Benefit 1: Accessibility
One of the main benefits claimed for cryptocurrencies is that they are easily accessible by anyone with secure web access.
• Development of cryptocurrencies has reflected all the elements of Smith’s (2001) model of innovative cultures: ease of participation, freedom from external control, and the prospect of social and financial rewards.
• More than 5000 cryptocurrencies on the market – total market valuation estimated > $300 bn (Brown & Smith, 2021)
Benefit 2: Innovation
Easy access to cryptocurrencies has encouraged the development of innovative applications
Examples: BAT tipping; Litecoin ease of use; Sports club cryptocurrencies (Patel, 2021)
Benefit 3: Return on investment
Cryptocurrencies have not yet shown that they can retain or grow their initial value. However, for Bitcoin in particular, investors have been attracted by the promise of significant return on their investment.
• Highest rate of return – 18% (Dasman, 2021)
Risk 1: Volatility
Cryptocurrencies are subject to price volatility due to the combined influence of supply and demand, investor and user sentiments, government regulations and media hype.
• Bitcoin price jump after media promoted Proshare’s introduction of exchange-traded fund (Reiff, 2022).
• Examples of investor speculation and reactive trading impacting particular cryptocurrency price (Van Welle, 2021)
• “The Musk Effect” - how the value of Bitcoin is affected by Elon Musk’s tweets (Lapin, 2021)
Risk 2: Insecurity
Cryptocurrencies have inherent vulnerabilities, creating insecurity that cannot be overcome solely by regulation.
• Cryptocurrency is designed so as not to need gatekeepers such as banks or government – this means there is no third party to undo any harm if a protocol or code turns out to contain bugs (Power, 2021).
• Global crypto exchanges are poorly regulated and vulnerable to political instability and turmoil. This affects investor’s confidence in their ability to translate crypto balances into widely accepted currency. (Blowden, 2021)
Risk 3: Limited liquidity
The high trading volume of cryptocurrencies put strain on a nascent system of global crypto exchanges. Whilst improving volume capacity has helped, a more robust system is required to meet the burgeoning trading demand and improve liquidity.
• The success of cryptocurrency is dependant on the ability to ‘cash out’ to fiat (government issued) currencies via crypto exchanges. These are currently insufficiently regulated and developed, causing confidence and supply issues (Rutherham, 2021).
To be recommended in very limited circumstances
Paragraph plans provide an overview of your essay and provide an effective starting point for structured writing. The next step is using this plan to expand on the points as you write your essay.
In almost all cases, written assignments call for students to explore complex topics or aspects of an area of study. Any academic writing task is an opportunity to show how well you understand a particular topic, theme or area. Usually this means demonstrating how various ideas, knowledge, information or ways of thinking are connected within the context of the task or area of focus.
This means that successful academic writing presents ideas logically, and that there is high connectivity within the writing. In other words, the aim should be for writing to have high flow to help make the connections clear.
Three ways to achieve this include:
Topic sentences, or the leading sentences of a paragraph, play a key role in connecting the ideas of an essay. High-flow topic sentences should look to include three key elements:
Consider the following examples of topic sentences in response to an essay question about Virtue Ethics.
A low-flow topic sentence : Aristotle defined phronesis as practical wisdom.
This sentence does not reference the topic (virtue ethics), nor does it link to an idea from a previous paragraph. It does however, introduce the sub-topic of the paragraph (phronesis).
A high-flow topic sentence: Another fundamental concept in Virtue Ethics is phronesis.
This sentence refers to the essay topic (virtue ethics), acknowledges that this is an additional concept that build on the previous paragraph, and introduces the topic of this paragraph (phronesis).
Well-constructed paragraphs have high connections between sentences. In general sentences that promote flow should:
The following paragraph example can be considered high-flow. It includes sentences that reference the previous sentence ( underlined ), add new information ( maroon ) and use topic words ( green ).
Another fundamental concept in Virtue Ethics is phronesis. According to Aristotle, phronesis is a form of practical wisdom through which individuals make principled decisions in line with virtues such as courage and honesty (reference). Its practical nature means that phronesis can only be developed over a lifetime of carefully considered actions and sober reflection . This practice builds a person’s moral character, allowing them to make morally-defensible choices even in unfamiliar and complex situations (reference). In other words, it is a kind of social and professional skill, which at first requires conscious effort and can still result in mistakes. However, through discipline and persistence, it becomes second nature. As a result, practitioners consistently act wisely and in accordance with the virtues they uphold . Their wise actions further strengthen their own character and contribute to human fulfilment at both individual and community levels (reference).
Transition words help make the relationships and connections between ideas clear. Some examples of helpful transition words and phrases for various types of connections include:
Like X, Y is... Unlike X, Y is... In other words, This means that... For example, For instance, | Moreover, Furthermore, Additionally, Likewise, Similarly, | However, On the other hand, Therefore, As a result, Consequently, Hence, Thus, |
Success Now! workshops are available live online or on campus. Register here for workshops on research and writing . You can also organise an individual consultation here to talk to a learning advisor about planning your assignments.
Last Updated: July 22, 2024 Fact Checked
This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 18 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 7,971,121 times.
An essay is a common type of academic writing that you'll likely be asked to do in multiple classes. Before you start writing your essay, make sure you understand the details of the assignment so that you know how to approach the essay and what your focus should be. Once you've chosen a topic, do some research and narrow down the main argument(s) you'd like to make. From there, you'll need to write an outline and flesh out your essay, which should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. After your essay is drafted, spend some time revising it to ensure your writing is as strong as possible.
Christopher Taylor, PhD
Christopher Taylor, Professor of English, tells us: "Most essays will contain an introduction, a body or discussion portion, and a conclusion. When assigned a college essay, make sure to check the specific structural conventions related to your essay genre , your field of study, and your professor's expectations."
