The 5 C approach in essay writing

Writing, as a general practice, requires one to maintain equilibrium between the writer’s ability to express and the reader’s ability to understand the content well enough. Audience is essentially the central focus and the content has to be adapted to them accordingly. Most rules generally apply to all forms of writing, but there are certain technicalities that are required in academic writing that must be met. This article looks at how to achieve quality in essay writing through these applications. Clarity As with all forms of communication, this is the most essential aspect of writing one must strive to gain. One often makes the mistake of assuming that the reader will understand what is written because of the reader’s familiarity with the subject.

That is correct to an extent. It is not necessary to sometimes explain terminology of the particular discipline, such as bio-chemistry or meteorology. However, one must remember not to overuse the terms and if necessary, maintain a glossary for reference in the essay manuscript. In addition, writers also have a tendency to swallow words as they write, and consequently, the sentence seems incomplete with only half the idea communicated. To avoid this mishap, one must have someone else of the same discipline read the essay to ensure it is well understood. Conciseness Repetitive or unnecessary words and phrases are viewed critically by examiners, who regard them as ‘fillers’ that the essay writer has intentionally added in order to meet the required word count. Most of them can be eliminated during proofreading and editing. However, it is imperative for the essay writer to, as advised in journalism, to ‘play with words’ until they have formed the right sentence.
A strong command of language is therefore essential for proper grammar usage and diction. Coherence Another term used to describe coherence is to provide a ‘flow’ to writing. Conciseness refers to language formation, while coherence refers to content in its entirety: word by word, sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph. By connecting ideas together, one should provide an overview of the topic of the essay and then move on to specific details. It is this very direction that readers will follow and be able to conclude and agree, in the case of argumentative essay writing. In other words, start with what the reader is familiar with and subsequently introduce the unfamiliar. Correctness As with all academic writing, ‘sticking to the facts’ is the essence of essay writing as well. One is not supposed to furnish personal opinions. Statements must be supported by references from literature review.

It is important to remember that even the learned professor who will examine the essay is also not in a position to express independent ideas that have no proven past theories to support them. However, one can extend the idea and introduce a new concept based on data analysis which would prove or disprove past theories and put forward their recommendations for the necessity to further the research in the subject area. Control It is very easy for an essay writer to be ‘carried away’ during the writing phase. This may be because they have spent extensive time in research and have gained a mastery of the subject that gives them the tendency to include aspects that are irrelevant to the topic, but only to impress the examiner. Essay writing is meant to be informative; it is not an outlet for the writer to vent their prejudice.