Students are often pressured to come up with brilliant written pieces especially essays. As essays remain to be one of the most popular writing assignments among students, anxieties continue to face anxieties of creating high academic standard papers. With high expectation to produce good essays, students often find themselves struggling with these concerns.

Here are the common dilemma and the proven tips to defy such essay writing anxieties:

• Boring topic. The primary concern of students when they write essays is what topic to discuss. They tend to be overwhelmed with the pressure to come up with unique yet relevant topics. In order to solve this problem, students need to develop a good reading and observing skill – to generate fresh ideas on general topics.

• Researching relevant details. It is normal to worry about how and where to get the details needed to write an essay. Students have to be acquainted with the common means to gather credible information such as via the internet or through library researching.

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Beating essay deadline is one common dilemma of most students. With multiple written assignments and overlapping examination schedules to juggle around, the essay writing task is more often than not, taken for granted. Why?

Most students think that essay writing can be done in a snap. They put it at the bottom of their priority list only to find out later when deadline comes that it is indeed otherwise. As a result, many students rush their essay assignments, therefore compromising the quality of their composition.

Although essay writing is more casual in tone and tolerates informal topics, it is still an integral part of academic writing. Hence, it must be treated equally like other forms of scholastic pieces – meticulously writing every detail.

·         Research ahead. The most time-consuming part of writing an academic piece is gathering the relevant details needed to support the paper. It is then crucial to do the researching early to give ample time to assess every fact to employ.

·         Develop a routine. To efficiently manage time in crafting essays, it is vital to develop a regular schedule of doing the work. So as not to encounter conflict in doing other requirements.

·         Create an outline. The best way to avoid rushing essays is to create an outline to serve as guide in the actual writing. One of the main problems of students is organizing their thoughts. That’s why drafting a cohesive order of arguments will make the process less time-consuming.

·         Start as early as possible. This is the ultimate solution to avoid cramming. Although students are always preoccupied with a lot of things to accomplish, starting and planning ahead of time reduces the risk of haphazardly written essays.

Life inside the academe is full of pressure and deadlines to beat. However, there must be a balance of time and quality. Every assignment or requirement, may it be casual essays or theses, all must be done adhering to high academic values, without the need to rush.

There is no established rule that states that essays should always be serious, yet far too many people write about subjects that are too boring, predictable and stiff. True, as students, people are taught about the old method of writing essays, which, quite frankly, have no lasting value to writers and readers. Times have changed, and along with it, the way people write essays as well as why people write essays. In this generation when nothing seems to be new anymore under the sun, an individual must write something that is worthy of readers’ attention.

A writer must feel free to tackle controversial issues, for some of the most enjoyable works are those that challenge accepted beliefs and assumptions. Why discuss something everybody agrees on? Such topic has already lost its flavor on people, because its argument and conclusion is predictable. When expressing one’s take on controversial issues, one must be honest to tell the truth as he sees it. His aim should be to shed new light on difficult topics. 

When it comes to structure, essays need not follow the formal intro-body-conclusion structure. Such structure will work for grade school students but not for someone who wants to make an impact. There will come a time when a writer has to deviate from that structure in order to put more emphasis on the content of his essay. Essays are perfect means to express rebellion or displeasure. Strong words and bizarre ideas may stir up controversy, but they will also change lives, and even history.

Essay writing is considered one sacred academic written assignment. It aims to hone students’ technical writing skills, idea formation, ad researching skills. As it entails a complex process, there are seven unforgivable sins that every essay writer needs to avoid. If committed, these offenses in creating essays will take toll on the composition’s overall quality.

1.       Uninteresting topic. The topic is the core of any written piece. Choosing a topic that does not stimulate the interest of the readers or its writer is indeed a tedious task.

2.       Irrelevant details.  Employing irrelevant details and failure to gather significant research materials are also considered mortal sins in essay writing. The main purpose of essays is to send a clear and relevant message across readers. Committing either of the two practices defeats this purpose.

3.       Grammatical Errors. Any form of negligence when it comes to crafting academic papers can be deadly. Every aspect of essay writing calls for scrupulous treatment, especially writing technicalities such as grammar accuracy.

4.       Illogical Structure.  This mistake is brought about by failure to create outlines. Ideas and arguments must be presented cohesively so as to make the main point of the essay clear.