Tip: In general, Wikipedia articles are not considered appropriate sources for academic writing. However, you may be able to find useful sources in the “References” section at the end of the article.
Tip: Some writers find it helpful to write the introduction after they've written the rest of the essay. Once you've written out your main points, it's easier to summarize the gist of your essay in a few introductory sentences.
Tip: If possible, have someone else check your work. When you've been looking at your writing for too long, your brain begins to fill in what it expects to see rather than what's there, making it harder for you to spot mistakes.
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If you need to write an essay, start by gathering information from reputable sources, like books from the library or scholarly journals online. Take detailed notes and keep track of which facts come from which sources. As you're taking notes, look for a central theme that you're interested in writing about to create your thesis statement. Then, organize your notes into an outline that supports and explains your thesis statement. Working from your outline, write an introduction and subsequent paragraphs to address each major point. Start every paragraph with a topic sentence that briefly explains the main point of that paragraph. Finally, finish your paper with a strong conclusion that sums up the most important points. For tips from our English Professor co-author on helpful revision techniques, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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Yes, you can! Many students mistakenly think that, because essay exams focus on analysis rather than memorization, they cannot really “study” for an essay exam. However, essay exams generally require you to pull together information from different parts of the course to create a coherent answer and to support an interpretation with specific examples. That is pretty hard to do well if you haven’t studied the course material! Indeed, there are a number of study strategies that are well-suited to preparing for an essay exam.
Essay exams require you to interpret a complex and often lengthy question, develop a coherent thesis statement that addresses this question, and write an essay that provides specific evidence to develop and support this thesis. And, it requires you to do all of this under time pressure.
Meeting these challenges will require that you study in ways that will allow you to recognize both the major themes and ideas of the course as well as the specific facts, events, authors, or examples that are associated with those themes.
Essay exams require you to show connections between details, to gather up the specifics and tie them together with the major themes of the course. One of the best ways to prepare for this is to create a study guide.
A study guide is a document that attempts to identify the major themes and synthesize information from different units or weeks of the course. In a study guide, you list information from different units together under thematic categories. Here are some tips on creating a good study guide.
Step 1 : Read through lecture notes and reading notes and list the main themes of the class. This is not a list of facts, dates, events or authors, but of themes and ideas. For example, in your History 1500, this would NOT be a list of events or dates. It would be themes: terror and the state, religion and terror, technology and terror. In English 1000, your list would NOT be a list of authors or books that you have read. Instead, it would be a list of themes that are common to them: literary techniques, self and society, gender etc.
Step 2 : Now go back and read through your notes again. This time, you are looking for details such as authors, key terms, events, and examples. Use these details to flesh out your study guide and to show how the details build your understanding of the themes.
Sample Study Guide for History 1500
Theme: Religion and Terror
Module: Witch Craze
Module: Crusades – List relevant examples
When professors write essay questions, they usually review the material they have covered and try to choose topics that will require students to bring together the major themes of the course. By guessing the questions that will be on the exam, you will engage in the same process. Look through your syllabus, lecture and reading notes, and study guide. What concepts or themes have been developed throughout the term? What questions would you ask if you were the professor?
While you are guessing the questions and preparing for an essay exam, it can be very helpful to consult previous exams in the course. While it is unlikely that a professor would use exactly the same questions again on your exam, it can be helpful to get a sense of the types of questions that have been asked in the past. Some professors share old exams with their classes. However, in classes where this is not the case, you can seek out sample questions from your textbook, syllabus, or assignment instructions. There are great online sources of sample questions from textbook publishers, but take caution when searching online. Some sites that crowdsource student work encourage acts of academic dishonesty; students should never share old exam questions or answers.
Trying to identify what questions might be on the exam is, of course, only one part of studying for the exam. You also need to try to create answers to these questions. You can do this by outlining answers. Begin with a clear thesis that addresses the question, and then create a section of the outline that develops each part of your thesis. Finally, add in specific examples that you would use to support your ideas in the appropriate section.
You can also write full answers to the essay questions you devise as you study. The act of writing will help you to remember the material, and although the identical question may not appear on the exam, you will usually be able to employ the connections and supporting details in a response that addresses similar issues.
One of the best ways to learn material is to talk about it with others. As you do, you deepen your understanding not only by having to explain concepts or themes to others but also by hearing their perspective on the central issues of the course.
While you will ultimately take an exam, and thus need to know course information, on your own, study groups can be a great supplement to independent study activities. Each group member could come prepared with one or two potential exam questions, and then other group members could try to answer them. Or, the entire group could review the course syllabus together and identify central themes or particularly challenging material. Through the process of discussing the information with others, you will increase your understanding and thus be studying for your essay exam.
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Writing essays can be difficult, particularly if you don't know where to begin. but not to worry below is a simple step-by-step guide on how to write an essay..
Ernest Hemingway is thought to have said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
Writing may have come easy for the famous novelist, but for most of us, it’s anything but effortless. Most students admit that they struggle with writing — especially when it comes to how to write an essay .
But there’s good news—
The steps for writing an essay aren’t as difficult as they might seem. If you need to master writing an essay but aren’t sure where to start, keep reading. We’ll go through the essay writing process step-by-step so you can follow along.
Keep reading below to learn how to write a good essay for college, high school, and more!
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Here’s how to write an essay sure to get you an A+ grade:
We’ve all been there: staring at a blank page or blinking cursor, unable to think of what to write, with an increasing sense of panic. And, it’ll happen throughout your life, from writing a cover letter for a job to preparing detailed reports at work.
Writer’s block isn’t a writing problem. It’s a thinking problem. If you don’t know what to write, it’s because you don’t know what you want to say.
