1. Passive voice easily increases the word count of my papers. Compare for instance: Jack ate a cake. (Active voice – 4 words) and The cake was eaten by Jack. (Passive voice – 6 words.)
2. It makes my papers sound more complicated and I think that teachers like it.
3. Passive voice helps me hide the doer of the action. (The cup was broken.)

”
All together: “Hello, Jack!”
Do any of these reasons sound familiar to you? Remember that all of them are wrong, and your teachers will easily detect these dirty tricks at first glance.

Let’s cure this unhealthy devotion to passive voice and discover the top reasons and best strategies for writing in active voice, just a few lines below.

Why Is Writing in Active Voice Better?

Let’s compare a few sentences in active vs. passive voice:

As you can see, writing in active voice is more effective, because the sentences become

• stronger;
• clearer – everyone can see who does what;
• more economical – fewer words are needed for conveying the same meaning.

Best Strategies for Using Active Voice

How to find passive voice in your papers and convert it to active voice?

1. Find the by-constructions (E.g. The window was broken by Sam. – Sam broke the window.)
2. Find the verbs “be”, which are followed by a Participle II (E.g. The book was lost. – I lost the book.)
3. Find the expletive phrases, such as it is, there is, there are etc. (It was her sincere smile that produced a good impression on me. – Her sincere smile produced a good impression on me.)

However, when looking for the passive voice, you should avoid these common pitfalls:

• The preposition ‘by’ does not necessarily indicate the doer of the action. (We were passing by a Chinese restaurant.)
• The verb “be” is not always used as part of passive constructions. (The journey was dangerous.)

Furthermore, there are a number of intransitive verbs, which cannot be used in passive voice because they are never used with an object. There are only a few of them: become, belong, consist of, depend, exist, fall, happen, sleep, swim, wait etc.

When Should I Use Passive Voice?

The next question to answer is whether you should always use active voice in writing. Are there any exceptions when passive voice is preferable? Yes, there are. These are the main exceptions:

1. When you need to emphasize the action rather than the doer (Ice has been discovered on the surface of Mars.)
2. When you want to be tactful and hide the doer of the action (Ann was betrayed.)
3. When you do not know the doer. (An effective solution to the problem has not been found.)

So, write in active voice, and you will be able to capture readers’ attention, make your arguments more persuasive and say more with fewer words. Getting rid of the addiction to passive voice is easy, and using this quick guide you will achieve amazing results. Good luck!

Personal essay: format issues

What is a personal essay? It is an autobiographical story, based on your personal experiences that are significant to you. Actually, all your essays are personal to certain extent. However, in critical and analytical papers you try to be objective. When working on personal papers, you may forget about objectivity. There is no need to hide your thoughts and feelings in a personal narrative essay. Be yourself and follow these valuable tips:

• Feel free to use I, my, me and other personal pronouns.
• Express your personal opinion. Use: in my opinion, to my mind, as far as I remember…
• Be honest with your readers. You should use stories from YOUR personal experience.
• Try to be positive. In 9 out of 10 cases, it makes a good impression. Choose optimistic and encouraging memories for your papers. Even if you describe a very sad situation, try at least to find some rays of light in it.

Personal essay: golden rules

If you still wonder how to write a personal essay, here are the golden rules for you:

1. Try to make the most of your memories. Do everything possible to make your readers laugh and cry with you. Do not be embarrassed to admit that you shed a couple of tears or laughed out loud.
2. Draw certain conclusions from what you describe. Prove that you have learnt a lesson from your experience. If you speak about the basketball game in which your team was heavily defeated, you can say for instance that you learnt how to lose with dignity.
3. Focus on specific stories. Your task is not to tell your whole life story, but to develop one interesting theme. For example, instead of telling about numerous cases of misunderstanding in your life, you should focus on only one brightest instance and write about it.
4. Use vivid details and don’t be too general. Show that you have what to say. Instead of wasting words on general statements, such as “It was the greatest summer vacation in my whole life”, provide vivid details: “During my third day at Rio, we went to the heart of the jungle.”
5. Use conventional spelling and academic writing style. Avoid using colloquial words, such as awesome, cop and buck.

