Turning Tables at College: How to Enjoy Essay Writing
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Essay writing is a pretty universal type of college assignments. Professors really like using it as a sort of a final test to gauge how well the students managed to grasp the course material. So your major doesn’t really matter. Regardless of what you are studying, chances are you will run into an essay assignment sooner or later. And since it’s likely you will be dealing with essays on more than one occasion, you might as well try to enjoy the process.
A lot of students really dislike essay writing. Nonetheless, they have to deal with it fairly often. Most of this animosity stems from the lack of understanding of this type of work. But as soon as you find the right way to approach an essay, your experience becomes way more enjoyable. And the best way to turn the tables on the routine college work is to make it into a fun activity.
Managing Time
The most problematic thing about big college assignments is the time you have to spend on them. Most of the time your workload is too much as is. Adding a demanding project to it can be the last straw that breaks your back. So if you find yourself in desperate need of assistance, use a reliable online writing service like essaywritingservice.com to outsource some of your less important assignments.
Once you make a little bit of space in your schedule, don’t delay working on your essay any further than it needs to be. The work isn’t going anywhere. The earlier you start, the easier it is going to be to finish it in time. With enough time at your disposal, you can pick a reasonable pace and take care of the assignment without a rush. Separate your essay writing process into several phases:
- Research
- Outline creation
- First draft
- Editing (repeat until happy with the contents)
- Polishing
Approaching an essay as a series of smaller projects rather than as one big assignment will help you increase your efficiency and prevent burnout. Try to make sure there are breaks between every phase. Working on one project for too long can throw you off your game. Stepping away from it and resetting will help you avoid making the kind of stupid mistakes that inevitably pop up when you cram an essay through the last night.
Moreover, putting the essay off until the very last moment can lead to a whole load of problems that would otherwise be easily avoidable. Loss of focus and reduced quality of writing is one thing. But sleepless nights and overworking can have a negative impact on your health. No assignment is worth damaging your body and mind so try your best to avoid it.
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Picking the Topic
The choice of your essay topic is another core component of your overall experience with this type of work. Anyone has at least one topic they can talk passionately about. It is much easier to write about something you are interested in yourself. The problem is that most of the time you don’t have any control over the choice of the topic of your college essays. So you end up with something pretty boring.
But even when you are stuck with a topic you don’t really like, there are still ways to turn the tables. Any topic has at least a couple of different angles you can approach it from. As you are doing your research try to find the one that speaks to you most. It could be purely factual or it could be sprinkled with your personal thoughts and opinions. The latter approach is usually much easier to work with. Dry facts by themselves aren’t nearly as interesting as sharing a piece of your mind with others.
Work Efficiency
Another thing that eats at the enjoyment of essay writing is the overall work efficiency. It is way more difficult to stay in a positive mood when it takes you days or even weeks to just write a paper. There are hundreds of distracting factors that can reduce your working speed to zero. On the other hand, maintaining your concentration is oftentimes just as easy as losing it.
The first thing you have to do is fix your workspace. That means your desk, your computer, and your room as well as your schedule. Get rid of any possible distractions. Close the windows, clean your desk, get rid of all and any tempting items on your computer desktop, make sure no one disturbs you as you work. You might even consider blocking some of the websites for an hour or two.
Make sure you are comfortable and have everything you need. Office supplies, treats, and a cup of tea or coffee, a playlist. Everything should be taken care of beforehand so that you wouldn’t have to leave your desk in the middle of writing. Once you are all set – power through for a set amount of time. Set an alarm to avoid constantly looking at the clock and do nothing but work in that timeframe.
One- to two-hour studying blocks work best depending on how quickly you get tired. You don’t have to try and finish the entire essay in one sitting. Concentrate on finishing just one phase. Or a specific part of one phase. Using these bursts of efficiency will help you maintain your focus for at least a short amount of time if you have trouble maintaining concentration.
Final Words
Essay writing is a very useful type of assignment. The skills it teaches you will remain useful to you long after you graduate from college. And even though you will get stuck with an unfortunate and boring topic more often than not, you should still make sure to make the best of what you have. At the end of the day, it’s a creative assignment more than anything. So get creative and turn this routine into a fun and engaging activity for yourself.