Write a Diagnostic Essay Easily - Demonstrate Your Best Writing Skills
The diagnostic essay is quite simple by nature, but it frequently becomes one of the most challenging assignments. Why is it so? Because the task is to present your best skills at the very beginning! When asking you to write a diagnostic essay, professors aim to see how competent you are in terms of essay writing and what is your background knowledge. Thus, they can provide some professional guidance for you to easily refine any college assignments in the future. And, here is a pleasant bonus - a diagnostic essay is never graded.
Assignment's Purpose
A diagnostic essay is usually assigned at the start of the academic semester to assess the students' writing abilities. Thus, they can understand what aspects to improve and what knowledge to gain.
There is no research to conduct before starting such an essay. The student gets to portray their capacity of being efficient in writing so that all the final editing and proofreading is done within specific, limited timeframes. This paper cannot affect your grades, so don't worry and don't lose your head right from the start.
The diagnostic essay is usually given during the lesson or lecture time - it should be completed in class. It's an easy way for the professor to:
- identify the current state of the students' knowledge;
- get acquainted with the learners;
- determine the academic areas that lack their attention or support.
For writing a diagnostic assignment not to be a stress, you can follow some tips from this article. Since diagnostic paper can have any subject matter, here, we are going to recall the basics. Then, we will provide you with some suggestions on how to simplify the writing process. Speed is also a significant asset in this writing "contest," so the diagnostic assignment should be finished in a short time.
Diagnostic Essay Requirements
What is convenient about a diagnostic essay is that it doesn't differ much from any other assignment in this category. Thus, here, you analyze the information, come up with your own ideas, provide examples and evidence, formulate a conclusion, etc. If there is a diagnostic essay around the corner, look through the following list. Here, we have gathered the main elements your professor will pay attention to.
- Relevant topic (if it wasn't assigned in advance)
- Interconnected introduction and conclusion
- Catchy essay thesis statement
- The logical development of the story
- Smooth transitions between the paragraphs
- Including your own sentences with original viewpoints
- Absence of mistakes, neat writing
- Meeting the word count
Your diagnostic assignment will have a standard content: introduction, body part, and conclusion. But, the matter is what to write there. How to formulate and develop the topic? What to include in each body paragraph? These are the problems bothering students the most. At every stage, there should be a limited time spent, so your task is to organize everything well. Hence, we'll discuss how to work on diagnostic essay parts to come up with a writing that will satisfy your professor and help to improve your papers easily.
Writing Process
The first step is to decide on the topic. You will need to evaluate your competence objectively and pick a subject matter that is broad enough but gives you some freedom to express any original and more specific ideas. Also, since you will work on a diagnostic essay in class, remember that you won't have a possibility to do research - you apply the at-hand knowledge only. So, one of our main tips is not to go far and not to make your essay pretentious.
When the topic is decided, formulate the main ideas you would like to highlight in writing. Think what evidence and examples will be useful to help you support and develop the thesis statement (the idea you are going to challenge or prove). Then, before embarking on actual writing, create an outline to guarantee your paper a logical structure and smooth transitions between paragraphs. At this stage, you can also manage the time you have. For instance, if you have an hour to write a 500-word text, you can use the following strategy:
- Brainstorming, topic, and main statement - 10min.
- Introduction, body, conclusion - 40min.
- Proofreading and editing - 10min.
Introduction
In the essay introduction, find common ground with the reader. You can use questions, everyone-knows-that phrases, etc. For the diagnostic essay, topics are usually general and well-known so that everyone can write something about it. But, to stand out from the crowd, try to look at the subject matter from a different angle - that will give you additional "points."
If you write for a specific course, and the professor wants to check the level of your knowledge, things can go differently. For instance, you can be assigned to write about a particular book or movie. But what if you haven't read/watched it? In this case, remember that you won't get a grade for this essay. So, you are free to write any thought you have, and even that can demonstrate your competence and skills.
Main Body
The main body of your essay is the most important part. Here, your text blooms. The professor evaluating it can watch the development of your thoughts and the analysis you conduct and know what issues you are interested in. Your task is to write all the main ideas in each paragraph and explain them clearly. But, if you want the reader to be interested in your essay, make sure to provide proper transitions from one idea to another. So, even if the body part paragraphs have different focuses, interconnect them with one common issue. Simply put, to stay on track of the topic, regularly refer to the thesis statement.
Conclusion
Here, the success lies in how well you have conveyed the topic in previous paragraphs. In conclusion, don't jump to a new concept or finish your assignment with another evidence. To make your diagnostic paper completed, analyze the core ideas discussed previously, and sum them up. A trick would be to repeat your thesis statement and strengthen it in the reader's mind.
Here is one more and final tip. To get high evaluation of your skills and competence, it is not so important to know how to write a diagnostic essay. It is just a text, and what plays an important role here is your own confidence. If you express your viewpoints confidently, have a sufficient vocabulary, and go in hand with the time, success is on your side. Good luck!