Great essays come from a genuine interest in the topic. At first blush, you might not feel a compelling personal interest in this year’s Shakespeare play, your modern history unit, or any essay topic that you’ve been assigned. However, when you find a personal angle on your topic, you’ll have lots to say.
Why did Prospero whip up a storm? Would you have chosen to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? Do some preliminary research to get familiar with your topic and discover an aspect of it that interests you.
Even if your topic seems dry at first, there’s a way to connect with it. Once you do that, you’ll have lots to write about.
Related Read : How to Stop Overthinking: 10 Ways to Reduce Worry & Negative Thoughts
A “thesis statement” is the point that your essay is trying to make. Also called your “topic sentence,” it’s simply what you are writing your essay about. Everything else in your essay will support it, which is why it’s crucial to write it before you write anything else.
Whatever you call it, it’s a crucial step in the essay writing process because it anchors your whole essay. A clear thesis example summarizes your topic and the position you will take on it.
Imagine that you have been assigned to write an essay on the topic, “Should animals be used for research?” You might choose to present a topic sentence like:
Whatever your thesis statement is, it should be clear, concise, and unambiguous. It’s a single-sentence summary of your entire essay. Later, you’ll expand on these words in the rest of your academic paper by providing evidence, examples, and supporting citations.
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So far, you’ve decided what you will write your essay about and what position you’ll take.
Does that mean you’re ready to start writing?
Not quite yet.
Think of essay writing as building a house. You wouldn’t begin building a house by constructing each room separately. Instead, you’d start by laying the foundation and building a framework, and only then adding details to the interior.
Your topic sentence is your foundation. Next, build your framework. In essay writing, that’s called an outline.
An outline lets you plan out your essay content and the point of your essay before you write. Your outline should look something like this:
Of course, you can have as many main points and sub-points as you need to get your message across, especially when writing research papers or an academic essay.
This might seem like a lot of work before you begin the actual writing process. However, putting in all this work up front eliminates confusion and hassle later on. It’s like a road map that will keep you on track as you write your essay.
Wireframing your essay is the right time to go back to your essay assignment and double-check the requirements, such as:
Plan your outline to match these requirements.
For instance, your assignment might be to write a 1,000-word essay that includes at least four research sources.
You could plan to write three main point sections with 250 words each, plus an introduction and conclusion of about 175 words. You can use one research source for every main point, plus one to add an interesting fact to your introduction.
Or, maybe one of your main sections has several sub-points which will eat up more than their fair share of the word count. You could plan to give 500 words and at least two sources to that section. This leaves 200 words for your other two main sections and a brief 50-word introduction and conclusion.
Of course, your outline isn’t set in stone. You can play around with the structure and word count later on. However, giving yourself a clear structure before you start writing will keep your essay flowing and prevent writer’s block later on.
Related Read : How to Put Skills on a Resume the Right Way in 2021
You’ve done your research and planned out your essay.
Now it’s time to get down to business and actually write an essay .
Use your outline as a guide to writing your body paragraphs. This will keep your ideas on track and help you meet your word count target.
Since your introduction comes first, you might assume that the best place to begin writing your essay.
However, there’s a better way. Start by writing your body paragraphs first, then go back and write your introduction and conclusion.
Why write in this order?
As you write, you might develop your main points in different ways than you expect. If you write your introduction first and then move on to your body paragraphs, you run the risk of having to re-write your introduction if your ideas change.
Even though your introduction comes first, write it later. It will save you work and help make your essay more effective. (This also happens to be one of our favorite resume tips !)
Each main point or sub-point can have as many paragraphs as it needs to communicate your point. However, squeezing too many ideas into one paragraph makes your essay hard to follow. On the other hand, stretching one idea out over many paragraphs is bad form as well.
To keep your train of thought as clear as possible, a good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to one idea per paragraph. This keeps each piece of writing easy for your reader to follow, whether it’s an expository essay, argumentative essay, or any other type of essay.
Related Read : How to Choose a College: 7 Considerations for Finding the Right University
Your introduction should include three things:
A great “hook” grabs your reader’s attention from the beginning. Avoid generic introductions like these examples:
Instead, begin with an idea, statistic, or quotation that makes your reader want to know more.
Transition to your thesis statement and summarize your main points. This sets the direction for your essay and tells your reader what to expect.
Your conclusion has three jobs to do:
Like the introduction, your conclusion wraps up by reminding your reader what your topic statement is and how your main points support that idea. Present a concise version of your supporting arguments if you think it’ll be helpful for “scanner” type readers.
Finally, end strong with a punchy statement that impresses your reader.
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Congratulations.
You’ve completed the first draft of your essay!
However, your work isn’t done yet. The first draft is also called the “rough draft,” and it needs a little more polish before it’s ready to earn you that A.
Ernest Hemingway said, “The only real writing is rewriting.” That means the editing process is just as important as getting your first draft down, if not more so. Once your first draft is complete, take another look at your essay and see what needs to be changed.
Keep in mind that at this stage you aren’t looking for grammar errors and typos — that’s called proofreading, and it comes later.
Right now, look for structural changes that will make your essay more readable, such as:
Let’s take a look at a few common areas of difficulty in the editing stage.
Stuffing your essay with puffy filler phrases doesn’t make it better.
Cluttering up your essay with impressive-sounding jargon makes it more difficult to read without improving the real quality of your writing.
One of our best essay tips for you is that using phrases like “at this point in time” instead of “now” doesn’t get you closer to that A grade.
On the other hand, you don’t want your essay to sound conversational; using a casual tone doesn’t do justice to the work you’ve put into your writing project.
To hit the right middle ground, read your essay out loud. Make note of any sections or words that sound either stuffily formal or overly casual. Your finished product should sound easy to understand, but still professional and confident.
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As you read your rough draft, it should have the same structure as the academic essay outline that you made. Now is the time to see if that structure needs to change.
