Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
January 20, 2025.
If you’ve got interests and slightly more personality than a doorknob, you can write a blog. This may seem intimidating, and you may be thinking “no way, man.” But you can, and we’re here to show you how.
Writing a blog post is probably one of the most effective ways to communicate in the modern world. And nowadays, it seems like everyone is writing blog posts about everything. This really begs the question: Can it be that hard to figure out how to write a blog?
The truth is…yes. It’s no lie that there are hundreds of millions of blog sites out there, and even more actual posts that are clogging up the search engines. But that doesn’t mean they’re all being read.
In fact, such a high volume of blogs means that the blog writing world is competitive. If you really want to develop an audience, you need to know how to write a good blog post. After all, anyone can write words, but few people can write something worth reading.
If this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. We’ll be going over each step of the blog writing process, right here, right now, so that you’ll have a solid idea of how to start writing some quality blog posts.
Tip: Write your blog post with QuillBotQuillBot’s paraphrasing tool helps you find your voice
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
December 23, 2024.
Don’t roll your eyes. Writing a paragraph━or, paragraphing, as it is apparently called━isn’t as simple as it may seem. Sure, there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end; that’s easy. But we’re going to get down to the nitty gritty: we’re talking paragraph sentences, transitions, and types (oh, my!).
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
November 19, 2024.
The world is saturated with readable content. With the advent of the internet came millions of blogs, posts, and online articles to compete for our attention in addition to the millions of novels, non-fiction books, essays, and journals that have been around for forever.
Although there are countless texts out there, spanning cultures, languages, and centuries, there are actually only four types of writing styles.
Pop quiz: what are the four types of writing styles? What even is a writing style? How do you know what writing style to use and when to use each one?
Well, the pop quiz just turned into a guided lesson. Let’s have a closer look at each of the four styles and go through some examples. We’ll take a deep dive into the definitions and appropriate use cases of each, and maybe have some fun along the way.
You’re on a long journey. Up ahead: a bridge. As you get closer, a troll scrambles out from beneath the rotted wooden planks. He points a gnarled finger at you and screeches, “Before you cross, I do implore: list the writing styles four!”
The odds of this happening are low, but you never know. Just in case you ever find yourself in this situation, here is the answer, laid out.
The four types of writing styles are narrative, persuasive, descriptive, and expository. Each of these styles has a particular purpose, so it’s important to match up your topic and goals with the correct style in order to properly convey your message.
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
January 13, 2025.
Grammar is one of the most frustrating (and thus, most feared) aspects of writing. It can feel arcane, unclear, and just a pain in the neck. There are even areas where there’s no clear agreement━ask a writer if they use a serial comma and you’re sure to spark a heated debate!
A large reason why grammar has this reputation is because of the litany of rules, and because there are a lot of easy grammar mistakes that can make or break how well something reads.
In the course of my own writing, and reviewing that of others, I’ve run into a lot of various blunders, minor grammar errors, or unclear decisions. But I’ve found that if you are able to avoid a few very common grammar mistakes, it really cuts down on the amount of errors that you have to fix in your work.
So, without further ado, here are ten very common mistakes that you should keep your eyes open for when writing.
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Emily Perry, PhD.
Revised on
November 7, 2024.
Grammar. Have you thought about it lately? Whether or not your job requires extensive writing or content creation, taking the time to make sure your written communication is free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes is always worth it.
Don’t believe me?
When was the last time you got a text or Slack message from a colleague where you weren’t sure about the tone or meaning? How sentences are structured, coupled with punctuation, can go a long way in avoiding misunderstandings and making your message clear.
Prioritizing your grammar will help you master communication, which will, in many cases, make you an instant VIP among your colleagues. It’s not enough any more to simply rely on the built-in checkers within, for instance, MS Word or Google Docs━those tools may flag some of the more glaring mistakes in your writing, but they certainly won’t help with issues like word misuse, redundancies, and some of the more nuanced rules of grammar.
There are many free tools out there right now, but since you’re here with us, why not try out QuillBot’s Grammar Checker? We’ve taught our AI models all of the rules for grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so with one pass, you will be alerted to any flaws in your writing. The grammar checker will then give you options to fix the issues, and in polishing your work, you will also learn what types of mistakes you make over and over, helping you become a better writer, faster!
