Finesse the Struggle Essay: Tips

Essays, Essays, Essays! Either you love them or you hate them, but everyone has that one essay that they struggle to write

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

. Whether it be that you don’t understand the assignment, you waited until the last minute, or you are just not in a writing mood, some essays can be a struggle to complete. So, with this in mind, I thought a list should be compiled of helpful tabs and features to use when the struggle is real trying to complete an essay.

Tool 1: The Assignment Sheet

I know, it seems silly, but having the assignment sheet in front of you when you don’t know what to write can be very helpful.

It is helpful because the prompt:

· Gives you the main point you are trying to argue

· Can be broken down to try and brainstorm different approaches for the essay

· Also gives the basic guidelines to the format of the paper like, spacing, citations, etc.

If you have a writing center on campus, make sure to give them a visit. Even with just the prompt, they can help you start a possible A+ paper. They will break down what you think are the possible expectations of your professor, your initial reactions and ideas to prompt, and what may be the best tactic to tackle writing the paper.

Tool 2: Transition Words Sheet

So, again this tool may seem elementary, but when you are stuck writing sometimes you need inspiration of a transition word to start your next paragraph.

Transition words do not go away in college and just in case you need a refresher, examples of transition words and phrases are:

· next

· finally

· first

· second

· third

· in addition to

· in the light of

· not to mention

· to say nothing of

· equally important

Having variety of transition words is key, because in an essay every paragraph should not be started the same way. Throw some variety in there! With variety, you can avoid comments on your paper form professors encouraging you to not start all of your sentences of paragraphs the same way. Also, transition words can provide a sense of flow for your paper, so your ideas appear to go seamlessly together. This continuity in your paper is key, because it makes it an easy read.

Tool 3: The Thesaurus

In the same manner as the transition word sheet (see what I did there, I used a transition phrase “In the same manner” :) ), using the thesaurus tool in word comes in handy as well. Just like your teacher probably taught you in middle school, using the word “like,” is not really the best example term to utilize in your paper. Or, if you have another word such as “say” that you use at extreme amounts, it can become a little boring considering there is other terminology. Using a thesaurus helps spice up the paper by providing synonyms to overused words. Having a variety of synonyms to express the same thing is vital, because you can say the same word, without saying the same word.