- Background research. If you don’t know enough about your topic, Wikipedia can be a great resource to quickly learn everything you need to know to get started.
- Find sources. Check the reference section of Wikipedia’s articles on your topic. While you may not be able to cite Wikipedia itself, you can often find those original sources and site them.
Use tip #4 and write five original sentences that could be turned into an essay.
The biggest reason writing an essay is so hard is because we mostly focus on those external rewards like getting a passing grade or our teacher’s approval. The problem is that when you focus on external approval it not only makes writing much less fun, it also makes it significantly harder.
Here’s the secret trick: One of the interesting things about your subconscious is that it will answer any question you ask yourself. So whenever you feel unmotivated to write your essay, ask yourself the following question:
10. It’s okay to use Wikipedia, if…
How would your life be better if you actively enjoyed writing an essay? What would school look like if you wanted to suck it dry of all the gifts it has to give you?
Your subconscious will immediately start thinking of strategies to make the writing process more fun. Here’s another sneaky question to ask yourself when you really don’t want to write:
In college, I discovered a trick that helped me go from a B-average student to an A-student, but before I explain how it works, let me warn you. This technique is powerful, but it might not work for all teachers or professors. Use with caution.
The thing I regret most about high school and college is that I treated it like something I had to do rather than something I wanted to do.
Use tip #4 and write five original sentences that could be turned into an essay.
After you write your five sentences, it’s easy to fill in the paragraphs they will find themselves in.
When I used this technique, my professors sometimes mentioned that my papers were very “source” heavy. However, at the same time, they always gave me A’s. Like the five sentence trick, this technique makes the writing process simpler. Instead of putting the main focus on writing well, it instead forces you to research well, which some students find easier.
The biggest reason writing an essay is so hard is because we mostly focus on those external rewards like getting a passing grade or our teacher’s approval. The problem is that when you focus on external approval it not only makes writing much less fun, it also makes it significantly harder.
More Resources:
Because when you focus on external approval, you shut down your subconscious, and the subconscious is the source of your creativity. What this means practically is that when you’re trying to write that perfect, A-plus-worthy sentence, you’re turning off most of your best resources.
Every story is about conflict and change, and the truth is that essays are about conflict and change, too! The difference is that in an essay, the conflict is between different ideas, the change is in the way we should perceive those ideas.
The truth is, education is an opportunity many people in the world don’t have access to. It’s a gift, not just something that makes your life more difficult. I don’t want you to make the mistake of just “getting by” through school, waiting desperately for summer breaks and, eventually, graduation.
Here’s the secret trick: One of the interesting things about your subconscious is that it will answer any question you ask yourself. So whenever you feel unmotivated to write your essay, ask yourself the following question:
What really makes the essay stand out is the depth of the student’s fit with UPenn, and how they’re able to also share more about who they are. The student lists specific courses, research opportunities, technology, and student groups. We also learn that they are a first-generation student, are passionate about increasing access to healthcare (particularly for LGBTQ+ people, minorities, and the elderly), care about health education, and are a feminist who staunchly defends abortion rights (this controversial topic could be risky, but since UPenn is a very liberal school, this should be fine).
Prompt: In no more than 250 words, please tell us why BU is a good fit for you and what
specifically has led you to apply for admission.
This student clearly outlines BU-specific resources (the interdisciplinary course and undergrad research program), plus how these resources align with their professional goals (to become a neurological researcher). They do “name-drop” professors, but since their work clearly relates to the student’s interests, it doesn’t look disingenuous, and shows that the student has done research on their fit with BU. The student also provides background on why they want to pursue research, and shows that they already have experience, which makes their interest in the undergrad research program more concrete.
In this post, we’ll show you a couple examples of these prompts, go over good and bad sample responses, and break down how to best respond to these.
Sample “Why This College” Prompts
Let’s start by taking a look at two real prompts from the 2019-2020 cycle that fit under the “Why this college” archetype:
Here’s an example of something NOT to list in your “Why this college essay.” We’ll take the example of Tufts since we shared the prompt in the beginning.
