Magic formula for professional essay writing

A how-to video tutorial on effective writing, offered by NeWavEssays, offers viewers detailed information about how to improve essay writing in an interesting and entertaining form.

One of the videos is dedicated to the so-called magic formula for professional academic essay writing, which consists of several stages, which the academic essays must undergo.

The steps are:

• specific assignment
• thorough research
• know the topic
• organized ideas
• information flow
• revision
• and revision

Magic formula for professional writing

More videos available at http://newavessays.com/tutorials/video/

Writer-based purposes for writing

Because writing is, or should be, for yourself first of all, everything you write involves at least some purpose that benefits you. Of course, expressing yourself is a fundamental purpose of all writing. Without the satisfaction of expressing your thoughts, feelings, reactions, knowledge, or questions, you might not make the effort to write in the first place.

A closely related purpose is learning: Writing helps you discover what you think or feel, simply by using language to identify and compose your thoughts. Writing not only helps you form ideas, but actually to promote observing and remembering. If you write down what you observe about people, places, or things, you can actually "see" them more dearly. Similarly, if you write down facts, ideas, experiences, or reactions to your readings, you will remember them longer. Writing and rewriting facts, dates, definitions, impressions, or personal experiences will improve your powers of recall on important occasions such as examinations and job interviews.

Investigation paper writing techniques

Investigative writing begins with asking questions and finding informed, sources: published material, knowledgeable people, or both. In most cases, collecting information in an investigation requires the ability to use a library and then to summarize, paraphrase, and quote key ideas accurately from other people's writing. In addition, personal interviews are often helpful or necessary. For an investigation, you might talk to an expert or an authority, an eyewitness or participant in an event, or even the subject of a personality profile. Finally, you may wish to survey the general public to determine opinions, trends, or reactions. Once you have collected your information, you must then present your findings in a written form suitable for your audience, with clear references in the text to the sources of your information.

Investigative writing uses the following techniques:

• Beginning with an interesting title and a catchy lead sentence or paragraph. The first few sentences arouse your readers' interest and focus their attention on the subject.
• Giving background information by answering relevant who, what, when, where, and why questions. Answering the reporter's "Wh" questions ensures that readers have sufficient information to understand your report.
• Stating the main idea, question, or focus of the investigation. The purpose of a report is to convey information as clearly as possible. Readers shouldn't have to guess the main idea.
• Summarizing or quoting information from written or oral sources; citing sources in the text. Quote accurately any statistics, data, or sentences from your sources. Cite authors and titles.
• Writing in a readable and interesting style appropriate for the intended audience. Clear, direct, and readable language is essential in a report. Use graphs and charts as appropriate.

Reports within this section (see subsection links) illustrate three common types of investigative writing: the summary of a single book or article, the investigation of a controversial issue (using multiple sources), and the profile of a person. The three types may overlap (an investigation of a controversial issue may contain a personality profile, for instance), and all three types may use summaries of written material, questionnaires, and interviews. Some investigative reports are brief, intended to be only short news items, while others are full-length features.

The intended audience for each report is often determined by the publication in which the report appears: Psychology Today assumes that its readers are interested in personality and behavior; Discover magazine is for readers interested in popular science; and readers of Ms. magazine expect coverage of contemporary issues concerning women.

Evaluation essay writing: shaping strategies

The shaping strategies you have used in previous essays may be helpful, but the strategies that follow are particularly appropriate for shaping evaluations.

Analysis by Criteria

Often, evaluations are organized by criteria. You decide which criteria are appropriate for the subject and audience, and then you use those criteria to outline the essay. Your first few paragraphs of introduction establish your thesis or overall claim and then give background information: what the subject is, why you are evaluating it, what the competition is, and how you gathered your data. Then you order the criteria according to some plan: chronological order, spatial order, order of importance, or another logical sequence. Phyllis Richman's evaluation of the Hunan Dynasty restaurant follows the criteria pattern:

• Introductory paragraphs: information about the restaurant (location, hours, prices), general description of Chinese restaurants today, and overall claim: The Hunan Dynasty is reliable, a good value, and versatile.
• Criterion #1/Judgment: Good restaurants should have an attractive setting and atmosphere / Hunan Dynasty is attractive.
• Criterion #2/Judgment: Good restaurants should give strong priority to service / Hunan Dynasty has, despite an occasional glitch, expert service.
• Criterion #3/Judgment: Restaurants that serve moderately priced food should have quality main dishes / Main dishes at Hunan Dynasty are generally good but not often memorable. [Most important criterion, the quality of the main dishes, is saved for last.]
• Concluding paragraphs: Hunan Dynasty is a top-flight neighborhood restaurant.

