Tips on How to Say "Something" in 500 Words

Many colleges require a lot of essays in order to develop their students’ critical thinking skills; however, most college students are struggling with writing college level essays, not putting much effort in their essays, and perhaps giving up on them. As a freshman, I also have a hard time writing essays, because I am not adept at how to expand my thought without repeating the same thing and which words should I have to use to make my sentences live and illustrative.

  

In the essay, “How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words”, Paul Roberts gives college students 9 helpful guides on how to make their essays lengthy and look more creative and interesting than just typical banal college essays. Among the Robert’s 9 tips for writing a college paper, 4 tips have deeply inspired me and hopefully my writing skill. One of the 4 tips is avoiding the obvious context. To write an exciting essay, I learned that I should not use the information that everyone can think of, instead think of my own reasons or unexpected ideas. Second tip is taking unusual position when I came to take a side and make a point. By taking the unpopular position, my paper will look more creative and fresh. Third tip is slipping out of abstraction by making concrete examples and situations to show the points of the context clear. Finally, the last fourth tip is using colorful words rather than using colorless words to make the sentences more vivid and picturesque. However, Roberts warns that when we add some examples and facts to the main point, we should not add distracting stuffs, but rather add some details and display the examples in the context for better understanding of the audience.

After reading this productive essay, “How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words”, I realized my previous essays are full of trite cliches which are so useless and meaningless. However, I also learned 9 great tips on how to write "something" rather than "nothing" in 500 words. I really want to recommend this amazing essay to fellow college students and to those who want to write intriguing essays rather than boring and trite essays.