What to do if you hate writing essays

If you fear writing essays, you should know that you are not alone. It is quite normal for students to be afraid of writing college essays, as this is the most overwhelming and time-consuming academic exercise. Some students manage to overcome this fear alone and eventually grow into capable and respectful writers, though the path to this success is not an easy one.

I have been one of those students, who feared and hated writing college essays. Nevertheless, here I am now an accomplished writer at the College Task Force, making a good living by writing college papers on demand. Below, I will share with you the most effective techniques, which helped me to overcome the fear of writing and get significantly better at writing essays.

Of course, it is always an option to hire a professional writer to take care of your college writing assignment. But before doing so, ask yourself, “Why do I hate writing essays?” Self-analysis is a powerful and effective instrument, which shows that with a little time and effort investment, you can learn to write good papers yourself. Here is how: 

1. Be Natural 

The main challenge most students face when writing academic papers is the challenge of language style. Usually, academic writing is much more formal than casual writing, while in social media and private correspondence students get used to writing informally. 

One simple technique is to be natural in essay writing at first. When you just learn to write academic papers, try to be brief and simple, use your usual language style. Later, you can always edit your draft and make it more formal. 

2. Use Pencil or Pen 

Some people get used to handwriting with pen or pencil; they draw outlines and pictures of their future texts. I was used to writing with a simple pen and paper, thus learning to write college essays was much easier for me using these conventional tools. Always keep a pencil and paper close to you when you start typing an essay text, this might contribute to an easier start of your paper.

3. Set an Interim Deadline

Official deadlines are scary for many people. To avoid procrastination, try setting your “private” deadline, which typically would be a bit shorter than the official one. I used to set my “private” deadlines one or two days before the formal academic deadlines. Usually, it helped me to break my work into parts and to have a clean version of my text prior to the official deadline. 

4. Plan Your Workload

Planning is perhaps the single most important technique in my writing arsenal. I learned to plan my writing early on in my career, and this helped me tremendously in becoming a professional writer. You can split your essay task into logical parts: introduction, main body, conclusion, and aim to finish those according to your schedule. Then, you can also plan to have the first draft, second draft, and a final version. There are so many planning approaches out there, and you should definitely try some.   

5. Avoid Distracting Factors

We write best when nothing is disturbing us. However, in modern life, there are so many distracting factors around us that writing can be really difficult. Avoid things like social media, computer games, radios, YouTube videos, noisy environments, etc. 

6. Start With the Easiest Part

Finally, some students hate writing because they don’t know how to begin. Ask yourself: Why do I hate writing essays? Could it be because initiating writing takes a lot of time and you end up lacking minutes and motivation? My advice would be to begin writing with whatever idea you have in mind. Start in the middle – the main body, by explaining your thesis statement and key arguments. Later, you can add an introduction and conclusion.

Common Reasons Why Students Hate Writing Essays

Students are afraid of writing academic essays not because of some superficial personality traits or physiological issues, but rather because of very concrete and objective reasons. Below, I give an overview of some of the most frequent reasons why students may hate writing essays.  

Leave Your Comfort Zone

Writing academic texts forces many to leave their comfort zones. In the age of online marketing, sales, education when everything happens fast and communication is usually brief and informal, academic writing appears like something from another world. It is formal and requires extensive research and reading prior to actual writing.

Are you ready to leave your comfort zone and learn how to write good academic texts? It is a solitary exercise, which requires silence and isolation from your friends, computer games, social media, etc. 

Struggle to Find a Good Topic 

Some say that to start writing equals half of the overall success (or work done). However, topic selection always comes first. Many find this stage very difficult; they spend hours and sometimes days searching for a good topic and end up wasting their time. 

The biggest mistake students make is selecting the wrong topic and lacking motivation and fats to compose a good essay. Often, they brainstorm topic ideas with their peers and friends, which doesn’t always lead to a good topic, unfortunately. 

Lack Motivation

Many students don’t see the purpose of writing essays. They fail to spot a clear connection between writing skills and career opportunities, success in one’s professional aspirations. 

At the same time, for some writing may be a useless exercise, indeed. After all, not everyone is going to work with communication, journalism, or business correspondence. There are a lot of technical professions, math, statistics, science, which don’t require solid writing skills. 

How to Get Better At Writing College Essays

Since writing essays is a mandatory academic exercise and hardly anyone can avoid it when in college, it is worth learning how one can get significantly better at writing essays and other college papers.

Here are a few pro-tips, often heard from professional writers, which will help you improve your writing skills:

• Read a lot. Before anyone can become a good writer, they must learn how to write from others. Reading top writers’ articles, essays, blog posts and other pieces of creative writing will inevitably add up to your writing capabilities. 
• Find your writing style. It is true that all people are different: some are more talented in narrative writing, others are better at analytical and research kinds of writing. Discovering your strong sides and building on those early on will greatly help you grow as a writer.
• Find motivation. Ask yourself: “Why do I hate writing essays?” In over 90% of cases, students lack the motivation to create a good text. Know what inspires you, and try to pick up topics and research questions that are both challenging and interesting.
• Approach writing incrementally. In most instances, nobody is forcing you to start and finish writing in one approach. In fact, most people will benefit from writing texts piece by piece, part by part, such as writing an introduction and taking a small break to contemplate the main body.
• Reward yourself. Don’t be shy to reward your writing efforts and achievements. This could be a simple break doing something pleasant, such as watching a movie. Or playing a computer game, eating a cake, buying something online, etc.    

The Bottom Line

Essays and other academic papers are classic attributes of college studies. Nobody can escape writing those. While most students hate writing and try to avoid this activity at all costs, there are also those who learn to overcome their fears and get notably better at writing.

The key techniques in becoming a better writer are not as hard as many believe. In fact, there are several very easy and effective ways how everyone can get better at writing college papers.

I have shared my personal experience in this article and spiced it up with a few practical tips from other professional writers. I am sure that with a bit of practice and dedication, anyone can master these simple techniques and tips and eventually become an accomplished writer.