ok so i want to know if that's just a me thing or a neurodivergent thing that more people experience. why can i only write the middle part of an essay? like, i can't write a somewhat decent introduction or conclusion to save my life. it was always a problem for me at school and it's even worse in college. what can i do?
apologies if that was a bit weird. i was diagnosed recently and i'm finding out SO many habits and traits i've always had are actually adhd, so it's a new yet very familiar thing too.
have a great day/night :)
Writing can be really difficult for ADHDers, because of course there's this expectation that essays follow a linear thought progression and we don't necessarily follow the same kind of linear process that neurotypicals do.
When I'm not sure what a paper needs to include, I like to look at examples to make sure I get everything in the right order. For a scientific paper, it's easy enough to check a related journal article to see what the structure is and how they approach introductions and conclusions. It can be harder to find examples for personal essays, but there are books of essays that you can look at.
You might also like to check out your school's writing centre or disability services office. My university had both, and at the writing centre you could get tutoring in writing so that you could learn how to write at the level expected for university. (I didn't do the tutoring, I challenged with a writing test and didn't do well enough, so I had to take two English courses. I did really well in my courses and I am actually a good writer, the test was just timed and basically I had to turn in my rough draft no matter how poorly organized it was. And I wasn't great at the organization part for the type of essay I had to write for the test.)
Followers, do you struggle with writing essays for school? Which part is the hardest for you?
