How do I improve my writing skills for the UPSC?
The prelims stage of the UPSC exam is objective. However, the UPSC mains includes nine descriptive papers, so you need to have strong writing skills and the required knowledge to clear this stage of the examination.
Your answers should reflect your conceptual clarity and multidimensional understanding of the issues involved. Your writing abilities should be precise, neat, systematic, error-free, and appealing to the examiner that automatically highlights your complete factual information.
This article provides you with all the required information about how you can enhance your writing skills for the UPSC mains exam. Without further ado, let’s point them out:
1. Enhance your reading time and ability.
It is no doubt that reading a lot may help you boost your writing skills. Sure, you’ll have to read a lot for IAS preparation, but the next time you are reading some newspaper or magazine, clearly focus on the content writing manner. Reading eventually boosts your unconscious knowledge with suitable writing styles, which will also show up in your writing. So, this equation goes like this; the more you read, the more writing skills you develop for yourself.
2. Maintaining a consistent pattern is a must.
The blueprint is indeed the main base of any written piece of article, mainly, in this case, your answers. Your article should include an introduction, body, and conclusion. They must also be as accurate as much possible.
3. Avoid using excessively flowery language. Use simple and concise statements.
Don’t write to get your word count up. Keep in mind that quality matters far more than quantity. A document that seems to be written by a candidate trying to showcase their linguistic ability will most likely turn the examiner off.
4. Be Distinctive. Be Unique
Well, this statement is self-explanatory. Don’t just copy and paste whatever you’ve read onto the answer sheet. Use flowcharts and graphs to make your answer more presentable.
5. Practice makes a man perfect.
Enrol in answer writing programs. You can write countless answers, but if you do not have guidance from experts, you will not be able to improve. So get your answers evaluated by experts in the field. The AWSDP program by KSG is one such initiative.
6. Make your writing style error-free as much as possible.
Always cross-check your answers regarding grammatical or spelling mistakes.
If you include those available methods into your daily writing skills, you will notice that you will enhance your writing skills more quickly. Clearing the exam like the UPSC needs more than just basic knowledge and understanding. This is achieved by writing simple yet effective answers that provide the necessary information and are also exciting to read.
The UPSC board receives thousands of answer sheets for the mains exam every year. Consequently, writing the answers is not enough to pass this prestigious exam.
You must have an extraordinary yet, simple and sophisticated style of writing the answers.