do an essay for me

Write my essay.  On-the-spot help from genuine pros

Get prompt, quality help with your essays from well-versed experts. Ask us to "do my paper" and free up time for what matters most.

Choose your essay writer

Steps to submit a "write my essay" request

Provide your order details.

To get started, simply fill in the short "write my essay" form. Be sure to detail the essentials of your assignment, including when it's due, total length, subject matter and requirements, and other necessary criteria.

Select your expert

Look over your offers to choose the right essay writer online. Explore their profiles, check their ratings, and read reviews to decide which writer is the best fit to do your essay.

Receive your paper

When your essay is ready, we'll send you an email. Check it over and if you need any tweaks, just let us know. Release payment when you're completely happy with your final result.

Writing service dedicated to your satisfaction

Wallet-friendly prices & transparent refunds.

Quality writing help doesn't have to cost a fortune. And we're living proof of that. We eagerly satisfy every request, no matter how limited your budget is. And in rare cases of misunderstandings, we'll gladly refund your deposit.

24/7 caring support

The DoMyEssay team is always here for you, no matter the time of day or night. Just remembered an urgent assignment at 3 in the morning? No worries! Our stellar customer support team will match you with a skilled writer who'll ace your paper in no time.

Superior quality

We've got a bunch of talented writers on our team to make your academic life easier. Our experts come from all walks of academic life, and they are passionate about putting together papers that are tailored, thoughtful, and exactly what you need.

Data security

We're all about keeping your info safe when you ask us, "write my paper." Our privacy policy is simple: we only ask for the essential information needed to help you. And, we're super careful with your details, using top-notch security to protect your information.

Original content commitment

We offer papers that boast a high level of originality. To protect your academic integrity, we double-check all papers for plagiarism before sending them out. If you still have doubts, request a free plagiarism report with your order.

On-the-spot delivery

Students trust us to deliver high-quality essays on time, every time. And we always meet their expectations, regardless of how urgent their order is. Request our help and get your masterfully crafted paper before your deadline.

Acing "do my paper" requests at a student-friendly price

Are you overloaded with assignments and thinking, "Who can do my essay for me at an affordable price?" DoMyEssay is here to resolve all your school-related worries! We offer high-quality academic aid that won't break the bank. Our pricing model is designed to fit even the tightest budgets.

Considering the pros and cons?

View a sample of our work and witness our premier quality.

What customers are saying about our service

Great writer..

Excellent job

Great work as always.

I will rehire or refer others to this writer. She works to satisfy her clientele with good work.

Finished right at time due!

Awesome work!

gave paper on time, but needs more relevance to the topic

The writer follow direction. I was very happy with the result

WritingExcellent job

He’s very professional, the paper have a lot detailed on it. He is the best highly ...

QuestionsFollowed instructions and did great work, only thing I had an issue with was cutting it close to ...

I am very happy about the paper. Thank you so much.

Write my paper of any type

• Editing and Proofreading
• Admission Essay
• Annotated Bibliography
• Article Review
• Book Review
• Business Plan
• Creative Writing
• Critical Review
• Critical Thinking
• Dissertation
• Literature Review
• Movie Review
• Presentation
• Reflective Writing
• Research Paper
• Research Proposal
• Engineering
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Short Answer Questions
• Word Problems

How our wordsmiths do your essay

01. checking your requirements.

Your writer reviews your instructions before getting started. We encourage you to submit detailed and clear guidelines for the best possible outcome.

02. Adapting your style

When tackling your paper, our experts focus on tailoring the content to your specific requirements. We welcome any samples to better understand your needs and write your essay to exceed your expectations as much as possible.

03. Conducting research

Once your writer is familiar with your instructions, they diligently study your topic. Our pros conduct in-depth research using only credible and up-to-date sources.

04. Refining your order

While working on your paper, your writer will contact you through our encrypted one-on-one chat for clarifications. You can also reach out to your pro to request drafts, updates, and edits.

05. Checking for plagiarism

Before handing out your paper, we scan it for plagiarism to ensure a high level of uniqueness. If you still have doubts, you can ask your writer for a free plagiarism report.

06. Implementing your edits

When we write an essay for you, we want to make sure you're 100% happy with the final product. So, feel free to ask for revisions as many times as you want

Can you work on a tight deadline?

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Students often turn to academic services for a variety of reasons. Essays are a staple in the academic journey, from high school to university. Despite their ubiquity, many students find them challenging and time-consuming. Have you ever wondered if you can "pay someone to write my essay?" You're not alone—we are here for that very reason.

Reaching out to professionals with a "write essay for me" request offers several advantages:

• ‍ Time-saving: Handing over complex, time-intensive assignments to expert writers frees up your schedule. This extra time can be spent on work, study, or simply taking a well-deserved break.
• ‍ Access to expertise: If you're struggling with the subject matter or how to articulate your thoughts on paper, a professional service connects you with experts who have the knowledge and skills to ace your assignment.
• ‍ High-quality results: Opting for a reputable service means you can expect on-time delivery, original content, and top-notch quality.

Simply request, "write my essay online" and ease your mind

If you’re up late, worrying about essays and deadlines, we know exactly what that’s like. Thinking, "can someone write my essay paper?" Whether it’s a simple book review or a complicated research paper, we’ve got you covered. If you're not sure which writer fits your needs, our 24/7 support team is here to help you pick the right one.

Once you get started with a writer, feel free to reach out directly to them. This keeps everyone on the same page and allows you to tweak things as your essay takes shape. If things aren’t looking as you need during the initial draft, don’t worry — we’re here to edit it until it meets your standards.

Plus, you get some nice freebies with every order. We check all papers for originality and include title and reference pages for free. Not to mention, you can request as many edits as you need. Just shoot us a quick message saying “write my essay paper” or fill out our easy form and we'll jump right in to help.

What can I expect when you help write my essay?

Here’s what you get with DoMyEssay:

• Direct essay crafting : From brainstorming sessions to the final polish, we handle every part of the essay-writing process.
• Thorough research : Need sources? We dig deep into academic databases, libraries, and credible websites to gather the most relevant info for your paper.
• Editing and proofreading : Our editors jump in to tweak and refine your essay, ensuring it flows smoothly and is free of pesky typos and grammar slips.
• Custom formatting : Whatever format you require — APA, MLA, Chicago — we’ve got you covered, ensuring each essay aligns with the customer's instructions.
• Free edits : Not quite right on the first go? No problem. Request as many edits as you need.
• Original content commitment : Searching for someone to "write my essay for me no plagiarism?" You're in the right place. We guarantee a high level of originality and run every paper through plagiarism and AI checks to ensure it’s authenticity.

With us, you’re not just getting an essay, you’re getting peace of mind and the freedom to focus on other things, knowing your assignment is in good hands.

How can I get the most out of my order?

Deciding to ask our team, "do my paper for me" is a fantastic first move towards nailing your assignment. But to make sure you're setting yourself up for the best possible results, there's a bit more you can do.

Kicking things off early is a great strategy. We can whip up quality papers in just 3 hours thanks to our urgent order option. However, giving us a bit more time means we can dive deeper into your request to ensure everything's just right. So, aim to get your order in sooner rather than later.

When filling out our order form, the more details, the better. You'll cover the basics like topic, page count, deadline, and citation style. But don't stop there – the more instructions and materials you provide, the closer we can get to matching your vision.

And remember, we're here to help every step of the way. Our customer service team is always on standby to assist you 24/7. Need a hand getting your order set up? Just drop them a message saying "please, write my essays" and they'll guide you through the process, ensuring it's smooth sailing from start to finish.

Let DoMyEssay handle your essays with professional care

We're ready to tackle that essay you've been stressing over. Whether you're thinking, “can someone write my essay?" or just need a bit of assistance to finish up your work, we're here for you.

Why choose DoMyEssay?

• On-the-go access : Manage everything from your phone. Just say, “help write my essay” and track your order or communicate with your writer as easily as scrolling through your feeds.
• Free extras included : Our services come packed with extras at no additional cost. This includes thorough checks for originality, proper formatting, and all the necessary pages — title, reference, and outline, all included in the price.
• Customer-focused approach : Concerned about the outcome? Don’t be. We offer edits and a money-back guarantee according to our Refund Policy.
• Direct writer contact : Have a last-minute request or need clarification? Message your writer directly for quick responses.
• Use it to learn : We encourage you to use our work as a study aid. It's a great way to get a deeper understanding of your topic or perfect your own writing skills.

Drop us a line saying, “please, write essay paper for me online” and we'll get started on your paper today.

Wait no more! Order now and relieve your academic burden

Why wait to make your academic life easier? Make your assignments a breeze with our essay writing service. Imagine submitting essays that stand out for their quality and coherence, all with minimal stress. Our team is dedicated to providing thorough research, clear writing, and precise formatting to meet your needs. This is your opportunity to improve your academic performance with the support of experts. So, if you're ready to up your game and make your academic life a little less overwhelming, let's kick things off. Your top-notch essay is just around the corner.

How do you ensure quality when you write my essay for me?

DoMyEssay has been in the game for years, guiding students through tricky assignments and helping them keep their academic journey on track. Just drop us a line saying, “do my essay,” and watch us work our magic on your paper, ensuring top-notch quality every time.