If you’re still not convinced of how inattention to flawless grammar can hamper you in your career, you can read on as we break down the most common issues that can be avoided with a little more focused intention.
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
December 2, 2024.
A summary is a concise breakdown of the main points from a text, usually written as a paragraph.
Summaries are used to save readers’ time, to help with comprehension, or to give a preview of an idea or larger project.
Formulating summaries is an important skill to hone for a variety of reasons, from being able to pick out only the most essential information from a written work to being able to quickly give a short overview of a speech or movie.
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
December 9, 2024.
Do you want to be a better writer? If so, you’re in luck! There are a number of writing tips that can help you improve your skills. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the best writing tips that you can use to improve your writing.
Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who loves to write, we hope you’ll find something here to help you improve your writing skills.
Following these writing tips can help you to become a better writer.
Published on
June 26, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
December 18, 2024.
Every student is looking for essay hacks, and we’ve got the best ones to share (and that’s not even us being cocky. It’s just the truth.). If your essay needs a pick-me-up or some serious revamping, please look no further.
QuillBot’s free, cutting-edge tools are game changers when it comes to making essay writing painless. From jumpstarting your writing momentum, to busting writer’s block, to finding a simpler research workflow, these essay writing hacks will save your grade and your time.
We totally get it: research papers, academic papers, entire essays, and each thesis statement you have to craft seems like an unreachable goal when you’re staring at the blank page.
So it’s a good thing our website has all the professional tools and essay hacks to help.
One of the more stressful aspects of university is essay writing. I remember being anxious about writing them, I remember my friends being anxious about them, and I still hear complaints about it occasionally from my extended family or friends.
In university, I studied humanities, and essay writing was very common in my classes. So it was eye-opening when I went to graduate school and became the person responsible for grading essays. I got to read the output of everyone in a class and grade each essay accordingly.
When you’re dealing with anything in large numbers, whether it’s customers, data, etc, you quickly notice patterns and common themes.
For essay grading, I quickly noticed that there were a select few things that really influenced how well that student wrote, and thus, how high of a grade they earned. Some of these things were obvious, while others were surprising to me. Not all were related to writing skills, and can easily be improved upon with a bit of work.
If you’re in university and you want to know what your professor or TA is looking for when grading an essay (especially one written for the humanities), read on. We’re going to explore the topic of essay writing and how to write a good essay.
Decide on a Topic
This seems obvious, but you would be surprised at the amount of essays I received where the student had gone completely off topic. Usually this is because people investigate something tangential or barely related to the point they’re trying to make.
Make sure the things you discuss or include in your essay help your argument respond to the prompt. The most notable example of this I remember was an essay I read that did an excellent job of discussing the everyday lives of people in villages in Vietnam. However, the requirements were to write an investigation into the impact of the Vietnam war on Vietnamese citizens, which the essay didn’t do. I had to fail what was otherwise a great essay because it didn’t meet a basic requirement.
Related to that point, if you’re writing an essay where you have some degree of freedom in choosing the topic, the professor will expect you to choose something compelling that demonstrates you used some degree of thought.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t choose what appears to be a simple question to answer. For example, compare these two arguments based on the topic “Why did the Russian Revolution succeed?”:
The Russian Revolution succeeded primarily because of the failure of the Royalist forces to organize together and offer a compelling alternative to the Communists.
The Russian Revolution succeeded because the communists believed they were correct.
One of these arguments is better structured and more compelling than the other because it offers a specific, plausible explanation. The second one is vague and is making a fallacious argument: just because someone believes they are correct doesn’t mean they will win.
Both were based on a simple prompt. Only one, however, appears to have actual effort put into it: the first example.
Yes, write the thesis statement before you outline. You can’t outline if you don’t have a clear argument that coincides with your essay topic.
In order to create a thesis statement, you need to pick a side, so to speak. The thesis is used to introduce your argument to your audience so they know what they’ll find in the body of your essay; you’ll need to mention the points you’ll be running through throughout the paper.
