Academic life is vibrant and filled with numerous activities, from attending classes and additional lectures to workshops, excursions, and fun mock tests. Depending on what you study, you will get engaged in different tasks. One activity remains common for most degrees, and it’s essay writing.
Paper writing begins in the early school years. That is to say: everyone, starting from a schooler and freshman and ending with a senior, Ph.D. candidate, and even professors, write essays regularly. Reasons for creating written discourses range, but they all share a focal aim – to develop students’ creativity and critical thinking.
While it may now be clear why teachers assign students papers, it doesn’t mean writing them is a five-finger exercise. Essay writing is among the most complicated and time-consuming tasks because it requires various steps. That’s why it’s not uncommon to hear students asking, “Is it even possible to learn how to write papers easier and faster?” The short answer is – essay writing is a doable activity, and you can write an impeccable paper quickly. We’ve created a comprehensive guide to make essay writing faster and less complicated.
Get healthy and productive inspiration
Don’t worry if you ever drew a blank before delving into writing. Many students have experienced that. Beginning the writing process is often challenging, no matter the requirements. In an attempt to come up with a strong opener, students frequently spend lots of time and ultimately fail. And then this vicious cycle accelerates, making them discouraged and willing to end the paper at all costs, no matter the essay’s quality, coherence, and readability. It is no need to tell you how such works end; not only do they score low, but they also make students underestimate their writing skills.
Before falling into the same trap, take a step back and do one elementary yet very effective thing – read scholarly articles. Reading papers by scholars describing the topic will provide you with apt and relevant phrases, so writing an opening sentence won’t seem as impossible as it used to. Find academic books and articles that touch upon your essay’s subject and go through them.
Alternatively, you can reach out to an expert–it can be an English, political science, or even philosophy essay writer–and order a model piece on your topic. A professional will adjust the paper to your subject matter, providing a list of phrases, writing strategies, and sources to help you craft a top-notch piece.
Take efficient notes
Writing notes is a convenient way to compress any topic into several statements. Notes also help comprehend the subject and quickly find the source. However, many people don’t know how to take practical and valuable notes. We recommend note-taking apps, like Notion or Evernote, writing short and succinct sentences, using abbreviations, drawing up maps and clusters, and even attaching voice notes and other files.
Write down keywords and page numbers when doing research and reading academic sources. It will help you return to the source and refer to it, wasting no time; plus, you will manage to create a bibliography page much faster.
Make a habit of outlining the essay
The writing session per se isn’t complicated, as you just put ideas on paper. However, the ability to make those ideas smooth-flowing and connected within the entire essay is formidable. While a seldom issue with small, one or two-page papers, the problem with cohesiveness is more common with extensive reports. The reason is apparent: the more extended the paper, the easier it is for students to deviate from the writing course and include redundant thoughts. The way out? An outline! An outline is a universal tool to improve anyone’s writing.
Writing an outline is especially easy because it doesn’t require any particular strategy. You can lay out points in a list or summary of every section. Notably, ensure it helps you tie up every paragraph and allow them to complement one another.
Keep the structure uncompromised
What makes an academic essay different from a simple text at first glance? A structure, undoubtedly! A text can resemble a monolith stone and is usually written in that way. Yet, following the same format when writing an academic essay will do you no good, whatever revolutionary ideas it may carry. Every college paper must have a visible introduction, body, and conclusion.
Moreover, these three pillars must be related. In other words, an intro must spark people’s enthusiasm and provide a thesis statement, while the body part must develop points listed in the thesis. The conclusion, in turn, reiterates the thesis and reminds the audience of essential takes voiced out within the paper.
Refer to sources efficiently
The ability to refer to authoritative articles highlights your competence and gives you plenty of credit. So, try to include citations in your essay differently, i.e., using various phrases and key verbs. Also, ensure quotations aren’t too long. Otherwise, they will look like fillers.
Stick to the correct writing style
Academic writing is formal, so please watch the phrases and vocab you use when working on an essay. As a gold rule of thumb, avoid slang expressions, contractions, and first-person pronouns. Also, decrease the number of passive voice instances, replacing them with sentences including an active voice.
Refrain from speculating and asserting
Some information may be too obvious, so students often generalize. For example, there are many examples of phrases like “It’s known that.” While it indeed may be known, it should still be elaborated. Whatever your stance is, make sure to develop it and provide supporting arguments and/or explicit examples.
Embrace digital helpers and double down on the practice
Tools like Grammarly will help you polish your writing if used in moderation. Besides, many software have free versions, so why not use them? Other than such helpers, remember to drill your writing skills. The more papers you craft, the better writer you will become in the long run.
Conclusion
Eventually, you will find essay writing equivalent to doing chores: not pleasant but necessary. Hopefully, provided tips will accelerate your writing practice and help you become more skilled. Also, look at our list of available articles; we bet you’ll find something relevant to your interests.