Wondering how we make sure your essays come out great every time? It's pretty simple, but super effective! Here’s the lowdown:

• ‍ We’re picky about our writers. Only the cream of the crop gets to work with us. They're not just smart; they’ve got the degrees, the language skills, and a whole bunch of writing experience.
• ‍ Tailor-made just for you. When you tell us what you need, we listen – really listen. Every essay is built from the ground up to fit what you're looking for, right down to matching your requirements.
• ‍ Checking it once, checking it twice. No essay leaves our hands without a thorough check-up. Grammar, style, originality? We've got it covered to make sure you're getting nothing but the best.

Discover your ideal essay writer online with us and sail smoothly to the result you deserve!

Can I be sure the essay writer online I choose is professional?

When you're at the point of thinking, "I need someone to write my essay online," it's crucial to know who's actually going to pen your paper. The quality of your essay and its outcome depend so much on your writer's chops. So, when you're on the hunt for a reliable service, the skill and professionalism of a writer should be at the top of your checklist. The good news is, with DoMyEssay, you're in safe hands!

We're all about pushing you towards success, which means we're super careful about who we bring into our team. Our writers? They're the best of the best:

• ‍ They're native English speakers , so the wording in your essay will be spot-on.
• ‍ They've got degrees up to their eyeballs - From Bachelor’s to Ph.D.s, you name it, in their specific fields.
• ‍ They're not newbies. With years of writing experience, they know how to tackle an academic paper.
• ‍ Their writing skills are top-tier, and they're wizards at sticking to your instructions and beating the clock.

But that's not all. When you throw your "write my paper" request our way, you get to see who you're working with. We give you the lowdown on each writer, so you can pick the one that vibes with what you need.

What kind of essay can you help me with?

If you've been thinking "I need to have someone write my essay," you've landed in the perfect spot!

Our services include:

• Descriptive essays : Capturing the essence of any subject.
• Narrative essays : Bringing personal stories to life.
• Expository essays : Explaining facts clearly and concisely.
• Persuasive essays : Arguing points persuasively.
• Argumentative essays : Debating issues with robust evidence.
• Compare and contrast essays : Juxtaposing two themes or ideas.
• Analytical essays : Offering deep insights into topics.
• Process essays : Outlining steps to accomplish a task.
• Application essays : Helping you stand out in applications.
• Critical essays : Analyzing texts or situations in depth.

If the type of essay you need isn't listed, no worries — our experts are ready to address your essay writing challenge. Let DoMyEssay handle the stress of your assignments when all you can think is "I need someone to write my essay for me."

Can you do my essay on any subject?

Looking for a trusty sidekick to ease your academic life? DoMyEssay is at your service, offering an array of academic assistance, from writing and rewriting to proofreading and editing. Whether you need a paper built from the ground up or just a bit of help with a tricky section, we're here for you.

Our expertise doesn't stop with essays. We handle a variety of tasks across all sorts of subjects. So, if you're wondering, "who can write a paper for me?" you're in the right place. Our team is ready and able to take on whatever you throw at us!

And we're not just talking about a narrow field here. Our experts span a wide range of subjects, ensuring your bases are covered, no matter the topic:

• Literature;
• Psychology;
• Management;

...and that's just the tip of the iceberg. With such a broad spectrum of expertise, we're your all-in-one destination for academic help. Facing challenges with your assignments? Let us know, and we'll gear up to help you excel. Our essay writing service is here to take the weight off your shoulders while paving the way to academic excellence without the hassle.

I need someone to write my essay for me

Ever asked yourself, "can someone write my essay?" Check out DoMyEssay. Between classes, studying, and trying to have a social life, the last thing you need is to stress over the cost of help when you have to write an essay. That’s why we offer flexible pricing — to make sure you can get expert help without stressing over your budget.

Here’s what we promise: every paper you get from us is crafted from scratch and tailored to your specific instructions. We're serious about crafting work that's not only highly unique but delivers high quality — because our reputation hinges on your satisfaction.

Trust us to take care of your essays while you live your best student life.

Do My Essay For Me with Professional Writers

Place an order, and our experts will write your paper according to instructions

Top essay writers for your papers

Why entrust writing your essays to us?

online anytime

delivered on time

happy with their essays

Calculate the price of your essay

Find some benefits of our essay writing service.

We write great essays from scratch and check every single paper with reliable plagiarism-detection software.

Our writers are specialists in their subjects, as well as in academic English, so they surely can do your essay.

You can choose a longer deadline for any of your essays and keep the price of your paper low.

Your paper will precisely meet all of your instructions, or the writer will promptly revise it for free.

The essay written for you will contain only relevant information and proper formatting.

You will get your essay done before the deadline that you specify in the order form arrives.

Find out what other students say

Want to know how it works.

• 1 You place an order and leave us instructions
• 2 We assign you the writer who knows your subject best
• 3 You get a notification when your essay is ready.
• Title: Saffron Paper type: Essay Discipline: Cultural and ethnic studies Academic level: Undergraduate (years 1-2) Paper format: APA View sample →
• Title: The Nightingale and the Rose Paper type: Response essay Discipline: English 101 Academic level: Undergraduate (years 1-2) Paper format: MLA View sample →
• Title: Types of Fans in Sports Paper type: Essay Discipline: English 101 Academic level: Undergraduate (years 3-4) Paper format: MLA View sample →
• Title: Casa Batllo by Antoni Gaudi Paper type: Essay Discipline: Architecture Academic level: Undergraduate (years 1-2) Paper format: APA View sample →

How can I find a reliable service to write my essay for me?

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“Who is able to write my essay for me?” This is one of the most popular online cries for help. They are left by desperate students who have no time or competence to handle their essays or other pieces of writing. So, they require aid from competent custom writing platforms. As the choice is pretty rich, it may be hard to figure out which option is better. We will ease your pain and simply recommend ourselves.

We are a famous custom writing company called DoMyEssay.net. We easily tackle any requests similar to “do my essay.” We have worked for over 10 years and always meet the needs of our clients. We offer high quality, speed, and originality, as well as pretty cheap prices, timely accessibility, and other vital features. Read on to find out more about the possibilities we provide.

Who Will Write My Essays?

We are a respectable writing platform that always satisfies the needs of its dear clients. Of course, our loyal clients know about this fact. In the meantime, the newbies to our site need some proof. So, they ask — Who will write my paper for me? They realize that the success of their academic papers depends on the qualifications of our writers. We can comfort you because we deal only with professionals.

All the candidates for the position of writer on our site are verified before anyone is hired. They pass a complicated drafting procedure, which consists of:

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Moreover, skilled mentors control the progress of all newbies to be sure they can handle any challenge with excellence. As a result, when you buy an essay cheap here, you risk nothing. We sufficiently increase your chances of getting the most out of any essay or other type of paper.

“Can your site do my essay for me, or is there something else?” We offer aid with other types of academic projects. These can be:

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Every helper can write, edit, rewrite, proofread, select topics, etc. Anything you may need to complete your project will be offered by us. As we have hundreds of experts, you will easily find certified experts in all academic fields. You can also contact your helper if you have any questions or if you just want to learn the current status of your order.

Can You Write My Essay for Me Cheaply?

Many students look for cheap essays because their budgets are fairly small. We know about that fact and offer pretty cheap prices. It’s a reasonable and fair policy because professional aid has its price. Yet, you will not overpay.

“How can I regulate the price when you do my essays for me?” It’s very simple because we offer smart customization of the orders. You need to specify the following details about your project:

• Quality — high school, college, or university
• Type — essay, coursework, movie review, etc.
• Deadline — hours, days, or weeks
• Size — words, pages, or line spacing

Check the total cost as soon as you fill out the application form. If you need a cheaper bid, change any of these points. It is a fast and convenient way to buy professional help on your terms.

Of course, you have a rich choice of experts. It’s not compulsory to select from our top performers. Our other experts are quite competitive as well. They may simply lack a definite number of orders or are newbies. A cheap essay writer can solve any of your issues.

Will My Essay Helper Be Fast Enough?

One of the most popular questions asked by our clients sounds like this — Are you able to do my paper on time? Of course, a lot depends on different odds. Nonetheless, our pro writers are fast enough to meet very urgent deadlines.

“How fast can they do my papers?” Our writers sharpen their skills regularly. They also know the most effective time management strategies. This allows them to be extremely fast and avoid mistakes even when they are in a hurry. Most essays are done in 3–4 hours.

“What about the time required to write my research papers or other projects?” Such tasks surely require more time. Nonetheless, you will get them on time if you place them beforehand.

Can You Guarantee My Safety When You Write a Paper for Me?

It is really cool when skilled custom essay writers easily handle your greatest nightmares in learning. Yet, you should never forget about your online safety. We take care of that. Our custom essay writing company uses effective antivirus software to handle all kinds of Internet hazards.

We won’t disclose any data about our clients to other clients, users, companies, sites, etc. We also offer safe payment methods to safeguard your money. We solve the issue of “help me write my essay” and protect your privacy.

Do My Essays: What Other Conditions Can I Get?

