Students new to college will find that the expectations of their professors are far higher than those of their high school teachers. They will also find that many of their courses require significantly more writing than they are used to doing. The majority of this writing will be in the form of essays. No doubt most new college students have had to write essays in the past; however, there are different expectations for college-level writing. Therefore, students should spend some time learning how to write a college essay. There is not a dramatic difference between how to write college essays and how to write high school essays. College essays are simply more original, more sophisticated, and more in-depth.

The most significant difference between how to write a college essay and how to write a high school essay is writing the essay using primarily information that has not already been discussed in class lectures or in the course textbook. The point of a college essay is for students to demonstrate their own understanding and ideas; therefore, students must invest time in thoughtful reflection and analysis of their essay topic.

Students learning how to write college essays may also find that college essays frequently require the student to perform research and incorporate secondary sources into their essay. When using secondary sources, students should ensure that their sources are scholarly—which usually means they are found in a library or through a library database and not on the internet—and that those sources are used to support the writer’s own ideas rather than speak for the writer.

College essays must have very strong thesis statements. A thesis is a sentence or group of sentences that asserts in a clear and specific way what the point of the paper is and how it is going to be explored. This thesis should be presented somewhere in the first ¼ of the essay.

One of the difficulties for students learning how to write college essays is avoiding the use of the first person voice (“I” and “me”). Unless it is a creative essay for an English composition course, most college essays should forego the use of the first person altogether. They should also avoid using “you” when discussing people in general. Rather than saying “You would think that the student council would have addressed the issue,” students should say “One would think that the student council would have addressed the issue.”

One of the most difficult aspects for students learning how to write a college essay is writing a good conclusion. Contrary to what students may have been taught in the past, the conclusion should not merely be a summary of the thesis statement and the body of the paper. The conclusion should rather point to a new insight or idea that can be drawn from the information presented in the essay.

Finally, all college papers should be thoroughly proofread for grammar, spelling, and stylistic mistakes.

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