Writing an essay can be tough and time-consuming. But writing an impressive one can be even tougher. That is, of course, if you don’t know what you have to do and how to do it. If you are looking at how to impress your professor with an effective essay, then there are just a few actionable tips and steps that you have to act on. In this post, we are going to be looking at some of those.

1. Do proper research and create an outline
If you want to make your essay impressive, you have to do proper research to back it up. The emphasis is not just on doing research but on doing it properly.

Improper research is worse than no research. How does research become proper and improper?

Proper research is that which is done from reliable and credible sources, is done from multiple sources, and is utilized with moderation.

Reliable and credible sources, in this context, are those that are widely accepted to be truthful and dependable.

Researching from multiple sources, on the other hand, is necessary so that there are no chances of accidental plagiarism in the resultant content. In other words, when you don’t use multiple sources for your information, you will inadvertently start to copy the same words and type of information from that one single source. This would lead you to unintentionally (but inevitably) commit unintentional plagiarism.

Utilizing research in moderation basically pertains to the same stuff that we’ve mentioned above. You should utilize your researched material in such a way that your own originality and creativity are not overshadowed.

Moving on, the next thing that you have to do is create an outline before you start writing the essay. There are many benefits to creating an outline. For example,

• Creating an outline helps you write the essay with a clear mind. You don’t have to worry about thinking about what to write next.
• Creating an outline also helps you stay on topic. When points are made and headings are specified, you follow a progression and don’t deviate from the topic.
• It also helps you stick to the specified word limit. In other words, when you create an outline, you are able to specify the number of words that have to be written in each heading. Then, you can just work to fulfill that and meet the limit.

2. Separate and substantiate the arguments
Another good tip to follow in order to create a good essay is to separate and properly substantiate each of the arguments. Separating the arguments basically means that you should mention each of the points in your essay one after the other and not let them blend together. Many times, people can start on a particular argument but then lose the thread somewhere in the middle and start talking about something else.

This makes the essay look amateurish, and the arguments themselves look weak and unstructured.

On the other hand, substantiating your arguments means that you should cite the research material that you have used to come up with them. If you are talking about a particular statistic or fact, etc., you should cite the source where you originally obtained the information.

A situation bereft of this practice would be when someone would mention an argument as an opinionated guess. In such a case, there would be no mention of the original source and to the professor, it would just look like some random rambling content.

3. Ensure grammatical perfection
Another thing that can impress your professor in your essay is grammatical perfection. Grammar errors and spelling mistakes can spoil the quality of your essay, and they can make it look amateurish. The absence of these errors and mistakes, on the other hand, can do the opposite.

Here is how you can ensure grammatical perfection in your essay:

• During the writing process itself, you can ensure grammatical perfection by being careful about adding the right punctuation and keeping the tenses straight.
• After the writing process, you can ensure grammatical perfection by using a grammar-checking tool.
• For good measure, you should also proofread your essay a couple of times afterward.

4. Make sure your essay is unique and free from plagiarism
Plagiarized essays, far from impressing your professor, do the exact contrary. Plagiarism in academic content is akin to a crime, and there are a lot of different consequences that you may have to face as a result.

On the other hand, if you take care to make your essay unique, it can leave a good impression on the checker. Here are some of the steps that you can follow to ensure uniqueness in your essay.

• Once you are done writing it, use an online plagiarism checker to see if there is any plagiarism in there or not. Even if you have not actively plagiarized from somewhere, you should still check it to rule out the possibility of accidental plagiarism.
• If there is any accidental plagiarism in your content, highlight those parts and take any of the following three steps:
  1. Remove the plagiarism parts by simply excising them from the content.
  2. Rephrase the plagiarized parts so that the exact wording is changed and plagiarized parts don’t retain the resemblance
  3. Give the citations for the plagiarized parts. Once you give credit, you’re not plagiarizing anymore.

Rephrasing the plagiarized parts can be the easiest of these three steps. You can just change the words, and the plagiarism will be gone.

In situations like these, where you have to eliminate accidental plagiarism, it can be a good idea to use a paraphrasing tool for rephrasing purposes. Using the tools can be better since they save time by doing the whole process in a matter of seconds.

Final Thoughts
So, there you have it. If you follow the tips mentioned above, you will be able to come up with an essay that will impress your professor. To recap them real quickly, the tips we mentioned above are: 

• Do proper research
• Substantiate your arguments and separate them all
• Ensure grammatical correctness
• And ensure content uniqueness