Our clients often ask — Do you offer something else when you write my essay online? They have some other needs, and they hope we are able to satisfy them. Thus, we also offer:

• Unique content. All the projects we complete are done from scratch. That means they are not plagiarized. Our experts know how to make text readable and informative. To be sure we don’t plagiarize someone else, we use various plagiarism checkers to spot any matches and get rid of them.
• Refund. “Can I count on monetary compensation when you do my essay reviews?” Yes, we offer this vital guarantee. If your helper accepts your demands but fails you, all your money will be returned. Of course, it doesn’t commonly happen because our professionals don’t make mistakes.
• 24/7 access. You can visit our site even late at night. There are always active writers and consultants. If you have any questions about our company, the consultants will happily answer them all. Just reach out to them in the live chat room and wait for 2 minutes or so.

Top-notch essay writers in one place

Welcome to a platform where students get matched with quality essay help. Compare our essay writers’ ratings and choose your perfect writing assistance partner. You're just steps away from top-notch support!

Ace every assignment with a pro writing service

Curious about a specific paper writer? Check their profile's ratings and reviews. Once you've made your choice they'll write paper on your deadline.

Working with a professional essay writer from our essay writing services can really make your school life easier. Imagine having more time on your hands and less stress about deadlines. Our experts know their way around any topic and are wizards with different formatting styles. Whether you’re stuck or just need a helping hand, they’ve got you covered.

We’re picky about who we team up with. Every expert is put through a rigorous testing process to make sure they're up to the task of writing top-notch papers. We only choose professionals who have earned higher education degrees and have a solid track record in their fields. This means they can dive deep into any subject you throw at them, no matter how complex.

Once you place your "write essay for me" order, you get to see who might be handling your paper. You can check out their ratings, read feedback from other students, and see what subjects they specialize in. This helps you pick the perfect essay helper for your project. You can even chat with them before you decide, so you know you’re making the right choice. With this level of customization, you’re not just getting an expert, you’re getting the right expert for your specific needs.

Why students choose our essay writing service

High-quality essays

Plagiarism & non-AI reports

Printable sources

Title page & formatting

1-Page abstract

Add graphics & tables

Detailed outline

Early draft

Essay service trusted by thousands of students

For over a decade, our paper writer service has been addressing the essay writing needs of students just like you. This extensive experience not only deepens our understanding of academic requirements but also cements the trust our customers place in us. We're here because we know what works for you.

Real people, real skills, real results — that's the commitment of our essay writing service. Every professional essay writer we partner with is rigorously tested to ensure they can craft original, high-quality content without relying on AI. We believe in the power of human creativity and expertise to deliver essays that truly stand out.

When it comes to "write my papers," it's all about precision. Each assignment is highly original, handwritten, and tailored to your instructions. No matter the complexity of your paper, our service is equipped to handle it. Our commitment to quality ensures that every paper leaves a mark.

Find your essay writer online

Track your essay writing orders.

Get essay writing help for any assignment in one place. Quickly check the statuses of your "write my essay" orders and stay updated on their progress. This ensures you never lose track of where your essay is in the writing process.

Guide your essay writer online

Provide detailed instructions and any necessary information to your paper writer. The clearer your instructions, the more precisely they can write paper for you. Effective communication enhances the quality of your final paper.

Quick paper writing form

Fill in our straightforward 10-minute order form before you pay for essay. This form captures all essential details needed for your writer to begin working effectively using the instructions you provided. It’s designed to save you time and streamline your ordering process.

Make an informed choice

Connect with a professional writer who best fits your academic needs through our user-friendly essay writing website. Review their ratings, specialties, and feedback, and even chat with them before making your choice. This ensures you find the perfect match for your essay requirements.

Track orders anywhere from our mobile app

How our paper writing service helps you

Our expert essay writers can handle any type of work you need, from essays to research papers. Just pick the paper writer who specializes in your topic.

Master any academic challenge with our expert help on essays, research papers, and more.

We’re here to support you in tackling and understanding complex subjects to enhance your learning experience.

Request presentations, speeches, and miscellaneous projects with our expert, tailored assistance.

Check samples to confirm the quality of our essay service

Strategies and Effects of Motivation in the Workplace

How Does the Concept of Self Influence Communication?

An Analysis of Bill Gates as a Transformational Leader

The Role of Telemedicine in Improving Accessibility to Healthcare

The Role of Nurse Practitioners in Expanding Access to Primary Healthcare Services

Before you decide to "pay someone to write my essay", you probably want to verify the quality you're paying for. Take a look at our essay samples to see the kind of work we do. This way, you know the level of quality to expect from our paper writer service.

Why customers trust our paper writing service

Talk to your writer directly on our platform without sharing your personal contact details. Our writing service protects your information with bank-level security measures.

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Get highly original and tailored essay writing crafted by carefully chosen writers. We keep a close eye on their work every day to ensure you receive the most authentic work.

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Essay writing service FAQs

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EssayPro has been providing top-quality essay writing services for over a decade. This means managing our customers’ assignments and helping them reduce their workloads. So, why do clients keep choosing our services?

We carefully handpick all our paper writers to ensure that each of them demonstrates the highest level of professionalism, expertise, and dedication. This approach allows us to deliver authentic and highly original papers for everyone who turns to us with a "write my essays" request.

Our experienced essay help team specializes in crafting a variety of paper types at varying levels of complexity. From a simple one-page essay to a thorough and complex dissertation - EssayPro has you covered.

Thanks to our vast experience, we create papers tailored to every customer’s unique needs. And we’re ready to handle any learning challenges you are facing. When you turn to us for help, you will receive the best quality of service within your specified timeframe!

How can hiring an expert essay writer help me?

You're probably contending with a number of different challenges, such as combining studies with sports and other extracurriculars. On top of that, maybe you have a side hustle or even a full-time job to cover your expenses. So, if your life is intense and fast-paced, having a trusted assistant by your side can't hurt. And that’s why EssayPro is here!

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The fastest way to "write my essay for me"

Our paper writing service team knows that a learner’s life often involves juggling lots of responsibilities and pursuing several important goals at once. But what if you’re constantly drained? You might feel overwhelmed trying to manage your workload, even though you're doing your best.

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Say “write my paper” and get help from top-rated writers

Whether you have a last-minute essay or some extensive research work that you are dealing with, you shouldn’t worry about it when there’s EssayPro by your side. Our essay writing service is always here to give you a helping hand, with top-level professionalism guaranteed.

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How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

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How to Write Your College Essay: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

Getting ready to start your college essay? Your essay is very important to your application — especially if you’re applying to selective colleges.

Become a stronger writer by reviewing your peers’ essays and get your essay reviewed as well for free.

We have regular livestreams during which we walk you through how to write your college essay and review essays live.

College Essay Basics

Just getting started on college essays? This section will guide you through how you should think about your college essays before you start.

• Why do essays matter in the college application process?
• What is a college application theme and how do you come up with one?
• How to format and structure your college essay

Before you move to the next section, make sure you understand:

How a college essay fits into your application

What a strong essay does for your chances

How to create an application theme

Learn the Types of College Essays

Next, let’s make sure you understand the different types of college essays. You’ll most likely be writing a Common App or Coalition App essay, and you can also be asked to write supplemental essays for each school. Each essay has a prompt asking a specific question. Each of these prompts falls into one of a few different types. Understanding the types will help you better answer the prompt and structure your essay.

• How to Write a Personal Statement That Wows Colleges
• Personal Statement Essay Examples
• How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity Essay
• Extracurricular Essay Examples
• Tips for Writing a Diversity College Essay
• Diversity Essay Examples
• Tips for Writing a Standout Community Service Essay
• How to Write the “Why This Major” Essay
• How to Write a “Why This Major” Essay if You’re Undecided
• How to write the “Why This College” Essay
• How to Research a College to Write the “Why This College” Essay
• Why This College Essay Examples
• How to Write The Overcoming Challenges Essay
• Overcoming Challenges Essay Examples

Identify how each prompt fits into an essay type

What each type of essay is really asking of you

How to write each essay effectively

The Common App essay

Almost every student will write a Common App essay, which is why it’s important you get this right.

• How to Write the Common App Essay
• Successful Common App Essay Examples
• 5 Awesome College Essay Topics + Sample Essays
• 11 Cliché College Essay Topics + How to Fix Them

How to choose which Common App prompts to answer

How to write a successful Common App essay

What to avoid to stand out to admissions officers

Supplemental Essay Guides

Many schools, especially competitive ones, will ask you to write one or more supplemental essays. This allows a school to learn more about you and how you might fit into their culture.

These essays are extremely important in standing out. We’ve written guides for all the top schools. Follow the link below to find your school and read last year’s essay guides to give you a sense of the essay prompts. We’ll update these in August when schools release their prompts.

See last year’s supplemental essay guides to get a sense of the prompts for your schools.

Essay brainstorming and composition

Now that you’re starting to write your essay, let’s dive into the writing process. Below you’ll find our top articles on the craft of writing an amazing college essay.

• Where to Begin? 3 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises
• Creating the First Draft of Your College Application Essay
• How to Get the Perfect Hook for Your College Essay
• What If I Don’t Have Anything Interesting To Write About In My College Essay?
• 8 Do’s and Don’t for Crafting Your College Essay
• Stuck on Your College Essay? 8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block

Understand how to write a great hook for your essay

Complete the first drafts of your essay

Editing and polishing your essay

Have a first draft ready? See our top editing tips below. Also, you may want to submit your essay to our free Essay Peer Review to get quick feedback and join a community of other students working on their essays.

