How To Score High Marks in Essay Writing in Your Competitive Exams
Nowadays essay writing has become an integral part of the selection process not only for competitive exams but also for a job during a job interview process. Why companies are making the students go through the process of writing an essay? The reason is, essay writing is one of the most efficient ways to judge how well a candidate is suited for the post.
If a candidate is not able to write a good essay, he is eliminated from the process. Therefore, essay writing is also a tool used by corporations to knock out candidates in huge numbers. This saves them a lot of time, energy, and money.
An essay is a form of communication in written form where you tell the world how good you are. You may be brilliant in your class but if you don’t clear the essay round you are no good for the organization.
The one straightforward way to write an effective essay is to know how to write an essay and then start filling out pages after pages and practice your craft.
Given below are basic steps that you can follow to have fundamental clarity on how to go about writing an essay. These tips are for candidates who don’t have enough time on hand and would like to polish their essay writing skills.
Before writing an essay there has to be the know-how, then practice & then preparation by reading.
Here we shall look into the steps involved in writing an essay that will help you score more marks in competitive exams.
1. Read the given Essay Topic
Read the topic 2-3 times and then ask yourself:
(a) How well do I understand the topic?
(b) How can I restate or rewrite the same topic in my own words?
(c) How much knowledge do I have related to the essay topic?
2. Dissect the Essay Topic
The essay topic can have two to three keywords and a relationship between them around which you are expected to write that essay. Find those keywords.
Let’s take an example to understand. Suppose the topic of the essay is – ‘A good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.’
This sentence has got five important words:
(a) Good life
(b) Inspired
(c) Love
(d) guided
(c) Knowledge
3. Brainstorm on the keywords
A good way to have a strong understanding of the topic is to ask questions related to the keywords in the essay. In the above case, the keywords are – good life, love, knowledge, inspired, guided.
Use – what, when, who, why, and how to brainstorm on the keywords.
What do I know about the ‘good life’? or What is a good life?
Why do people fail to create a good life for themselves that they desire?
What is the meaning of ‘inspire’?
What kind of ‘love’ can inspire people to have a good life? How can this love inspire good life?
What is the meaning of ‘guided’?
What kind of ‘knowledge’ will guide people to have a good life? How can this knowledge guide people to have a good life?
Focus on the answers to the above questions. These are the answers that will serve you as a guide in writing your essay.
4. Create a flowchart in your mind or on a paper
The flow chart should cover the following points:
(a) INTRODUCTION: What will be my introduction? How will I start the essay? How can I make my introduction interesting and catchy?
You can make use of the following techniques to create a strong introduction for your essay:
* Use Suitable and Relevant Quotations
* Provide Data, Facts, and Figures
* Begin your essay with a short story
* To catch the reader’s attention, ask a Question
* What else can you think? Come out with your own creative ideas.
(b) BODY: What examples will I use in the body to support and justify my argument or the statement that I have made in the introduction?
Remember, a strong essay has 3-5 paragraphs to convince the reader about a point of view. Make sure that you stick to the topic as you expand your essay. Deviating from the topic will not only waste your time but also it will not fetch you high marks.
The body of the essay can be considered as the soul of your essay. This is the largest part of your essay so it becomes important that you have enough material to write about without repeating any point. Also, it’s your duty to ensure that the reader doesn’t lose interest while reading your essay.
(c) CONCLUSION: How will I conclude my essay? Do I need to provide a solution or do I need to just summarize what I have stated? Make sure you end your essay on a positive note. This will give the impression that you are an optimistic person.
Remember, your essay must have a proper summing-up giving the reader a feeling that the essay has come to a logical closing. You can make use of various techniques to conclude your essay, like, - a punchline, a quote, or even a positive suggestion, depending on the topic of the essay.
A good conclusion leaves a lasting impression on the mind of the reader and in competitive exams, it can inspire the examiner to give you high marks.
5. Start Writing and Maintain a Proper Flow
Flow in an essay means that your thoughts in the form of sentences are moving from one point to the next smoothly without creating any confusion in the minds of the readers.
Here’s how you can maintain good flow in your essay:
* Use Pronouns: He, She, They, etc.
* Use Words that help in Transition from one sentence to the other: However, Moreover, Therefore, On the other hand, For example, In conclusion, etc.
* Use Synonyms or Antonyms; Idioms and Phrases to avoid your essay to become boring or monotonous
Also, Create Proper Transition from One Paragraph to the Next
You can take the reader from one paragraph to the next paragraph either by raising a question or creating doubt or curiosity towards the end of the paragraph that you will address in the next paragraph. This will inspire the reader to read on with interest.
Here is a transition you can use towards the end of a paragraph in an essay on ‘Online Education’.
“That’s the real benefit of online education, but does it really create a bonding between the student and the subject that he is studying?”
Then you can go on and address the ‘cons’ of online education.
In Conclusion…
As you write your essay make it a point to stay focused on your topic, present your arguments in a clear, rational, and logical fashion. Make sure to use correct grammar and a range of sentence structures to enhance the flow of your essay.
Whether you are writing your essay for competitive exams or in general, make sure that your essay serves its purpose of either informing, entertaining, or inspiring your readers to take action or fetching you, the candidate, maximum marks in a competitive exam.
Finally, to get the hang of how a good essay is written, read a lot of essays on a variety of topics and analyze if the author has been able to keep you interested, has presented his message convincingly and with clarity.
A Final Piece of Advice:
Nobody becomes a great batsman just by watching every Cricket match, likewise, nobody becomes an essay writer just by reading tons of essays.
Even if you know the steps to write an effective essay, there is no guarantee that you will write a great essay that will blow the mind of your evaluator.
Unless…
You put in hours and hours of practice writing essays.
Here’s how you can start:
Read an essay on a topic. Don’t just skim through it, take your time to go through the content and understand it. Next, close the book and think about what you have just read. Take out a blank piece of paper and then treating what you have read as a base, start writing the same essay in your own words. Make sure that you add your own ideas, opinions, and point of view. This exercise will create a connection between your mind and hand as you think and write, giving your mind and hand enough practice to perform during exams.
Next, take your writing skills to next level by framing your own hypothetical or imaginary questions and writing an essay on it. You can also pick up a topic from the internet. Here are two topics you can try writing an essay on – ‘How has pandemic changed the way students study?’ or ‘Being alert and cautious is the secret to wellness.’
Remember, perfection comes from practice, and practice is the same as taking action on something that you want to get better at.
Just reading an essay is not practice for writing an essay. If you read essays you will perfect your reading, if you write essays you will perfect your essay writing skills.
So, pick up that pen and paper and start writing.
Further Reading / References
Singh, Dr. Awdhesh. ‘Mastering Essay & Answer Writing for UPSC Civil Services IAS/IPS & State PSC Main Exam. New Delhi: Disha Publication, Print.
Kapoor, Ravi. ‘The Ultimate Cheatbook of Essay & Answer Writing for UPSC Civil Services IAS/IPS & State PSC Mains Exam. Noida (U.P), Print.
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