Developing a concise, rich, and compelling argumentative paper –
takes a lot of effort for students not familiar with its major principles. The thing is, this tricky yet rewarding process relies on a number of fundamentals that define its quality and whether or not your paper will be highly evaluated in the end. For this reason, we have compiled the key guidelines of crafting a solid argumentative paper like they do at every professional essay writing service!
Do Research
Before you get down to developing an argumentative paper, it’s essential to conduct in-depth research first. Be sure to check several credible sources, carefully singling out the pieces of information you need in them. The information you will gain from your research should be used in the paper in order to make it persuasive and trustworthy.
Use Valid Statements
As the name of this type of academic writing suggests, it is intended to provide the reader with the statements arguing the paper’s main idea. That being said, in your argumentative paper, you are expected to employ solid statements that will support your main point.
Create a Thesis Statement
This is one of the critical aspects of your writing. A thesis statement is the main point of your entire paper you’ll be arguing all throughout it. In your thesis statement, you have to be as specific as possible, providing an accurate summary of what you will be writing about further in your piece.
Follow the Right Structure
As you proceed with your writing, it’s important to know when it’s better to include the arguments, thesis statement as well as how you should develop your piece. This is where structure gets in the game. Sticking to the proper structure in your paper will make coherent and comprehensible and enable you to present the important details in a professional way.
In a Nutshell
Now that you’ve taken a look at the key principles of argumentative writing, we bet you don’t view it as something challenging and time-consuming, do you? Well, we could say that it indeed is without being aware of what underlies a successful argumentative essay. And, given you are equipped with the weaponry we just covered in this article, you will be able to develop a great argumentative essay in no time!
Unfortunately, college students have to do a lot of writing. This is a major part of all college courses. Students are graded based on their essay writing abilities, which can play a role in their final grade in the course.
Not all students are skilled in the area of writing. Some are naturally better at solving math problems or testing science experiments. This leaves some students in a tricky spot. If you can’t write a strong essay, your grade will be affected negatively.
According to this study, how well you write can even influence your future jobs. In many career fields, you need to be able to write and communicate effectively. If you can write well, you will likely advance in the workplace. If not, you may be held back while others move ahead. Writing well is necessary for college and in your career too, so you need to find ways to improve your skills.
If you aren’t a strong writer, it’s important that you work on your writing skills. You can’t spend a lot of time polishing your writing skills because you likely have more essays to write. Luckily, there are some quick and easy ways that you can improve your writing abilities.
Here are a few of the most effective ways that you can improve your essay writing abilities and become a better student:
Write for fun. One of the easiest ways to become a better writer is to try writing in your free time. This can be in a journal or on a blog. By doing this, you will become more familiar with writing. If you learn to enjoy writing, you will likely put more time and effort into it. This will then help you to become a better writer.
Use custom essay writing services. Many students are aware of academic writing services available online. These essay writing services give students access to professionally written papers. You can look at these essays to learn more about writing and how to write well. You might notice patterns in the professional papers that you can mimic in your own writing.
Read scientific papers. Many of your college papers will involve scientific papers or research studies. By reading these, you will become more familiar with how they are formatted and the type of information that they contain. They can also help you to write well because you will be getting used to the language.
Read for pleasure. Many students neglect reading for pleasure because they are swamped with homework and assigned readings. If possible, try to read for fun for five or 10 minutes per day. Becoming familiar with books can show you the new vocabulary and grammatical structure to use in your own writing. Again, this will help you when it’s time to conduct research for your essay. By reading regularly, you might end up liking reading more. This will then help you when it’s time to read for academic purposes.
Take advantage of a writing center. At many colleges, students can visit a writing center. At these writing centers, students can share their papers and have them edited by other students. The students who work at writing centers are usually English majors or have extensive writing knowledge. Some writing centers have online services so that you don’t have to stop by in person.
Meet with a professor. You can meet with one of your professors to ask for help with your writing. They might have ideas and tips to help you to get on the right path. For a lot of professors, putting forth the effort to get help goes a long way. Your professor will understand that you are attempting to improve your writing and may assist you further.
Watch YouTube videos. As you know, there are YouTube videos for nearly anything. One of these things includes writing videos. A simple search for “how to become a better writer” will give you access to countless videos. Here are a few to get you started.
Attend webinars on writing. Webinars are similar to YouTube videos, but they have more lesson-based approaches. Some universities offer writing webinars online. Some webinars are archived on websites so that you can go back and watch them at any time. Here are a few websites that offer webinars.
Take an online writing course. There are lots of websites where you can take free or very affordable courses. On each of these websites, you can find courses for all skill levels and for a variety of topics.
