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Writing essays are hard >:(
I’ll make this quick-it’s taking me forever to write and plan this essay for uni cos I stupidly took too long mindlessly researching for weeks. Normally I can plan an essay in 10 minutes and write it out in 50ish minutes but it’s a bit harder than usual. Maybe cos it’s 2000 words instead of the usual 1000 word limit from high school essays but I was still hopeful that if I could write 3 essays in 3 hours in last year’s exam then surely I could write this one in 1 or 2 periods yesterday.
Apparently not.
I realised I hadn’t properly planned it yesterday and have been trying to adjust it all morning but I’m just so frustrated at myself. I just want this damn essay done so I can get to this online art thingy I applied for.
If anyone has any tips I would greatly appreciate it.
Comments
Hi AcidMonster55!
I hope you got your essay done and were able to get to the online art thingy! It's always really great to have fun activities that you can look forward to after completing a difficult task!
There has been great tips shared already! The only other tip that has really helped me is to create a storyline before I start writing. By that I mean writing out the main idea/point I want to convey from the essay first. I then write dotpoints for each paragraph of how I will write the essay to convey the story.
There are also people in the library who can help you with writing. I did not access this until the end of my degree and really regret it! They're really great and can help understand writing requirements at university.
I hope you managed to get your essay done! Everyone here posted some really great tips. I find essays really overwhelming so I usually break it down into one task at a time. First I do some general research about the topic to generate some ideas. Then, I write out bullet points for what I have to do exactly. For example, "- write about ___ in about 100 words". Doing lots of little tasks is usually a lot easier than looking at the whole thing at once! Once you've got a bunch of bullet points, you can 'stitch' them together to create an essay.
Remember to take care of yourself and take breaks when you need them! ❤️
Hey @AcidMonster55
I get that writing an essay is hard particularly if you feel you haven't planned it properly or just feeling frustrated in general.
Basically what I try to do with an essay is research and plan the first and maybe the second paragraph often I find when I am researching I will find other ideas and concepts relevant to the topic of my research and create paragraphs around them and plan around them. Makes it a little less overwhelming for me at least.
Another idea is that I will pick one or two interesting things I found in the topic and apply them to the question and research them that way. I find this helpful because first, it is relevant to the topic and second it can help narrow my search down to the question and plan around that concept. It will also help hit the rubric I find in most cases since they are relevant to the topic.
Something else I do I write it out completely even if I know it is not great and I can do better but I leave it for a couple of days. After a couple of days, I came back to it and proofread, edited, changed paragraphs etc to fit. I have come in with a new perspective but I have also given my brain a chance to think about it and often enough I will come back with new ideas or sentences to help enhance my work.
I hope this helps, if you need more I have a couple I have tested in my past semester and am still seeing if they are worth it but let me know.
Hey there @AcidMonster55
I completely understand your emotions right now as I had also encountered this when I was in my first year of university, but with 2 1500 word essay.
What I can suggest on some advice that worked for me based on prior experience is to:
- Look at the rubric. See what you need to write and focus about. Then use that to plan out what to write and what references are needed. Only look at the highest grade rubric!
- Plan out for each paragraph with the references you will put and what you need to write it for, ie: specific arguements, facts, and understanding etc.
- Write it down, even if its bad because this will allow you to put what you want to write.
- Proofread and edit. See if there is any part that doesn't make sense or isn't enough.
While these steps in this order has helped me, if you do still feel some anxiousness from writing the essay, is there a writing centre and library support in your university? Most of the time they can try to help you with planning out, give out examples on how to start the paragraph, and to help you with finding information.
I do hope this can help you, and let us know if you need more help!
ugjhh i haaate essays!!! i know it might be a bit controversial but using AI as a springboard for your ideas or to help brainstorm is something I do to help flesh out a written response. if you have written about this topic previously, you could also repurpose your old ideas (without self plagiarising of course because that's a thing apparently). It might also be helpful if you know anyone in the course you're applying for to chat with and if their willing to share the essays they wrote. all the best for your essay!! once you get going I'm confident you can do it based on your abilities to excel in last years exams, even if it is a little longer it's still the same skills being utilised.
It's completely normal to feel overwhelmed, especially with a longer essay. Try breaking it down into smaller sections and tackle one part at a time. Set mini-deadlines for each section to keep yourself on track. Also, don't aim for perfection on the first draft—just get your ideas down and you can refine them later. You've got this! And once you're done, you'll have that online art thing to look forward to as a reward. 😊
Thank you for reaching out! I completely understand your frustration when tackling a difficult task like finishing an essay for university. You also don't have a lot of time to complete the task which can feel incredibly overwhelming, particularly when you want to submit a good quality piece of work. It sounds like you have been able to identify where your weak points were for this task which is awesome, you can now use this to your advantage and improve your writing!
I wanted to ask if you had access to a marking rubric for this particular task? As @Matcha_Toad mentioned previously, I also love to refer back to each point in the rubric on a separate document in order to structure and organise my essay. I also create a document where I copy and paste all the relevant information I find during my research and then paraphrase it! It is also so helpful to refer back to high-school essay structures for your paragraphs such as PEEL (Point Example Explanation Link) or STEEL (Statement Technique Example Explanation Link), this helps maintain a logical structure/flow of your ideas in response to your task.
