How To Fetch More Marks In Essay Paper in UPSC IAS Mains Exam

Fetching more marks in Essay paper in UPSC Civil Services Exam solely depends upon writing skills, structuring and presentation of essay. It's all about the management skills while writing essay in IAS Exam. There is no technique, not at least till date, which can turn someone into a literary prodigy, because prodigies are born rather than made. But, “Genius is 99 per cent perspiration and one per cent inspiration” is equally true. And today, it is an acknowledged fact that writing technique can be improved with practice. There are special courses and lessons in writing improvement.

Managing essay

In managing your essay paper you must remember, there is nothing like one day wonder here . There is no substitute to hard work. No guidebook can turn you into a good essay writer. Only you can yourself do it. Guidebooks and specialised lessons on writing may be able to give only the suggestions, but the real effort or practice will have to come from you. However, the efforts, you put in may become misguided for want of a proper direction. The lessons and courses in writing provide that much needed direction.

A good essay writer has the following qualities, which should be cultivated by anyone desiring to write well:

Lucid writing:

One should try to cultivate a lucid writing style. Lucid style has a flow and is smooth to read. The words used by a lucid writer are, generally, the part of our common vocabulary. Difficult words are never used out of context and, at best, avoided. The writing and even difficult subjects are treated in a manner easy to follow.

In the civil services essay paper, a lucid writing style will certainly be appreciated by the examiners. Therefore, it is better to avoid ornamental expressions and long sentences. “Make your sentence as long as will not pinch the patience of the poor readers”. Take the above sentence. The author has tried to make an ornamental sentence, but has failed miserably.

For Example: A glimpse of Vikram Grewal 's Essay Copy

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This happens when ornamental sentences are made deliberately. In the process, the author has made the sentence unnecessarily long, while he is preaching just the opposite. “Make your sentences short” is all that the author should have said. The sentence is short and it says all except redundancy. Short sentences are less liable to be incorrect.

Wide Reading:

An impressive essay writing has lot to tell about its author. It reflects the author’s command over the subject and the depth of his knowledge.

A glimpse of Vikram Grewal 's Essay Copy

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In the civil services examination half of the essays or even more in the list of topics will be factual in nature. Topics like computers in our daily life, position of women in society, the state of our economy, rights of the children etc, are of factual nature. No doubt, anyone can write essay on these topics. But, everyone cannot make any essay interesting by using facts simply because, not everyone has facts at his or her command.

Who will have the facts?

Anyone who is a voracious reader, wide reading ensures an extensively read person, and at the same time, which won’t let you grope in darkness for facts and figures; a coherent presentation makes an essay writing interesting and analytical and at the same time, thought provoking.

Often, a lethargic tendency towards the essay paper is found amongst the candidates. This tendency makes them learn by heart a set of four to five expected essays. Well that is the easy way out and a poor substitute for wide reading. If it clicks, well and good, if it doesn’t you are in trouble. Moreover, let this also be assured that if your reading has been wide, the essay will turn out to be better than the one you have mugged up from any guide book.

Of course, no body is suggesting that you go for a wide reading a month or two before the UPSC IAS mains examination. Nothing could be more disastrous to your scores in the other papers than this. But even if you have six months left for your IAS mains examination, you can go for wide reading.

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What constitutes a wide reading?

Or, how wide is a wide reading? Well, wide could be really wide if you are an undergraduate as you naturally have quite a lot of time at your command for the widest possible reading. But this luxury may not be available to someone appearing in the examination next year. If you are appearing this year or the next, you may limit your reading to editorials and news magazines. In case you are a fast reader, you may go for fictions and non fictions without cutting on your time.

There is no fixed rule as to the presentation of an essay. However, there is a great deal of flexibility in the presentation and the style of writing an essay.

Almost every essay will have three major parts:

introduction, the main body and the conclusion.

Again, there is no rule regarding the respective proportion of the three parts. But, commonly, one paragraph each is devoted to the introduction and the conclusion, the main body takes up the rest.

Since candidates rarely plan out the entire essay before writing, it may therefore be observed that many of them begin with a grand introduction, very impressive indeed. But what happens next? Either the main body which is the most crucial aspect of an essay is very weak or perhaps entirely missing.

Often, it has also been noticed that what has been said in introduction is entirely different from that in the main body. Or, the conclusion says something very different from the case that was made out in the main body. These weaknesses result because of a very casual approach to writing . One or more of the following reasons may be attributed to it.

• Unplanned writing
• Writing in hurry
• Unprepared writing
• Absent mindedness
• Weakness of language
• Not having read the question topic properly.

To a great extent, presentation can be improved, if you tackle the above difficulties carefully.

You may also do something more. After reading the topics, and after having decided for one give proper thought for about five minutes on what would you be writing. Decide whether you would be writing in favor or against if the topic is opinion based. In either case, jot down on the rough sheet the points of the arguments which you would advance in the body text. In case it is not opinion based, note down the points both in favor and against or the points that will make your essay writing appear balanced. Also, state briefly in the introduction itself, what you would be saying in the body text. The conclusion should briefly in a sentence or two, sum up the whole essay.

• It is always safer to choose general topics for the essay, than specialized, subjective topics unless you are specialist in that area.
• By the same logic, you can choose a few areas and develop your command over them. You can choose few broad based topics like, gender, post independent developments in India, liberalization, coalition governments and future of democracy, human rights, etc.
• If you get a topic directly from your chosen area, well and good. However, even otherwise, you will get an ample opportunity to use your knowledge in the essay you choose to write as these broad topics instill an insight into the various facets of life and its phenomena in the world around you.
• For writing a good essay you often need to decompartmentalise your knowledge and let it flow as a composite whole in the direction of that all important essay topic.
• The identity of the writer, should not be revealed in the essay discussion.
• Let the essay speak for itself. Do not make it a personalized statement.