Let’s start with a simple warning. You should never use a free sample as your essay or a part of it. Free samples are written and posted for completely different purposes. EssaysDot.com was created for students willing to learn from well-written examples and improve their essay writing skills in general. Here are some more reasons to use free sample essays before writing.
1. It is a wise choice for students without experience
When you just start with essay writing, you may feel a little lost. What to do with the general line? Should you write a detailed or broad plan? How long should be the Introduction part, how long should be the Conclusions part compared to the Body part? This confusion is easily solved with the help of quality essay samples you find online.
2. You can get some valuable ideas
For many students, it is the major reason to look for essay samples online. You read three or five essays in your discipline, preferably related to the topic of your research, and you get a few ideas on how to write your own paper. Of course, you need original ideas, but in many cases, especially when the deadline is scarily close, the compilation will also do the trick.
3. You can see some mistakes
Essay samples are not flawless. It is normal because you cannot expect top quality from free essays, especially if you stumble upon them at some not very known websites. When reading several essays carefully, you will notice some repeating mistakes, see some style deficiencies, etc. It will help you to avoid similar mistakes and technical omissions in your paper.
4. You can see some formatting tricks
Formatting is simply annoying. It is annoying when you just start college and it will be annoying when you will be preparing your Ph.D. dissertation. There are huge manuals for APA, MLA, Harward, etc. formatting styles, but all of them require hours of your attention. Use free samples to get a general idea and citation generators for references.
5. You can use some links and sources
Of course, you cannot just take a Work Cited page from a free essay sample online and copy it to your paper. What you can do is follow the links and save relevant sources to your list. Looking for references often takes much more time than expected, and this way, you will have a head start. However, make sure that the mentioned sources are academically acceptable and up-to-date.
6. You can see different styles
And we are not talking about formatting styles anymore. Writing styles are individual, but they can be classified. Some students write in a dry and strictly academic tone. Others allow themselves some wordplays or artistic deviations. It is good to have several essay samples written in different styles in front of you to copy the one you find the most appropriate for a particular task.
7. It is a better way to procrastinate than Netflix
Browsing through free samples may seem useless from time to time. More of it, we should admit, sometimes it is useless. Your topic may be too specific, or all the essays you find are strongly outdated. However, it is still an academic-related activity which keeps you concentrated on a particular topic. It is much better than just binge-watching Netflix.
8. You can get some ideas about the issue in question
Even if you don’t find valuable sources to support your thesis, don’t like the styles presented, and don’t need any tips on formatting, you will get new ideas on the topic in question. Our brain is good at creating logical connection links, and the more you read and think about something, the more wired your brain is about it. It will definitely help you with writing.
9. You can get your mind tuned to writing
You don’t just start writing an essay right away. You need to distance from other activities and catch a needed vibe. Reading free essay samples related to your assignment will make your brain tuned in the right direction.
10. It helps reducing anxiety
We all have a fear of a blank sheet. We feel anxious about not being able to finish a particular essay on time, to write it at the needed level of quality. Browsing through already written papers, especially when they can give you some ideas, is a proven way to reduce anxiety to a tolerable level.
Some students complain that textbooks are too theoretical, and there are not enough examples to learn how actually to write a paper. It is only logical — textbooks would be ten times bigger if every topic would be accompanied by several sample essays. For such purposes, you should use websites that offer samples and bookmark them, as samples are updated from time to time.