Your ideas should build on one another and flow in a logical sequence; for example, solid evidence should immediately follow any argument you are trying to make. The essay should still be neatly organized in main points, sub-points, and paragraphs.
Don’t forget to use transitional words to help your reader understand how your ideas relate to one another. “First,” “second,” “third,” “therefore,” “however,” and “on the other hand” tell your reader how your ideas connect with one another. They make the sentences of your essay more reader-friendly.
While research shows that your writing skills improve if you get feedback on your assignment , most essay writing assignments don’t give you the opportunity to get feedback and then improve your work.
Even if you can’t get feedback from your professor or teacher before you submit your essay, you can still get valuable feedback from other sources. Contact your university or high school’s writing center to get extra help for your essay.
Is no writing center available? No problem. Try exchanging your essay with another student in the class to give constructive criticism on each other’s work. (This is a great way to make friends on campus , too.) A good idea is to ask them after if the body paragraphs support your thesis and if there’s anything else a reader needs to know to make it more relevant or convincing.
Related Read : Glossary of College Terms: 25+ Important University Words to Understand
Formatting your research sources is one of the last steps of writing an essay. That way, you’ll already have added all your sources and won’t get stuck re-formatting your in-text citation.
Make sure you use the right style guide to format your sources. Liberal arts (including high school and university English classes) mostly require MLA format; sciences, like psychology, tend to use APA formatting.
No step-by-step instructions for writing an essay could be complete without the final step: proofreading.
No matter what you’re writing — from your dream job resume to a work email — proofreading counts. Little grammar mistakes can make an otherwise amazing essay look sloppy and unfinished.
Using a spellchecker will help you catch some grammar and spelling errors, but not all. You should still read through your essay carefully to catch common grammar errors and spelling mistakes. Afterwards, ask a friend, roommate, or family member to proofread again.
Related Read : 15+ Best Study Tips: Top Advice & Effective Ways to Study Better
Students struggle with how to write essays because there are so many steps to think about.
Whether you’re applying for a scholarship or aiming for a first-class grade, hopefully this article has presented the key points and steps for writing an essay in a way that will help you approach the essay writing process and subject confidently.
We hope you found our guide on how to make a good essay easy to follow and helpful! If you have any other essay writing tips or questions about writing essays, let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!
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Essay exams test you on “the big picture”-- relationships between major concepts and themes in the course. Here are some suggestions on how to prepare for and write these exams.
Learn the material with the exam format in mind.
Read carefully.
For more information on exam preparation and writing strategies, see our Exams pages.
Some suggestions in this handout were adapted from “ Fastfacts – Short-Answer and Essay Exams” on the University of Guelph Library web site; “Resources – Exam Strategies” on the St. Francis Xavier University Writing Centre web site; and “Writing Tips – In-Class Essay Exams” and “Writing Tips – Standardized Test Essay Exams” on the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign web site
Hi there! I'm Nathan, from Lynn, MA (basically Boston). At the moment, I'm studying Engineering and Biology, though I hope to explore courses across the Humanities and Social Sciences. I'm an aspiring naturalist who loves writing, drawing, and photography. My time outside the classroom is spent running trails, reading random wikipedia articles, or speaking French with Francophone friends. Explore my posts for an inside perspective of everything Dartmouth has to offer!
Engineering, Biology
Training with the Triathlon team
Lynn, Massachusetts
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Nathan's d-plan, fall hanover, nh.
I took this class to explore the Biology Department and it ended up defining my freshman Fall. I grew close with other biology-minded students and together we delved deep into cellular mechanisms and processes in a fast-paced environment. The labs were long but rewarding and everything about this class made me a better scientist—Professor Bezanilla is an amazing teacher! I would recommend this class to anyone with a passion for biology and research.
“Who do I want to be?” is a question that I frequently ask myself as an undergraduate (and I’m sure you will as well). A good place to begin answering this question, however, is “Who am I ?” Taking Investigative Memoir as my first-year Seminar allowed me to explore this question via personal reflection and expressive writing—something that has helped me frame my identity at Dartmouth with the rest of my life. College can be a surreal experience, but Professor Sharlet’s introduction to the world of creative nonfiction has given me the ability to transform my own perceptions into tangible, recorded stories.
As a kid I drew a lot; I was inspired by architectural books like “Pyramid” and “Castle” and fascinated by illustrations in “The Way Things Work.” All of these books are by the author David Macaulay—and I had the opportunity to take this very class with him! I completed weekly sketchbook exercises, worked on visually communicating inventions, and was able to receive personal feedback. The theme of visual illustration as a tool in engineering resonated strongly with me, inspiring my interest in an engineering major modified with studio art. Given my long relationship with his work, this class was truly a dream come true.
I hope you enjoyed the Mushroom cover image. I could have kept walking down the sidewalk on the way to—you guessed it—writing things like this blog post, but I stopped to capture the moment.
If you're anything like me, sometimes you go weeks without writing anything. Sometimes you stop and take pictures of mushrooms to delay the inevitable (okay, maybe that's on another level). Regardless, you've probably struggled at some point when it actually came time to write something. If you're a rising junior or senior right now, you might be receiving a lot of advice about getting an early start on your college essays. I thought it might be helpful to share my experience and highlight the idea that it's quite possible to begin the writing process earlier—without necessarily putting your fingertips to the keyboard.
When I was applying to schools, I went down a rabbit hole of essay writing strategies and devoured examples of "successful" essays. I read a few books and probably listened to a full work week's worth of podcasts. Maybe this was my method of coping with the fact that I had essays to write that I didn't want to start yet—but I still found it very valuable. The more related information I was able to take in, the more I could begin to see how I might approach writing my own essays. I started the reflection process early and my ideas were able to marinate.