Personal essay prompts

Now that you understand how to write a personal essay, you might wonder how to find a good topic. These are some good personal essay prompts that will make your life easier:

• How did you spend your summer vacation (weekend)?
• What was the most memorable day in your life? Why?
• Write about an important relationship (acquaintance, conversation or quarrel).
• Write about a funny situation with your pet.
• What was the most important achievement (failure) in your life.

Personal essay: quotations you may use

By the way, quotations from well-known people can add some value to your personal essays. These are only a few examples:

1. Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
2. Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
3. Friedrich Nietzsche: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
4. Earl Nightingale: “Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us.”
5. Robert Frost: “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learnt about life: it goes on.”
6. John Lennon: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

As you see, writing perfect personal essays can be easy. You are welcome to use this guide on exceptional personal writing and receive excellent grades for your papers.

Autobiography Template: Complete These Sentences

An autobiography is a story that the author writes about his/her own life. If you are assigned to write one, you should carefully search your memory and find something truly interesting to share with your readers.
Browsing through your own past and especially finding the gems in it might not be as easy as it sounds.
Understanding the difficulties you might experience and wishing to save your time and energy, we have created this wonderful autobiography template. Simply complete these sentences to create a skeleton for your would-be autobiography:

1. I was born (and raised) in…
2. I have been blessed to absorb all the wonderful things and teachings from…
3. My neighborhood was filled with…
4. As a family, we always…
5. Through my middle school and high school career, I…
6. The places I have visited and the people I have met made me…
7. I think this was my first calling for…
8. I demonstrated compassion for…
9. S/he is the one who fostered my love for…
10. It was then that I realized I had a talent…
11. From this experience, I learnt how to become…
12. I really appreciate the fact that…

Sample Autobiography Outlines

Now you have already warmed up your imagination and have a nice draft for your memoir. The next step is to structure your paper logically. Below are 3 sample outlines for autobiographies, which can help you organize your thoughts in a proper way:
Outline 1

1. Introduction. Hello, World!
2. Main body
   • My happy childhood
   • My study (school and college)
   • My professional growth and future plans
   • Searches for a place in the sun
   • The most important values in life
3. Conclusion. Good-bye everyone and stay cool!

Outline 2

1. Introduction. Who am I?
2. Main body
   • Who influenced me as a person?
   • What experiences contributed most to my self-development?
   • What are my main strengths and weaknesses?
   • Where do I want to be in 5 years?
   • How can I make a difference?
3. Conclusion. What is my recipe of happiness?

Outline 3

1. Introduction. Factual information – dates, figures and places.
2. Main body
   • Personal information – family life, temperament, interpersonal relations.
   • Professional information – education, talents, occupation, career path.
   • Life views.
3. Conclusion. Additional information – hobbies and dreams.

Autobiography Template: Use These Phrases

Even though you are already forearmed with all these autobiography templates, we do not stop here, but go even further. Check out these phrases, which are taken from the best autobiography examples. Feel free to use them in your autobiography to improve its quality without making any extra effort:

• an extraordinarily healthy (talented, curious, knowledge-loving) child;
• tremendous effects on my development;
• particularly hurt (impressed) by the incident;
• this situation demonstrates;
• because of the extreme love;
• as stated above;
• from that moment on;
• I was determined to.

Now you are definitely ready to start writing your autobiography. Do not hesitate to use these tips and templates to save your time and nerves. Good luck with your autobiography and have a nice day!