Listen to podcasts. You can find podcasts to listen to via Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, and other apps. Writer’s digest has podcasts about writing that you can find here. To listen to others, search for “writing podcasts” wherever you get your podcasts from. You can find time to listen to podcasts while driving, walking, or just hanging out!
Learning how to become a stronger essay writer doesn’t have to be complicated and intense. Select a few of these methods and give them a try for a week. You may have to experiment to see what works best for you, your lifestyle, and your writing skills. Be sure to explore the options available at your own universities, such as writing centers or webinars!
Plagiarism text concept write on notebook with pen
In a busy student-focused area like ours, the chances are pretty good that you or someone you know has run into problems with plagiarism. It’s all too easy for college students and even graduate students to find themselves caught in a plagiarism trap when their academic writing doesn’t meet the standards that colleges and universities are looking for. And unfortunately, there is a growing list of consequences when plagiarism mistakes occur. These include but are not limited to failing the assignment, failing a course, or even being expelled from school. With so much at stake, it’s a good time to look at the consequences of plagiarism in academic writing and how to stay on the right side of the plagiarism issue.
What is Plagiarism?
The first thing we need to talk about is what plagiarism is. Most people know that if you copy somebody else’s work and pass it off as your own, even if it is only a few sentences, this is plagiarism. But not as many people know that plagiarism also includes more subtle forms of copying errors. If you forget quotation marks, you have plagiarized. If you omit a footnote or citation, you have also plagiarized. And here is the one most people miss: If you rewrite the material in your own words and cite it, but your paraphrase uses too many of the original words or followed the original sentence structure exactly, that’s still technically plagiarism.
The Changing Consequences of Plagiarism
With so many ways to accidentally plagiarize, it’s no wonder that so many students in the downtown area have become paranoid about avoiding plagiarism. The good news is that universities and colleges have come to realize that students need training and help, not automatic expulsion, to understand and prevent plagiarism, so many schools have softened their plagiarism policies somewhat over the past thirty years. Where in the past automatic failure or even expulsion occurred regularly, today students are more likely to receive counseling and a warning, particularly for a first offense. But given how easy accidental plagiarism is, few students want to waste the relatively lenient treatment of a first offense if they can avoid it. After all, subsequent plagiarism incidents can cascade into consequences such as failing a class or expulsion.
How to Avoid Plagiarism in Writing
So how do you prevent plagiarism from occurring in the first place? Fortunately, it’s not hard if you follow a few pieces of advice from EduJungles writing service.
Always cite sources. Whenever you use information that is not common knowledge, provide a citation to a source to acknowledge where you go it from. Not only is this a good academic practice, it also has a practical side: At many schools, if you accidentally plagiarize but have a citation, instructors and administrators are more likely to give you credit for trying to cite rather than punish you severely for academic honesty violations. So, when in doubt, cite!
Be sure to use quotation marks consistently. A good rule of thumb is to place quotation marks around any borrowed language of three or more words from the original source. Obviously, this is only a general rule, and there may be cases where even a single word may need to be quoted if it is particularly unusual or distinctive. But in general, you should err on the side of indicating which words aren’t your own and placing them in quotation marks to set them apart from the rest of your sentence. And always cite quotes!
Learn the difference between a quote, a paraphrase, and a summary. A quotation is the exact words of a source, but there are other ways to provide information from sources. A summary briefly explains the highlights of another writer’s ideas in your own words. A paraphrase, by contrast, is similar to a quote but rewrites everything in completely different words and in a completely different structure to make it your own. Either way, you need to cite all of these. The general idea is this: Avoid copying other people as much as possible.
Compare your work to professional examples. Even with all of this, you may not know how to incorporate sources correctly into a paper. Another option to avoid plagiarism is to purchase an original paper from a professional custom writing company like SmartWritingService which offers a wide range of academic writing services for students. These papers are professionally written by writers with advanced degrees and are guaranteed to be free from plagiarism. Seeing how an expert might approach your topic can give you insight into the right way to avoid plagiarism at every stage of the essay writing process.
With a few simple tips, you’ll be on your way to a plagiarism-free paper and peace of mind when it comes to the originality and academic honesty of your latest essay masterpiece.
In earning his living as a comedy writer, Matt Kirsch has what many would consider to be a dream job. As a staff writer for Triumph’s Election Special 2016, Matt was recently nominated for a Primetime Emmy. Prior to his work with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, Matt contributed to nearly 300 episodes of the Late Show With David Letterman, writing for Letterman from 2013 through the groundbreaking talk show’s 2015 finale.
Prior to his work on late night television, Matt created Duder. A web series long before Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime were creating web-only content, three seasons of Duder were produced. The show was a Webby honoree in 2009 for Best Long Form Comedy and went on to win Best Comedy at the 2011 New York Television Festival. Now based in Los Angeles, the Yale graduate is currently writing for Disjointed, the forthcoming Netflix series starring Kathy Bates and produced by Chuck Lorre.
