In college essays, being out of the topic is one of the main causes why students fail on their essay writing task. When they write, ideas easily flow. As they go further, they won’t notice that what they are writing are out of the topic or discussion. As a result, they will become disorganized on their thoughts, and worst, will produce an ineffective essay copy.

To keep focus on the topic, they should:

o Write the main thought on a post-it note and place it where they can easily see it. They must read it again and again while writing their draft to stay on track.
o Make sure that every sentence of the essay will construct the main idea. Extend it using five W’s and H (who, what, when, where and how) to come up with specific details
o Tell the readers how important the topic to be discussed.
o If a writer slips out of topic, try to make a connection between the main idea and the topic you want to say for the readers to understand.
o Reiterate the main idea in the last paragraph. Let the readers understand the main point of the essay as they finish reading it.

Having a strong introduction on the essays can trigger the main idea as well as attract the attention of the readers. The best way is to organize what you will write and follow a plan.

Most essays pertain to what the author says about a certain issue. They make opinions as their pillar of their essay copy. To make your opinion stand out, you need facts and statistics to support your statement. The question is: How will you get those necessary information? Data Gathering is one of the most crucial processes in essay writing. The first concern here is where will you get those data? Here are some of the sources you can rely on to getting quantitative data for your essay.

1. Library – Books are definitely your buddy when it comes to historical facts and data. Comparing data from one book to another will definitely guide you in getting the accurate facts and information.
2. Internet – One of the most potent sources of information, the internet includes both historical and present day facts and figures. You need to have keen sense of truth in here because Internet is a free resource so it is bound to have inaccurate and irrelevant entries.
3. Researchers and Statisticians – If you want to include live statistical data to your essay, they are the ones you can ask. Be ready with your formal letter and date of appointment just in case you need those.

Now, you’re done with data gathering, after which you must focus on data sorting. This is where you will arrange your data from the most important to the least ones. In this process, you must determine what information is relevant to your essay topic and what is not.  Having your data sorted and organize eases your writing and maximizes your scope of topic without getting lost. With this way around, you can express your thoughts thoroughly having corroborative data and statistics that empower your essay.

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.
• Sequencing of arguments. It is quite difficult as well as confusing to arrange arguments logically. With overflowing of data and ideas, students need to create outlines and drafts to help them present the essay efficiently.
• Weak arguments. Employing weak arguments is one common dilemma in essay writing. This anxiety is rooted on the inability to gather relevant details or failure to present facts in a manner that can strongly support the essay’s main claim. To avoid this, try to read good essays and learn how arguments in such compositions are structured.
• Plagiarism issue. Professors do not tolerate any form of plagiarism. Failure to cite is the main cause of essay plagiarism issues – not to mention the deliberate copying of texts without proper citation. Students need to be cautious and responsible enough then to avoid such issues.

Defying the anxiety brought by essay writing can be easier said than done. The key however is, having the right combination of responsibility and attitude to beat all these academic writing odds.

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.