COMPASSION. I value giving back through community service, and I have a particular interest in Penn’s Community Champions and Nursing Students For Sexual & Reproductive Health (NSRH). As a four-year volunteer health educator, I hope to continue this work as a Community Champions member. I am excited to collaborate with medical students to teach fourth and fifth graders in the city about cardiology or lead a chair dance class for the elders at the LIFE Center. Furthermore, as a feminist who firmly believes in women’s abortion rights, I’d like to join NSRH in order to advocate for women’s health on campus. At Penn, I can work with like-minded people to make a meaningful difference.
This example is bad because many schools have low student to faculty ratios and strong math departments. There are also a ton of schools in or near Boston, many of which have low student to faculty ratios and great math departments too, such as Boston College, Harvard, Northeastern, Boston University, etc. If your statements can apply to other schools, that’s definitely not a good sign. The student also uses an emotional appeal with the line “it felt like home,” which might sound nice, but it has no substance and can be written for any school. You should definitely avoid making any statements like these.
The story should be gradually opened, with the description of the events affected the cause and the result.
If you follow such hints, your essay will be written at least with fewer mistakes, and the chances to get an excellent grade are higher. Now, it is high time to speak of the informational sources that can help to write even more efficiently.
Persuasive paper
It may coincide with the argumentative paper, but it serves as a freestanding work. So, here, a student should convince the public that his point of view is universal, and it tells the fact. Why is it hard to write?
- Students choose two completely different subjects that are compared and contrasted awkwardly. For instance, beer and apple. One is alcohol, and the second is fruit. What an interesting paper.
- One compared and contrasted subject prevails in features. A student should equally estimate them.
5 Hints to Write them with No Trouble
There are plenty of dedicated websites to help students write much more productively. First off, the easiest way is to visit any popular news website and read the articles. For what? To check the language, and the tone used in those articles. It will help to understand the old-fashioned words, new vocabulary, and what grammatical tenses are the most popular nowadays. Otherwise, a student may turn to infographics such as about argumentative essay:
Analytical paper
When dealing with this type of paper, students may go flop because they do summarize but not analyze the topic chosen. That’s why if such a fine line is violated, there is a bad mark. So, mind that HOW and WHY are the only interrogative words that are taken into consideration.
Compare and Contrast paper
What can be simpler than taking two subject and contrast and compare them? In practice, this paper is also not so easy. Why?
- When writing this paper, it is necessary to speak of how one or another part of a subject contributes to the overall success. For instance, a student may be stuck in the next example: The development of new medication for cancer is delayed for well-known reasons. It can be explained by cost or lack of equipment. Yes, it is obvious. Try to analyze what components of such medication should be available, what processes are involved when creating a pill, etc.
Perfectionism is exhausting. Even when you try to make things perfect, they don’t end up that way. You just wind up annoyed and overwhelmed by the process. Sometimes you can be too burnt out to even start because you know that it will end in tears. That’s the worst thing about perfectionism — it can stop artists from creating anything at all.
Here are the three main reasons why writing is more difficult for some writers.
One piece of advice that helps me is to tell myself I can always release a second version and there are no completely finished works. Keeping this in mind allows me to publish things while calming my inner panicked perfectionist.
We end up thinking about writing, wanting to be writing, dreaming about writing, but not actually putting pen to paper or hands to keyboard very often. Days, or even weeks, may pass between writing sessions.
2. Inconsistent writing schedule and being out of practice
Good writing matters, but not as much as you might think. If you can make people feel things with your writing, it doesn’t matter if it’s technically perfect.
Muses are notoriously fickle, flaky, and uninterested in inspiring us mortals to finish our projects. Waiting on the perfect time, the right mood, or the retrograde to end may lead to not writing as much as we’d like. Or at all.
What if people don’t like it? What if they call you the two most dreaded words a scribe can hear — a bad writer?