Essay writing is practically the preserve of very few individuals. There are very many rules and conventions that should be followed when one embarks on the task to write an essay. This usually depends on the type of essay one wants to write and the essay topic that one wants to write about. There are very many different type of essays in the academic world and especially in higher institutions of learning.

Ranging from term papers essays, assignment essays and research papers essays, it can be said therefore that for one to be in a position to write a good essay among the listed, then one must be very knowledgeable on a variety of fields and information. Essays written in universities and colleges are in most cases very structured and follow some given formatting and referencing styles.

These essays are structured in such terms because most of them are factual essays. By factual, I mean essays that are based on facts rather than fiction. These type of essays contain information that is of a real nature and on which research has been done thoroughly.

Students in colleges and universities are most often than not required to write these type of essays. The students do research and gather information which they use to write their essays with. This seems to be a requirement in each and every other academic institution. These essays are meant to determine the competence of the student in what he or she has been studying. The essays are also used to see if the student has mastered the art of referencing which is an important element in essay writing.

Student’s research for information in which to write their essays with can be done from very many sources. Students collect information to write their essays with from books in the libraries, from the internet, from journals and other intellectual or academic materials. It is required that the sources of all the information used in writing ones essay be referenced or acknowledged. Failure to acknowledge the sources of one’s information in an essay my result to plagiarism which is a very serious offence in the academic world.

An essay captured for plagiarism may end up being heavily penalized. The essay may also be completely cancelled and one asked to write another essay. It is therefore very vital for one to be careful when writing an essay and when citing the sources of one’s essay so as not to be captured for plagiarism. The most important element when writing a structured factual essay is having the knowledge of the different referencing styles and following the instructions given in a particular essay. This would see to it that your essay does not lose any silly marks and that the essay is not put at a risk for plagiarism.

Considering the information in this paper, students should be advised to write essays on a regular basis for practice purposes. Many students shun writing essays for practice and only write essays when they are subjected to by their tutors. Avoidance of writing essays regularly lowers down a student’s writing skills. This is why you will find a whole university graduate unable to write a one page essay on a particular essay topic.

Since most students cannot motivate themselves to write essays on a regular basis, then the tutors should at the end of every topic assign essays to students of which the students should complete and return the particular essays for marking. In this way the student will not have an option other than to write their essays and present the essays. Students should also be encouraged to work in groups when writing their essay assignments. In this way, they can help one another on the essay writing task and also share ideas on essay writing.