To some people, essay writing comes naturally. They seem to be able to produce paper after paper without any obvious effort and even derive pleasure from the process. However, this cannot be said about the greater majority of students. If you constantly run into trouble when trying to write your essays, here is the list of the most common difficulties and some tips on how to deal with them.
1. Writer’s Block
You have your topic explained to you, you’ve done all the necessary research, now you simply have to sit down and write your essay. However, you cannot do it. You just keep on staring at the blank page or the computer screen and fail to write anything no matter how hard you think about the task. Is it a familiar feeling? Probably yes, as most people who have to write something at least occasionally run into this sort of problem. What we are talking about is called writer’s block, and it may be caused by a variety of reasons: from lack of confidence to a poor choice of topic. Whatever the reason is in your case, you still can salvage the situation. The trick is to start writing something, anything. Give yourself permission to write something imperfect – nobody obliges you to keep everything you write down now unchanged in the final version of your paper. Your goal right now is to put some thoughts onto paper – after that, it will be easier to go on, as you have already started.
2. Distractions
Quite often, the difficulties with essay writing have little to do with writing per se. The problem is not so much that writing is difficult, but that it is boring. It is hard to pay proper attention to your current task because you would rather do something else. The fact that these days we are constantly surrounded by all sorts of distractions, from social media notifications to phone calls, to simply the constant temptation to take a break for a few minutes and watch a couple of videos on YouTube. You may not even be particularly eager to do any of these things, but they are quick and easy pretexts to set aside your writing for a while. The only way to deal with them is, well, to remove as many distractions as possible. Turn off your smartphone and put it in the next room, go somewhere you will not be disturbed, turn off your router to prevent yourself from checking social media. You don’t have to make distractions impossible – your purpose is to make these temptations a bit harder to act upon.
3. Excessive Workload
Even someone who usually finds it easy to write essays can get demotivated if he/she has to do this kind of work day in and day out – which is exactly what many students have to do. Considering that you probably deal with multiple disciplines that heavily rely on essay writing for determining the students’ grades, it is only natural to feel overwhelmed and helpless in the face of such a workload. It is not surprising, then, that so many students decide to hire academic assistance services to help them out with their writing. You can do the same – simply contact one of them, say, “Can someone write my essay for me” and explain what exactly you need. As an alternative, you may hire somebody to edit or proofread your papers – in addition to saving your time, it is likely to produce better results, as people are never too good at editing their own writing.
4. Poorly Understood Assignments
One of the most common reasons why students get poor grades for their essays is not the bad quality of their writing per se. Rather, it is that they fail to write them according to the assignments they receive from their professors. Students are all too often inattentive when they read their assignments, eager to start writing and get done with it as soon as possible. As a result, they sometimes read their task carefully only after they have already finished writing it and discover that they have missed an important point or two. Do yourself a favor: when you receive a writing assignment, read it carefully several times and make sure you understand every word. If you have the slightest doubt about anything, ask your teacher/professor about it.
5. Lack of Editing Skills
“Editing is no use to me anyway, I write all my essays in one go”. Such is a common approach to essays, especially among the students who believe themselves to be good at it. Indeed, many students believe that if you write well enough, you do not have to edit or proofread your texts at all. They couldn’t be more wrong. It is virtually impossible to produce a good piece of writing without getting it through a few drafts. Proofreading and especially editing are not limited to correcting a few mistakes. During these stages, you can significantly change the structure of your essay. Sometimes, you find that you must do it if you want your essay to achieve its true potential.
6. Poorly Chosen Topic
It does not matter how good a writer you are, if your topic is wrong specifically for you or just plain wrong, you will not be able to produce a high-quality essay based on it. A topic may be wrong in many ways: it may be too broad for such a small assignment as an essay, vaguely formulated, clichéd or boring, among other things. If you have any influence on what topic you are going to write about, choose wisely. Check if you can find enough reliable sources of information about it. Make sure it is neither too broad nor too narrow for the assignment type in question. Look for something you will be personally interested in.
Of course, this list of potential difficulties is in no way exhaustive. Things can go wrong in many other ways. However, you will greatly increase your chances of getting a good grade if you keep these problems in mind and prepare accordingly.