All this is to say that the actual, deep work that was required for me to end up with essays I was proud of came from the process of not writing. I was intentionally keeping track of ideas through notes, but I was also subconsciously processing how I could present myself in my essays. When it came time to actually write, the task became to convey my thoughts in the most effective way possible—and that simply came through grammar, vocabulary, and some storytelling strategies.
I also knew the methods of expressing my marinated ideas, so to speak, were important, but I came across an insight. You can take my word with a grain of salt, but from my own college essay journey, I found that it can be easy to get caught up in flowery language, complex syntax, and experimental writing structures.. It would have been easy to deem the way I was telling my story into the 'content' of the story, but I realized a focus on the content itself and working backwards yielded a more authentic representation of myself.
Anyways, I hope this alleviated some pressure to have your college essays fully fleshed out by the end of summer. Have ideas and be constantly thinking about who you are, who you've been, and who you want to be. The writing will come.
With Dartmouth's close proximity to Vermont comes adventures across the border to the VT! This weekend, I journeyed to the Norwich Farmers' Market to spend my Saturday morning shopping local.
In true foodie fashion, here is yet another Upper Valley food-related post.
In the summer, prospective students might take the time to visit potential colleges and universities to apply to. But what are some things to look for as you peruse campuses and take in the view, especially during the summer? Here are some ideas!
"What's your major?" seems like a pressing question for every freshman, but now that my freshman year is behind me, I know I shouldn't have worried as much.
My first time in Seattle, during the week of the 4th of July! Exploring fish markets and watching fireworks, I had a great time exploring a new city during my off-term!
Dartmouth has Distributive and World Culture Requirements, including the Writing classes, that are be fulfilled during your first year.
I am going into the seventh week of my term in Spain and enjoying it. This opportunity did not happen on a whim for me though, I was looking at this program when I was considering applying to Dartmouth. In this post I recommend a similar approach.
As my time in London nears an end, here are some major takeaways that I want to share about the Foreign Study Programs at Dartmouth!
What is the Center for Professional Development? What's so great about it? Read on to learn about my experience with it!
Writing essays is a common part of many students’ lives, especially if they pursue higher education. Many college courses place hefty emphasis on essays. Their content, length, research, writing, and revision will often form large portions of many college students’ curricular efforts, one semester at a time.
Knowing how to properly write an essay is an invaluable skill. Not only does it ensure the papers are properly written, it also helps establish life skills involving research, critical thinking, and time management. As with most projects, the best place to start with an essay is the beginning.
As obvious as that sounds, a strong start will help ensure a strong finish. Though it will take more than just a good start to complete a strong essay, everyone needs to begin somewhere.
We reached out to the popular essay writing service Write My Essays for advice. After all, who understands how to write an essay better than a professional essay writer?
Review the directions
This may seem obvious, but before starting the essay, it’s important to review the directions provided by the professor. The directions should include all the important points, such as spacing, fonts, and the expected layout of the content.
The contents will depend on the subject. Different fields use different methods of citation for their sources, as one example, and that needs to be taken into account. Understanding the guidelines will help direct focus and energy in the right direction, ensuring time isn’t wasted on improper settings or sources.
The amount of detail within the directions can vary greatly, depending on the level of the course, the subject matter, and the inclination of the professor. Do not be afraid to ask for advice from on-campus resources or the professor themselves to ensure the directions are fully and properly understood.
Make an outline
Before working on the paper itself, it is a good idea to create an outline. This might be a part of the assignment requirements, even, or possibly an assignment all its own. Regardless, outlining the essay’s contents and key points will make writing the essay easier.
Outlines aren’t for everyone, but even if they are not required, they are also a useful tool. Having an idea of the direction of the essay before writing it will help with the writing process and makes for a handy way to start the work before the essay is even written.
Format the document
Before actually writing the essay, formatting the document to the required guidelines first will save a lot of time and effort on fixing issues during the revision process. Revising is arduous enough without having to take typesetting issues into account, especially with how easy document formatting has become.
Standard requirements for an essay are an easy-to-read font at a standard size like 12, with one-inch margins, indented paragraphs, and double spacing for ease of reading. Actually, requirements may vary, which is why it’s so important to review them, especially if working on multiple projects in different classes at the same time.
Set up the first page
Depending on the requirements, the first page may simply be a title page with the assignment, class number, and student’s name. Some of that information may be on a second page, with just the title on the first page. These pages generally do not count towards page lengths and are meant to help prevent padding.
Setting up the title page is part of formatting, but at least it’s finally putting words on a page. This is also a good point to save the document, ideally in a folder created for the various coursework of the related class so that it is easy to find, load, and, eventually, submit.
How to begin the paper
Finally, with the document formatted and necessary first page organized, the actual writing of the essay can begin. Presumably the required research and other pre-writing prep has been completed. So, it’s time to actually put some words to virtual paper and start writing the essay in earnest.
The question is how to start the paper, that is, the actual contents and not just the title or document itself. The guidelines from the professor might have some notes on this matter, and those should be adhered to when required. If the requirements lack such guidelines, the students have some freedom on how to open their essay.
Open with a quote
Oftentimes, a relevant quote, especially from a source cited throughout the essay, can help set the tone and ground the reader with what to expect. A proper quote will help set expectations and bring an idea of the content ahead in a quick and quirky format.
The quote also sets the tone, as previously mentioned. Serious issues will merit a more serious quote, while lighter subjects can get away with pithier wording. Depending on the subject, sources, and topic of the paper, the quote need not be from a serious source. As long as it is cited, a relevant book or movie quote could also be used to set the opening.
Pose a question
Another option to open the essay is with a question. This is a direct way to bring the main topic of the essay to the forefront, by immediately leading with the thesis question, the answer to which is generally the entire point of the essay.
