Make a tutorial on how to write essays
I'm 20 and I don't know how help
OH MY GOD IVE WAITED YEARS FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS
anyways, i really wanted to depart some of my wisdom so here we go. Im going to assume essays for assignments and not college applications first, but if you want other advice, im ready and willing to depart more so-
Step one-half: Give yourself plenty of time. You CANNOT write good essays all in one night, you can't, not unless you're a top-tier god at bullshitting. You want three days minimum.
Step one: Argument. Essays center about what you want to say, if you have nothing to say and nothing that caught your attention, move directly on to the next step, but if you have something that interests you, write it down immediately. A sentence, a question, a statement, doesn't matter, write it down as soon as possible this is from someone that has suffered from amnesia immediately on walking out of class. Find your argument and stick with it.
Step two: Quotes. School essay assignments suck ass, but if you're only allowed to take quotes from the stuff you've read in class, you're going to want to start there. Scan for whatever has anything to do with your argument, from proving it wrong to proving it right, collect the quotes first because that's clearly what every single essay needs work with. If you have more free-roam with sources, then its research first, a whole fuckload of research, it sucks, yeah, but JSTOR and Internet Archive save lives. Check out your libraries too because those are life savers. Ctrl+F will help you find keywords and the sort, find PDFs of your textbooks or skim through them, point is, COLLECT THE QUOTES. Do not highlight them or mark down pages, WRITE THEM DOWN. PUT IT IN BOLD, IN WRITING. This will get you thinking already on what to write. You'll want anything from between 10-20 quotes, more than that might be too much. We're talking about a 7-8 page essay.
Step three: Split it up. By now we have a mess of quotes and an argument, perfect to split up. Ideally, we want 3+ sections for a paper, but first read through what you have. Organize your quotes first, these will be the structure for your paper. You cant prove what you don't have evidence for. Organize your quotes by what they have in common, what they center on. This is kind of ambiguous but it also means a lot of free space to do what you want. Name these sections that you sort these quotes under, these are your mini-arguments. Your defenses to your argument. The thesis of your sections. Every section of your essay should have a mini-thesis, or a point you're trying to make.
Step four: With the basis of everything now under your fingertips, write your introduction. Your outline is your introduction in fancy words because it should cover everything you're going to cover in your paper in half a page or less. This does not mean two or three sentences.
Step five: Rest. Congrats, you've finished an outline, now go take a nap.
Step six: Fill in the blanks. You have the idea and contents of the paragraphs already, fill in the blanks and connect the quotes to each other while connecting it to your main arguments. DO NOT worry about how long your sentences are or your paragraphs, this is a first draft, your goal is to make it exist first. You can make it perfect later. I recommend doing this either all in one sitting OR one part at a time, this way you won't lose your author's voice. Getting into the groove of writing is hard and you want to keep a steady tone throughout most of it. If you're going to stop, stop at a junction, that way it'll be less obvious that you stopped. For the conclusion, you just want to restate your argument and have a statement with what you believe. Briefly go over the points you've covered. End with the same energy you started with, brings the whole thing to a finale.
Step six: Rest again. First draft is done. Do not think about it.
Step seven: Read it out loud. Pretend you're a passionate professor in a movie, a lecturer leading a revolution, put some passion into it and read it out loud. Record yourself via audio or video in case you feel the need to improvise, then you'll be able to add it into your paper later. Commas mean slight pauses, periods mean longer pauses and downwards voice inflections. If you stumble on a sentence, go back and read it again, if it sounds off, you need to reword it but do it verbally so you can find out what exactly was wrong. Once you work out all the kinks and it sounds good to your ears read all out loud, your second-draft is done.
Step eight: Rest again, not too long though so you lose the passion.
Step nine: Have someone else read it out loud. Have AI read it out loud. This is one of the only times I will condone AI. It's a fresh eye that will be able to spot the proofreading errors because we are proofreading now. This is proofreading. Missing commas, missing periods, misspelled words will be pointed out to you immediately. If you spot something, you don't need to stop and fix it immediately, maybe circle it or the sort but don't stop or you'll lose your focus. If it seems like a mistake, stop and read it OUT LOUD to yourself. If it still sounds right, dismiss it.
Step ten: Check formatting, citations, etc.. Make sure you spelled your name right, that the title is a hooker. Reread your introduction and conclusion.
AND CONGRATS DEAR YOU JUST WROTE AN ESSAY, NICE.
anyways, if you have any other questions, dont hesitate to send asks or comments, i will be watching this post indefinitely for any problems that might come up, but thanks and good luck on all of your essays!!!