• 11 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your College Essay
• Getting Help with Your College Essay
• 5 DIY Tips for Editing Your College Essay
• How Long Should Your College Essay Be?
• Essential Grammar Rules for Your College Apps
• College Essay Checklist: Are You Ready to Submit?

Proofread and edited your essay.

Had someone else look through your essay — we recommend submitting it for a peer review.

Make sure your essay meets all requirements — consider signing up for a free account to view our per-prompt checklists to help you understand when you’re really ready to submit.

Advanced College Essay Techniques

Let’s take it one step further and see how we can make your college essay really stand out! We recommend reading through these posts when you have a draft to work with.

• 10 Guidelines for Highly Readable College Essays
• How to Use Literary Devices to Enhance Your Essay
• How to Develop a Personalized Metaphor for Your College Applications

Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

Want free help with your college essay?

UPchieve connects you with knowledgeable and friendly college advisors—online, 24/7, and completely free. Get 1:1 help brainstorming topics, outlining your essay, revising a draft, or editing grammar.

Writing a strong college admissions essay

Learn about the elements of a solid admissions essay.

Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes

Learn some of the most common mistakes made on college essays

Brainstorming tips for your college essay

Stuck on what to write your college essay about? Here are some exercises to help you get started.

How formal should the tone of your college essay be?

Learn how formal your college essay should be and get tips on how to bring out your natural voice.

Taking your college essay to the next level

Hear an admissions expert discuss the appropriate level of depth necessary in your college essay.

Student Stories

Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

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How to Write an Essay

How To Write An Essay

‍ Start by thoroughly analyzing the question to grasp its essence. Define your central argument or thesis. Support your argument with a combination of solid evidence, logical reasoning, and references to scholarly works. Ensure the essay is well-organized, presenting ideas coherently. Maintain clear and concise writing throughout. Finally, accurately cite all sources and evidence used, adhering to appropriate academic referencing standards.

All you need to know about essay writing is right here. So, let’s take some consistent baby steps.

Read through our guide until the end, and in time, you’ll become an exceptional essay writer, and the process will become automatic and natural to you. ‍ ‍

Pre-writing Tips

Get to know pre-writing tips to help you figure out how to write a good essay. Before you start writing, consider all of the following without skipping any steps:

• Truly understand your task : Make sure you grasp what the essay task is asking.
• Brainstorming : You can try to use techniques like mind mapping and freewriting to let yourself generate ideas in a free flow.
• Create an outline : You’ll save yourself some time and effort by outlining. This helps you structure your ideas and main points.
• Consider your audience : Make sure you remember who you’re writing for.

Lay the groundwork for your essay writing by considering the points above. If you want a smoother process, then work smart and not hard. 

Learning The Importance of Essay Structure

Structure and adaptation are important when it comes to figuring out how to write a good essay.

Organizing Your Essay Writing Process Effectively

Make sure that your college essay is well-structured. This is crucial, and it ensures you are presenting your arguments as logically and comprehensively as possible. You need your ideas to flow smoothly and to engage your audience. 

By organizing your essay, you convey your ideas logically and creatively. This boosts your power to not just inform but to persuade as well. Master how to write an essay in an organized manner, and you've already mastered half of it.

Adapt To Different Prompts

Adapting to various prompts involves fitting your writing to the specific requirements. Do this by remembering these tips: 

• Analyze the prompt.
• Identify the essay type and topic.
• Tailor your writing style, tone, and approach to the criteria.

If you need help to write an essay don't forget Studyfy, since you'll find plenty of writing help on the platform.

Picking Your Topic

Picking the right topic is a crucial element in how to write a compelling essay. The right topic captures your audience’s interest easily. Moreover, the right topic also resonates with YOU. Still confused? If you need help writing an essay, you know where to go.

And please, do be mindful of the following: 

• Consider what you’re interested in and what you already have prior knowledge of.
• Take into account who your audience is.
• Take into account the essay’s purpose and aim.
• Make sure that your chosen topic is actually manageable to write but also allows for in-depth analysis and exploration.

Creating A Good Title

If you want to draw your audience in from the get-go and if you want to come off strong, after choosing your topic, you’ll want to create a captivating title. It should be engaging and relevant. Does this confuse you? You can send a “ write my essay ” order on Studyfy right now, and it’s off your hands and into an expert’s hands.

Here are a few pointers to remember: 

• Create a title that’s relevant to your essay’s thesis but is also capturing/engaging. The first impression you give to your readers can set the whole tone for how they take in your essay.
• Be concise but also descriptive. Find the good middle. 

Building Your Thesis, Body, and Conclusion

Writing an essay can be rewarding once you get the hang of it. If you learn and apply effective ways to construct and write its parts, you can truly create something impressive. The three central pillars of your essay are your thesis, body, and conclusion.

Whether you're writing admissions essays, five paragraph essay, argumentative essays or other types of college essays, the paragraph structure is very similar for any particular topic.

Like acts of a play, each part is vital. We’re going to learn the exact ways in which you can write great theses, bodies, and conclusions. Read carefully. 

Crafting a Compelling Central Argument - Guiding Your Essay's Direction

Good essay writing means starting with an effective and well-thought-out thesis statement. Think of your thesis statement as a compass. It serves to guide your writing. It needs to be clear and have conviction. Remember these pointers when making one: 

• Zero in on the best potential “core” idea : After brainstorming, you should have a list of ideas you can sift through. Find the best one with the most potential to develop.
• Take a stance while being informative : Thesis statements should represent your stance. They don’t merely inform. It needs to open up to debate or a perspective you want to prove/convey in the entirety of your essay. 
• Be precise and engaging : Be specific but engaging at the same time when writing your thesis statement.
• Remain flexible : When you write, remember that the topic has a chance of evolving or changing. Your thesis should reflect/change with it. If you need to refine it as you write, you should. Just make sure it’s relevant/related to what you’re writing.

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How To Write A Great Academic Essay Body: The Main Arguments

• Start with a Topic Sentence, setting the paragraph's focus like a mini-thesis.
• Elaborate on the Topic Sentence.
• Present Supporting Evidence.
• Examine and Interpret the Evidence.
• Establish how it supports your main argument.
• Conclude with a Transition to the next point.

Your body paragraphs are where you’ll develop your arguments that support your thesis. This is where you will present evidence and examples in a cohesive and impactful way through your writing. Always reference back to your thesis statement so as not to go off-topic. Remember these pointers: 

• Arrange your points logically : This means ensuring each paragraph transitions seamlessly to the next. By structuring logically, you strengthen your arguments and persuasiveness, and you remain coherent. You convey your ideas smoothly to the reader. 
• Develop each point completely : You should finish exploring and developing a point in its wholeness. Use evidence, present strong examples, and show the reader your unique stance/thoughts on the argument. 
• Use transitions : For seamless reading, use academically approved transition words, like “Furthermore” or “Additionally.” 

The foundation of learning how to do an essay properly is by understanding that each part of the essay is a cohesive whole. To provide context means to glue the first sentence to the main argument and, for example, tie the main stages with transitional phrases.

How To Write An Essay: Ending with Impact

Another crucial element of how to write essays effectively is writing a strong conclusion. You should reinforce your thesis statements and your main points in this part. Here is what you need to remember: 

• Revisit your thesis statement : Rephrase, reiterate and showcase your developed arguments.
• Emphasize key findings and thoughts : Rewrite and recap the key points in your college essay to help your audience retain your core arguments.
• Conclude with a strong thought : Conclude with a call-to-action, idea, or provocative question that encourages the reader to explore the topic of your essay even after they’ve read your entire paper.
• Keep it concise : Be concise and focused in your conclusion. Don’t introduce new information. 

Bonus Tips: Improving Your Style and Argumentation

We’ve gone through all the main information you’ll need for essay writing, but you should know some of these additional tips to truly step up your writing game. Another way to step up your writing game is to consider Studyfy’s admission essay writing service and other writing services. Let’s dive deeper into bettering your style and arguments.

Becoming A Master Persuader

To become a true master at essay writing and never need help with writing an essay, you’ll want to practice the art of persuasion. You want to sway and influence your readers by engaging them deeply in your arguments. Remember these points: 

• Analyze your audience : When tailoring your voice and writing for your audience, you should also tailor your ARGUMENTS to them so they resonate. Try to speculate your audience’s perspectives, values, beliefs, and thought patterns. This will give you a deeper insight when developing your arguments. 
• Use strong opening sentences : Make sure to grab your readers’ attention right from the start. 
• Persuasive language : Using words and sentences that foster a sense of importance and urgency and ignite curiosity. Integrate persuasive language throughout your essay, like call-to-actions, emotional appeals, rhetorical questions, inclusive language, and testimonials. 

