Essay writing is an integral activity at all levels of education. It is through writing assignments that teachers can evaluate your understanding of topics while also helping you to become a critical thinker. However, it is not an easy task because of the time required for research. As a student, it is important to learn the most common problems you expect with essay writing to prepare yourself adequately.
Writing a good essay is one of the most crucial skills every student needs in school. Whether in high school, college or university, your teachers expect you to express yourself in writing. An essay also helps develop logical and critical thinking skills. A good essay can also become a deal breaker when applying for college. Well, writing is not the easiest of tasks because you need a lot of time to research and there are formal structures to follow. Most students face myriad challenges when writing their papers and it is important to know such problems beforehand. Once you identify these problems, it is easy to find a solution including hiring professional college essay writing help among other solutions.
This article highlights the most common problems you will encounter in essay writing and also suggests ways to overcome these challenges. Read on.
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1. Lack Of Time
In college, you have a lot of responsibilities both at school and outside. You have to complete complex assignments, research projects, attend club meetings, co-curricular activities and you still want to socialize. While college is supposedly fun, many students find it hard to enjoy because of the workload and the little time available.
A study published in the Journal of Experimental Education and analyzed by the Washington Post says most college students can’t cope with the workload. Whatever the type of essay you have to write, lack of time is a real problem and you need to create a writing schedule based on available time. With a time planner, it is easy to find a perfect balance between your studies and social life. You will not struggle completing you essay however extensive the scope of the study.
2. Writer’s Block
The issue of Writer’s Block conjures varying reactions from different writers. Some claim it is an excuse for lazy people who have no ideas but even great writers such as Franz Kafka and Maya Angelou have encountered the problem. It is a real problem and when writing an essay, you can also experience the problem. When you suffer a writer’s block, there seems to be no inspiration for new ideas and it is a frustrating experience.
Luckily, there are ways out of the writer’s block including:
- the ‘just write’ strategy proposed by Maya Angelou
- Anthony Trollope’s “timed writing” strategy where you create a writing routine
- Neil Gaiman’s “Hibernation” Strategy where you get away from it all for some time and focus on other things to get inspiration
- John Steinbeck’s “Write to One Person” Strategy where you identify one person and write to them to try and get your creative juices flowing again.
- Ernest Hemingway’s “Hoarding” Strategy where you stop when on top to avoid exhaustion of your creative resources
A report published by the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois proposes effective strategies of dealing with writer’s block including taking notes, free writing/brainstorming and working on small pieces of the work.
3. Problems Getting Started
One of the biggest problems experienced by essay writers is how to get started. Most students want to get it over with and move on to more pleasant activities and inadvertently, they get stuck. Without proper preparation for the essay project, you will find it hard to collate your thoughts into words.
Without pre-writing, you will always encounter problems getting started on your essay. Make sure you define the objective of your essay, have an idea of the final product you want to submit and create a roadmap to guide you through the project. Make sure you brainstorm and write down ideas which you will then build on to complete the essay.
4. Referencing
Referencing is one of the most difficult aspects of essay writing for most students. There are multiple writing styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard among others and each comes with its own referencing format. Now that this is the first time you have to reference, it can get tricky.
You need to explore the different writing styles and look at the samples provided. The idea is to have an intense understanding of the style required for your essay. Luckily, there are free writing tools which can help you reference without much ado. Microsoft Word also has an automatic referencing tool which you can use. Make sure when researching, you note down all your reference materials to make it easier to cite and create a bibliography.
5. Plagiarism
Many academic refer to plagiarism as academic theft. This is a situation where a writer uses ideas from another person’s work but does not attribute the same to the writer. A study by The Center for Academic Integrity says almost 80% of students admit to cheating while 36% admit to plagiarism. These numbers highlight the gravity of the problem.
Plagiarizing can lead to school suspension and other problems and it is something every student must learn how to avoid. In a rush to complete their essays, many students plagiarize by copy-pasting work from internet sources. Unfortunately, there are advanced tools used to detect plagiarism and professors now use these when marking papers. To overcome this challenge, it is advisable always to attribute all ideas in your essay and include these materials in your reference list. More importantly, check your work using online plagiarism tools to guarantee zero-plagiarism.
Other common problems when writing essays include poor grammar, lack of cohesion due to poor idea organization, weak thesis statement, failure to identify and write for the right audience, lack of motivation to mention but a few. You can overcome all these through proper planning for your essay, intense research, note-taking, using online writing tools for time management and idea organization.
You can overcome all these through proper planning for your essay, intense research, note-taking, using online writing tools for time management and idea organization, leveraging plagiarism software, brainstorming or hiring a ‘homeworkhelpdesk.org‘ expert.
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