How To Write "University Essay"

Write high-quality essays without losing your sleep

Writing essays is an inevitable part of a student's academic career. Be it your high school, or college or university essays are never going to leave your path. Students are asked to write essays as they allow the professors or teachers to assess how much knowledge a student has grasped about a certain topic or chapter. Essays allow a student to explain complex academic concepts in his own words. However, we all will agree on the fact that students often see writing a college essay with a tinge of dread.

It often gets frustrating for them to work on the wordy documents to score perfect grades in their discipline. Writing an essay is not an easy task as you cannot just open the book and start working on the problem. It requires immense efforts in areas like brainstorming, researching, outlining, drafting, editing, and referencing.

It is important for a student to develop skills for cranking out essays in record time, without affecting their quality, to avoid stressful all-nighters. In this article, we will share the skills and tips required for developing influential and impressive essays quickly without disturbing your sleep cycle.

Suggestions to develop first-class essays effortlessly

Essays are usually written in discursive patterns i.e. arranging the ideas, evidence, and arguments together in a logical way to address a particular issue or question. While writing an essay a student should start with setting out an argument in the introduction of the write-up, followed by the building up of the argument in the main body of the text which is further followed by an explanation for the main objective of your essay in the concluding paragraphs.

Here are a few recommendations that you should keep in mind to produce your essay in a worry-free manner

1. Understand the assigned essay properly

In order to wrap up the essays quickly, students often make the mistake of writing about something that is of no relevance to the topic assigned. You should immediately consult your professor or teacher if you're in doubt about what to include in the assigned topic.

Many a time professors allot a very vast and vague essay topic to the students as they often take things to be quite 'obvious' in a topic due to their experience and mastery in the area but the students often struggle to develop an in-depth essay on the same topic due to their lack of understanding of the concepts. No matter how well-written your essay is if it doesn't answer the main question put forth it will definitely receive a poor grade. Therefore, a student should remember that it is important to get clarification of the parts or areas you don't understand in the assignment to avoid looking stupid.

Seeking an explanation or clarification also demonstrates your level of engagement in the particular writing assignment eventually creating a positive impression and even leading you to get a boost in your grades.

2. Ensure immense efficiency in your research process

Once you've understood the assignment it is time for you to start researching for it but beware, as researching for a topic gets so intimidating that a student keeps on procrastinating his essay to avoid doing the research work. The lack of research skills can often cause a student to waste his time getting jumbled up in the sources instead of writing the essay. In order to overcome the itch of exploring another source, it is highly recommended to set a time limit for your research work to write the essay.

For example, if your assigned essay is supposed to be 6 pages long, you can devote a time of 30 mins to research for one page, leading to a total time of 3 hours for researching the allotted topic of the essay.

The main objective of your initial research is to provide enough material with which you can initiate your essay. If you find the need be you can always do more research in between your writing process.

3. Form a working outline

Most of us think that creating an outline never works as we tend to forget all about it as soon as we hit the keyboard. Unfortunately, it is the bitter truth. In order to overcome this issue, it is beneficial to formulate a flat outline instead of a hierarchical one. A flat outline basically includes a list of all the important topics that you should cover in your essay whereas a hierarchical outline includes the rigid structure with the bullet points and numbers set even before you start writing the essay.

No student can sit down with a perfectly formulated idea of what they want to include in their essay assignment. It is along the entire writing journey that you discover what information should be included or excluded to suit the entire feel of the topic. A flat outline provides just the right structure to start your essay to overcome the most fearful issue of "staring at the blank canvas" and still have adequate room for discovering and adding new concepts.

4. Create an ideal environment for writing

Once you've developed a strong understanding of the topic of your essay, are through with the research process, and have developed the flat outline you're all set to start writing your essay. It is important for you to know that the place where you write makes a huge difference in the quality of your write-up and your ability to focus on the writing task at hand.

Distraction is another obstacle that prevents a student to write his essay on time leading to panic and sleepless nights at the last moment. If you do not have an ideal writing environment, you'll end up wasting hours just moving back and forth between the topics of the essay. It is essential to have the focus of a zen master while you plan to write your essay and to develop that focus you need to have perfect surroundings and conditions.

Here's a list of the best practices that you can follow to form a suitable writing environment

• Select a studious place to write your essay: A quiet section of the library, a hushed coffee shop, or your composed and silent hostel room are all the ideal places where you can consider writing your essay to avoid interruption and distractions.
• Make sure you feel comfortable: If your chair feels like a hard wooden plank or a bed of nails or if your study table keeps on wobbling you won't be able to concentrate on your essay properly. Thus, physical comfort is also important for developing an impressive essay for your curriculum. Remember do not write on your bed if you actually want to be productive as a mere of the bed makes you sleepy.
• Take a break from all digital distractions: If you have a bad internet addiction or can't keep your hands off the mobile phone, you should put your phone in airplane mode or use applications that can block distracting websites to increase your concentration level and hence the productivity while writing your essay. There are various applications available which block everything else on your system unless you write a certain number of words.
• Arrange the supplies: Imagine you sit down to write your essay but then realize that you forgot to get that sourcebook from the library, your mood to write is definitely going to be ruined. It is essential to ensure that you have all the required supplies like your laptop charger, sources, coffee, and munching snacks at ready even before you start scribbling.
• Use music to get in the right zone: If you can focus with some foot-tapping rhythms entertaining you simultaneously you should definitely have some albums of your choice on repeat get into that mood of writing. You can also find some already created albums with suitable study music to make things easier for you.

5. Select a standard structure to stay on the right path

Your essay should not feel like random sentences arranged in a text write-up. The main objective is to provide a proper storyline to the readers so that he gets a clear picture of your point of view on a specific topic. Many a time the students get side-tracked from what they actually planned to add in the essay and start talking about a different concept altogether. In order to avoid landing up in such a scenario, it is important for a student to decide on a standard structure that fits with his topic and should follow it strictly.

You can take help from the readings assigned in your class to get an idea of the conventions you can follow in your essay. A well-structured essay is pleasing to the eyes and easy to understand for a reader.

6. Remember to pay attention to quality over quantity

Most of the students often think that if they exceed the pre-determined page count or word limit of the essay they will score better grades in the assessment. Well, it definitely doesn't work like this. The professors or teachers would always prefer a well-written essay of five pages over an average written essay of 8 pages. Unnecessary dragging of the topic might cause you to lose the strength of your write-up very quickly. Writing more than what is required will waste your time and efforts.

Key pointers that can help you succeed with your essay

• Never edit your essay when you rewrite it. Avoid drafting and editing together as it usually makes a student inefficient at both things. It is beneficial to pay attention to one thing at a time.
• Remember to write the introduction and conclusion at the end of your essay.
• Do not edit alone. It is better to have a fresh set of eyes to analyze your essay as it provides better editing results.
• Use an online citation generator to add all your research sources in an appropriate manner.

At the end of the day, developing an influential essay requires a huge amount of work. But if you follow the process mentioned you can write an essay more conveniently without losing your sense of calm or sleep.