This does not work for all essays, but the question need not be that powerful. A simpler question to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into the topic at hand can work just as well. Just like with an opening quote, the question sets the tone and leads into the introductory paragraph, which is generally a basic summary of the essay as a whole.
Also as with a quote, the question can be as serious or irreverent as possible when writing scholastic works, depending on the subject matter, the class, and, occasionally, the demeanor of the professor. Though it is ill advised to think about it too much, at the end of the day, most essays are read by two people, and only two people: the student who wrote them, and the professor who reads and grades them accordingly.
Start with the Thesis Statement
It will need to be stated in the introductory paragraph anyway, and beginning with it can provide a strong hook to the start of an essay. While the first paragraph is an essential foundation for the essay, the thesis statement is the base for the first paragraph and the assignments as a whole.
The thesis statement states the thesis of the essay, hence the name. The sooner it is mentioned, the better, and, as with many aspects of the paper, it will likely be mentioned in the guidelines for the essay. Either way, starting with the thesis statement sets a strong tone for the rest of the paper.
Such a strong start can be a little daunting to live up to over the course of finishing the essay, but if that turns out to be the case, it can be moved. If nothing else, though, starting with the thesis statement gets it stated quickly and efficiently.
The introductory paragraph
The first paragraph of an essay is usually referred to as the introductory paragraph. This paragraph, as previously noted, is extremely important for the essay. It provides the reader with a basic summary of the essay’s contents. From the original question, hypothesis, thesis statement, antithesis, theory, synthesis, and potentially even cited sources, this paragraph sets the tone for the entire paper.
That is a lot of pressure to put on the beginning of an essay, but it also helps guide the direction of the essay moving forward. Along with tone, it is a handy reference for the rest of the essay. The reader, i.e., the professor, will expect the paper to follow the outline set forth in the first paragraph.
Though the introductory paragraph is the first and most important aspect of an essay in several regards, it is also the easiest to revise. If the sources and data take the paper in a direction different from what was originally intended, then the first paragraph is relatively easy to adjust to fit the new information.
As with other aspects of the essay, the assignment brief may have instructions on how to format the introductory paragraph, as well as potential guidelines regarding its contents. This will help with writing the first paragraph, and thus starting the essay, a little easier.
Conclusion
Depending on the chosen course load, essays will likely be a large part of a student’s work throughout their academic career. Learning how to properly plan, format, write, and revise essays will help ensure an easier time over the semesters and years.
Eventually, writing essays will become second nature thanks to the developed skills. Still, with each essay, turning a blank document into a completed and submitted assignment can be a daunting prospect.
With proper planning, review of the sources and assignment description, and a good handle on the thesis statement, starting an essay can become as second nature as writing the overall essay. With various ways to begin, mixing it up every now and then will also help fight the tedious nature such papers can garner after the tenth time, and beyond.
Barnard College Columbia University
In addition to the personal essay which you will submit through the Common Application or QuestBridge, Barnard asks first-year applicants to respond to institution-specific short answer questions. We recommend spending time to thoughtfully consider these questions and your responses. Your answers to these questions, in conjunction with the rest of your application, will help the Admissions Committee understand how you may contribute to our community both academically and personally.
Below are the 2024 questions for first-year students.
*Please note that the questions may change from year to year.
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Published on August 14, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.
An essay outline is a way of planning the structure of your essay before you start writing. It involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you will cover in each paragraph , giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold.
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Organizing your material, presentation of the outline, examples of essay outlines, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay outlines.
At the stage where you’re writing an essay outline, your ideas are probably still not fully formed. You should know your topic and have already done some preliminary research to find relevant sources , but now you need to shape your ideas into a structured argument.
Look over any information, quotes and ideas you’ve noted down from your research and consider the central point you want to make in the essay—this will be the basis of your thesis statement . Once you have an idea of your overall argument, you can begin to organize your material in a way that serves that argument.
Try to arrange your material into categories related to different aspects of your argument. If you’re writing about a literary text, you might group your ideas into themes; in a history essay, it might be several key trends or turning points from the period you’re discussing.
Three main themes or subjects is a common structure for essays. Depending on the length of the essay, you could split the themes into three body paragraphs, or three longer sections with several paragraphs covering each theme.
As you create the outline, look critically at your categories and points: Are any of them irrelevant or redundant? Make sure every topic you cover is clearly related to your thesis statement.
When you have your material organized into several categories, consider what order they should appear in.
Your essay will always begin and end with an introduction and conclusion , but the organization of the body is up to you.
Consider these questions to order your material:
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See an example
Within each paragraph, you’ll discuss a single idea related to your overall topic or argument, using several points of evidence or analysis to do so.
In your outline, you present these points as a few short numbered sentences or phrases.They can be split into sub-points when more detail is needed.
The template below shows how you might structure an outline for a five-paragraph essay.
You can choose whether to write your outline in full sentences or short phrases. Be consistent in your choice; don’t randomly write some points as full sentences and others as short phrases.
Examples of outlines for different types of essays are presented below: an argumentative, expository, and literary analysis essay.
This outline is for a short argumentative essay evaluating the internet’s impact on education. It uses short phrases to summarize each point.
Its body is split into three paragraphs, each presenting arguments about a different aspect of the internet’s effects on education.
This is the outline for an expository essay describing how the invention of the printing press affected life and politics in Europe.
The paragraphs are still summarized in short phrases here, but individual points are described with full sentences.
The literary analysis essay outlined below discusses the role of theater in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park .
The body of the essay is divided into three different themes, each of which is explored through examples from the book.
If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!
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You will sometimes be asked to hand in an essay outline before you start writing your essay . Your supervisor wants to see that you have a clear idea of your structure so that writing will go smoothly.