For example, let’s say your topic is “Dogs vs Cats.”
Your thesis statement could be “Dogs are better than cats because they are playful, they like to go on walks, and they will show their owners affection.”
It has a stance in the argument (“Dogs are better than cats”) and runs through the points of why dogs are better than cats, which will be expanded on further down the essay (“they are playful,” “they like to go on walks,” “they will show their owners affection”).
The thesis statement is one of the most important parts of any essay, so be sure to spend adequate time on this step in order for your paper to be as strong as it can be.
Draw a Diagram or Outline of Your Ideas
Without some semblance of an outline, your paper is going to be either too long or too short, rambling, and in-cohesive. Although it’s not the most exciting part of the essay writing process, outlining is a very important step.
You have to know where you’re going with an idea in order to properly explain it. And if you’re not sure where you’re going with an idea, outlining can help you figure it out.
Here’s a really helpful outline format that I like to use when writing an essay:
If this is too much too quick, try just writing down a list of things you might like to discuss about your topic. Are there any similarities between them? Try to find a common thread between all of these things, and then take a look again at that outline format.
Using a Paraphraser can help. By changing the language you’re using, new ways to think about your topic might come up. With these new angles, you’ll be able to think about your topic more in-depth and in ways you never considered before.
Write the Body Paragraphs
Here’s where you take everything you’ve written in the outline, and expand it all. If you’ve outlined well, all you should need to do is add some details and transitions to make each one of the body paragraphs full.
As you’re writing each one of the body paragraphs, it’s a good idea to run them through a Summarizer. If the summarization tool gives you a summary that reflects your topic sentence, you know you’ve done a good job writing the paragraph.
If you get a summary that is different than your topic sentence, you know that you didn’t do a great job of detailing that point and need to put in some more work in that area.
Check out our Guide to Essay Writing if you’re looking for help on how to write a body paragraph. It’s pretty comprehensive and pretty great, if I do say so myself.
TipGenerative AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful during the research and writing stages. However, passing AI outputs off as your own work is considered unethical. Our AI Detector can help ensure your writing does not contain AI-generated content.
The final paragraph in your essay should be recapping all you’ve talked about in the preceding parts of the essay. This is not the time to bring up new topics, mention another slant or way of looking at the argument, or to further argue your point.
This is the time to reiterate your points. Your second-to-last sentence should be your reworded thesis statement and your very last sentence should be a memorable line to cement your argument in your audience’s heads.
So many people try to bring up new ideas in their final paragraph, but if you want to write a really strong college essay, don’t. Stick to concluding and you’ll be golden.
Apply the Final Touches
The last thing you want to be when writing an essay for university is sloppy. It’s so easy to make sure that your essay is well formatted and easy to read, yet a lot of students skip the steps they need to take in order to get their writing into tip top shape.
You want your essay writing to be the best it can be? Then you need to cycle through the entire essay writing process, not just the actual drafting stage.
Step #1 would be to run your essay through a Grammar Checker. There is no quicker way to lose points on a paper than to have grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Ensuring that all of that is correct will ensure you the baseline number of points at the very least.
Another important step is to make sure all of your sources are properly cited (and if you’re missing a citation, pop on over to our Citation Generator to get that sorted out real quick). A Plagiarism Checker will be able to catch duplicate content, so you’ll know when something hasn’t been properly cited.
After all this, your final draft will be ready to go.
Final Thoughts on Writing in University
Essay writing is hard, and writing a good academic essay is even harder. However, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to boost your scores, as we’ve outlined above. If you’re able to keep those things in mind as you’re writing, then you’re putting yourself in a very good position to get a high mark.
Published on
June 25, 2024
by
Paige Pfeifer, BA.
Revised on
January 20, 2025.
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a million times: writing a paper is hard. Students dread it, and understandably so. How do you come up with your topic, and how do you find ways to support your argument? There’s no easy answer.
So, feeling like you have an impossible task, you procrastinate until the last minute, when you desperately try to whip something up that makes marginal sense. We’ve all been there.
At Quillbot, our goal is to give you the tools you need to become an effective writer. As we develop these products, we want to give you some writing strategies that can help you write better today.
