In an online chat with readers on December 20, Aziz Manva, head of Testfunda.com addressed reader queries related to writing an impressive essay for admission to a B-school.
For those who missed the live chat, here's the unedited transcript.
sen asked, Hi, please let me know the preparation required to write an essay.. I understand it should come from your school level.. But Can we learn the skills to write a good essay.
Aziz Manva answers, Like any other skill..essay writing as a skill can be mastered. A good start is to begin reading good novels, newspapers and magazines.. Form a habit to read good english and not frivolous writing. Get in the habit of breking down your essay into parts...identify key points, examples that you want to mention and after creating a rough draft start writing the essay to be divided into introduction..body and conclusion.. It may appear to be tedious right now but with practice you will be able to make it more of a science than art.
ktn asked, Can you tell me what factors do the B schools look into the essay? And for which of the factors do they give more importance?
Aziz Manva answers, clarity of thought, ability to think and reproduce meaningful ideas in a coherent and concise and precise fashion, conviction levels, your grasp over english, ability to bring in real life examples, anecdotes, etc.
bvffghgj asked, how to write essay on things which we havent heard before..fro eg some abstract essay
Aziz Manva answers, If you are unaware of the topic in totality, try to create a connection with whatever you know ,for eg. If the topic is Baba Black Sheep you may want to discuss the topic about black money in the economy, how black beauties have captured centre stage in the world. wool exports etc.
sun asked, Hi Aziz ? can you please highlight components of a good essay , i am a software engg with BE and ME from a non computer background ?
Aziz Manva answers, some steps may help 1. Identify a central point of view that you want to communicate 2. Start gathering ideas around that point of view 3. make it interesting by stating facts, ideas to the contrary, an idiom, phrase, recent news story that can be connected 4. pre decide the introductory and the closing paragraphs 5. do not beat around the bush - presenting unrelated ideas 6. give it a final read 7. most importantly- practice the art of essay writing
sunil asked, how can i develop my writing skills
Aziz Manva answers, Read the newspaper regularly. Try reading books on a variety of topics, move out of your comfort zone when it comes to reading. Other than that you can watch the NEWS and selective debates and discussions which will help you hone your verbal skills.Although all these are geared more towards spoken and understanding of English, they will be a great starting point. Needless to say, you will need to keep practicing writing different styles and forms of essays.
sen asked, Thank you very much for answering my previous question. If we dont know the knowlege on the topic then how can we get contents to complete an essay with sufficient content.. Any techniques for it?
Aziz Manva answers, Please refer to the answer on abstract topic essay
Krishna asked, how can I develop my writing skill?
Aziz Manva answers, Practice. Practice. Practice
Krishna asked, @Aziz: Is there something specific for the practice?
Aziz Manva answers, A good start will be pick up a topic of your choice and start writing on it...slowly move to broader topics and bring in various elements that make an essay more of a science for eg. divide it into intro..body and conclusion... jot down all the ideas that come to your mind...create a structure around them and then write them down....after you finish the essay ..evaluate how could you have bettered it by adding some spice.. anecdotes, proverbs, examples etc...with every essay that you do this practice..you will notice yourself improving..good luck
Ekta asked, which pen will be better for writing essay, ink or ball pen?
Aziz Manva answers, Any pen that works in your favour! :)
Meena asked, Dear sir,an essay sould be consisit of how many words or pages?? Pls reply
Aziz Manva answers, Usually B-schools overtly mention the word count or they ask you to complete the essay in the given space which is usually one side of a page. If the word count is not given, stick to 300-500 words for an essay.
Illustration: Uttam Ghosh
'Broaden your reading to areas that you are not comfortable with'
Suraj asked, @Aziz:What i meant was what are the certain career options that i can take up along with an MBA considering my work background of a software tester considering finance/banking as a specialization?
Aziz Manva answers, MBA is a great leveler and you can move completely beyond your graduation field if you want to ..irrespective of your background choose a specialization that you REALLY love. I have seen engineers taking up HR and Arts gradautes choosing operations, systems and finance and doing wonderfully well in their careers.
pawan asked, Hi aziz ,I am finding difficulty in english as there are hardly clear methods to choose right answer like maths?
Aziz Manva answers, pawan,, improvement in english will take more time than improvement in math..it requires a different set of skills. You will need to learn to internalize the form, structure and syntax of the language by reading different styles and genres of writing.. It is tedious but the results will pay of handsomely- not only now but later in your professional career.
sen asked, Can u Please suggest us some good reading books,novels, magzines with proper english.. Dont want to pick up something which has improper usage of english & we get used to them.
Aziz Manva answers, You could start with simple books like John Grisham, and then graduate to more difficult ones like Erich Segal, as well the classics (Charles Dickens, George Eliot). You could also try reading articles from Journals for very difficult reading. Broaden your reading to areas that you are not comfortable with. For example, if you are not comfortable with technical subjects, then read scientific reading meant for the intelligent layman such as books by Bertrand Russell on philosophy, articles by Scientific-American (available on the internet also), "A brief history of time", by Stephen Hawking, etc. On the other hand, if you are not comfortable with the humanities, then read from sociology, economics, arts, etc.
Suraj asked, Thanks for the replying first question.I am interested to utilise my software testing experience actually for development of bank applications domain knowledge is a must will MBA Banking/Finance help me with regard to acquring domain knowledge??
Aziz Manva answers, yes..although MBA is more broad based.
123dev asked, could we bind ideas in grammer or senstive readings only
Aziz Manva answers, I can answer this better with a point of reference.
sen asked, Sir, How much effort in days/month will I need to put to improve my skills on English language including the verbal part considering the current skill level to be just above average. Should I take uo Word poer made easy or wren & martin.. Or these are too basic to take up..
Aziz Manva answers, About 200-250 hours of study time is recommended for CAT preparation. Both the books that you've mentioned are a good starting point for vocabulary and grammar. For sentence structure, syntax and style of writing, there is no substitute to reading good journals, magazines, novels and newspapers.
Aziz Manva says, Thank you all for your participation. If you have any further queries, please mail us @ support@testfunda.com. Good Luck with effective writing.
Illustration: Uttam Ghosh
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