Even when you do not have to hand it in, writing an essay outline is an important part of the writing process . It’s a good idea to write one (as informally as you like) to clarify your structure for yourself whenever you are working on an essay.
If you have to hand in your essay outline , you may be given specific guidelines stating whether you have to use full sentences. If you’re not sure, ask your supervisor.
When writing an essay outline for yourself, the choice is yours. Some students find it helpful to write out their ideas in full sentences, while others prefer to summarize them in short phrases.
You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.
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Caulfield, J. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Outline | Guidelines & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 5, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/essay-outline/
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According to a BestColleges survey, more than half of students use AI to cheat . Those numbers are in line with a Stanford University study that found 60 to 70 percent of students cheat . However, AI may soon cease to be the lazy student's answer to writing papers. A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story reports that "OpenAI has a method to reliably detect when someone uses ChatGPT to write an essay or research paper" -- with 99.9% accuracy.
Also: How AI lies, cheats, and grovels to succeed - and what we need to do about it
As my colleague David Gewritz has pointed out, many programs already promise to detect AI-written text . However, he concluded, "I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable threatening a student's academic standing or accusing them of cheating based on the results of these tools."
OpenAI hasn't revealed in any detail how its new method can be near-perfect in identifying AI-written text. It certainly isn't because it can spot AI hallucinations. It can't. As OpenAI co-founder John Schulman said last year, "Our biggest concern was around factuality because the model likes to fabricate things. "
That will never change. According to Mohamed Elgendy, co-founder and chief executive of Kolena , a machine learning testing service, "The rate of hallucinations will decrease , but it is never going to disappear -- just as even highly educated people can give out false information."
Instead of some magical deep way of spotting AI text, it appears OpenAI is using a much simpler way of identifying AI-written text: The service may be watermarking its results.
In a newly revised blog post, Understanding the source of what we see and hear online , OpenAI reveals it's been researching using classifiers, watermarking, and metadata to spot AI-created products. We don't know yet how this watermarking works exactly.
Also: The best free AI courses (and whether AI certificates are worth it)
We do know that OpenAI reports it's "been highly accurate and even effective against localized tampering, such as paraphrasing." However, the watermarking is "less robust against globalized tampering."
That means the feature doesn't work well on translated text or something as mindlessly simple as inserting special characters into the text and then deleting them. And, of course, it can't spot works from another AI model. For instance, if you feed the ChatAPT AI-text spotter a document created by Google Gemini or Perplexity , it probably won't be able to identify it as an AI-created document.
In short, with a little more effort, students and writers will still be able to pass an AI chatbot's work off as their own. Well, they can try anyway. In my experience with AI, the results still tend to be second-rate at best. But if that's good enough to get you a passing grade, it may be all you need.
At least one self-professed professor on Reddit isn't impressed: "The problem is that you can just copy-paste the text into another program, translate it into another language, and then translate it back. But honestly, most students aren't going to do that, so it would catch pretty much everyone. "
Also: How Pearson's AI assistant can help teachers save time
Of course, that might not bother OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who told The Harvard Gazette, " Cheating on homework is obviously bad . But what we mean by cheating and what the expected rules are does change over time."
I don't know about that. Cheating is cheating, but this new tool in the OpenAI arsenal doesn't sound like it will help much to prevent it.
Oddly, while OpenAI is still wrestling with when -- or indeed if -- it should release this new service, the company will soon release a DALL·E 3 provenance classifier. This means that, eventually, almost every image you make with DALL-E will be marked as a DALL-E AI creation. OpenAI relies on C2PA metadata, a digital content standard, to mark and identify images. If you're a graphic designer who's been relying on DALL-E to make "original" graphics, it may be time to return to Photoshop.
Openai launches searchgpt - here's what it can do and how to access it, beware of ai 'model collapse': how training on synthetic data pollutes the next generation, how pearson's ai assistant can help teachers save time.
FILE - A doctor points to PET scan results that are part of a study on Alzheimer’s disease at Georgetown University Hospital, on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — New blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease faster and more accurately, researchers reported Sunday – but some appear to work far better than others.
It’s tricky to tell if memory problems are caused by Alzheimer’s. That requires confirming one of the disease’s hallmark signs — buildup of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid — with a hard-to-get brain scan or uncomfortable spinal tap. Many patients instead are diagnosed based on symptoms and cognitive exams.
Labs have begun offering a variety of tests that can detect certain signs of Alzheimer’s in blood. Scientists are excited by their potential but the tests aren’t widely used yet because there’s little data to guide doctors about which kind to order and when. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t formally approved any of them and there’s little insurance coverage.
“What tests can we trust?” asked Dr. Suzanne Schindler, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis who’s part of a research project examining that. While some are very accurate, “other tests are not much better than a flip of a coin.”
More than 6 million people in the United States and millions more around the world have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. Its telltale “biomarkers” are brain-clogging amyloid plaques and abnormal tau protein that leads to neuron-killing tangles.
This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.
New drugs, Leqembi and Kisunla, can modestly slow worsening symptoms by removing gunky amyloid from the brain. But they only work in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s and proving patients qualify in time can be difficult. Measuring amyloid in spinal fluid is invasive. A special PET scan to spot plaques is costly and getting an appointment can take months.
Even specialists can struggle to tell if Alzheimer’s or something else is to blame for a patient’s symptoms.
“I have patients not infrequently who I am convinced have Alzheimer’s disease and I do testing and it’s negative,” Schindler said.
Blood tests so far have been used mostly in carefully controlled research settings. But a new study of about 1,200 patients in Sweden shows they also can work in the real-world bustle of doctors’ offices — especially primary care doctors who see far more people with memory problems than specialists but have fewer tools to evaluate them.
