I'm sure most students out there are very familiar with the common formula:

Keep It Short and Simple/Sweet - K.I.S.S

There are also other cliche remarks which conform with the above formula, "The more you write, the more mistakes you make." This statement has become English Language teachers' most popular tip when teaching writing to students. It is simply because teachers may not like it when they have to pinpoint a lot of grammatical errors, (not counting inappropriate words, incoherent phrases!) which are littered in the essays! Usually, adventurous students whose sincere wishes are to display creativity, may encounter problems in their writings due to lack of grammatical competence.

"The more complex the sentences produced, the more likely they are to contain errors" (Foster & Skehan, 1996).

Most students especially the ones who favour "formula" in language classes, will take this to heart and remember it until the day they die! However, the KISS formula is not that relevant anymore when you pursue your Master or PhD degrees. Why?

Normally, an assignment for a postgraduate student requires him or her to write a minimum of 2000 words! But if they are lucky, sometimes an assignment will only require 1000 to 1500 words! Unfortunately, this is very rare! Why a lot of words? Well, this is where you are provided sufficient space and ground to argue your ideas critically and creatively with reference to the previous literatures (Of course, what else???) Quoting some prominent researchers' words may help, but it will be better if you can also display a true understanding of the quotations by summarising and synthesizing them in your own statements in order to present a clear argument of an idea or concept.

If you ask me, is it easy? NO, it is not easy. A lot of time and effort is needed to bring the 2000-word essay to a level where it is readable, comprehensible and most important of all, coherent! There is no use stringing a lot of quotations from the previous literatures without exactly knowing what to present in the argument. Nevertheless, time constraints, lack of understanding of the concept, last minute "breakthrough" (this happens when you say, "finally, I understand what this means!!!") and also burnouts will somehow "get in the way" of producing a wonderful clearly elaborated piece of essay!

I'm not writing this to discourage anybody let alone implying that essay writing is a definite brain-drilling! I'm writing this to remind myself that more effort should be put into the work I'm producing. Nothing is easy. Life is not a bed of roses. Reality is sometimes bitter but still you just have to face it! To those who feel inclined to continue their academic jouney to the highest peak, my sincere advice would be to sharpen your reading and writing skills. Most of all, be patient, you really must be patient with the readings. Different writers have different styles of writing and therefore, you will encounter a lot of patterns!

Okay, I'd better stop now before I write more incoherent phrases!