I procrastinated and now I don't know where to begin with my essay. How do I start?

Answer 1

It's called writers block for a reason! This happens to everyone. I love to use the "snowball" exercise.

Set a timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes (whatever feels approachable). Then, write anything until the timer goes off. In a perfect world, it has to do with your essay, but don't fret if that feels impossible. The point is to write continuously, even if that means writing "I don't know what to write" for 5 minutes straight!

The thing is, I can all but guarantee you'll end up with a lot more than "I don't know what to write" on the page. Inevitably, you'll have a thought. Write that!

It's called the "snowball" exercise because writing begets more writing. You will find yourself writing past that initial timer more often than not. The best part is that NONE of it has to go in your essay draft. Still, I bet you will end up with at least one idea or phrase that you'll want to incorporate!

I always use this technique when I'm "not feeling it". You can't wait to experience the "flow state". It can't come unless you sit down and start writing!

Don't worry about your first draft. It's supposed to be bad. Just get it over with! Snowball the whole thing, if you'd like. Once you have it, you'll have plenty of perspective on how to improve it from there.

Answer 2

Through the years, I have found that most students procrastinate not because they are bored, but because they are afraid to start writing. They fear that they lack the knowledge and that there grade will be a failure anyway. So I always start with helping students face their fear by giving them pens or pencils and paper and ask them to start writing on the topic. I find using the KWL method works best: what do you know, what do you want to know and what did you learn.

Answer 3

When I was a graduate student, this was an issue that I, and most of my peers, faced. The best advice I got is just to start and expect to have a "shitty first draft". Give yourself permission to do a bad job and, often, you'll lead yourself to something good. Even great!

Also, I suggest you give yourself a reward plan. For example, if I sit down and write anything about this essay for 30 minutes, I get a chocolate/walk/watch an episode of Love Island/etc.

Hope it helps!

Answer 4

Feeling overwhelmed with finding that starting point is completely normal and understandable. There is just so much information out there! How can we possibly narrow down our information into one cohesive essay?

Step 1: Where do I work best?

Are the people around me going to distract me or invite focus? Friend, focus is HARD for someone such as myself with an ADHD brain. It looks for ways to focus on anything except what I actually want to work on, so coffee shops are not great places of study for me. How does YOUR brain work?

Step 2: How do I work best?

I do need some kind of noise to distract the part of my brain that feels bored, so I listen to a deep focus playlist on Spotify that works with that part of my brain to enable focus. NOW WE ARE GETTING SOMEWHERE

Step 3: Fake teach it to organize thoughts

Let's give ourselves a thorough grasp of our subject by pretending to teach another person (either a willing friend or imaginary--both work). Teaching solidifies thoughts into concepts and makes it easier to identify the information that should go into the essay. Using a voice recorder can be helpful or (for the less vocal types) writing down our thoughts in bulleted/outline format also works.

Step 4: Outline it

We need just three points to make a solid essay. Our introduction introduces our subject and the three points that will be discussed (also called Thesis Statement). Then our conclusion summarizes what we just discussed and highlights our three main points again. Now we're off to a great start!

Answer 5

Hello!

I find that its easiest to start is by outlining your essay using a template to start jotting down ideas and formatting. This makes it easier to take the essay a bit by bit, and by the end, all you have to do is delete the template parts and add a transition word. Contact me if you would like to use an essay writing template or need help just starting!

:)

Answer 6

First, take a deep breath. You can do this!

1. ) PROMPT- The best place to start is with your prompt. Reread it, and make sure you can identify the goal of the assignment.

2.) RUBRIC - Review the rubric or checklist so you understand how to earn all the points!

3.) THESIS - Take that question (prompt) and turn it into an answer. 

4.) ORGANIZE - An essay is like a puzzle. Made of body paragraphs, and intro & conclusion, piece your thoughts together by starting with the body paragraphs. Five paragraphs are the most common, so plan for 3 body paragraphs, with 7 sentences each, including a topic and clincher. Then your intro & conclusion come next.  

5.) OUTLINE -Jot down a few ideas for each line of your paragraphs (similar to the dreaded "o" word = outline). Then take those ideas and turn them into sentences.

:-) This should get you right on track! Remember to use a variety of sentence starters and sentence structures to mix it up!  I'd love to help students feel more confident about this process!