5.       Spelling Errors. Like grammatical errors, spelling and punctuation mistakes are signs of negligence. There’s no room for simple mistakes when writing scholarly papers like essays. As there is spelling checker on every word processor, such errors are unforgivable.

6.       Inaccurate Formatting Style. Inability to follow professors’ instructions is obviously one of the most indefensible offenses to be committed. Follow formatting style instructions accordingly.

7.       Improper Citation. This mistake leads to one serious writing violation – plagiarism. As professional writing etiquette, proper attribution of sources is greatly demanded.

Writing academic papers such as essays requires a sense of responsibility. Like any other activity, essay writing is also bounded by rules that need not to be broken or else, serious consequences are definitely at hand.

IS THERE any secret formula to successful essay writing?

None, as essay writing is subjective.

But there are three things that aspiring essay writers must have to help them come up with better-quality essays:

Knowledge of English grammar. For anyone to become competent in writing essays, he must know very well the ABCs of constructing sentences, usage of singular and plural nouns, subject-verb agreements, and all other important grammar rules. Otherwise, he would really have a hard time improving his writing skill until he gets older.

Way with words. Reading a lot of English materials not only builds fluency of the language, but improvement of vocabulary as well. Studies in the past have shown that wide reading is one and the same with better way of writing. How can an essay writer have a way with words if he doesn’t have a stocked knowledge of words and expressions in the first place?

Personal style. There’s no rule that prohibits newbie writers to idolize authors, and have their respective role models. But trying hard to be like them, to the extent of copying all their techniques is another story. Every author has his own way of spicing up pieces of writings—which he acquired of developed from his mentors in school, continuous studying and habitual writing through the years—and what is effective for him may not be beneficial to other essay writers.

Anyone who really wants to stand out as an essay writer just has to be his very own self—no need to imitate someone else. Style is a simple way of writing complicated things.

Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats once quoted that, “In dreams begin responsibilities.” Those who are determined to become good essay writers must strive hard and instill among themselves these three must-haves in writing essays.

Still on the subject of essay topics, here is an acronym meant to guide students on finding the appropriate theme for their papers.

“T.O.P.I.C”

T is for Time-relative
Select an essay topic that will complement the allotted timeframe. Indeed, the chosen topic must neither be too broad nor too narrow; too broad topics defy deadlines as they send writers in diverging directions of study, while too narrow topics end essays abruptly due to lack of supporting resources.

O is for Original
Pick out a topic that’s original as said element enhances the skills of creative and independent thinking. This can be achieved by simple brainstorming or tweaking published essays to create a unique approach.

P is for Purpose
A suitable topic should have a great purpose or principle. It must be something that will play a significant contribution to others or to the society as a whole.

I is for Interesting
A good topic is one that holds the interest of the writer. Clearly, there will be a higher level of dedication and perseverance for the essay if the writer is fascinated with the topic at hand.

C is for Challenging
An essay topic must be a challenge to both the writer and the prospective readers. It must challenge the analytical and composition skills of the writer, as well as stimulate the intellect and imagination of readers.

As the topic lies in the core of the essay, it should then be something that every writer must take the time to reflect and contemplate on. Incorporate this TOPIC acronym as a guide in looking for that great topic.

It’s sure as death and taxes. Essay writing is an inevitable challenge students have to face at some point. Everyone - the smart and the shiftless - will not be spared. And typically, both will even get to choose their topics in a similar way. Professors often provide their students a list of topics to write about. Some will be lucky enough to find a topic they like, while the rest will just have to make the most of what was given. The latter, however, need not despair. There are ways on how to find a topic from a variety of choices.

Students who got the topics they like should immediately start their essay. Procrastination will most likely affect the quality of their material, so they better not wait for the deadline. The rest, on the other hand, should research and find out everything they can about the given topics. If researching still does not spur interest, they can start being creative. One can put all the topics in a bowl and draw out a winner, or he can just choose a topic – blindfolded. The ways can be ingenious or downright silly. Some care must be applied though. The topics should still remain within one’s realm of interest or knowledge; otherwise, he will produce inferior work.

Asking help from professors will do a lot of good as well. Students who cannot find a topic or could not even begin to start their essay should approach professors or even friends for advice. Make no mistake though; doing this can tempt a person to steal his friend’s ideas. When this happens, the tempted should refrain or else he might get charged with plagiarism, or worse, he’ll lose a friend. So the best thing to do when the topic still remains to be a void: sleep on it, and try to be more creative next time.