Killer Guides to Writing Essays
Let’s face it, writing essays is a really hard task, even for individuals native to the English language, as the late American English professor at Cornwell University and author of the legendary writing guide Elements of Style William Strunk Jr has noticed. It is not enough to have good essay ideas; if you aren’t able to put them into paper, then they will remain as they are – ideas. And they will remain where they are – inside your head. Writing essays require an incredible talent and discipline. One of the hardest part is writing hooks, to begin with. There are a lot of valuable materials out there that can show you effective essay hook examples, and you have to check them out, for if you fail to allure the reader in the first paragraph, there’s very little chance he’d stay until the last word. Speaking of which, you must also have a meaningful essay conclusion, since a good writer keeps something under his sleeve, and to reward the reader for sticking through. The two most common threats to a good essay are grammar and plagiarism.
Grammar is the set of rules governing the construction of clauses, words, and even punctuation marks in a specific language. Many flunk in this area, regardless of educational attainment, writing experience, and length of usage. The second, is plagiarism. While grammar lapses is acceptable to some degree, plagiarism is not tolerable in any way, as it is regarded as the theft of someone else’s work or idea, crediting it as your own. It can be deliberate, which gives the original author reasons to sue you. In some cases, it can be accidental. After all, with an ocean of information ready to be accessed at a clicking of plastic keys and the point of a mouse, who would know if you have accidentally expressed a similar sentiment with someone, constructed in similar wordings? So arm yourself with an arsenal of best tools to have your essay checked for grammar lapses and possibilities of plagiarism. But then again, there are so many sites offering grammar guides and plagiarism red flags out there. Are all of them equal? Certainly not so. So what are the best tools to have your essay checked?
The top 5 Tools for Grammar:
Grammarly
Grammarly is one if not the top plagiarism checker tool. Apart from plagiarism checking capabilities, this tool also proofreads content and offers the option to replace the content. Grammarly is such a powerful tool that it can check content against millions of web pages within seconds and generates the required report. For writers, it can help detect grammar errors, proofread and replace any content thus saving time and improve on vocabulary. This content detection tool also helps a lot of teachers and students when it comes to checking copied work. This helps in controlling the chances of students copying other students’ work when it comes to assignments, essays, or journals. In addition to grammar checking, plagiarism checker, and vocabulary improvement, Grammarly generates citations in the 3 most popular styles which are MLA, APA, and Chicago. If you have no idea on how to write your citings then Grammarly will do just that for you.
Copyscape
Another powerful tool in detecting plagiarism is Copyscape. This particular detecting tool uses google as its search provider under the agreed terms between the two companies. Copyscape also has another powerful feature known as the copy entry. This option provides automatic protection to the entire webpages by monitoring the web for newly copied content from your website and notifying you through email. How efficient is that? Copyscape has also introduced a new functionality called the site liner which is an analysis tool. This particular functionality helps in checking for duplicate content within the same web pages, articles or any bulky written content.
Also, the premium users of Copyscape can use the private index feature which allows you to check for plagiarism or duplication on offline content or that has not been indexed by search engines. This plagiarism checker tool offers two options; the free version and the premium version. With the free version, it comes with limited functionality and processes a small number of contents unlike the premium which can process more than 10,000 pages of content and also comes with a lot of advanced and very helpful functionality. Copyscape is ranked among the top 3 plagiarism checker tools.
Robotdon.com
Robotdon.com is a great plagiarism checker free website that provides online text analysis and improvement environment for your content. With robotdon.com, you are guaranteed of high text analytics, detailed and accurate plagiarism checker and offers style and readability suggestions.
Whitesmoke
Whitesmoke is another efficient essay plagiarism checker. It scans through a large batch of files and picks out copied content that might harm your website rankings. It is a close competitor of grammarly.
Duplichecker
Duplichecker is entirely a free plagiarism checker tool. One can simply copy and paste their content or upload the files to check against and a report is generated within seconds.
Unplag
Unplag is an online based plagiarism and grammar detection tool. It is highly recommended for students, writers and editors. With unplag, you can crosscheck against different text formats hence being able to crosscheck different languages. This particular plagiarism checker tool, crosschecks your content against Google and Bing providing you with the best and most accurate report as as possible.
Plagscan
This is an online based tool that requires a user to upload .doc or .pdf files. Alternatively you can copy and paste your content and scan for plagiarism. You can use this tool either as a private or corporate user. The only downside to this tool is that it’s hard to understand but it’s very good in finding plagiarism.
The Top 5 Tools for Plagiarism:
When it comes to plagiarism, there is a split between Grammarly, again, and PlagScan. Although Grammarly tops some reviews, but in all of those, PlagScan was included, while in some reviews, Grammarly isn’t even included. Another popular choice is CopyScape, although it hasn’t belonged to the top five in the list, except one, regarding plagiarism. Rather, some popular and recommended choices are Plagium, PaperRater, Plagiarisma, DupliChecker, and CopyLeaks.
Stuck on Your Essay?
Check out these example essays.
Other things to consider:
While these are the two most common and critical things to consider in essay writing, but there are also other factors to consider, like essay outline, or the fluidity of thoughts. Another is the essay form – this is very important to consider in writing an essay, as you have to determine the purpose of writing one. In these areas, there are valuable applications that can aid in the writing process. Above all, the most important tip is to take a look at different writing styles, and choose one that appeals to you, and even suits you. Then try to bend it to and give a more personal touch. So, ready to write a killer essay? Anything can be a writing inspiration; all it takes is an eye that can see things in a different light. Have that eye.
