You’ve done all the leg work—identified your topic, crafted the perfect thesis statement, researched like crazy, and prepared your outline. Now you sit staring at a blank screen ready to put it all together. Maybe you’ve already written an introduction, maybe not. In either case, diving into your body paragraphs, crafting the perfect paragraph structures, …
It’s 7:00pm, you just got out of chemistry class, and you’re starving–but you have that argumentative essay on fast food due soon! You decide to: A) trudge back to your dorm and rummage through your nearly empty cupboards for another meal of ramen noodles, B) make a quick trip to the local market to buy …
Despite what your grade-school teacher might have told you, poetry isn’t all hearts and flowers, especially not when you have to analyze a poem in an essay. When you delve into the realm of poetry, you’re much more likely to stumble into madness and decay, especially if you are reading Edgar Allen Poe or Charles …
Ah, the infamous James Joyce, bane of millions of high school and college students, and now it’s your turn to face the coming-of-age trial: writing a literary analysis of Araby by James Joyce. You might be thinking “I didn’t sign up for this.” You might not be an English major or really interested in literature …
“Man, this essay is going to be impossible.” We’ve all been in this boat before, confronted with an essay assignment that is beyond difficult. What if I told you that I can teach you how to write an essay about pretty much anything under the sun? Even … hmm …wombats. “What? Why wombats?” you wonder. …
Have you ever stared at the rack of candy at your local convenience store trying to figure out which candy bar you want? Do you finally just grab one simply because a candy bar is a candy bar, and it’s all chocolate, so one is just as good as the next? This might be a fine …
Are you feeling frustrated by another 5-paragraph essay assignment? Do you feel as though your creative freedom has been stymied once again by the powers that be? Do you want to be free to explore essay organization like the effervescent honey blossom butterfly that you are? Well, you must break free from the 5-paragraph essay …
Why does that word – analysis – strike fear into the hearts of so many college students, and just what the heck is a literary analysis, anyway? Analysis is typically the last skill your brain learns, and most students don’t encounter this term until college. But never fear – I’m here to help you conquer …
What is a literary analysis, and what is it good for? Please don’t reply, “Absolutely nothing, say it again y’all!” You might think that a literary analysis isn’t good for anything, but it actually helps sharpen your writing skills and your critical thinking abilities. If you can write a stunning literary analysis, you have a …
What’s your problem? Really, what’s your problem? I’m talking of course about the problem you’re writing about and that you are going to use for your problem statement. Do you have a problem in mind? Good. That’s a start. I bet your problem isn’t that you don’t have a topic, is it? (If you need …
You know what I always liked about Batman and Iron Man over the rest of the superheroes? The fact that they are (relatively) normal guys. They don’t need any special powers to fit into the same category as Spiderman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. Heroes can be, and usually are, real people. And that’s exactly what …
So, you think you’ve got what it takes to write a good descriptive essay? What about a great one? Writing a descriptive essay usually requires you to describe something – an object, place, person, event, experience, emotion, etc. – making use of details and sensory imagery. Description allows us to show rather than tell. Think …
“I want to tell you about the time I almost died.” I really don’t have such a tale to tell, but I bet I piqued your interest, didn’t I? Why? Because it’s a great opening line that makes you want to learn more. You keep reading because you want to know how the story ends. …
Ever sit under a tree on a beautiful summer day and reflect about your life and what you’ve learned? No? That’s okay if you haven’t. A lot of students are way too busy to spend their days reflecting. But if you’ve been assigned to write a reflective essay, here’s your chance to do so. Are …
Your instructor just told you that your next writing assignment will be a reflective essay. Reflective essays are about you, so you go home and take a good long look in the mirror. Before you start writing about what you see on the surface, keep in mind that a reflective essay involves more than just …
In an age where communication in the simplest form is all the rage, you can learn a lot from Twitter. Being able to write an engaging sentence in 140 characters or fewer can be a great skill to apply to writing an essay, like when tackling those all-important thesis statements. But, in the most obvious sense, …
True or false? Writing a research paper is time-consuming. True: Writing a research paper is very time consuming. You can’t just grab a few random sources and try to make them work. You certainly can’t start writing a research paper a few hours before it’s due and expect to write an “A” paper. True or false? Writing …
It’s the first day of class, and your instructor hands you the syllabus. As you browse through, you get to the list of assignments and your eyes widen–a 15-page research paper is due at the end of the semester. You’ve never written 15 pages of anything in your whole life. Sure, you have all semester …
You’ve really hit the big leagues now. Gone are the days of teachers telling you exactly what to write and giving you research paper topics that drive you out of your mind with boredom. You have freedom to choose your own topic now! (No need to write one more boring, assigned paper about gun control …
In the past, you might have had problems getting that polished, professional feel to your essays, but you couldn’t quite figure out why. Are your ideas too underdeveloped? Is your thesis statement not good enough? Do you not have enough support for your arguments? Sometimes the problem with your essay is simply the point of …
Critical thinking: What would essay writing be without it? Well, you know what Mr. Spock would say. In fact, without critical thinking, essays would be highly illogical. Critical thinking allows you to dig under the surface to understand and articulate a subject or point of view. To put it another way: If you want to …