Being an English and Journalism major I have a lot of
writing to do; however, I would rather write an essay than do 80+ Spanish activities
(I actually had to do that for every Spanish test…worst thing ever). I've also
been writing research papers since middle school and perfected my technique in
high school when I had to write 4,000 word research paper. Today I am going to
share my tips which can be catered to people who work better with a pen and
paper and those who prefer technology. I also figured that now would be a great
time to tell you how I write essays since it is finals and I have an English
essay due this week. Here is my writing process and tips that I've figured out
along the way.
#1 Know your topic
Regardless of whether or not your teacher or professor
assigns a specific topic, a list of topics or you have to create your own
topic, you need to make sure that you know your topic. Make sure you pick
something you are interested in or can argue for/against if you are able to
choose your own topic. If it’s not something you enjoy learning about and
writing about then the writing process is going to be tedious. However,
sometimes you won’t be able to choose your topic and it sucks but it’s still do
able.
#2 Research
This is, in my opinion, the most tedious part of writing.
Even though research has gotten easier with technology, there is so much out
there that it can often be overwhelming. Many teachers now require paper and
electronic sources and require that those electronic sources are credible and
aren’t just google searched. Most universities and a lot of high schools have
subscriptions to databases like Academic
Search Premier and EBSOHost that
can provide credible articles and research. Also, your public library may be
subscribed to some databases that one can use. Learning to use these can be
difficult, but most librarians should be willing to help you learn how to use
them to get the sources you need. Take advantage of the resources your school
has. Finally, do more research than you think you will need. It’s better to
have too many sources than too little.
Citations, I feel, would also fall under this category. Citing
sources is terrible, but it’s something you have to do. If you do not do it
correctly, then you may get expelled or kicked out of university forever. That’s
a lot of pressure. However, Microsoft Word can take some of the stress off of
you. My teacher in ninth grade told me that if have 2010 or above you can go to
the References tab and then to the Citations & Bibliography section and
choose your style and then click on insert citations; all you have to do after
that if fill out the form for each source! Word will take care of all the pesky
periods, commas, italicizing, and all the other things that come with citing a
source. After you have everything cited, go to your citations page and then
click on bibliography and it inserts all the citations almost formatted. All
you have to do now is change the font and size, double space, and do a hanging
indent and you’re done! Isn't that so much easier? The first picture is how I compile my research if I'm keeping it together in a Word document. The second two pictures are what I do if I'm doing index cards.For the index cards, I organize it to have the source card on top and the quote cards for that source behind it; then another source card, quote cards etc.
#3 Outline
A lot of people skip this step and admittedly, for small
essays, I don’t make a detailed one. But I do find that having some kind of
outline or plan before you start writing so that way you have a little bit of
an idea of what you’re going to talk about and you don’t repeat and write in
circles. For long essays I do like to do a detailed outline because…all you
have to do is add fluff and the essay is done! When I wrote my extended essay
for high school, I did a detailed outline and the paper pretty much wrote
itself because all I had to do was add fluff to the quotes and it was done. I still
do that now even though it seems pointless while I’m doing it but when it comes
to writing it actually does help.
#4 Let’s get writing
I don’t have any tips for the actual writing of the paper
except just write and don’t worry about how it looks or sounds. Get all of your
ideas and explanations and fluff out onto paper/screen. Starting is the hardest
part so maybe don’t start with the introduction and start with the body
paragraph. Also, depending on your teacher, you may not have to write a full
paragraph for the introduction. Often I just have a sentence or two in order to
introduce the reader and then go straight into the thesis; although none of my
teachers mind that make sure that it is okay with your teacher.
#5 Finishing up
Edit, edit, edit. Send it to your friends, sometimes if you
get the essay done early enough your teacher might be willing to read it and
edit it for you. If your university has a writing center where they edit essays
for you, then make an appointment and take your essay there. Sometimes in the
act of writing one might make a lot of silly mistakes that could be marked off,
so it’s important that you or someone else reads the essay for those mistakes.
Finally, make sure you turn it in as soon as you are finished! Don’t wait. I waited
once and was like I’ll turn it in later tonight (it was due online) and totally
forgot! I e-mailed my teacher and luckily she was really cool about it, but it
was terrifying! Take my word for it, turn it in as soon as you finish
completely.
I hope that these tips help you out during this stressful
time of finals. Good luck!
Thank you for reading!