What to consider in preparation for Philosophy term paper writing

• Choose your topic with the paper deadline in mind
  Consider the span of time within which the term paper should be submitted.
  When choosing a topic, take serious caution on the paper deadline. Simple topics
  with adequate research materials would certainly be more convenient.
• Seek help on complex topics
  In the cases where a topic is assigned to you, the first thing to do is to check for
  availability of its research materials. If you feel the topic is too complex, the
  deadline is tight, and there is no materials, seek for a professional
  guidance with term papers on Philosophy. The earlier you get help, the better.
  
• Make an outline for your term paper
  Come up with an outline for your term paper. This would showcase the order in
  which you intend to address issues your Philosophy term papers. It better be
  simple, logical and aboveboard.
• Review your sources of evidence
  Be careful with the kind of evidence you are going to provide to back up your
  arguments. Are your sources verifiable?

What to avoid when writing Philosophy term paper

• Avoid unnecessary redundancies and use of materials not coherent with your topic of discussion.
• Plagiarism is a serious academic offense that you should always avoid. Provide references and in-text citations.
• Refrain from the habit of paraphrasing. Instead, write your paper based on your own understanding and in your own words.
• Avoid leaving questions unaddressed in your Philosophy term papers.
• Avoid false criticisms. A false criticism is that which has no evidence to back it up or that which simply lacks logic.
• Avoid using many quotations in your term paper.

1. Choose an interesting field in Criminology

In order to engage readers, you need to be selective of your topics. You can write about careers available for criminologists, crime prevention and management, federal punishments for crime commission and behavioral study of criminals. These areas in the field of study in criminology are among those that interest the public thus should be considered as top priority subject matters to write for your term paper.

2. Use unusual but interesting sources

To present a unique content for your criminology term paper, use interesting and unusual sources such as police report, case files, and transcription of trials. You can obtain these sources from law books, federal courts, and police stations. You can also interview a convict and police authorities to share their personal experiences.

3. Give credibility on your content with proper referencing

Criminology term papers have more credibility if the author observes proper citations. Referencing sources is an indication of good academic writing style. Your professor will likely provide specific referencing style and the most common are APA, MLA and Chicago style of referencing that you should get acquainted before beginning the task of writing your contents.

4. Write unique contents

What make criminology term papers different from the others is writing fresh, unique contents. Your plan of attack is to present updated information such as crime statistics and consolidating data from various reputable sources to come up with rich content for your paper. When writing penal provisions for crimes you can review past and present amendments and cite the reasons for these changes.

5. Structure your content

Write the strongest point of your term paper in Criminology in the introduction to engage your readers. At the same time observe impartial judgment on an issue. You need to be tolerant when stressing your ideas and you need not assert your point of views in an offensive manner which is particularly important when the subject matter may involve sensitive issues that may offend your readers.

• Definitions of Accounting
• Accounting concepts and terminologies
• The reasons for studying accounting
• The History of Accounting
• Principles of Accounting
• Accounting Ethics etc

General topics in Accounting
 
The general accounting topics are those which can be broken down into some other subtopics or subfields in accounting course. Some of the general topics you can choose from include:

• General Accounting topic
• Income statements
• Balance sheets
• Statement of cash flow
• Accounting tools and formulas
• Business Risk Analysis
• Business Evaluation topic
• Basic Financial Accounting topic
• Auditing topic in accounting
• Budgeting topic in accounting
• Topic in Financial Accounting
• Managerial Accounting topic
• Topic in Advance Accounting
• Topic in Cost Accounting etc.

Advanced topics for accounting term papers
 
Advanced topics are mostly found at advanced levels of accounting studies. You do not expect basic topics like what is accounting in your forth year of study at the university. These topics require more experience and intensive research work. Here are a few of them:

• Enron`s accounting scandal
• Sunbeam`s accounting scandal
• The laws and standards for maintaining consistent records in accounting
• Mutual exclusive interest rate divergence etc.

You can now decide which topic best suits your interest and capability. If you are new in accounting, choose basic or general topics for term paper in accounting. Advanced topics are best handled by senior accounting students.

