Getting past the procrastination: How to write an essay
By James Burkhalter
Picture of a student typing by James Burkhalter.
No matter what classes you take or what grade you are in, you will inevitably have to write a few essays while in high school. Like many other assignments in high school, writing an essay takes practice, focus and quite a lot more time than you may think. That essay could be a short summarization of a book that you procrastinated reading, yet another “Get To Know You” activity or a ticket into the school of your dreams. The tips laid out in this article can be implemented into virtually any essay but will mainly serve as a base-level guide to writing a college essay. There are three essential steps to crafting an essay: brainstorming an idea or frame, creating a rough draft and editing.
Brainstorming
Before typing anything, take a second to think about where the essay should go. Will it tell a story? Will it further explain a subject the reader is familiar with? Both in high school and in the application process, a prompt will be provided. This prompt may be so specific that it writes the essay on its own and requires little effort from you, or conversely, the essay may require much more time and energy to establish its path. Regardless of how particular the prompt is, if you give yourself enough time before the due date to think about the details and trajectory of your essay, you can move to the next stage with ease.
Creating a rough draft
A rough draft can be written in a multitude of ways. It can be a stream of consciousness, where you simply put everything you can think of concerning the prompt. It can be precise and well thought out with minimal edits, or it could serve as a road map where each paragraph is represented only by a rough idea of what your paper is about. A rough draft may seem difficult at first glance, but, as the name implies, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If the brainstorming were ingredients for a salad, the rough draft would be the bowl, operating as a place to put all of the prepared components in one place. This leaves editing to be the spoon that mixes the salad together.
Editing
The devil is in the details. The most pertinent and difficult part of any essay is editing. Despite how challenging this stage tends to be, it is also the easiest to get outside help with. If your aim is to maintain a distinctive voice, you should show it to a friend and get their opinion. If you would rather focus on clarity and grammatical errors, there are plenty of resources available to aid in small errors. If you are not careful with whom you ask for help, however, your words can easily distort into something entirely different. The safest option outside of relying on your own knowledge and research would be relying on resources provided within the school, like teachers and counselors. If you email your English teacher or the college counselor, you can find editing assistance with little to no effort.
The preeminent principle to remember while writing is that this essay is yours. If writing for a report or another assignment, take your time and trust yourself. No matter how stressed or overwhelmed you get, you can always ask for help. If you are writing a college essay, remember that this essay is entirely about you. No one can write you better than you can. Now that you know the essential stages, you can take a breath and write your essay.