College essay tips: where do you begin

There are stages of writing a college essay that involve a lot more than just the writing itself. These are invisible factors that will make your essay look brilliant and read like a dream. Many students think they can get away with not following these steps, but they are noticed in the end product of your essay and your professor will notice whether or not you’ve put in the effort, or if you’ve just sucked some ‘good-enough’ writing out of your thumb.

Following these steps are crucial. Even professional writers employ the following tactics to ensure their writings are of high calibre, and not just run of the mill nonsense that anyone can pull out of a hat.

Let’s look at these steps below:

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a fun and relaxing process of just shooting a few ideas around in your head. The substance of your content will keep developing the more you put thought into it. Write down things you think you may forget. Fidgeting with something in your hands or drinking a cup of coffee helps the juices flow during this process.

Key points

If you don’t write down a bunch of keywords and ideas, your essay will lack flow and purpose. Fill a few notebook pages with relevant points and keep these next to you when you start the writing process. These points will also assist you with your transitioning when you begin writing your content.

Subheadings

Before you even start writing, attempt to structure your subheadings. Don’t worry about where they will be in your essay, just write them down. This helps the writing process move along because you always have a kick start to get your mind flowing in the right direction for each section and paragraph.

Investigative research

Whether or not you think you know enough about your topic, do lots of research. There’s no way you’ll write as comprehensive an essay if you don’t do any research. This invisible task will show through in your essay so DO NOT NEGLECT IT!

Rest and refer

If you have a few relevant essay examples with you, you’re in good company; but don’t sit in one straight hour reviewing these papers. Read through half of one. Get up and make yourself a cup of coffee. Then read through the rest of it. Take a five minute break outside and get some fresh air. Read through another example. Take another break. Then...

...start writing your essay, knowing it will be a superb one.

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