In the study, patients who visited either a primary care doctor or a specialist for memory complaints got an initial diagnosis using traditional exams, gave blood for testing and were sent for a confirmatory spinal tap or brain scan.
Blood testing was far more accurate, Lund University researchers reported Sunday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia. The primary care doctors’ initial diagnosis was 61% accurate and the specialists’ 73% — but the blood test was 91% accurate, according to the findings, which also were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
There’s almost “a wild West” in the variety being offered, said Dr. John Hsiao of the National Institute on Aging. They measure different biomarkers, in different ways.
Doctors and researchers should only use blood tests proven to have a greater than 90% accuracy rate, said Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer Maria Carrillo.
Today’s tests most likely to meet that benchmark measure what’s called p-tau217, Carrillo and Hsiao agreed. Schindler helped lead an unusual direct comparison of several kinds of blood tests, funded by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, that came to the same conclusion.
That type of test measures a form of tau that correlates with how much plaque buildup someone has, Schindler explained. A high level signals a strong likelihood the person has Alzheimer’s while a low level indicates that’s probably not the cause of memory loss.
Several companies are developing p-tau217 tests including ALZpath Inc., Roche, Eli Lilly and C2N Diagnostics, which supplied the version used in the Swedish study.
Only doctors can order them from labs. The Alzheimer’s Association is working on guidelines and several companies plan to seek FDA approval, which would clarify proper use.
For now, Carrillo said doctors should use blood testing only in people with memory problems, after checking the accuracy of the type they order.
Especially for primary care physicians, “it really has great potential to help them in sorting out who to give a reassuring message and who to send on to memory specialists,” said Dr. Sebastian Palmqvist of Lund University, who led the Swedish study with Lund’s Dr. Oskar Hansson.
The tests aren’t yet for people who don’t have symptoms but worry about Alzheimer’s in the family — unless it’s part of enrollment in research studies, Schindler stressed.
That’s partly because amyloid buildup can begin two decades before the first sign of memory problems, and so far there are no preventive steps other than basic advice to eat healthy, exercise and get enough sleep. But there are studies underway testing possible therapies for people at high risk of Alzheimer’s, and some include blood testing.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Opinion David Wallace-Wells
Credit... Alma Haser
Supported by
By David Wallace-Wells
Opinion Writer
This essay is part of What to Eat on a Burning Planet, a series exploring bold ideas to secure our food supply. Read more about this project in a note from Eliza Barclay, Opinion’s climate editor.
From the vantage of the American supermarket aisle, the modern food system looks like a kind of miracle. Everything has been carefully cultivated for taste and convenience — even those foods billed as organic or heirloom — and produce regarded as exotic luxuries just a few generations ago now seems more like staples, available on demand: avocados, mangoes, out-of-season blueberries imported from Uruguay.
But the supermarket is also increasingly a diorama of the fragility of a system — disrupted in recent years by the pandemic, conflict and, increasingly, climate change. What comes next? Almost certainly, more disruptions and more hazards, enough to remake the whole future of food.
The world as a whole is already facing what the Cornell agricultural economist Chris Barrett calls a “food polycrisis.” Over the past decade, he says, what had long been reliable global patterns of year-on-year improvements in hunger first stalled and then reversed. Rates of undernourishment have grown 21 percent since 2017. Agricultural yields are still growing, but not as quickly as they used to and not as quickly as demand is booming. Obesity has continued to rise, and the average micronutrient content of dozens of popular vegetables has continued to fall . The food system is contributing to the growing burden of diabetes and heart disease and to new spillovers of infectious diseases from animals to humans as well.
And then there are prices. Worldwide, wholesale food prices, adjusted for inflation, have grown about 50 percent since 1999, and those prices have also grown considerably more volatile, making not just markets but the whole agricultural Rube Goldberg network less reliable. Overall, American grocery prices have grown by almost 21 percen t since President Biden took office, a phenomenon central to the widespread perception that the cost of living has exploded on his watch. Between 2020 and 2023, the wholesale price of olive oil tripled ; the price of cocoa delivered to American ports jumped by even more in less than two years. The economist Isabella Weber has proposed maintaining the food equivalent of a strategic petroleum reserve, to buffer against shortages and ease inevitable bursts of market chaos.
Price spikes are like seismographs for the food system, registering much larger drama elsewhere — and sometimes suggesting more tectonic changes underway as well. More than three-quarters of the population of Africa, which has already surpassed one billion, cannot today afford a healthy diet; this is where most of our global population growth is expected to happen this century, and there has been little agricultural productivity growth there for 20 years. Over the same time period, there hasn’t been much growth in the United States either.
Projected change in corn and wheat yields in 2050, based on an upper-middle scenario for global warming.
Change in crop yield in 2050
Corn production in 2050
Drought conditions have already led Mexico to import a record amount
of corn in recent years. Climate change could further decrease its yields.
China is the world’s second-largest
producer of corn, but yields are projected to decrease across most of the country.
Wheat production in 2050
Pakistan, where wheat accounts for nearly two-thirds
of all calories
consumed, could
see sharp declines.
The U.S., one of the largest exporters of wheat, could see increased yields, especially in more northern latitudes.
Drought conditions have already led Mexico to import a record amount of corn in recent years. Climate change could further decrease its yields.
Rising temperatures could make the highlands of Peru
a more productive area for corn.
Pakistan, where wheat accounts for nearly two-thirds of all calories consumed, could see sharp declines.
producer of corn,
but yields are
projected to decrease across most of the country.
consumed, could see sharp declines.
Sources: Jägermeyr et al. (2021) “ Climate Impacts on Global Agriculture Emerge Earlier in New Generation of Climate and Crop Models ,” Nature Food ; World Bank; U.S.D.A.
Note: Yields shown are for the SSP370 middle-upper warming scenario and are compared with a 1983-2013 baseline.
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