Comparison and contrast

Many evaluations compare two subjects in order to demonstrate why one is preferable to another. Books, films, restaurants, courses, music, writers, scientists, historical events, sports — all can be evaluated using comparison and contrast. In evaluating two oriental restaurants, for example, student writer Chris Cameron uses a comparison-and-contrast structure to shape her essay. In the following body paragraph from her essay, Cameron compares two restaurants, the Unicorn and the Yakitori, on the basis of her first criterion — an atmosphere that seemed authentically oriental.

Of the two restaurants, we preferred the authentic atmosphere of the Unicorn to the cultural confusion at the Yakitori. At first impression, the Yakitori looked like a converted truck-stop, sparsely decorated with a few bamboo slats and Japanese print fabric hanging in slices as Bruce Springsteen wailed loudly in the ears of the customers. The feeling at the Unicorn was quite the opposite as we entered a rcom that seemed transported from Chinatown. The whole room had a red tint from the light shining through the flowered curtains, and the place looked truly authentic from the Chinese patterned rug on the wall to the elaborate dragon on the ceiling. Soft oriental music played as the customers sipped tea from small porcelain cups and ate fortune cookies.

Cameron used the following alternating comparison-and-contrast shape for her whole essay:

• Introductory paragraph(s)
• Thesis: Although several friends recommended the Yakitori, we preferred the Unicorn for its more authentic atmosphere, courteous service, and well-prepared food.
• Authentic atmosphere: Yakitori vs. Unicorn
• Courteous service: Yakitori vs. Unicom
• Well-prepared food: Yakitori vs. Unicorn
• Concluding paragraph(s)

Cameron might have used a block comparison-and-contrast structure for her essay. In this organizational pattern, Cameron's outline would be as follows:

• Introductory paragraph(s)
• Thesis: Although several friends recommended the Yakitori, we preferred the Unicorn for its more authentic atmosphere, courteous service, and well-prepared food
• The Yakitori: atmosphere, service, and food
• The Unicorn: atmosphere, service, and food as compared to the Yakitori
• Concluding paragraph(s)

Chronological order

Writers often use a chronological order to organize their claims and criteria. In her review of Star Wars, for example, Judith Crist shapes her evaluation by following a natural chronological order:

1. Comments on Lucas's previous film, American Graffiti.
2. Review of the plot.
3. Evaluation of the climax of the film.
4. Comment on the viewer's good feelings at the end of the film.

Causal analysis

Analyzing the causes or effects of a place, object, event, or policy can shape an entire evaluation. Works of art or performances, for example, oftenjneasure the effect on the viewers or audience. Mark Stevens claims that Goya'si painting has "severairctefmife" effects on the viewer; those specific effects become the evidence that supports the claim.

• Criterion #1/Judgment: The iconography, or use of symbols, contributes to the powerful effect of this picture on the viewer.
  • Evidence: The church as a symbol of hopefulness contrasts with the cruelty of the execution. The spire on the church emphasizes for the viewer how powerless the Church is to save the victims.
• Criterion #2/Judgment: The use of light contributes to the powerful effect of the picture on the viewer.
  • Evidence: The light casts an intense glow on the scene, and its glaring, lurid, and artificial qualities create the same effect on the viewer that modern art sometimes does.
• Criterion #3/Judgment: The composition or use of formal devices contributes to the powerful effect of the picture on the viewer.
  • Evidence: The diagonal lines scissor the picture into spaces that give the viewer a claustrophobic feeling. The corpse is foreshortened, so that it looks as though the dead man is bidding the viewer welcome.

Title, Introduction, and Conclusion

Titles of evaluative writing tend to be short and succinct, stating what product, service, work of art, or performance you are evaluating ("The Gettysburg Address," "Goya's The Third of May, 1808") or suggesting a key question or conclusion in the evaluation ("How Much Car for $3990?" "'Feel Good' Film").

Introductory paragraphs provide background information and description and usually give an overall claim or thesis. In some cases, however, the overall claim comes last, in a concluding "Recommendations" section, or in a final summary paragraph. If the overall claim appears in the opening paragraphs, the concluding paragraph may simply review the strengths or weaknesses, or just advise the reader: This is or is not worth seeing, reading, watching, doing, or buying.

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA)

Attention, interest, sesire, action (or AIDA) is an effective technique for persuasion.

The ability to persuade is a very useful skill in business. The ability to write effective persuasuve messages will help you significantly in your career (which is why argumentative and persuasuve essays are quite often assigned in schools and colleges). You might want to persuade your supervisor you are experienced enough for promotion or argue for a certain point in your team. The following AIDA principle will help you understand the nature of persuation and help you write effective argumentative essay papers at school and persuasive messages at work.

