Is there anything more frustrating than getting an assignment that leaves you scratching your head in confusion, wondering how to approach it? We have all been there. In fact, no one becomes a great writer unless he or she tackles assignments that are challenging, frustrating, and new. However, while completing a particularly challenging assignment might make you a better writer, the process can create a tremendous amount of anxiety for the average student. Instead of focusing on completing your assignment, you might be wondering if you are approaching it correctly, what mistakes you are making, and what kind of impact it will have on your grades.
Take a deep breath, calm down, and let us help you. We have a number of essay writing tutorials aimed at helping students understand the challenges of various types of writing assignments. Most of our essay writing tutorials focus on past and present current events, reflecting the types of assignments students are likely to encounter in their own course work. Using these tutorials, students can improve their own writing.
Our tutorials come in multiple formats. We have some simple Q&A style formats that address the questions and issues that our customers experience most frequently. If you are having a particular writing challenge, such as how to write a lengthy essay, how to properly use a particular citation style, or how to tackle a specific type of essay, these tutorials can provide you with invaluable information and guidance. We also have tutorials that focus on example essays, providing annotations to some of our most popular example essays so that you can understand why a writer made specific choices when writing that assignment. Combined together, these essay writing tutorials can help you meet any challenges you face, make better grades, and become a better writer.
We’ve all seen someone dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. And how do they look? They answer is pretty much always the same. They look fine. It’s a classic, acceptable look. It is also a look that few people would run home to emulate: this is largely because it is an outfit that is rather forgettable. It is fine, just fine. An essay devoid of any rhetorical devices tends to be the jeans and white-t-shirt of writing. It’s fine—not particularly memorable or engaging, but not anything that is going to cause problems for anyone. You are clothed, you are Continue Reading...
Sometimes the most difficult part of a writing project is getting started. This is especially true when a writer is asked to tackle an unfamiliar form of writing. While many students are familiar with the more traditional academic writing forms, like expository essays, they can find other formats to be very challenging. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that one of the questions we see frequently is: How do I start writing a narrative essay? Because narrative essays do allow the writer to take a creative approach to the project, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. However, Continue Reading...
If your teacher hands you an assignment for one of many narrative essay topics, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Narrative essay topics are some of the easiest essays to write about, even if your teacher gives you the cheesiest prompt to complete (like, if you were a tree, what tree would you be and why). Other times, narrative essay topics can be exciting and can force you to dig deep into your past and determine which events have influenced you the most and how. The joy of this type of essay is multi-fold: you don’t have to Continue Reading...
Selecting the best premise out of a list of exemplification essay topics is half the battle of writing this type of essay. The more inherently interested you are in the topic, the more fluid the research and writing process will be. Think of it as akin to driving down a gorgeous coastal highway during the warm autumnal season, versus driving through an industrial wasteland in the pitch black night. Which drive do you think will be more enjoyable? The same goes for your exemplification essay topic. Take the necessary time to pick one that really resonates with your interests. Continue Reading...
Illustration essay topics might seem elusive at first, but they are actually all around you. Illustration essays offer illumination and guidance and frankly, the world is full of situations, issues and subjects that require exactly that. It is a jungle out there! Teachers will often assign an illustration essay when they want to see how well you can explain a complex subject and what nuances you are able to shed light upon—using examples. In a similar fashion, teachers will sometimes assign an illustration essay when they want to see if you are able to expand your writing and describe Continue Reading...
Introduction An illustration essay sounds like something design or arts-focused students would have to do. Illustration essays describe the best way to compose pictures for books, right? Lol, no (but the name does make it sound like that’s what they should be doing). Illustration essays are sometimes called “example essays” by some teachers because they provide insight into the steps or processes of a phenomenon or give greater detail about something. And still other teachers will call them “descriptive essays.” If you feel your teacher might be mixing terminology, make sure to ask for clarification about his/her expectations. Some experts Continue Reading...
Introduction A close reading essay is like going to a museum, and staring at a painting until you notice significant details you had not seen before. Writing an essay based on a closed reading of the text means you need to be able to flex your observational and analytical muscles when it comes to textual interpretation. This is your time to show your teacher that you are able to not only notice the minutia of a literary passage, poem or short story, but that you have something insightful to say about that minutia. While this might sound tedious, it’s Continue Reading...
Profile essays are fun to write because they allow you to put on a different hat than the standard student one. A profile essay is an assignment where you get to do what journalists do: center your writing on one person, place or thing. The task is comparable to a celebrity profile. Nearly everyone has read a celebrity profile: this is when a journalist details their time spent with a celebrity, usually during a time when the celebrity needs to promote an album or film. However, journalists write about places and things as well, with much frequency. Travel journalists Continue Reading...
A critical analysis essay can be a very intimidating assignment, simply due to the fact that it sounds complex and serious. And in some ways it is—but it actually can be more fun than you would expect. A critical analysis essay means that your teacher is expecting some pretty heavy lifting. If the essay is about a book, poem, film or work of art, it’s not enough for you to have just read it (or watched/looked at it) and understand it. This essay asks you to do much, much more than show that you know what something was about. A Continue Reading...
A literacy narrative essay is fun to write—even though the name sounds quite dull. This type of essay forces the student to do something they often don’t get the opportunity to do: think about their first feelings in connection to reading and writing. In some ways, this type of essay is a cousin of the personal statement and the reflective essay. Think back to the time when you were so little, you couldn’t read or write. You’d see adults around you reading or writing, engaged in this mysterious activity. It was as if they were part of some league of Continue Reading...
