Over the years, I’m sure at least some of your teachers have used unique writing assignments to help you learn. Maybe you learned about the Civil War by writing a letter from the point of view of Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe you learned about character and plot by re-writing the ending of Hamlet. Some topics …
You’ve known for a week that this day was coming. It’s the day you’ll have to write the dreaded in-class essay. You don’t work well under pressure. You have no time to organize your thoughts. You never know what to write. You’re freaking out and can feel your heart pounding out of your chest. You …
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do most anything. Imagine you’re on an African safari dream vacation. Your tour guide stops in the middle of the Serengeti to point out a pride of lions and to allow a photo op. The right way to enjoy this breathtaking moment: Stay inside the vehicle …
It’s time to write yet another essay, and you’re looking for help so you can write a good definition essay. But how do you define “good”? Both you and your instructor may have very different definitions of the word. That’s the inherent problem with defining terms that can be subjective. Each person can have a …
Ever hear the phrase “for illustration purposes only”? An illustration is a picture or drawing, but in this case, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with actual images. “For illustration purposes only” means that examples are being presented to highlight or explain a topic. The same is true for an illustration essay. Its purpose …
Shakespeare is one of those authors who is hard to escape if you’re in any English or literature program long enough. While Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays, they fall roughly into two categories: comedies and tragedies. And when he wrote tragedies, he went all out. Spoiler alert: Most, if not all, of the characters …
On a magical Saturday afternoon in the mid ’90s, my family and I made a trip to the nearest Circuit City to buy our first home computer. I remember it well. The salesman in his red polo shirt saw my corn-fed parents and thought he might feed them a few lines of malarkey to go …
“Short” is a relative term. Your English prof might assign a “short essay” that’s 3,500 words, while your history instructor might assign a “short essay” that’s only 500 words. Big difference. A longer paper has its advantages. Sure, you’ll have to write a lot, but a 3,500-word essay means you have more chances to write …
It’s the bottom of the ninth, a.k.a. you’re running out of time to start writing your Catcher in the Rye essay, but you still have a chance to make it amazing. The bases are loaded—you’ve read the book and annotated, highlighted, or taken notes about all the important parts. Plus, your coach (that’s me) is …
If you’re assigned to write a movie review, you need to watch a movie and then critically evaluate it. Logic dictates that, if you’re assigned to write a literature review, you’d read some type of literature and then critically evaluate it. But that’s not the case. Sometimes logic can fail you. It’s like if you …
You’re sitting in the back of a sociology class, trying to focus on the lecture, when the prof brings up a controversial topic, such as abortion, gun control, capital punishment, or marijuana legalization. I’m almost positive that you have a position on every single one of these topics. Knowing where you stand on a topic …
The year 2016 was pretty crazy, wasn’t it? It was the year of the summer Olympics in Brazil, where Michael Phelps won his 13th individual gold medal, breaking a record that was set by Leonidas of Rhodes in 152 BC. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series that year, which was the first time they …
Given the choice between going to the dentist for a root canal and writing an outline for a position paper, I’d guess there are at least of few of you who would choose the root canal—simply because you hate outlining that much. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration. Writing an outline can’t be that painful, can …
Great essays can make you feel like you’re on a journey—while others are more like a bad road trip. What makes the difference? Often it’s as simple as the directions you’re given along the way. To steer your readers through the curves and straightaways of your essay, it helps to give them signposts along the …
Edward Lorenz was a mathematician and meteorologist at MIT who created a complex mathematical model nearly 60 years ago to study weather and air patterns. His hope was that the research would lead to accurate long-term weather forecasts. However, in 1961, the idea of a predictable universe fell into chaos. Lorenz entered some previously used …
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is one of those books that has the power to really captivate readers. Even if you don’t like the promiscuity or John’s undoing, you have to admit that there’s something really enthralling about the whole thing. Unfortunately, being enthralled in a story doesn’t make you prepared to write an essay …
“Wow! That stinks!” If you’re walking by a smelly factory, this might be an appropriate response. If you’re walking by a farm on a sweltering summer afternoon, this might be exactly what you’d expect to hear. This is not, however, what you want to hear from your prof when she reads your essay. So if …
The explanatory essay (sometimes called an expository essay) is one of those standard essays that you’ve probably written at least a few times in your academic career. The explanatory essay often takes the form of a cause and effect essay, a definition essay, a how-to essay, or a compare/contrast essay. Perhaps you’ve written this type of essay before. …
Imagine that you’re on a road trip on a hot day. You spy an ice cream shop and whip the car into the parking lot for a cold, towering, double-scoop cone. Mmm. The server places the ice cream in your hands … without a flipping cone. You fumble with the cold, sloppy mess as you …
Are you the type of person to passively read your assigned text only because you have to? Or do you dive right into it and react with the same intensity any self-proclaimed Star Wars nerd would react to this climactic scene? No matter which category you fall into, knowing how to write a reaction paper …
SURPRISE! You have to write another essay. You were hoping for a surprise party, weren’t you? Sorry, I can’t help you there. But if you think writing a comparative essay is one heck of a good time, then this party is for you! Okay, the fact that you have to write another essay isn’t really …