Attention

1. Show that you know your audience and its concerns.
2. Formulate and tailor your statements so that they do not sound like bribes or suspicious high-pressure sales
3. Introduce a benefit for your audience
4. Effective introduction: think of a statement that your audience will agree with, sincere request for help, rhetorical questions, list what has been done or undone to solve the problem

Interest and Desire

1. When delivering your message, make sure you let the readers know why you are writing
   • State the benefits that the audience will receive
   • Explain in detail why you ask them to do something
2. Describe the action or the object in question in its entirety
3. Include all facts necessary to convince your audience that participation will be easy, important, enjoyable, benefitial
4. In your request for contribution, make sure you explain the facts, problems, suggestions, as well as roles of all participants, including the audience
5. Describe the possible direct and indirect benefits thoroughly
6. Anticipate and provide counter arguments for possible objections
   • Acknowledge objections, and calmly show more important factors
   • If possible, state counter arguments that denounce the possible objections
   • Do not focus much on this part; do not devote more than one-third of your message (however, in some cases this section must be extended)
   • Try looking at objections from an alternate standpoint and turn them into advantages
7. Introduce any enclosures after you have delivered the message, and explain what to do with them or what information they offer

Action

1. Confidently ask for audience’s cooperation
2. Emphasize the positive results of their action
3. Make the desired action clear and easy
4. If applicable, include a due date for a response
5. Avoid negative or tentative statements and only include positive and confident ones (”If you can do anything about it..” vs. “To make your contribution, …”)
6. Link the final sentence of the message with a statement from the introduction

Journal exercises for writers

Choose three of the exercises below and write for ten minutes on each. Date and number each entry.

1. Make an "authority" list of activities, subjects, ideas, places, people, or events you already know something about. List as many topics as you can. If your reaction is, "I'm not really anauthority on anything," then imagine you've met someone from another school, state, country, or historical period. Relative to that audience, what are you an "authority" on?
2. Choose one activity, sport, or hobby that you do well and that others might admire you for. In the form of a letter to a friend, describe the steps or stages of the process through which you acquired that skill or ability.
3. In two or three sentences, answer the following question: "I have trouble writing because..."
4. In a few sentences, answer the following question: "In my previous classes and from my own writing experience, I've learned that the three most important rules about writing are..."
5. Describe your own writing rituals. When, where, and how do you write best?
6. Write an open journal entry. Describe events from your day, images, impressions, bits of conversation — anything that catches your interest. Read the following essay by Roy Hoffman for possible ideas for open journal entries.

Writing about observations

Observing is essential to good writing. Whether you are writing in a journal, doing a laboratory report for a science class, dashing off a memo at work, or writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, keen observation is essential. Writing or verbalizing what you see helps you discover and learn more about your environment. Sometimes your purpose is limited to yourself: You observe and record to help you understand your world or yourself better. At other times, your purpose extends to a wider audience: You want to share what you have learned with others, to help them learn as well. No matter who your audience is or what your subject may be, however, your task is to see and to help your readers see.

Of course, observing involves more than just "seeing." Good writers draw on all their senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing. In addition, however, experienced writers also notice what is absent, or not there. The smell of food that should be coming from the kitchen but isn't. A friend who usually is present but now is absent. The absolute quiet in the air that precedes an impending storm. Writers should also look for changes in their subject — from light to dark, from rough to smooth, from bitter to sweet, or from noise to sudden silence. Good writers learn to use their previous experience and their imagination to draw comparisons and create images. Does a sea urchin look and feel like a pincushion with the pins stuck in the wrong way? Does the room feel as cramped and airless as the inside of a microwave oven? Finally, good writers write from a specific point of view or role: a student describing basic laws of physics or an experienced worker in a mental health clinic describing the clientele.

Depending on the purpose and the audience, writing from observation can be relatively objective, as when you record what is actually, demonstrably there; or it can be more subjective, as when you suggest how you feel, think, or react to a subject. A writer might describe a bicycle objectively as "a secondhand 1984 blue 10-speed Trek, with a 23-inch frame, 27-inch wheels, a Sun Tour DL deranleur, SR crank, and Dia Compe brakes." A writer might need to communicate that objective information to a prospective buyer or an employee in a cycle repair shop. On the other hand, the writer may wish to communicate the bicycle's subjective feel — how easily it pedals or how it flows like water down the street. In most situations, however, good writers describe their subject both objectively and subjectively. They use some objectivity for accuracy and specific detail and some subjectivity to suggest the value or relevance of the subject in a human environment.

The key to effective observing is to show your reader the person, place, event, or object through specific detail. Good description allows the reader to draw general conclusions based on specific detail. Rather than just telling a reader, "This bicycle has good technical components," the writer should show or describe how it feels as she rides it. If your reader is going to learn from your observations, you need to give the exact details that you learned from, not just your conclusions or generalizations. Even in writing, experience is the best teacher, so use specific details to communicate the feel, the data, the sights and sounds and smells. Whether you are a tourist describing the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, a salesperson analyzing consumer preferences for your boss, a physicist presenting data on a new supercon¬ducting material to other physicists, or a social worker putting together the details of a child abuse case, your first task is to recreate the experience, to show your readers, to make them see.