Could you tell me more about what you meant by, 'Mindlessly researching for weeks'? I wonder if you felt lost on what you needed to include within your essay. The rubric in this case can be incredibly helpful. I would also advise you, if possible, to contact your uni tutors/professors for help if you feel lost. Some unis also provide writing services like Studiosity in which you can submit drafts and receive feedback within the same day (most of the time lol)!
Regardless, this is definitely a challenging task and I understand your frustration completely. I can sense your anticipation to finish this task, and that you are struggling to adjust to the change in pace required to complete just one essay, compared to high-school where you completed 3 within the same timeframe.
Hope to hear from you soon! 😊
Hey! @AcidMonster55 I definitely understand. Some essays are just such a struggle to get all of your thoughts and ideas in order and it is sooo frustrating. Like some of the other comments have said, taking a break and coming back with a fresh mindset can be super helpful - especially if you (like me) get into those headspaces where you overthink every single thing you write. Do you find that you are a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to uni work? Is that part of the struggle do you think?
Hey @AcidMonster55 - some good thoughts in here.
I dont have many practical solutions for you but I've definitely been in, and still find myself in situations such as yours - where I just can't get a big piece of work done and move onto other things.
What has helped with my feelings of frustration is just to remind myself that actually typing your work up is just one aspect of it all. Planning and organising your thoughts, even sometimes annoyingly slow, is all important ground work..it just doesn't seem like it as you don't see the tangible progress of actually typing your work. I also remind myself that my approach to assignments/preparing any kind of formal work is always envolving and i'll learn more and get better at this for the next big task, and the next one etc..
Goodluck!
@Lee249 This is such a great reminder about all the effort that actually goes into preparing and researching before you even write an essay! In fact, I often find that I spend so much more time researching and planning than I do writing and editing. Also, the longer I spend on the first bit, the better my essay tends to be 😂.
Obviously everyone has different working styles and strategies, (eg some people prefer to research a little, write, research, edit instead of doing lots of research > writing), but I think it's so important to recognise that just because something doesn't have a tangible result immediately, doesn't mean that it won't end up being super helpful later!!
Essays can be really challenging, especially when you first start university.
I've done my fair share of 2000-word essays at university, and I will try to start planning the one that has the closest due date first. I think an important tip is to read the rationale and marking criteria/standards carefully, this really helps you pinpoint what you need to discuss in your work. It also helps to format the essay structure on a Word/Google Doc and then add dot points in each section for what you need to discuss. As for research, definitely utilise peer-reviewed journals and such from your university library. I found it helpful to dedicate at least an hour or two each day to reading sources and making notes.
Also, another important point is that if you can't write/think, please take a break! Taking a break gives your brain a chance to relax/recharge a little. You don't need to get it all done in one sitting either 😊
I hope this helps a little bit.
- Matcha_Toad 🐸🍵💚
Hey @AcidMonster55
Sounds like you are having it rough with writing your essay at the moment.
But I do get you, when I first adjusted to Uni, I didn’t know what to expect either, the assessments have definitely gotten harder and you generally can’t finish them as soon as you would like 😬.
But generally my advice for you would be to break down your task more evenly, as generally I tend to be a compulsive researcher as well, so I would usually set a deadline for that, and move on to another part of the essay when I’m done ( like the Intro, body, conclusion)
Of course if there is lack of research, you could always go back but my key takeaway would be that you start writing early so that you get a sense of how long the essay might take ( because I tend to under or over assess something too if I have not done it firsthand )
In any case, my key takeaway is replanned how you might approach Uni. It’s a bit different but I’m definitely sure you get used to it in no time 😁
That’s all for me and I hope this helped and definitely seek out what others have to say on this later 🤩
Hey @AcidMonster55 sorry to hear this essay is stressing you out!
The jump in word limits between high school and uni were a massive learning curve for me too & I found I had to really change my style of planning & prepping. Don’t beat yourself up too much for having to adjust!
I usually write up a “plan” as soon as I can after I read the assessment notification - usually it’s just a rough guide of what needs to go in each paragraph + ideas for topics & word count. I find that helps me streamline my research & encourages me to start writing little bits as I go!
Once I’m writing, I like to dot point out as much info as possible under each paragraph heading - that way all my research is on one page and I don’t need to waste time jumping between documents/pages. It also feels easier to beef up a dot point versus writing a whole sentence from scratch!
One final piece of advice - when I get frustrated at my writing like you’re feeling I try and write as non-linearly as possible. By that I mean I’ll jump from paragraph to paragraph and write little bits and pieces then move along to another part when I get that frustrated feeling again. It stops me from just staring at the empty page and raging (lol) and I think by constantly switching tasks it can sometimes get me in a very productive mind space and speed up the process!
Most of all try and have a quick break and do something you enjoy just to combat your negative emotions - it’s always easier to write when we’re calm and happy (or as happy as you can be when writing an essay lol)! Best of luck & if you need any more tips/want to rant I’ll be around 🙂