Planning the piece: Essay tips for students

James Harlan is a researcher and statistician where he is able to give help for professionals and students in dissertation writing.

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Letting an essay assignment get to the head is common with students, so teachers are always looking at methods to reduce this problem. Innovate My School newcomer James Harlan discusses the suggestions he gives to students..

Writing your essay could be a task that hangs over your head like a dark cloud. Like a forthcoming rain, the deadline approaches so fast while you are being paralysed by the doom and the gloom. This is one hurdle you need to know how to overcome. It is often the first step that is the hardest to take but when you do so, you will see that the other things you need to do will follow like dominoes going down.

Plan

Stop worrying and start working. To do so, know what you need to do and break it down to steps you can take. That is planning. It is having an aim and plotting out what you will do to achieve it. Make your planning phase a short one. It is only the first step and there are many others after it that you will need to do. One best way to do this is with the use of a monthly planner. This way, you will be able to see how the remaining days before the deadline look like.

The Schedule

But first, you should list what you need to do: research, write the draft and finalise. Then, plot these on your calendar planner. Schedule finalising your draft a couple of days before the deadline so that you will have cushion time for unforeseen oversights. Make the first day of your research now or, if there is not enough time and energy left for today, the first thing tomorrow. In other words, do not waste time and start the actual work promptly.

Implement

As mentioned, you need to carry out your plan as soon as possible. After making your plan, you have to carry it out. Do this right away. See to it that you follow your schedule. Writing your essay is about what you need to write and knowing what you need to write means that you should actually do research work. In other words, the problem of essay writing worrying what to write and worrying is about not doing anything. When you carry out your plan, you are actually doing something and when you do so, you stop worrying. The two are opposites and do not come together. When you start working, you stop worrying. When you worry, you are not doing work.

Wrap Up

The task of writing your essay is an overwhelming task. But you are overwhelmed only because you are not doing anything through worrying. To be able to do your essay, you have to take action promptly. Start by planning right away and making this first step a short one so that you can proceed with the actual work immediately.