How to Write a Personal Statement: Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

When you need to write a personal statement, you should first consider several important questions. If you answer them properly, you will see that this paper is not very difficult to write:

1. What makes you interested in a specific area or a discipline?
2. What kind of qualities do you have to pursue a career in this field?
3. Is there anything that the admission committee might see in a bad light. For example, do you have a poor SAT score or are you slightly older that most candidates? How can you explain those facts to put them in a better light for your application?
4. Have you ever had to overcome difficulties? How did you do it?
5. What makes you different from other candidates?
6. What are the objectives that you intend to achieve in the future?
7. Can your past experience assist you in achieving your educational and professional goals?

How to Write a Personal Statement: Tips to Consider

There are several tips and rules that can help a student cope with a personal statement or an application essay. These are the things that you need to do when working on this paper:

• Be specific when answering each of the questions described before. Don’t write vague sentences that may easily confuse the readers.
• Try to enliven your paper by providing real-life examples.
• Be honest with your readers and don’t try to describe qualities that you don’t have. As a rule, such dishonesty is easily detected.
• Back up every claim that you make. If you say that you can be a good lawyer, describe the qualities that you have and will allow you to achieve this goal.
• Avoid arrogance. For example, if you say that you are the best possible candidate, you are not likely to make a good impression on the committee.
• Proofread your paper carefully. Grammar mistakes or typos are not the best way of advertising yourself.

How to Write a Personal Statement: Concluding Notes

The tips described above focus on how to write a good personal statement. However, to get an even better understanding of how to do that you might find it useful to read various examples of personal statements. Many of them are available on educational websites. If you read them, you will have a good idea of how to write a personal statement. So, hopefully, this paper will be as easy as ABC to you.

Too much homework: the 10 minute rule

What is homework? Homework is the totality of assignments students are supposed to complete during extra-school hours. The next question is how much homework is too much. According to the common rule of “10 minutes”, students can be assigned ten minutes of homework a night per each grade. Therefore, first graders should be assigned only ten minutes of homework a night, third graders should be assigned thirty minutes and so on… This rule was developed by Harris Cooper, a psychology professor from Duke University and was approved by the National Education Association. It was an attempt to reform homework policies and to prioritize quality of homework over its quantity. Still, the rule appears to be too good to be true…

Too much homework robbing kids of their childhood

In fact, homework frequently starts from kindergarten. However, the “10 minute rule” is far from a typical night of an average student coming home in the late afternoon only to have a snack, struggle over homework for several hours and go to bed. So, the “10 minute rule” is not followed by most schools and kids have no time to be kids.
 
Let’s do some math. For instance, most middle-schoolers go to school at 8 a.m., get home only after 4 p.m. and spend several hours (more than 4) on mountains of homework every night. Thus, they spend about 12 hours hunched over their desks. Isn’t it a legalized sweatshop for kids robbed of their childhood? How on earth can they preserve their thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm?

Too much homework: conflicting studies

Teachers, scholars and parents have strong conflicting opinions concerning the usefulness of homework and its appropriate amounts. Here are only a few of them:

• homework has positive effects upon achievements of all students;
• homework can be valuable only for middle and high school students;
• homework can be helpful, but the amount of time spent on it doesn’t matter;
• more homework can improve students’ achievements.

There are studies supporting the claim that increasing homework demands do not have a positive impact upon students’ scores. At the same time, other scholars argue that there is a direct relationship between the amount of homework and students’ achievements.

Too much homework: health risks for better scores

Apart from the issue of homework’s impact on students’ scores, 12 hours spent on studies with no time left for play are inevitably associated with health risks and enormous psychological distress. Moreover, parents who help their kids and thus take on the role of teachers do not have enough time left for themselves and other family members. Thus, family tensions might arise, and sleep deprivation or depressions are frequently the price of doing too much homework.

