writing rogue

When it comes down to it, essay writing is not half as hard as everyone makes it out to be. In fact, overcoming negative thoughts about it is often more challenging than the actual writing of the essay actually is. Your own worst enemy, when it comes to writing, is often you, you, you.

There are two methods to making writing easier—one is when you want to make writing easier but perfect, the other is when you want to make writing easier and quicker. Most students waste the bulk of their writing time and exhaust the predominance of their energies by going back and forth and all over the place in search of the “perfect topic” when no such thing exists. There is only getting the work done fast and well. Therefore, the best tip I can give you is to commit to a topic and just get to writing. See, thinking is not writing—getting words onto the page and tinkering with them until they look just right—that’s writing. And making something look excellent – whether it is an essay or a painting, takes time.

Imagine the painter who stands in front of his canvas and wastes all his energy trying to decide whether to paint a still life or a landscape. With all the time he will wait trying to decide which type of painting to create – he could have painted both. Whenever I find myself wasting too much time trying to find the absolute perfect theme for my essay, I use this painter analogy to get me to sit down to keyboard nd start typing---now. And it works.

Pick a topic you already know enough about that you could carry on a decent length conversation with someone intelligent about it. Pretend you have to explain all the intricasies of a topic, process, or issue to an intelligent listener. Pretend you have to predict and answer all of their questions in the presentation you are going to give this attentive listener. How much would you have to say? If you can freewrite a page and a half to two page presentation just on what you already have in your head with no research at all, that is the topic you should pick. Why? Because if you can write that much easily with no research, imagine how quickly you could nail out this essay just by reading, or skimming, two or three articles? Lots – so pick the topic that would come easily this way. THAT’s your perfect topic.

Structures of essays rarely vary, even if you have to write a personal experience or narrative essay—all essays have the same structure: Introductory paragraph, thesis statement, body evidence paragraphs, and closing paragraph – with one exception. Argumentative essays throw in a “overcoming objections section” which derives from the art of the debate. This idea is that the most powerful argument you can craft is one in which you predict what the naysayers will say and then quickly overcome or refute this objection. So argumentative essays follow an introduction, thesis, body evidence paragraphs, acknowledge the opposition, refute the opposition, move to a closing paragraph type of structure.

Tip Three: Revise like a Prize Fighter

My three point method for revising will help you polish and remove mistakes. First spell and grammar check, then revise, then read the paper aloud and revise again.