Being a graduate student is difficult, and expectations are higher. Don’t disappoint your advisors—follow these four easy hints to improve your writing level:

1. Read high level works. What you read shapes how you write. Read the work of fellow graduate students. Read scholarly articles and books. Even read classical fiction that is challenging for you. By seeing how other scholars and writers build their sentences, present their arguments, and choose their words, you can imitate styles you enjoy and avoid styles you find difficult to understand.
2. Write like you speak. Many advanced students feel the urge to write in grandiose and overly intellectualized styles. The result is a paper with a poorly presented argument and poor word choice. Instead, write your paper just how you would explain it to a friend. Make simple arguments. Use simple language. Be clear and concise. Later, when editing, you can use a thesaurus to add more vocabulary or introduce new jargon. But start with that foundation of a clear, solid argument, and your reader will understand your work and ultimately agree with your scholarship. A smart writer makes his audience smarter, and doesn’t try to overwhelm them with his intellect.
3. Use more sources. Whatever the minimum number of required sources is, ignore that. Read more. Cite more. Quote more. Paraphrase more. Being well read is the secret to writing a top-level paper. Show your audience that you are knowledgeable by showing that you have read all the major authors and scholars on this particular subject. Don’t be afraid to have a long bibliography—it shows you have worked hard and know your subject.
4. Know the arguments against you before your audience does. When presenting an argument, know the counter-arguments. Think how a reader might dispute your claims. Look for flaws in your argument. Be prepared. Mention why the counter-argument would be wrong, and why you are correct. If a major scholar presents a different argument, then present their argument in your paper, and show its weaknesses. Admitting that there are other ideas besides your own is not a weakness; rather, it shows you are knowledgeable and that you have already taken these ideas into account. You will sound more professional as you refute these ideas rather than just leaving your audience to wonder.

History paper got you down? Try a few quick hints to get that A on your assignment:

1. Understand the period your piece is about. Knowing when and where your assignment took place is essential, and understanding the culture and politics of that time are important too. Utilize Google and Wikipedia to just get a quick idea of what the big themes, trends, and motivating factors were of that time. It only takes a couple of minutes, but will make you feel a lot more comfortable in your writing.
2. Use those primary sources. Yeah, every professor tells you to use primary sources, but its really not that hard. Use Google and resources like Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, government websites, and university websites to find those primary sources. The more you use, the better your paper is, and the more you will impress your professor.
3. Present arguments, not just facts. Anyone can look up the dates that a person lived or ruled. Anyone can look up the basics of major battles. What you need to do in your paper is present a distinct argument about something, and present that in a thesis. Do you disagree with an author’s argument? What do you think about a controversial issue in history? Do you think there is a better way to interpret the actions of those involved in the events? Do you think that your topic is misrepresented in history? Ask a question with some bite, don’t just ask “what happened then?”
4. Know your authors. Are you getting a lot of your info from one source? Are you presenting the argument of a specific author? Take the time and look that author up. What was his background? When did he write? What biases may he have had? Who was his audience? Ask yourself these questions, and think about how that affects that author’s view of history. If you think it is significant enough, include it in your paper. For example, you could say, “we must keep in mind that AUTHOR was from the USSR, and so may have a biased view of Arab nationalism, but this bias also brings up an interesting historiographic point…” Understanding where your sources fit into history will help you write a better history paper.
5. Don’t overdo the dates. You know how you hate memorizing dates? Well, readers hate reading them over and over again. State important dates once, and then be confident your reader knows when you are talking about. There is nothing more frustrating than reading that someone is a 19^th century leader repeatedly when you already said he ruled from 1823-1875.

Do you have a major assignment coming up? Are you considering purchasing a custom-written paper, but don’t know if you should? Here are some of the pros and cons weighed out for you to help make your decision easier:

1. PRO: You can take it easy. The biggest advantage to buying custom written papers is that you can sit back and relax and have your paper written for you. Or maybe you have too many assignments creeping up all at once. Maybe you’ve fallen ill and need a little extra help. Having a custom paper written for you eases your workload.
2. CON: You didn’t write it. Yup, this is the big one. There are some ethical dilemmas when purchasing work. Your professor or employer is accepting your paper with the assumption that it is all your own work. And its not. You can certainly purchase papers to get an idea of what you can write, and then do the work yourself. But the vast majority of people who purchase papers will then hand them in as their own work. You didn’t steal the work, or copy it. You purchased it, which is at least legal. You have to ask yourself if you feel dishonest by handing in a custom-written paper.
3. PRO: Custom writing by skilled writers. Most sites now give you the freedom to request exactly what you need for your assignment, right down to structure, length, style, wording, or topic. No more searching through huge databases of prewritten essays, hoping one might fit. Get exactly what you want, and by the exact deadline you want. Best of all, most sites hire writers with graduate degrees in the topics you are writing about, so you are all but guaranteed top quality work.
4. CON: Not all custom-essay sites are the same. While most custom-essay sites check papers for plagiarism before handing it to the customer, some do not. Some don’t employ native English speakers. There are a lot of sites out there, so take the time to do a little research. Do you have friends who have used a site successfully? Do you see comments on blogs or on the web about certain sites? Do a little homework to find a good custom writing service website and company, because not all companies are the same. And remember—the site with the lowest rates may not necessarily be the best.

It is a challenge to decide whether or not you want a custom-written paper. But with a little looking, you can find the right site that will provide you with high quality work from trained scholars. But if you don’t have a lot of time, or desperately need that A, then custom-written papers can definitely get you out of a jam.

Revising an essay may seem like a difficult task, but once you know some tricks of the trade, it can be a lot easier and more rewarding. Try these three strategies to improve your work:

1. Read it out loud. Read your paper out loud, even just to yourself. Listen to your sentences. Do they sound correct? Do your sentences sound choppy or disconnected? Do the words you use sound like they fit in the sentence? Are your sentences longer than you would normally speak? Many people are auditory learners, meaning that they have a better sense of their writing when they hear it. Reading your work out loud can help you catch mistakes by hearing them, when you never would have seen them.
2. Reoutline your argument. Look at the topic sentence of each paragraph. Make an outline of your paper, using each topic sentence as an entry. Look at your argument structure. Does each paragraph in a given section add to your argument? Does your paper follow a logical order? Do you repeat yourself? Does each paragraph add to the final product? Looking at how you succeeded in organizing your argument can also show where you failed at making your point and can help you find ways to better present your argument.
3. Put it away for a while. The best way to revise an essay is to put it aside for an evening. Do other work, go have some fun, think about anything other than the paper. When you return to it, come at it with fresh eyes. Was that argument really what you were trying to say? Have you left out any words or ideas that you thought you had included? Is there a better structure for your argument? By stepping away from the paper, you can edit it later as if it were someone else’s work, and catch mistakes that were blending in yesterday.