Appeal to Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

When writing an essay, a good way to strengthen your argumentation is to appeal to ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) in your readers. Take a look at these pointers: 

• Establishing credibility (appealing to ethos) : Use reliable sources, cite experts, use strong evidence, and use testimonials. By showing your audience you're backing up your arguments with credible facts, you strengthen your persuasion power. 
• Connect on an emotional level (appealing to pathos) : When you have their heart, you have them. Use vivid language, relatable anecdotes, and examples, and tap into the power of emotion.
• Logical reasoning is powerful (appealing to logos) : Using facts and logical points to present clear data and statistics can strengthen your argument significantly. An argument that has solid evidence is hard to deny. 

Bonus Tips: Empowering Your Writing Skills

When pondering on how to make an essay better, it’s important to look beyond the obvious advice. In this section, we remind you to go above and beyond. Let’s find out some additional techniques that you can apply to your essay writing to improve it even further.

Infusing Your Voice Into Your Writing

Overwhelmed by the amount of things you need to learn for essay writing? You can always pay for essay services and get a professional’s help any time. Now, to infuse your voice into your essay writing, take note of these pointers:

• Be authentic and share your perspective : Your beliefs, experiences, and values should not be completely avoided when writing. If relevant to the topic, your stance can provide a fresh and new angle on your essay, and it can help your essay stand out.
• Do not be afraid to be creative : Play with language by using metaphors, descriptive language, similes, and other literary tools. It makes your writing memorable and enjoyable when done right.

Cross-Referencing

If you need help with writing an essay to make it better, try to integrate interdisciplinary concepts into your writing. Cross-referencing other fields like history, psychology, science, and literature to provide deeper insights into your arguments can strengthen your essay. Ensure your references add to your arguments, and don’t go off-topic.

Develop Flexibility In Perception

Another way to empower your writing skills and determine how to write an excellent essay is to view and present arguments and statements from different angles. This niche skill is invaluable. If you learn how to master it, you can be a very persuasive writer. Find ways to examine and defend both sides of a topic. Present counter-arguments, and so on.

This requires a lot of practice to use effectively but is easily one of the best things you can develop in essay writing and life. Usually, an argumentative essay is a successful essay if its body paragraphs create a basic structure of opposing context for a specific topic. Your writing process and your introduction paragraph can open the way for the entire essay to delve into opposing topics.

Make sure to do proper research, develop a good idea about what the topics are different or similar to, and, for example, explain your main thesis in a few paragraphs. A clear thesis makes the main body almost write itself - in any type of essay, including an argumentative essay.

Bonus Tips: Remaining Ethical In Writing

Remaining ethical and upholding integrity and credibility in your essay writing is key to passing academia since your professors will double-check your work to make sure you haven’t engaged in cheating. How do you write an essay while remaining ethical? Let’s find out.

How To Avoid Plagiarizing

You’ll need to avoid plagiarizing completely. The degree of punishment you can get for plagiarizing will vary from institution to institution, with some proving to be more lenient while others will be less forgiving. Need help? Try Studyfy’s custom essay writing service and get an expert writer to help you.

 Remember these points to save yourself the grief: 

• Remember : Plagiarism isn’t only copying text; it’s also using other people’s data, ideas, concepts, and so on without properly crediting them. 
• You SHOULD paraphrase : Master paraphrasing by reinterpreting the information you’ve examined. Use your own words. 
• Improve research and note-taking skills : If you research effectively and take notes on the data you collect, it will be easier to distinguish your original ideas from your resources.

Essay Checklist

If you’ve read everything thoroughly and applied what’s been stated in our guide, you should be much better at writing essays. To further improve your experience, here’s an essay checklist you can use to make sure you’ve done everything you need to. 

Remember to focus on the formatting issues as well, including common mistakes, passive voice, too much everyday experience, and ambiguous word choice.

Checklist Item

• Strong and Clear Thesis Statement
• Effective Introduction
• Well-developed Arguments
• Evidence and Support
• Paragraph Structure
• Transitions
• Strong Conclusion
• Correct Citations and References
• Plagiarism-free
• Editing, Proofreading, and Revision
• Complied With Word Count
• Correct Formatting

Did you like our article?

For more help, tap into our pool of professional writers and get expert essay writing services!

Which key elements make up a strong essay structure?

A strong introduction that grabs the audience and introduces the thesis statement effectively. A body that presents ideas and arguments that support the thesis. A conclusion that sums up the main points of the essay and reintroduces the thesis in light of the arguments stated. This is how to write an essay in English effectively.

How do I write a clear and strong thesis statement?

If you’re asking yourself, “How do I write an essay that has a strong thesis statement?” We remind you to narrow your ideas and zero in on a key idea. This idea should be specific, and it should be an idea that you can fully develop and explore.

This blog is here to provide guidance and ease the essay writing process - we're here for you from the moment you start writing to the moment you reach the central point and reach the next paragraph.

What can I do to ensure my essay is engaging and persuasive?

Be sure your introduction is compelling and uses strong, active verbs. Your arguments should be presented logically, and you should back them up with strong evidence. Make sure to use persuasive language like rhetorical questions, analogies, metaphors, inclusive words, call-to-actions, etc. Varying sentence structures will keep readers interested.

To keep the reader on the hook, most essays use clever paragraphs, a clear thesis, a robust main body, and a polished final draft.

What’s the best way to write an essay?

The best way to write a college essay is to be prepared. Read our guide thoroughly and give yourself enough time to write the whole essay. Don’t start at the last minute. 

When you begin writing, your writing process is in its first draft. What's important is that you remember that an essay outline is not the final essay, and your college essay can change and adapt as you go. Whether an introductory paragraph, main points or conclusion paragraph, make sure to catch the reader's attention and lead with concrete examples.

And don't forget to focus on editing. Double-check the line spacing, structure, outline, number of paragraphs, word choice, and the cohesion of the final paragraph.

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Getting College Essay Help: Important Do's and Don’ts

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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How to Write an Essay

Last Updated: July 22, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 18 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 7,974,089 times.

An essay is a common type of academic writing that you'll likely be asked to do in multiple classes. Before you start writing your essay, make sure you understand the details of the assignment so that you know how to approach the essay and what your focus should be. Once you've chosen a topic, do some research and narrow down the main argument(s) you'd like to make. From there, you'll need to write an outline and flesh out your essay, which should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. After your essay is drafted, spend some time revising it to ensure your writing is as strong as possible.

Understanding Your Assignment

• The compare/contrast essay , which focuses on analyzing the similarities and differences between 2 things, such as ideas, people, events, places, or works of art.
• The narrative essay , which tells a story.
• The argumentative essay , in which the writer uses evidence and examples to convince the reader of their point of view.
• The critical or analytical essay, which examines something (such as a text or work of art) in detail. This type of essay may attempt to answer specific questions about the subject or focus more generally on its meaning.
• The informative essay , that educates the reader about a topic.

• How long your essay should be
• Which citation style to use
• Formatting requirements, such as margin size , line spacing, and font size and type

Christopher Taylor, PhD

Christopher Taylor, Professor of English, tells us: "Most essays will contain an introduction, a body or discussion portion, and a conclusion. When assigned a college essay, make sure to check the specific structural conventions related to your essay genre , your field of study, and your professor's expectations."

• If you're doing a research-based essay , you might find some inspiration from reading through some of the major sources on the subject.
• For a critical essay, you might choose to focus on a particular theme in the work you're discussing, or analyze the meaning of a specific passage.

• If you're having trouble narrowing down your topic, your instructor might be able to provide guidance or inspiration.

Planning and Organizing Your Essay

• Academic books and journals tend to be good sources of information. In addition to print sources, you may be able to find reliable information in scholarly databases such as JSTOR and Google Scholar.
• You can also look for primary source documents, such as letters, eyewitness accounts, and photographs.
• Always evaluate your sources critically. Even research papers by reputable academics can contain hidden biases, outdated information, and simple errors or faulty logic.

Tip: In general, Wikipedia articles are not considered appropriate sources for academic writing. However, you may be able to find useful sources in the “References” section at the end of the article.

• You might find it helpful to write your notes down on individual note cards or enter them into a text document on your computer so you can easily copy, paste , and rearrange them however you like.
• Try organizing your notes into different categories so you can identify specific ideas you'd like to focus on. For example, if you're analyzing a short story , you might put all your notes on a particular theme or character together.

• For example, if your essay is about the factors that led to the end of the Bronze Age in the ancient Middle East, you might focus on the question, “What role did natural disasters play in the collapse of Late Bronze Age society?”

• One easy way to come up with a thesis statement is to briefly answer the main question you would like to address.
• For example, if the question is “What role did natural disasters play in the collapse of Late Bronze Age society?” then your thesis might be, “Natural disasters during the Late Bronze Age destabilized local economies across the region. This set in motion a series of mass migrations of different peoples, creating widespread conflict that contributed to the collapse of several major Bronze Age political centers.”

• When you write the outline, think about how you would like to organize your essay. For example, you might start with your strongest arguments and then move to the weakest ones. Or, you could begin with a general overview of the source you're analyzing and then move on to addressing the major themes, tone, and style of the work.
• Introduction
• Point 1, with supporting examples
• Point 2, with supporting examples
• Point 3, with supporting examples
• Major counter-argument(s) to your thesis
• Your rebuttals to the counter-argument(s)

Drafting the Essay

• For example, if you're writing a critical essay about a work of art, your introduction might start with some basic information about the work, such as who created it, when and where it was created, and a brief description of the work itself. From there, introduce the question(s) about the work you'd like to address and present your thesis.
• A strong introduction should also contain a brief transitional sentence that creates a link to the first point or argument you would like to make. For example, if you're discussing the use of color in a work of art, lead-in by saying you'd like to start with an overview of symbolic color use in contemporary works by other artists.

