Beginners Guide to Essay Writing

As many of my fellow batch mates are facing the writer’s block in completing Essay I decided to write this guide to help them, so that they can put to best use the last few days they have with their family members (current and would-be). DISCLAIMER – First and the most important thing. This is not for those unearthly souls who want to touch that legendary upper word limit. Try to be humble and be content with 80%. It’s not that bad a number you see. This is also not for those who think it’s their god-assigned duty to find if what you are answering is what was asked. So if you are one of these, the best action you can take now with respect to this document is click the small â€Å"X† button in the top right corner of this document. This is for those poor unfortunate souls like me who want to take the bare minimum effort to achieve what is necessary, a skill that I learnt in my engineering days and improved upon in my time spent in IT industry. So here are my tips for nailing the Essay. Some tips are very ordinary which will add a word or two per use. They are to be used to give finishing touches to your answer when you need those 20-30 words to reach the world limit. Others are more generic. Use them to build the core of your answer. 1. Acronyms are evil and making use of them is a cardinal sin and you definitely do not want to start your journey in the world of management by committing one. So avoid them. Ex. Instead of IIM Indore write Indian Institute of Management, Indore. For some acronyms you can expand and then put the acronyms in the brackets to give yourself an extra word. 2. Use the qualities of the language to your advantage. The reason why they made English have a plethora of words which mean exactly the same damn thing was because they had a premonition about Essay. Make generous, copious, lavish and abundant use of adjectives. In place of any adjective use two of three adjectives which are similar in meaning. Make use of the synonyms functionality that Word provides. For example instead of just writing crucial project write complex and crucial project. 3. Always use a group of words in place of one word. For example instead of various use a number of 4. If possible quote a large part of the question in your answer. This is a trick which has always worked right from class I. I still remember question like â€Å"What was the name of the first PM of India† and the answer used to be â€Å"The name of the first PM of India is blah blah blah† This is very easy for questions like 8 and 9. 5. Whenever possible make generous use of quotes. Those great people did not utter such knowledgeable words for no reason. Follow it with your amazing explanation of the quote to make the reader understand the quote properly, which even otherwise he would have understood, making it as long as possible. 6. Quote dictionary definition of words where possible. All you need is a Google search and it makes you sound a very inquisitive person in no time. This is particularly applicable for questions 4 and 11. Follow it with your agreement or disagreement of the definition and your reasoning behind it. 7. Make generous use of subheading. Not only will it portray us as an organized person but also give you those extra 10 to 20 words without straining your brain. You can make use of this in questions which is divided into sub questions like questions 1, 2 and 3. 8. Do not use etc. unless you have quoted at least five examples. If you think for a few moments you will get examples which sound different but are essentially the same like bus conductor cheating his passengers, doctor cheating his patients, shop keeper cheating his customers etc. Change the subject and the object, keep the verb same and you will have numerous example in no time. 9. If the question asks to quote 2 incidents more often than not you will be able to think of only 1 good or good enough incident. No question asks you to give equal importance to both the incidents. So write about that one ncident as much as possible. The more you write on it, the less you will have to think for the other one. 10. Stretch the meaning of the word describe to its limits. When they say describe, you DESCRIBE. No detail is unnecessary and no information trivial unless you have crossed the word limit. 11. Anyone from IT industry will know the importance of reuse of work already done by you or someone else does, even if that reuse meant copy paste and portray ing it as new effort and billing the client for the same. Use that approach in your answers. For example answer question 9 properly and you do not need to answer question 15 again. All you will need is a trimming of 50 words. 12. I have skipped question 13 as I had no intention of creating an imaginary situation in my pretty normal and straight forward life of 24 years which would have asked me to act in a non-traditional way. In case you feel you can do it, then you are most welcome. 13. When the whole world is for gender equality we as future managers should not lag behind. Bring gender equality in your answers. When you are referring to a third person use him or her, he or she instead of just him and he. 14. If you were not a part of any social or cultural organization then you cannot skip question 14. Some senior has already posted as to how you can write about the clubs you were part of in the college. And there is no shortage of clubs and committees in any college. Cultural club, movie club, Cricket club, Soccer club. You name it and you will have it. Take one club and write about it as much as possible. If you have not reached the WL take one more. Continue till you reach the WL. 15. Try to think how you can lengthen your sentences without significantly altering the meaning. For example a normal guy or girl will write â€Å"Prefer passive voice in your answer†. You should not fall prey to such highly damaging practices. They are for normal people. You should write â€Å"In writing a response to any question the consistent usage of passive voice is to be preferred over that of active voice†. Doing this consistently over a long paragraph will almost double your word count. 16. All the thoughts that have crossed your mind while answering NPAD should go into the initial answer of question 5. If you can manage sarcasm well then they should go into the latter part. 17. If in the highly improbable scenario that you have already written the answer and cannot touch the word limit, revise the answer by considering each tip from this point by point. It’s a tried and tested approach and one which definitely works. PS. Whether you find the tone of the tips comical or serious will depend on how many questions are yet to be answered by you and how desperate you feel to answer them.