Downtown caught up with Matt for some Q&A, attempting to learn about the everyday life of an acclaimed comedy writer. Matt can be followed on Twitter via @HeyMattKirsch, while Duder remains posted online at www.duder.com.
I know that you wrote plays and produced an online series before that was a common gig, but what was your first paid writing gig?
Matt Kirsch: I worked for The Onion for about four years and contributed headlines for the paper and story ideas for the IFC show. When The Onion moved to Chicago, the bulk of the editorial staff left, and we started this web project with Adult Swim called Thing X. That was my first official writing gig.
What was the first writing gig you had in which it was clear that this was a career instead of another one-off gig?
MK: Getting the Letterman job was exciting just because it feels like you won the lottery — there’s so much chance and circumstance that goes into hiring for these gigs. But I think getting signed by an agent, which happened about a year before Letterman, strangely made things feel more real for me. Once you have someone working for you and it’s in her best interest for you to get jobs and keep working, it starts to feel more like a career, for better or for worse.
Was there a mentor or someone early on that helped you move forward in your career?
MK: Definitely my playwriting professors in college — Deb Margolin and Toni Dorfman — were hugely influential just in my helping me find my voice and gaining confidence. And there were so many ridiculously talented writers at The Onion that I learned from and helped me out: Joe Randazzo, John Harris, Joe Garden, Chris Karwowski, Carol Kolb, Dan Guterman, and tons others.
Did you always want to be a writer rather than a stand-up or on-screen performer?
MK: Yeah, for the most part. I had a lot of fun acting in my web series, Duder, mostly because I was playing a version of myself, and when you write it, it’s pretty easy to memorize.
What is the hardest part of your job? Is it coming up with material?
MK: One challenging thing is just fighting the urge for your brain to turn off and relax at any point during the work day, because you mostly have to stay in it. One minute you’re pitching story arc ideas, then you have to switch gears and figure out the best line for some guy to say when he’s being chased out of a bathroom, etc.
On the other hand, what is your favorite part of what you do?
MK: I love just being in the room with funny, talented people, riffing and figuring out minutia about story stuff.
Do you feel that there are any misconceptions about life as a writer?
MK: Hmm, not sure what the stereotypes are exactly, but it’s more collaborative and you’re a little more invisible than some people might think, which is what I like about it. You’re all kind of working as a hive mind, but that’s just my experience, lots of shows are different.
Is there an accomplishment that you’re most proud of as a writer?
MK: I’d say my web series Duder, just because I somehow had the drive to make this thing happen for zero money and convince my friends to work with me for zero money. And it became this messy, unfiltered download of my brain at that particular time in my life.
Having written in both New York and Los Angeles writer rooms, is the experience of writing different between those two cities?
MK: Not a ton of difference — we just complain about different things.
It’s sort of a hack question to ask where writers get their ideas from, but in your case, what is your routine like when it comes to getting creative? Do you treat it as a 9-to-5 where you write every day? Are you more based in writing only when inspiration hits?
MK: Yeah, that is a hack question. Jesus, Darren. (laughs) No seriously, you have to be as disciplined as you can and just write all the time, rather than waiting for inspiration to hit. It’s just a muscle that needs to be exercised regularly — and you never know what will come out at any given time and whether it will be useful or not. With that said, my level of discipline definitely differs whether I have a full-time gig or not and how tired I am at the end of the day.
When not busy with writing, how do you like to spend your free time?
MK: I like to hike — which is so much easier to do in L.A. than New York — hang out with our dogs, play video games and cards and board games, and that’s it.
Is there anything you miss about living in New York?
MK: Yeah, lots. Bagels mostly. Walking to a bar in less than 25 minutes. Public transit. And lots of people that still out there.
Do you often run into folks from Long Island while out in Los Angeles?
MK: All the time! There are two writers from Long Island just on my staff, and one is actually from Merrick, though he went to Calhoun [High School]. I know, gross. (laughs)
Finally, Matt, any last words for the kids?
MK: My advice would be: Just write a lot of stuff and don’t just write it, produce it. There’s nothing more important than developing your voice and having something you can show people that showcases your voice. And it doesn’t matter if it’s raw and super low-budget.
Out of the Binders or BinderCon, a literary conference for women and gender nonconforming persons will be coming to NYC on November 7 and 8 at Cooper Union and the NYU Journalism Institute.
Out of the Binders was launched summer 2014 and was named as a nod to the infamous Mitt Romney quote in which he referenced “binders full of women.”
The group hosts professional conferences to provide networking opportunities for women in the writing world spanning from journalism to TV and film.