Tip: Some writers find it helpful to write the introduction after they've written the rest of the essay. Once you've written out your main points, it's easier to summarize the gist of your essay in a few introductory sentences.

• For example, your topic sentence might be something like, “Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories are among the many literary influences apparent in P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels.” You could then back this up by quoting a passage that contains a reference to Sherlock Holmes.
• Try to show how the arguments in each paragraph link back to the main thesis of your essay.

• When creating transitions, transitional phrases can be helpful. For example, use words and phrases such as “In addition,” “Therefore,” “Similarly,” “Subsequently,” or “As a result.”
• For example, if you've just discussed the use of color to create contrast in a work of art, you might start the next paragraph with, “In addition to color, the artist also uses different line weights to distinguish between the more static and dynamic figures in the scene.”

• For example, if you're arguing that a particular kind of shrimp decorates its shell with red algae to attract a mate, you'll need to address the counterargument that the shell decoration is a warning to predators. You might do this by presenting evidence that the red shrimp are, in fact, more likely to get eaten than shrimp with undecorated shells.

• The way you cite your sources will vary depending on the citation style you're using. Typically, you'll need to include the name of the author, the title and publication date of the source, and location information such as the page number on which the information appears.
• In general, you don't need to cite common knowledge. For example, if you say, “A zebra is a type of mammal,” you probably won't need to cite a source.
• If you've cited any sources in the essay, you'll need to include a list of works cited (or a bibliography ) at the end.

• Keep your conclusion brief. While the appropriate length will vary based on the length of the essay, it should typically be no longer than 1-2 paragraphs.
• For example, if you're writing a 1,000-word essay, your conclusion should be about 4-5 sentences long. [16] X Research source

Revising the Essay

• If you don't have time to spend a couple of days away from your essay, at least take a few hours to relax or work on something else.

• Excessive wordiness
• Points that aren't explained enough
• Tangents or unnecessary information
• Unclear transitions or illogical organization
• Spelling , grammar , style, and formatting problems
• Inappropriate language or tone (e.g., slang or informal language in an academic essay)

• You might have to cut material from your essay in some places and add new material to others.
• You might also end up reordering some of the content of the essay if you think that helps it flow better.

• Read over each line slowly and carefully. It may be helpful to read each sentence out loud to yourself.

Tip: If possible, have someone else check your work. When you've been looking at your writing for too long, your brain begins to fill in what it expects to see rather than what's there, making it harder for you to spot mistakes.

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• ↑ https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/essay-types
• ↑ https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/choosing_a_topic.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/tips-reading-assignment-prompt
• ↑ https://library.unr.edu/help/quick-how-tos/writing/integrating-sources-into-your-paper
• ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/notes-from-research/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/outlining
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-write-an-intro--conclusion----body-paragraph.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/transitions/
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-incorporate-a-counter-argument.html
• ↑ https://www.plagiarism.org/article/how-do-i-cite-sources
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conclusions/
• ↑ https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/sites/utsc.utoronto.ca.twc/files/resource-files/Intros-Conclusions.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/steps_for_revising.html
• ↑ https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/chapter/8-4-revising-and-editing/
• ↑ https://writing.ku.edu/writing-process

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If you need to write an essay, start by gathering information from reputable sources, like books from the library or scholarly journals online. Take detailed notes and keep track of which facts come from which sources. As you're taking notes, look for a central theme that you're interested in writing about to create your thesis statement. Then, organize your notes into an outline that supports and explains your thesis statement. Working from your outline, write an introduction and subsequent paragraphs to address each major point. Start every paragraph with a topic sentence that briefly explains the main point of that paragraph. Finally, finish your paper with a strong conclusion that sums up the most important points. For tips from our English Professor co-author on helpful revision techniques, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks

Published on February 9, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion .

Each paragraph addresses a single central point, introduced by a topic sentence , and each point is directly related to the thesis statement .

As you read, hover over the highlighted parts to learn what they do and why they work.

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Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://​doi.org/10.1001/​archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://​eandt.theiet.org/​content/​articles/2009/05/​blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://​doi.org/10.1016/​j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://​www.jstor.org/​stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Bryson, S. (2023, July 23). Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks. Scribbr. Retrieved August 12, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/example-essay-structure/

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How to make a video essay: A guide for beginners

What type of content do you primarily create?

Video essays are an incredibly popular genre on YouTube, and many new creators are eager to have their views heard on topics in culture and politics. But making a video essay involves a lot more than just sitting in front of a camera and pressing record. This guide is intended for beginners who don’t quite know where to start. 

What is a video essay?

A video essay’s primary defining feature is that it sets out to make an argument. It is, to put it simply, like an essay you wrote in school. Video essays often cover politics, popular media, or science.

But unlike the essays you wrote in school, video essays need extensive visual accompaniment, whether that’s footage (or B-roll ), still images, or animation.

Here’s how you can get started:

Step 1: Craft a thesis

Good video essays will have a central thesis explored throughout the piece. If you can’t summarize your thesis in a sentence (sometimes two), you’ve still got work to do. The best theses immediately leave the viewer wanting to know more. Test it on friends: If you state your thesis to friends and get reactions of curiosity or excitement you’re on to something.

Consider one of my favorite video essays, whose thesis is right in the title: "Why Snowpiercer is a sequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

‎ Sometimes, a thesis is a little more subtle, but nonetheless important. In Yhara Zayd’s video on horror movies, she argues that horror has always been a genre for social criticism.

‎ The rest of your video isn’t just proving that thesis, though that’s important. You'll want to explore the twists and turns of the idea. What questions does your thesis raise? What are the big doubts about your thesis, and how do you address them? How can we zoom out from your thesis and ask even bigger questions? 

Step 2: Determine your audience  

Your audience will dictate what level of complexity and detail you should cover in your video. If you’re an engineering channel, maybe you want to appeal to working engineers who understand the jargon of the profession. But if you’d like a broader audience, you’ll need to take the time to define terms and give background information. The best video essays usually appeal to both—their topics are unique enough to be interesting to people with prior knowledge of the topic, while accessible enough to be understood to a casual viewer.

Step 3: Organize your research early

Your video essay should have lots of supporting evidence. Aside from the usual list of articles and books, video essays can also use visual evidence.

If you’re commenting on media, that means hyper-specific shots and lines of dialogue. If you’re commenting on history, that means old news clips. Filmed interviews are a great resource regardless of the topic.

Whenever I'm trying to cover a show, I’ll watch the show (sometimes twice), take extensive notes, pause to write out lines of dialogue, and mark where specific moments supported various themes, motifs, or ideas. 

I've always regretted telling myself I’d remember a specific line or shot because I'd find myself spending an hour to hunt it down later in the process.

Whether you’re commenting on news footage, video games, or film and TV, I cannot stress enough how much extensive notetaking will improve your video essay later in the process.

The same advice goes for any books or news articles you might cite: annotate extensively and cite them in your piece.

Step 4: Familiarize yourself with "fair use"

Many video essays source footage from the news, TV, and film without licensing them. I'm not here to give advice on the legality of that, but I do think any video essayist should familiarize themselves with fair use .

Fair use is a set of criteria that a creator can use to defend their use of copyrighted work. It's not a license to freely use copyrighted work if you think you fit those standards; it’s a series of tests a judge should weigh in court. 

Usually, it doesn’t come to that. Most copyright issues go through YouTube’s copyright claim system , which you should also read up on. A film studio may claim your content, or block it altogether, for using their copyrighted material. YouTube allows you to appeal these claims , but if both parties won’t give up, the question can only be settled by a judge (in the US, at least).

Step 5: Start your script

Be sure to use a two-column script, rather than just writing out everything as if it were a traditional essay.

In one column, you’re writing what you’re saying, or what the footage is saying. In the other, write what you plan to show. Your notes here should be specific enough to help you later in the editing process. You may want to add a third column for notes, or sources to cite later.

Writing a video essay follows some different rules than what your English teacher might have expected. Most video essays use a conversational style, and include words, phrases, and grammar that would never fly with the written word. Sometimes that includes filler words, like starting a sentence with “so” or putting an “um” for effect. Just don’t overdo it.

Other writing rules still apply. Be concise, use active verbs, and otherwise just make sure you sound like a human.

Step 6: Film (or record)

You don’t need a $10,000 filming setup to make good video essays. Plenty of  people start with just a microphone, completely avoiding the camera altogether in what's known as a faceless YouTube video .

The two most important things to recommend: get good sound, and be natural. People can tolerate a lot of visual sins, but usually won’t put up with bad audio quality. Similarly, you don’t need to have the charisma of a talk show host, but people have no tolerance for on-screen performances that seem forced or fake.

That is all to say, get a decent microphone and be yourself. If you’re on-screen, buy a cheap teleprompter setup for your phone or camera.