Too much homework: a final decision

Paradoxically, while some parents ask to have their kids assigned “less homework” or even “no homework”, others ask to have them assigned more. The attackers of homework create specialized committees and ask schools to reconsider their homework policies, while the proponents view homework as the only way for their children to meet the requirements of the best colleges and survive in this competitive world. Certainly, the compromise between a happy childhood and future studies at college is not an easy one. To sum up, here are the main arguments for and against the increase of homework demands:

Even though the column “against” is longer, you can add your own arguments to any of these columns to answer the question how much homework is too much and if mountains of homework are worth doing.

Imperative sentence definition

What is an imperative sentence? An imperative sentence is a type of sentence expressing commands. It can take the form of:

• Instructions;
• advice;
• request;
• command.

For example, in a movie, you might hear someone say: “Shut up!” This sentence is definitely an imperative one. However, it is a rude colloquialform. A better form is “Keep quiet!”

Imperative sentence types

Depending upon the speaker’s emotions, imperative sentences can end with a full stop (.), an exclamation mark (!) or even a question mark (?). The difference is only the speaker’s tone and attitude. To make a request more polite, a speaker can also add the word “please”. Note that sentences starting with “please”, always end with a full stop (.). Another way to make a command sound more polite is to add a tag question such as “will you?” or “won’t you?” at the end. Then, the sentence ends up with a question mark, but it still is regarded as an imperative one. Please compare these examples of imperative sentences:

1. Save electricity!
2. Please forgive me.
3. Bring me a glass of water, will you?

The first imperative sentence is a command, whereas the second and third sentences are polite requests.

Imperative sentence: where is the subject?

It seems that everything is clear with imperative sentences. Still, there are some tricky questions. For example, what is the subject in imperative sentences? The fact that there is often no explicit subject is a frequent source of confusion. Actually, there is always a subject, and that is the second person pronoun “you”, but it usually is hidden or even implicit in the sentence. Why repeat this “you” if everyone understands anyway, from the context, who the speaker actually addresses? Otherwise, if the context is not clear enough, the speaker can use a direct address.
E.g. Jane, read please.
 
There are also imperative sentences in which the speaker uses a third person pronoun. This happens when the speaker doesn’t care who exactly will perform the action.
E.g. Somebody, turn the lights off.
 
This was all you needed to know to tell if a sentence is imperative. Now you can boast of having a complete understanding of imperative sentences and will be able to answer tricky questions your instructors may ask.

1. First, you need to dedicate at least several sentences or even a whole paragraph to your academic advisor or advisors who guided your research and made many helpful recommendations to you.
2. Secondly, you need to express gratitude to your colleagues and peer-reviewers who might have given you practical advice and made valuable comments on your dissertation.
3. Provided that your research was funded by some organization, you definitely need to mention them in this section as an acknowledgement of dissertation assistance that they gave you.
4. Finally, a student should never forget about his or her family and friends. Without their support, dedication, and moral encouragement a person will find it rather difficult or almost impossible to work on a dissertation.

 
Dissertation Acknowledgement: How to Make It More Readable
 
There are many useful phrases and expressions that you can use while writing the acknowledgment part of your dissertation. Here are some of them:

1. I am greatly indebted to…;
2. I would like to express gratitude towards…;
3. This thesis is dedicated to somebody for his or her support…;
4. I am grateful to somebody for something;
5. I am deeply thankful for…
6. I owe a debt of gratitude to somebody for something;
7. My gratitude is extended to…;
8. Credit should be given to…;
9. I would like to show my appreciation to…;
10. I want to thank somebody for…

Normally, students have no difficulty in writing a dissertation acknowledgement, and this section can hardly affect the overall result. Yet, every part of your dissertation should be perfect in terms of grammar and style. The expressions above can help you vary the structure of your sentences.
 
Dissertation Acknowledgement: What Else You Need to Know
 
There are no minimum or maximum word requirements for the acknowledgement section of a dissertation. However, it shouldn’t be longer than one page. This is the optimal length of this section. So, now you need to think of those people who helped you with the dissertation and write about them. It will be as easy as ABC to you.