MAXINE

Really short and useful books on good essay-writing: Hazel Hutchison, Essays and Dissertations Made Easy and Strunk/White, The Elements of Style. 

Don’t feel bad, essay-writing is a craft that needs to be developed and can always be improved; it takes time. Remember that there’s an element of subjectivity as to what constitutes a ‘good’ essay. Lecturers at my university often describe the criteria for a first-class essay as ‘being publishable’ so it’s not necessarily just about putting across your research or analysis. Just like well-written prose, an essay should show off your distinctive style/voice with a narrative that makes sense to the reader – a beginning (introduction), middle (argument) and end (conclusion). Choose conciseness and clarity over trying to drag out a point to fill up the word count. 

I’m sure you already know that you should plan or outline your essay before you start writing and lay foundations for your argument in your introduction that you can use to build your essay towards a conclusion. After that it’s just writing. Here is the advice given to me by one of my lecturers, which I think is very clear and might help:

The first principle of good writing is economy. The second is simplicity. Say as much as possible in as few words as possible.

Good writing depends upon the use of strong verbs and nouns. Regard adjectives as necessary nuisances, avoiding them if you can. 

Prefer active to passive constructions unless there is good reason to do otherwise. Active voice: I ate the biscuit. Passive voice: The biscuit was eaten by me. Although in the odd case the second form may be preferable—to emphasize the direct object, for example—the active voice is almost always better.

You must learn what constitutes a proper English sentence. Ignorance of it leads to the error known as the comma splice, avoid this mistake. (The preceding, faulty sentence commits the error it condemns.) In order to keep from committing this error, you need to know what constitutes an independent clause and a dependent clause. 

Vary sentence patterns, alternating among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex forms. Write some short and some long sentences. If possible, break the monotony of the subject-verb-object construction. 

A paragraph is a developed idea. Therefore, avoid the temptation to write one- or two-sentence paragraphs.

Learn the rules for commas, semi-colons, and other punctuation marks.

Know what plagiarism is, what it is not, and how to avoid it. 

Print out your work when you proofread. 

Some brief advice from me: read lots of good essays. It seems obvious but the more essays you read the more you will get an idea of how to write one well. You can even analyse them as you would with prose, try and see how they do what they do and apply it to your own essays. Recommendations below :–)