Step 7: Start editing

There are many options for video editing software out there (and Descript is a great one), even for people with limited video editing experience. This article isn’t long enough to be an editing guide , but a few quick tips for a true novice:

• Don’t linger on any one visual for too long. Instead, mix up the visual interest of your video.
• Emphasize important concepts with text on screen.
• Take the time to learn a little about color grading .
• Clean up any noticeable background noise .

Step 8: Figure out your title and thumbnail

This may be the last step of this article, but it should often begin while you’re brainstorming. Your title and thumbnail should generate intrigue without giving it all away. Video essays often lean on titles with “How” and “Why.” Lessons from the Screenplay is a good example:

But video essays can also make provocative statements that make the viewer curious about how you’ll back it up. Consider Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell’s “ Smoking is Awesome ,” which I promise is not pro-tobacco.

Step 9: Publish

Finally, it's time to put your video out into the world and see how it fares. Your first video essay won't be perfect. It's important to put your work in public, take in feedback, and move on to your next project. Like all things, skill comes with time.

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Want to write a college essay that sets you apart? Three tips to give you a head start

1. Keep it real. It’s normal to want to make a good impression on the school of your choice, but it’s also important to show who you really are. So just be yourself! Compelling stories might not be perfectly linear or have a happy ending, and that’s OK. It’s best to be authentic instead of telling schools what you think they want to hear.

2. Be reflective . Think about how you’ve changed during high school. How have you grown and improved? What makes you feel ready for college, and how do you hope to contribute to the campus community and society at large?

3. Look to the future. Consider your reasons for attending college. What do you hope to gain from your education? What about college excites you the most, and what would you like to do after you graduate? Answering these questions will not only give colleges insight into the kind of student you’ll be, but it will also give you the personal insight you’ll need to choose the school that’s right for you.

Have questions about college prep? We're here to help.

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As a student or prospective student at CU Boulder, you have a right to certain information pertaining to financial aid programs, the Clery Act, crime and safety, graduation rates, athletics and other general information such as the costs associated with attending CU Boulder. To view this information visit  colorado.edu/your-right-know .

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I wasn’t anxious about back-to-school because of my kids. It was the other moms

As the summer drew to a close, I felt the usual anxiety rise up inside me. And it wasn’t just because of the whirlwind of back-to-school duties I’d now have to complete. It was because I’d be around those have-it-all-together perfect mom types.  

I’d been free of them for two glorious months, and it was heaven.

I knew I shouldn’t judge them. It was hard enough being judged by society for everything we did: working, not working, helicopter, free-range — our every move evaluated with such intensity. It was maddening. I hated myself for resenting them. But I did.

It wasn’t just their sideways glances and passive-aggressive comments directed at me because I’d missed a school email about pajama day or a donation for the PTA that made me feel like I was failing as a mother. Nor the times I’d run into them at the bus stop with their sparkling white teeth holding a container of cut-up fruits for the teacher’s breakfast, flanked by their kids in matching outfits, their hair done like they just stepped out of a salon.

No, it was their very existence. The way they made it look so easy, so natural, so right. While I struggled to do it all — to be a good mother, wife, daughter, friend … but kept falling short of every single one. I couldn’t seem to do anything the way I thought I should. 

I savored those summer days where I didn’t have to walk into school with my hair in its usual messy bun and Target yoga pants I’d never used for actual yoga, only to run into one of them carrying homemade gluten and nut-free vegan cupcakes for my son’s class.

I savored those summer days where I didn’t have to walk into school with my hair in its usual messy bun and Target yoga pants I’d never used for actual yoga, only to run into one of them carrying homemade gluten and nut-free vegan cupcakes for my son’s fourth grade class. And instead of being grateful for her effort and happy my son had a classmate whose mom cared about his class, I resented her, stewing in my own feelings of inadequacy. 

As the days to the start of school crept closer, my panic set in. I knew I’d have to shake myself out of my schedule-free daze and deal with my to-do list, which was getting longer than a CVS receipt. And my inbox, which was filling up each day with more forms, notes, reminders and obligations.  

Despite my efforts to will it not to, the first day of school inevitably arrived. And as much as I tried to prepare for the stress and stave off my insecurities, they still came flooding back.  

I rushed the kids out of bed and hustled them to the bus stop. That’s when I saw the first one. She was standing there in her full glory, looking fresh and ready, with her kids by her side. I smiled and waved, trying my best to push down the green monster raging inside me. She had everything organized and was happy to chat with me about it.  

“Hey, how was your summer? By the way, I signed up to be class mom for our kids’ class. Have you signed up for any of the volunteer stuff yet?” she asked.  

“Umm, not … yet. I’ll have to take a look,” I said, as I noticed that my kids were chasing each other up and down the sidewalk. “Guys, stop. The bus is almost here,” I said through clenched teeth, embarrassed that they weren’t as well behaved as her children, who were quietly standing by her side.

She shared that her son and daughter had been reading high school level books for fun and doing math problems during dinner. I’m pretty sure my kids hadn’t done a single math problem the whole summer. 

I forced a smile as I tried to push down the bile rising in my throat. As I looked at her kids’ faces and their adorable new outfits with equally sweet backpacks, she’s a good  mom, you’re a bad mom , kept swirling in my head.

Watching her put her arm around her daughter as she looked down the street to see where the bus was, I thought back to our morning. I’d woken up later than I’d planned, yelled up the stairs for the kids to get ready, then stuffed string cheese, crackers and might-have-expired granola bars into their banged-up lunch boxes. Once they finally got downstairs with their mismatched outfits, I rushed them out the door, desperately hoping we wouldn’t miss the bus. 

When it finally came, Good Mom bent down, brushed a stray hair behind her daughter’s ear and tightened her son’s shoelace before hugging and kissing them both goodbye. Distracted by the picture-perfect scene, I missed my own kids getting on the bus. No hug, no kiss, no tightening of shoelaces. Just the smoke from the exhaust as the bus left.

Good Mom and I stood and waved to our kids as we watched the bus get smaller down the tree-lined road. Then she bid me farewell as she dashed off to her SoulCycle class in a spanking new matching Lululemon outfit. I waved, boiling inside, hating myself for being so jealous of her … everything. 

After the parents dispersed, I sat on the worn wooden bench under the maple tree, my body still buzzing with the adrenaline of the first morning routine and my bad mom baggage. 

Looking down the empty street, with only the rumbling of an engine in the distance and the chirping of birds overhead, something inside of me snapped. I slumped over, holding my head in my hands as a sound came out of my mouth I didn’t recognize. It was like a desperate pain leaving my body, a combination of a cry and a whimper. I felt tears filling my eyes.

What are you doing , I thought. Why do I let myself get twisted up in the senseless comparisons year after year? Why do side glances of other moms and their seemingly perfect parenting break me so easily? 

“Stop it.” The words came tumbling out. I said them again, this time louder. “Stop it!” I could hear my breath going in and out of my nose as I looked around to make sure I was still alone.

My body felt like an empty sack, worn and depleted. Stop doing to yourself and to those other moms what society does to so many mothers, I told myself. Judging, comparing, scrutinizing. It’s none of your business what they do or don’t do. You don’t know their life, their pain, their stories. You have no idea what they’re going through behind those shiny surfaces. 

Then it hit me, like a hard snowball to the face. Instead of thinking about my kids, I’d spent the entire morning twisted up in my own dark self-doubts. I’d lost those precious moments with them — the excitement of the first day of school, their joy as they ran around with each other, their scramble to find their favorite seats when they got on the bus. 

I’d lost those precious moments with them — the excitement of the first day of school, their joy as they ran around with each other, their scramble to find their favorite seats when they got on the bus.

Did they look at me through the window to give me a toothy smile? I was so distracted by my obsession with another woman’s life that I missed my own children’s sweet faces as they left me to go out into the world. And this wasn’t the only moment I’d lost. If I was being honest, I’d wasted countless hours, days and weeks comparing myself to other moms, hate-scrolling through snapshots of their seemingly happy lives on social media, and being hurt by slights that shouldn’t have taken my attention away from my family. 

As I watched the leaves swaying with the light morning gust, tears rolled down my face as my sorrow rose inside me. 

I said it one more time, but now in a whisper. “Stop it.”

Walking home in my pajama pants and stretched out T-shirt, I felt a heaviness in my chest and a mountain of regret I didn’t know how to digest.

Then as soon as I opened the front door and saw the line of little shoes tattered from running around in parks and playgrounds, I knew things would have to change. 

So, I made myself a promise. That I would find a way to be kinder to myself and other women as we navigated this complicated, overwhelming and beautiful thing called motherhood. That no matter how hard things got, I’d fight against my feelings of inadequacy and not-good-enoughness, and instead of giving in to those doubts, I’d fill those moments with grace, for myself and others.

I can’t say that I’ve kept that promise every day, but I have kept it more days than not. And that’s something good. Something that’s helped me find peace, gratitude and love as I continue to navigate the incredible privilege of being a mother.

Rebecca Morrison is a lawyer and writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TODAY, NBC News, Salon, HuffPost and Newsweek, among others. Her middle-grade novel, "The Blue Dress," based on her childhood as an Iranian immigrant trying to fit into her family and her new American homeland, is coming out with Farrar Straus Giroux Books in winter 2026. You can find her at  www.rebeccakmorrison.com .

