You can be an expert when it comes to writing essays. However, essay writing competitions are different.

It would be best if you had expertise in writing as well as quick thinking. Unique styles and ideas give you an edge in the competitive environment.

Therefore, the question arises, how do you prepare yourself for this challenge?

This article will discuss the steps and tips that will help you win an essay writing competition.

Prepare To Win

Given below are some of the best tips that will help you craft a winning piece for your essay writing competition—

1. Know The Rules

Knowing and understanding the rules is the most important step that marks the beginning of your chances to win the competition.

Overlooking even the smallest details in the rule book can dim your winning propensity. Here are some of the most important aspects that you should pay attention to when going through the rules:

• The dates, both starting and ending.
• Word limit and character count for title and subtitles (if any).
• The themes you’re allowed.
• Understanding the selection criteria of the jury.
• The branding style of the sponsor company.
• The special requirements demanded by the competition organizers.

You can keep the rules written in your own words or print them out for later use. Go through them multiple times. Take time to understand and pick the theme.

Keep the rules handy when penning down your essay, and follow them word for word.

2. Read Plenty

Reading is extremely crucial when you’re preparing yourself to write an essay. A few days before your competition, it is important to cut your general reading bulk and concentrate more on the type of essay you’re planning (or asked) to write for the competition.

The more you read, the better you explore and get deeper into the themes. Reading opens up a sea of ideas and unique thoughts in your mind that can be used to make your essay stand out in a competition.

Read published essays and materials written on the themes you’re covering. Ask your teachers and professors to share pieces to help you get new ideas.

If you’re unaware of the themes or topics before the competition, review the previous themes the organizers covered. Make a guess and read various essays before writing for the competition.

Additionally, you can explore the essays provided by essay writing services like Fresh Essays. These services help you get essays, following every rule and written by subject experts that fit your criteria and give you a rich source for reading and preparing before a competition.

3. Practice The Beginning

A lot matters in how you begin your essay. This is where you have the first chance to grab the readers’ attention and create an impression that remains all the while they read your essay.

Given below are some tips to help you make an impressive beginning for the essay:

• Hook your readers with a fact that summarizes your essay and its theme.
• Balance the information and creative delivery in your introduction.
• Begin your essay with some background history.
• Use statistical data in your introduction.
• Begin with a question that creates inquisitiveness in the readers to find the answer.
• Start with a catchy quote.

These tips help you create the first and the most important impression on your essay and give your readers an idea about the quality of the rest of the essay.

4. Craft Creative Titles

A greater part of your essay’s success lies in the title you use. This is the first thing that the jury will notice, and it can even decide if you’re qualified to participate in the competition.

The essay title often comes with a number of restrictions when it comes to competition:

• Character limit restriction.
• No questions or exclamation marks.
• Word limit restriction.

However, you can still fit in a catchy title adhering to the rules and restrictions of the competition.

Remember, it is important to use certain keywords when you’re crafting the title. Your essay title must clearly indicate the theme and topic of your writing.

Keep it short and straightforward but choose unique and descriptive words to hook the jury right from the beginning.

5. Know The Structure You’ll Be Following

The structure of an essay acts like the skeleton on which your essay functions. Therefore, creating, understanding, and following a structure is important when writing an essay for a competition.

The structure also makes it easy to follow the word count rules and fit all your thoughts within a format. A structure often opens up innovative spaces in your mind as you know exactly how many words to write in each essay segment.

A proper essay structure prevents you from getting off-topic or unnecessary diversions. However, remember this structure will vary with the choice of theme and competition rules.

Being too rigid with the essay structure often restricts the quality of articles and makes it difficult to express yourself.

Therefore, follow a flexible structure that gives space to your creativity yet, provides a suitable form for your essay to win the competition.

6. Let Your Words Create Pictures

It is important to give life to your essay. If you’re writing a descriptive essay, it is important to use words that help readers visualize better.

Describe the little details by using the most fitting adjectives to paint the picture better.

For example, if you’re writing, “the shirt hung on the tree branch,” pen it down as “the deep blue shirt hung on the parched tree branch.”

This creates a vivid image that readers can connect to better and understand the essay as you want them to see it.

Using a lot of descriptive words facilitates your power over the essay. You can guide and manage the readers’ thoughts as they will see exactly what you want them to see.

Write To Impress

Whether or not you bag the prize, this creative exercise satisfies you and makes you more confident in your writing style and innovative thought process.

Therefore, give it your best whenever you’re participating in a competition. Put your efforts into making your essay stand out with your own innovative styles.

If you follow the steps mentioned above, you can even make this endeavor a winning plan for any essay writing competition.

Read More: Tips for Making It Through College With Ease

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Read the description and reviews

First and foremost, you need to learn the very basics about the book. For example, what is it about? Who are the main characters? What genre is it? What is the plot? These and similar questions should help you dig deeper and learn the essential facts about the story you should have read. Fortunately, these days, finding answers to such questions is easier than ever before. All you need is Internet access and a computer or a smartphone.

Start by reading a book’s description and reviews online. These two usually have all the basic information you need for a start. Next, research some analysis or summaries of the plot. You need to have a proper idea of what is going on in the story. Of course, you can always ask for help from some of your friends or parents who might have read this book before. Overall, your goal now is to find out the main characters and events in the story, how it starts and ends.

Research its background

Sometimes the time, conditions, and author’s life matter almost as much as the plot of the book. Hence, it is important to learn more about when and how the book was written. Such information will help you better understand the essence and purpose of a book. Moreover, you may also use the specifics of the period or author’s personal life when discussing the book. For instance, the book you have for an essay can be based on the author’s real life. Hence, you definitely need to learn more about this person’s biography before starting writing. Perhaps, find what might have inspired an author to write what they did. Maybe even try to compare this book with others in the same time period or genre.

Draft the main points

Once you learn about the context and main ideas of the story, you may as well write the very first draft. See if you have collected enough evidence and information to write a whole essay. Find out where your weakest spots are and see what you can do about them. Overall, your first draft should be the foundation of your future paper. So it’s important to have everything you need for a good paper in that draft. Also, check if you have enough to meet the given paper instructions.

In the end, your draft is not an essay yet. So you can add there as much as you want, whether those are ideas, facts, citations, etc. The main trick here is to focus on the ideas, characters, and themes of the book that you have understood after your brief acquaintance. However, while you are working on your draft, it should get more organized, comprehensive, and structured. Thus, in the end, you should be able to turn your draft into the foundation of your essay.

Add extra sources

Whenever in doubt, go for extra research. Follow this rule rigorously, and you should be fine. When you feel like you don’t understand the characters’ motivation, main idea, plot changes, or else, you can begin the research again. Perhaps, seek additional sources to add more credentials to your paper. Look for academic articles that can either add to a literary analysis of the book you are writing about or to the issues discussed in a paper.

Overall, as a student, you should know how to find reliable sources and use them wisely. You can also read the awakening essay sample to learn more about the usage of references and in-text citations. Also, another good piece of advice is to use more quotations from the text. By doing so, you are forced to explain the citations rather than the whole book at once. Hence, by offering several citations, you can focus solely on analyzing them, which can help you extend the word count and actually look familiar with the topic of your writing.

Final thoughts

Sometimes, students simply don’t have enough time to read certain books. It’s understandable. We’ve all been there. However, you should fall into despair. There are ways to write essays on books you haven’t read. You just need to be efficient with your time and well-skilled in research. These are just a few tips you can use next time you have to write an essay. Good luck!

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