As a college student, at some point, you have to learn how to write an essay. At that time, you will come across many writing conventions that you have to follow for composing an essay. Such rules or conventions are made to make essay writing easier and more understandable. However, it is only achievable when you know what those conventions are. With your presence here, it is not difficult to guess that you know nothing about them. Well, there is no need to worry. In today’s article, we will learn about writing conventions for composing an essay. However, before that, let’s define the term writing conventions.
What are writing conventions?
There are many definitions of writing conventions, but the simplest of all is that “Writing conventions are sets of rules that make a text easy to read.” These are the elements of essay writing that make its contents more understandable. It is necessary for every writer to know about writing conventions before composing an essay. Normally, till middle school, the teachers are not that strict about writing conventions. However, as you move up, the teachers start teaching you the writing conventions and ask you to follow them at any cost.
What are the writing conventions for composing an essay?
From the discussion above, we have learned that writing conventions are the rules for writing anything academic. It is important to note here that these rules are not the same for every genre. The rules change with the change in the genre. For example, the rules for composing an essay are different as compared to the rules for writing an assignment. Here, we will discuss the writing conventions for essays. Hence, a brief description of all the conventions is as follows:
Write in complete sentences
The first and most important convention for composing an essay is that you should write in complete sentences. There must not be choppiness in your sentences. Write clear and complete in-length sentences that convey the meaning of the sentence in a very well manner. When you make small sentences with vague meanings, the essay’s meaning also becomes unclear to the reader. Therefore, write in complete sentences.
Avoid run-on sentences
The second writing convention is that you should avoid run-on sentences in your essay. Do you know what these sentences are? Run-on sentences are such sentences that contain two independent clauses, but they are not joined together well. It means the grammatical structure of run-on sentences is not right, which contributes a lot to making the text of the essay not understandable. Thus, you should avoid run-on sentences in your essays.
Stay away from abbreviations
The 3rd writing convention you need to follow when composing an essay is that you should stay away from abbreviations. Today’s students have become so informal that they have forgotten the difference between formal and informal writing. We have seen such essays in which the messaging language was used. This is not the right way to do an essay, and it is exactly why you should not use abbreviations unless it is a standard one.
Avoid the use of colloquial words
The next writing convention that you must follow is that you should avoid the use of colloquial words in your essay. An essay is a formal and academic kind of writing. There is no place for every day or communicational language in it. All the words that you include in your essay must be formal and academic in tone. However, if you do not know the academic forms of different words, take help from essay writing services UK.
Consider the placement of punctuation marks
The most important of all writing conventions is punctuation. When you compose an essay, there is a lot of use of punctuation marks in it. The punctuations are necessary because all the punctuation marks, either a comma or a colon, has a very specific purpose of serving. Therefore, you must consider the placement of punctuation marks. Do not put them in places where they are not needed.
Use correct spelling
The last writing convention is that you should use correct spelling when composing an essay. A single spelling mistake in the essay can ruin the meaning of the whole sentence. Also, the teacher may deduct one mark for each spelling mistake. To avoid facing such a situation, double-check your essay for spelling errors and typos mistakes. Correct them on the spot when you see them in your essay.
Final Thoughts
Conclusively, to compose an essay, you have to follow some writing conventions. Writing conventions such as avoiding the use of colloquial words and writing sentences grammatically complete increase the readability of the essay. Therefore, you should follow them while composing an essay of any level.