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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My Cousins Want Me to “Do the Right Thing” With My Inheritance. No Way.

I feel like i’m opening a pandora’s box..

Pay Dirt is Slate’s money advice column.  Have a question?  Send it to Athena, Kristin, and Ilyce here .  (It’s anonymous!)

Dear Pay Dirt, 

When my grandmother died, her property came to my mother and uncle. He unfortunately died six months later without updating his will and his second wife inherited his share of the property. During an already tragic time, my cousins dragged us all into a fruitless lawsuit against their stepmother.

My mother had just lost the majority of her family in less than a year and was nearly catatonic with grief. The lawsuit added so much stress for her and ruined any relationship we had with my cousins. My aunt sold my mother her half of the property. She was so sick of it all, she moved back to her home country.

I didn’t have any contact with my cousins for several years until I lost my mother to cancer. My cousins came to the funeral and were a big comfort to me. I thought we had put the mess behind us.

Last week, I listed the property for sale because I was sick of the taxes and lived on the other side of the state. I got a text from one of my cousins asking me to do the “right” thing and give them their “fair share” of the proceedings. I just feel sick and scared. They are the only family I have left. I am unmarried and have no kids or siblings. I desperately wanted to believe their support of me was genuine but part of me thinks it was a ruse. I haven’t responded yet. What do I do? Ignore this, open up Pandora’s box, what else?

Dear Scared, 

First, let’s look at the financial side of things. Your mother paid for the remaining share of the property so that she could own it outright. In her will, she then passed on the entire property to you—both the half she inherited and the half she paid for. At this point, your cousin doesn’t have any financial stake in the property. If they still have beef about not getting their “fair share” of inheritance, that beef is with their stepmother, not you. Your mother paid to put this matter behind her. If you give them proceeds from the sale, that means you will be paying yet again to leave this situation in the past. The math doesn’t add up.

Whether or not your cousin genuinely wanted to be there to support you after your mother’s death is another matter, but right now, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, it doesn’t sound like they’re at all interested in having a dialogue. Your cousin almost seems to be manipulating you into giving them money. Yes, they might feel cheated after their father’s death, and maybe that feeling is valid. But it’s long since been settled, and you had nothing to do with it.

In cases like this, it’s best to address the issue directly. And stick to the facts. Remind your cousin that your mother paid for full ownership of the property, and if she felt it was fair to divide this asset up among your cousins, she would have stated that in the will. You can also add that she paid your aunt because she wanted to put this matter behind her, and you hope they can honor that by dropping the issue. I know you’re scared about losing your family, but if your family is intimidating you in this way, they don’t seem like a reliable support system to begin with. In this case, doing the “right thing” sounds like standing up for yourself.

Want Advice From Pay Dirt?

For questions on the money issues in your life try submitting to  Pay Dirt !

Dear Pay Dirt,

For many years I’ve used a financial institution that was loosely affiliated with my credit union to manage my IRAs. The financial advisor assigned to my account has changed several times: most were just meh, but there was one woman who did a fantastic job explaining things and preparing me for the future. She left a few years ago, and her replacement is another guy who communicates poorly and who probably couldn’t pick me out of a lineup.

When my aunt died, I inherited her IRAs and have been working with her financial advisor. This man clearly cared about my aunt and did an excellent job with her finances. He overexplains things, but at least he’s clear. I’ve thought about moving my other IRAs to his firm, but I’m torn. For one thing, he’s in another state (though he knows about my state’s tax laws). For another, he’s of an age to retire soon, and then I’d be right back at square one. Is there any advantage to having all of my accounts under one roof? And how important is it to have a personal relationship with (or at least like) your advisor?

—One Basket for All the Eggs?

Dear One Basket,

Make sure you really like this advisor. It sounds like you already have an idea of what to look for in a good financial advisor, but it’s worth a recap. At the bare minimum, they should have some kind of credentials, ideally, they would be registered with the CFP board . They should also have a fee-based, rather than commission-based, payment structure—that way, you know they’re not just trying to sell you financial products for kickbacks. But beyond the basics, you want to make sure you mesh well with this person. You want to look for someone who listens to your specific needs rather than someone who offers generic advice that may or may not apply to you. They should also respect your risk tolerance when it comes to investing and have a clear idea of your long-term financial goals. Also, what’s their experience with clients similar to yours? Do they work with people in similar life stages?

But onto your question. The advantage of moving your accounts is mostly convenience and simplicity. Having everything at one firm can make it easier when you withdraw your funds at retirement, and it can make tax preparation easier, too. That said, you don’t want to risk important things like diversification and risk management for the sake of convenience. And if this advisor charges substantially more to manage your funds, that’s something to consider, too.

It might be beneficial to have an advisor in your state because, as you mentioned, they would theoretically have more knowledge of the laws and codes of your jurisdiction. But a good advisor from another state should be well-informed and able to effectively manage your accounts. It sounds like this advisor is pretty savvy, so if you have accounts with him anyway, it might make sense to move. Both for the convenience and for the peace of mind knowing that all of your assets are in good hands.

If you do go this route, make sure to ask some questions first. If he’s retiring soon, what is the future of their firm? It’s smart to evaluate the other advisors at the firm and see what their customer reviews say, especially compared to your current firm. If you trust this advisor, he should also be able to give you solid advice on the pros and cons of moving over your other accounts. It can be a pain to move everything over, but if you’re going to be picky, you might as well be picky with the person managing your money.

Want more Pay Dirt every week? Slate Plus members get an additional column each week.  Sign up for Slate Plus now .

I’m looking for some career/life advice. I work for governmental artist support. It’s hugely rewarding and important work. Unfortunately, we are severely underfunded, and a big part of my job is sending rejection letters to artists who genuinely deserve the funds. I’ve worked in different areas of artist support all my adult life so naturally a large part of my friend circle is artists. My partner is an artist, too. My friends are occasionally the artists who receive similar rejection letters. It breaks my heart. I have always been there to sympathize and offer clarity if they ask.  But recently, it has been hard for me. I would love some advice on how to offer my support to my friends and partner and not feel heartbroken while doing my job.

—Yours With Sympathy

Dear Sympathy,

Does it help to remember that you’re the best kind of person for this job? It’s hard to get a rejection like that, but it can help soften the blow when the rejection comes from someone who genuinely understands and empathizes with the situation. Clearly, you approach your job with a sense of warmth. I’m guessing that warmth radiates in all the tasks you do—big and small. I know this doesn’t erase the heartache you feel, but it does give it a sense of purpose. Part of the reason you’re good at your job is that you care. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t feel so bad about seeing these folks struggle.

This kind of emotional labor is common among caretakers and people in professions like yours. It might be a necessary part of the job, but it can be draining, so don’t forget to take care of yourself, too. Do you have a self-care practice? It can be as simple as meditating at the end of a long day. Or starting a small support group with some of your colleagues. As the saying goes, it’s hard to pour from an empty cup, so find small ways to recharge your energy throughout the day. Not everyone can emotionally detach from the work they do, and that’s part of what makes people good at doing what they do. Unfortunately, it also means that heartache might be part of the process. Maybe the goal isn’t to get rid of that pain entirely but to find ways to be resilient in the face of it. That way, you can continue to do the work that you find so meaningful and rewarding.

Classic Prudie

I just moved in with my boyfriend of eight months. This is quicker than I’d normally move in with someone, but I had problems with an awful landlord, and my boyfriend had just bought a house. Things have been going really well, except for one issue. My boyfriend’s hobby is woodworking, and he plans to furnish the house exclusively with pieces he builds himself.

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Guest Essay

My Mother’s Favorite Music Taught Me How to Live Courageously

By Maria Garcia

Ms. Garcia is the creator and host of the Juan Gabriel podcast “ My Divo .”

In the thick of the pandemic I moved back to El Paso, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border, where I’d been raised, for what I thought would be a temporary stay. But then the desert whispered. After years away, my body hungered for the quiet wisdom of this land.

I’d changed since I’d left. In New York and Boston, I had lived openly as a queer woman. I found myself being more discreet around my family in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where I was born. There are plenty of queer people living full, open lives here. But none of them are in my family.

As soon as Covid restrictions eased, I began crossing the border into Ciudad Juárez by foot to sing karaoke with my queer friends whenever I needed release. My favorite songs to sing were those by the iconic Mexican showman Juan Gabriel. I loved reveling in my queerness and my culture all at once. I longed for that liberation around my family.

Music has the power to help us understand ourselves. Juan Gabriel’s tender femininity was a radical quality in a Mexico entrenched in machismo and homophobia. He managed to embody his Mexican roots while also exuding queerness — two ideas that were for so long at odds in our culture.

I inherited my love for Juanga, as he was affectionately called, from my mother. He was her first crush and her ultimate hometown hero. On those nights in Juárez when I’d belt out his songs the question would surface: If my Mexican mother could accept him as he was, could she accept me, too?

When I explain Juan Gabriel to American friends, I tell them to imagine an artist as revolutionary, innovative and singular as Prince and as peacockish, prolific (he composed more than 1,800 songs!) and canonized as Elton John. Someone once told me no one has made Latin Americans cry, laugh and dance more.

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