Writing Essays for a College English Course can seem especially scary if you have no idea where to even begin. There are many 'fool-proof' essay outlines that ensure that if you 'follow this outline, you can never go wrong'!
But sometimes, everything still goes wrong and if it makes you wonder "what happened?", you're in the right place.All throughout high school I was terrified when I had to write an essay. I was so terrified in fact that I never began the essay until usually an hour before class began.For example, I was taking a fascinating course: AP (college credit course) United States History, in which we were supposed to have a year-long essay that would result with at least 7 pages of written essay and at most 15 pages.
The essay was broken down into four essay throughout the year, but because I had major anxiety just thinking about writing papers, I never did those essays. Within the very last week of the school year, we were to turn in the completed year-long essay.
I never started a word until the day that it had to be turned in. I skipped three of my high school classes that day, sitting in the auditorium with a laptop and wrote everything that came to my mind for the essay.
Hours went by and finally, the bell rang for my APUSH class to begin. I ran to the class, finished my last paragraph and printed the essay, which was exactly 7 pages long. I turned it in and I never thought that I would pass the class because of the idea that I was so very anxious and terrified to write the essay!
Whether it be anxiety, full-on fear, writer's block, or procrastination, I'm going to give you a list of ideas that may be able to help give you ideas on how I got over my problems.
1. Who, What, When, Where, How, & Why
This really helps just to write it down and fill in the blanks. When you thing of ideas that pop into your head, write those down too because you never know if you're going to need to refer back to that specific idea later on the writing road.
2. Write, Rewrite, Contemplate, Never Erase
A lot of the problem I had, dealt with the fact that I would start a paragraph, not like what I wrote, erase it and then not have anywhere to go. If you write a paragraph and you don't like the wording, structure, or even how you phrased one sentence, Never, NEVER, NEVER ERASE anything until you have written something to replace it or you are ready to turn in your draft. When you erase what you wrote, you erase the chance to remember the exact wording that you had written that paragraph.
If you keep what you don't like, you have the chance to contemplate and think "Why don't I like this paragraph, sentence, or phrasing?". Without knowing why you don't like something, you'll never realize how you want to write your essay.
3. Writer's Block, Research, Draw
If you are staring at a blank page and have no idea at all on what you want to write, how to begin writing, or if you just are drawing blanks, start with the basics of the essay:
Name
Class
Teacher's name
Date
Title:
Intro:
Thesis:
Body 1:
2 ideas
Body 2:
2 ideas
Body 3:
2 ideas
Conclusion
For every paper, I literally write this exact outline. Then I go through and add ideas:
Tyra
English Composition
John Doe
October 11, 2016
Title: Technology affecting today's society
Intro: Something about technology affecting today's society, maybe how millennials know not a day with out technology.
Thesis: Because technology has affected people all over the world, yadayadayada
Body 1: Technology brings people together
2 ideas/examples: Facebook, Instagram
Body 2: Technology denys people's ability to focus on surroundings
2 ideas/examples: PokemonGo, Snapchat
Body 3: But technology has a great understanding of who we are and who we want to be with
2 ideas/examples: Eharmony, other dating websites
Conclusion: technology affects society in both good and bad ways because of yadayadayada
As you can see, this is pretty much the exact thought process I go through. Once I realize all my options, then I can begin writing what I know and can draw out what I want the audience to know.
4. If all else fails, start a new page.
Sometimes we try everything and we still can't figure it out. So now we have two choices:
A) We walk away
B) We start anew
Either one is fine but if you're on a deadline, it'd be best to start over but don't delete the page you had. Just open a new tab or a new window. That way you can take the ideas that you like from your previous failure and use it to help you onto your journey with this new paper.
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