation marks:

How to Use Punctuation Marks

How to Use Commas

Commas (,) are used to:

• Break up list items (ex. I have paper, pencils, and erasers.)
• For separating appositives (ex. Ted, the manager, is gone for the day.)
• For separating interrupting expression (ex. Sara, in fact, has a new laptop.)
• After an introductory phrase (ex. When I arrive, I will give you a call.)
• After introductory words (ex. Hi, I’m here to help you.)
• Before or after a quote (ex. Tracy said, “I have to go.” / “But I don’t want to go,” Arnold said.

How to Use Apostrophes

Apostrophes (‘) are used to show possession or used to write contractions.

Here are some examples:

• It’s
• The lawyer’s briefcase.

How to Use Semi-Colon

Semi-colons (;) are used to connect clauses or to separate long list items.

Here’s an example of how it’s used to connect clauses:

• I went to the store the other day; I couldn’t find my favourite BBQ sauce.

Semi-colons can also be used to fix run-on sentences.

How to Use Hyphens

Hyphens (–) are longer dashes. They are used to:

• Indicate a word spelled out letter by letter (ex. N-O)
• Connect multiple words to create a compound adjective (ex. Super-duper-great player)
• Avoid connecting awkward vowels (ex. Semi-Finals)
• Join certain prefixes (ex. un-Canadian)
• Connect compound numbers (ex. twenty-four)

How to Use Dashes and Brackets

Dashes (-) and brackets [()] are most often used when other punctuation marks may make the sentence awkward.

Here’s an example of how (and when) to use dashes and brackets.

That’s your example.

You can also swap out the brackets for dashes. I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think dashes come off as more formal whereas brackets don’t.

However, again, I’m not sure.

Additionally, dashes are also used to amplify a statement.

Example:

He was known for things that he regrets -being selfish and being greedy.

P.S. that dash can also be switched with a colon, which I will talk about next.

How to Use Colons

Colons (:) are used to:

• To join sentences (ex. I never wanted to break my principles: lying to get what I want and pitting people against one another.)
• To introduce a list (ex. I need you to get: pencils, erasers, and rulers.)

Final Thoughts

Punctuation marks are important because it’s used to clarify your message.

It’s also a big part of writing, regardless of the writing’s purpose.

So, learn how to use punctuation marks and become good at it.

Have you ever heard anyone say “I ain’t no snitch!” or “I ain’t never been there.”?

Well, these (along with the use of the word “ain’t”) are grammatical errors.

These are called double negatives and they happen more often than you might think.

What are Double Negatives?

Double negatives are sentences that have too many words that mean no in them.

Example: I don’t have no time for all these shenanigans!

Dangling modifiers are modifiers that do not do their job, like that one guy who only has one job assigned to him, but he never does it correctly (don’t you just hate that guy?).

Dangling modifiers are kind of like that.

These types of errors occur when the word that is supposed to be modified is not present in the sentence, leaving the modifier to not have anything to modify.

Example: Tired from the workout, it felt good to just relax in front of the T.V.

This sentence may sound okay and grammatically correct, but let me tell you something, it is not. It’s actually a dangling modifier. I know, crazy right?

The reason why is because it doesn’t state who was tired from the workout, which is the word that’s supposed to be modified.

To fix this, add a word, phrase, or clause for the modifier to modify (man, that was borderline a tongue twister).

Fixed example: Tired from the workout, Jimmy felt good relaxing in front of the T.V.

Dangling modifiers are a pretty common mistake that people make not just when writing, but also when they speak.

And it may seem confusing right now, but if you read more (like, books and articles, and that kind of stuff), noticing these errors will be as easy as scooping soft serve ice cream.

So read. Anything you want. And do it often.

If you want to practice your grammar skills, check out my workbook series, Grammar Better. These workbooks are easy to use, full of clear examples and have a variety of question types to challenge you. Click here to buy.