Over the years, I’m sure at least some of your teachers have used unique writing assignments to help you learn. Maybe you learned about the Civil War by writing a letter from the point of view of Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe you learned about character and plot...

You’ve known for a week that this day was coming. It’s the day you’ll have to write the dreaded in-class essay. You don’t work well under pressure. You have no time to organize your thoughts. You never know what to write. You’re freaking out and can feel...

What do the following have in common? Hippies Kim Kardashian Whip/Nae Nae Friends (the television show) Call of Duty (the video game) At first glance, these probably don’t seem to relate to each other in any way, but they actually have at least one very important...

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do most anything. Imagine you’re on an African safari dream vacation. Your tour guide stops in the middle of the Serengeti to point out a pride of lions and to allow a photo op. The right way to enjoy this breathtaking...

It’s time to write yet another essay, and you’re looking for help so you can write a good definition essay. But how do you define “good”? Both you and your instructor may have very different definitions of the word. That’s the inherent problem with defining...

Ever hear the phrase “for illustration purposes only”? An illustration is a picture or drawing, but in this case, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with actual images. “For illustration purposes only” means that examples are being presented to...

Shakespeare is one of those authors who is hard to escape if you’re in any English or literature program long enough. While Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays, they fall roughly into two categories: comedies and tragedies. And when he wrote tragedies, he went all...

On a magical Saturday afternoon in the mid ’90s, my family and I made a trip to the nearest Circuit City to buy our first home computer. I remember it well. The salesman in his red polo shirt saw my corn-fed parents and thought he might feed them a few lines...

If you need to write an opinion paper about affirmative action and all you know about the topic is that it has something to do with discrimination and education, or discrimination and the workplace, you’re going to need to do a little research before you can...

“Short” is a relative term. Your English prof might assign a “short essay” that’s 3,500 words, while your history instructor might assign a “short essay” that’s only 500 words. Big difference. A longer paper has its advantages. Sure, you’ll have...

It’s the bottom of the ninth, a.k.a. you’re running out of time to start writing your Catcher in the Rye essay, but you still have a chance to make it amazing. The bases are loaded—you’ve read the book and annotated, highlighted, or taken notes about all...

If you’re assigned to write a movie review, you need to watch a movie and then critically evaluate it. Logic dictates that, if you’re assigned to write a literature review, you’d read some type of literature and then critically evaluate it. But that’s not...

You’re sitting in the back of a sociology class, trying to focus on the lecture, when the prof brings up a controversial topic, such as abortion, gun control, capital punishment, or marijuana legalization. I’m almost positive that you have a position on every...

The year 2016 was pretty crazy, wasn’t it? It was the year of the summer Olympics in Brazil, where Michael Phelps won his 13th individual gold medal, breaking a record that was set by Leonidas of Rhodes in 152 BC. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series that year,...

Given the choice between going to the dentist for a root canal and writing an outline for a position paper, I’d guess there are at least of few of you who would choose the root canal—simply because you hate outlining that much. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration....

I’m proud of you! You’ve done your homework. You’ve read up on how to write a position paper. You’ve thought about how you’ll write the outline. You’ve even brushed up on proper essay format. The next major hurdle: what to write about? Finding an original...

People always wish they could be better at something. Maybe you wish you could be a better gamer. Maybe you wish you could be a better snowboarder. Did you ever wish you could write a better lab report? Probably not—at least not until you had to actually write...

Whether you’re conducting experiments in a lab because it’s a required course for your degree or because you hope to become the next Marie Curie, one fact remains the same: you need to write a lab report after conducting your ground-breaking experiment. The...

Face it. Every time we watch a movie, we turn into movie critics. Lots of times, though, our critiques aren’t that involved. They’re limited to things like “That sucked!” or “That movie was awesome!” or “I love him. He’s hot!” This not-so-detailed...

You think you’ve lucked out because you’ve just been assigned to write a paper about a movie. Finally, a topic you can get into. Besides, how hard can it be to write about a movie, right? You’ve been watching movies forever, and you can certainly tell whether...

Great essays can make you feel like you’re on a journey—while others are more like a bad road trip. What makes the difference? Often it’s as simple as the directions you’re given along the way. To steer your readers through the curves and straightaways...