Get that essay done!

High school differs from middle school in a lot of aspects, whether it is about the social life overalls or the academics aspect. And within these different aspects, something that you may be able to easily notice is that when we start moving onto high school, there will be a lot of writing work, especially essays with length of 1000-word or so that we have to finish in the span of only around a week or less. I know that writing can be pretty challenging for a lot of people right here, and because of this, I would like to share some tips that I have used in order to finish these essays. Personally, I won’t say that I am the best of the best when it comes to writing, but I have had experience writing long essays and stories with length of over 10000 words, so I hope that by using these tips, writing long essays hopefully won’t be too much of a challenge to you anymore!

First and foremost, before you even start your writing process, it is crucial that you are finding a comfortable place to write. This is because since you are literally staying at a spot for a long time, if you don’t feel that nice sitting in your current place, then the writing process can be more boring than it actually is. An ideal place can be sitting in your typical learning space, but make sure to make it clean and neat, but also you can sit in your bed, cover your legs with a cozy blanket, and start to write as well. I have heard some of my friends say that they like to go to some quiet coffee shops to start writing, but personally I would like complete silence, so I would recommend that you stay in your room. Additionally, you can bring some snacks in your room so that the writing process can be more interesting - however, I would recommend you bring things like bubble gums or lollipops, since things like chips may be somewhat distracting. Oh, and I almost forgot - choose a time that works for you. By this, I mean that in order to make the process effective, try to work when you feel like doing it. For example, when I was doing a project in my Literature class where I was supposed to write a research project that lasted around two thousand words, I decided to work at midnight, because for me I felt very energetic to work then - and I finished writing it at 4 in the morning. I know that the example I just mentioned above was way too unhealthy (you need to sleep early and adequately!!!) so don’t copy what I did, but first, it was spring break then and that I was consuming coffee (accidentally) earlier on, and plus, what you should take from this example is not that you should stay up all night to do it, but that please find a time when you can really focus in your work and don’t get distracted - personally, another benefit of working late is that there is no noise, and that the air outside is just so chilling and good.

Next is to set a goal and plan of how to approach the essay. If you are having a very long essay, I don’t think that it is good to finish it in one go (remember, quality is always better than quantity), but personally, if the work is only around 1000 words or so, I would recommend finishing it in one sitting. Why? Don’t trust me completely me in this, but personally, when you start to write about some hundreds words in, you start to develop this kind of “flow” which makes writing feels much easier - but when you stop your work halfway, it is hard to regain this “flow” the next time your write, which can lead to inconsistency and a sense of boredom when you continue on writing the next time. But at the end of the day, realize how much you should be writing every time you start writing, and work hard in order to achieve that goal.

For the writing process itself, I am pretty sure that your literature teacher has mentioned the way you write an essay before, but let’s just briefly look at it again, shall we? So first, you need to outline your essay - I know that some people like to dump their brains out, but by constructing an outline, you can ensure that your writing will be logical and follow a certain path. After this part, start to write your first draft - don’t focus too much on vocabulary and grammar here, but more on the content. And when that’s done, read it for the first time, and find certain issues with the structure of the essay to try to fix them. When the “content” part has been finished, look at grammar and vocabulary - are you using your past tenses and present tenses correctly, and are there some words in your essay that sound awkward? Additionally, you can ask your peers for editing as well - sometimes, there are things that only other people can see!