Need Help with Your Writing Assignment?

A long-term paper assignment can be one of the most intimidating experiences that a student can face, especially students in their first year of college. Maybe you never wrote an essay in high school that was longer than five pages, and suddenly you find yourself required to produce 10-, 15-, or 25-page term papers, sometimes more than one due in the same week. See below for a complete list of things to consider to help you move successfully through the process.

Plan Ahead

The best essay writers plan ahead. Organizational skills are key to writing a successful essay, as they are for most everything else you will do in academic life. The time to start writing a substantial essay is not the night before it is due. Schedule time for yourself well in advance to come up with your thesis, draw up an outline, do sufficient research, and edit and proofread. As you do more assignments, you’ll discover how long it takes you to complete each of the steps.

Establish Your Thesis

One of the first things students want to know when seeking essay assignment help, is how to come up with a good thesis statement. Ask yourself, “What question or questions am I being asked to answer in this essay?” Be sure to read the assignment carefully. Have you been required to “analyze,” “describe,” “critically evaluate,” “differentiate between,” or “explain?” Each of these demands a different focus and style, but they all need to say something original and back it up with evidence. Based on what you have read and how you interpret it, what do you think you can say that you can back up with a strong argument? You are not writing to tell the instructor what they want to hear. It should not matter whether your instructor agrees with your arguments, what matters is that you support them with evidence.

Research

Your research may help you develop a thesis, and it will certainly be critical to developing your argument. Read widely, but notice when you are taking too much time with books or articles that probably will not contribute to your essay. Pay attention to any sources that the instructor has recommended. Contact your school’s librarian for advice on using online and local resources. Librarians love giving research tips for writing assignment help. It may happen that you discover information while researching that changes your original thesis (or perhaps even contradicts it!). You’ll have to decide how you want to adjust your thesis to incorporate what you have learned. So much of your learning will happen at the research stage. (N.B.: Wikipedia is a starting place, not the source from which to mine your entire essay. Follow the links and discover the original sources!)

Note Down Your References

During the research stage, remember to note down any references for materials that will help you with your essay. Where did you find that snappy quotation that helps you prove your point? Note it down. Is there an argument you’d like to paraphrase? Note that down too. Anytime you share someone else’s idea in your essay, you should give them credit for it. That’s how scholarship works—you learn from others and in so doing discover your own original ideas. Or, as implied above, discover that someone else has already come up with an idea that you’ve had. If that happens, track the reference, and see how you can improve on that idea, or perhaps critique it. Doing so will help you become a better thesis writer. Noting down your references will also simplify the process of making proper citations when you write your essay—that way you will avoid the risk of plagiarism.

Outline

As your research proceeds and your thesis statement crystallizes, you may find it helpful to draw up an outline. You can start it with the Introduction section and finish it with the conclusion section—there, you’re already on your way. But it’s the body that you’ll want to write first when the time comes, so consider how many supporting sections and paragraphs that your paragraph will need and fill in topics/topic statements for each. Outline are great help with writing assignments, as they keep you organized and increasingly focused as you push on toward your goal.

Write

Nearly everyone can use writing help. No one can write a whole 10 pages at once. When the time comes to start writing, follow your outline and write one sentence after another, starting with the body, then moving to the introduction and conclusion—note how this follows the advice for doing your essay research above—as you are likely to find your argument shifting as you write.  As you write, make good transitions between paragraphs, and vary your word choice and sentence structure to keep the reader’s flow going. Keep the goal of the writing assignment in mind as you go, so that you stay on track. 

Ask to See Model Essays

Some instructors share essay that past students have written that have best fulfilled various assignments. If your instructor doesn’t offer any, or have any, ask if the department office can give you good examples of strong essays written in your subject area.

Edit and Proofread

Some crucial but often overlooked essay writer advice here: Do not simply type in your final period and then submit your essay. Leave it for a few hours (overnight, preferably) and return to it with fresh eyes. Your word processing program can’t catch everything that needs fixing, so take your time ensuring that you are writing in complete sentences, that your ideas hang together, and that you’ve caught all typographical errors.

Don’t Cheat

Finally, avoid lowering yourself by presenting work that is not your own. Not just because it’s dishonest, but also because you will fail the class, and possibly be suspended or expelled from your degree program, if you get caught. Software that can detect plagiarism is quite sophisticated, and instructors generally have a good eye for whether the assignment you have submitted is your own work or comes from an essay writing service. It takes brains and effort to get away with cheating—why not put in the effort to actually prove that you can earn your grade on your own merits?

Follow the advice above, which boils down to “work hard, work smart, be honest,” and you’ll be sure to meet with success!