An Honours Student’s Guide to the Writing Process

Ethan recommends several strategies and must-do tip when essay writing at the Honours level that will improve your final work and make the process more manageable and less pointlessly stressful.

Everyone has their own approach to essay writing. It develops throughout their time at university. I am still honing certain parts of mine, but there are various principles that I was ignorant of when I started. Things I would have been better off knowing from the outset. If I can present them here, then hopefully you can bypass the more experimental stage of how to write and instead focus on what you are writing about.

Planning, like starting early, should not be regarded as a suggestion but taken as a prescription. If you do not sketch out your argument point by point before writing, then you are only going to put more words on the page that will end up being deleted. The chances of developing a succinct and causal argument are also far diminished without a plan. It does not take long to peruse your readings and bring them together, but the compound interest yields great rewards, in that your first draft is structurally closer to a finished draft. The remaining changes are, hopefully, smaller in scale and at the level of the sentence rather than the paragraph.

pixabay

After that, you are ready to start writing. The best I can offer here is derived from a standard idiom: do not worry about getting it right, just get it written. The second and third drafts are for getting it right. At this point, your only objective is to put material on the page. Even if you cut thirty percent later on, you would not have the remaining seventy had you not been willing to get that initial amount wrong the first time around (if you outline in detail, it should not come to this). Thus, while ‘first draft’ and ‘second draft’ appear to be close relatives (siblings perhaps), they are in fact different species. Do not confuse one with the other or think that both can be achieved simultaneously.

To maintain productivity during this stage, set aside a time for writing each day. If you stick to this rhythm the words will start to come more easily within a week. Hopefully, an essay should not take that long but the principle is right, and you will have other projects to move on to. If you prefer working with music, put together a playlist of songs that you only listen to when you are writing. This is another simple way of getting into your productive space where all distractions keep their distance. Writing in the same place is another one that works for some people.

pixabay

Perhaps even more important for me is the set-up of the desk. I use a laptop, but I have it raised eleven inches off the worksurface with a couple of upright books. Using a separate keyboard and mouse, I can sit up comfortably and have the screen right in my line of sight. It almost looks painful for me now to see people working on their laptop for any length of time, their neck craned downward. With a proper desk chair to support your back, you should easily be able to write for an hour, or whatever is your sustainable maximum.

Avoiding procrastination is really a topic in and of itself, though I have learned some useful strategies to subdue it. The best one is to create a schedule and to stick to it – the only way to achieve the latter is to outline a day that you truly want to fulfil. This means including your requisite amount of down time and not kidding yourself that you will do more than you can. Another is to list the things you want to get done for the next day, whether that be writing X number of words or reading Y number of articles. This gives you a clear and manageable goal to aim at, as opposed to the abstract objective of ‘working on the essay’ (one can write fifty words and achieve that). Make your expectations for yourself clear, but equally important is to make them fair – if you do not reward yourself with a break, you are not going to last long.

pixabay

Beyond grammatic rules, the choice of style is up to you.  While it may seem contradictory that we are instructed to write clearly when the worksx we read often do not accept this principle, my main suggestion is to not to use unnecessary jargon to appear intellectual. It only convinces me, as a reader, that the writer has nothing insightful or interesting to contribute. If they did, it would not have to be masked behind inauthentic pseudo-profound prose. Yet, nor should an essay be colloquial or imagery-laden, though it can make them more readable – there is a balance to be reached but it is not too difficult to master with practice. The same is true of the essay writing process in general, though hopefully these pointers can help you in reaching your maximal productivity and quality.

Comments

comments

93 thoughts on “An Honours Student’s Guide to the Writing Process

  1. I simply couldn’t go away your site before suggesting that I actually loved the usual info a person supply for your guests? Is going to be back steadily to check up on new posts

  2. Hi there, just was aware of your weblog through Google, and located that it’s truly informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful should you proceed this in future. Numerous people can be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

  3. Great V I should definitely pronounce, impressed with your web site. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs as well as related info ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Quite unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, website theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task..

  4. I haven’t checked in here for a while as I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are good quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂

  5. I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Fantastic work!

  6. My brother recommended I might like this web site. He was once entirely right. This publish actually made my day. You cann’t imagine just how so much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!

  7. We absolutely love your blog and find many of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to write content available for you? I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write in relation to here. Again, awesome site!

  8. Hi! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Many thanks!

  9. I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. thank you

  10. My partner and I stumbled over here different web address and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking over your web page again.

  11. I haven¦t checked in here for a while since I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are great quality so I guess I¦ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂

  12. Sweet blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thanks

  13. You actually make it seem really easy along with your presentation but I to find this topic to be actually something which I believe I would never understand. It sort of feels too complex and extremely wide for me. I am looking ahead in your subsequent post, I will try to get the hold of it!

  14. Thanks , I have recently been looking for info about this topic for ages and yours is the best I’ve discovered till now. But, what about the conclusion? Are you sure about the source?

  15. Fantastic goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you are just too excellent. I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it smart. I can not wait to read far more from you. This is actually a tremendous site.

  16. Hello very cool blog!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I’ll bookmark your site and take the feeds also?KI’m happy to seek out numerous helpful information here in the submit, we need develop more strategies on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .

  17. Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!

  18. whoah this blog is fantastic i love reading your posts. Keep up the great work! You know, a lot of people are looking around for this information, you can help them greatly.

  19. naturally like your website but you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I’ll surely come back again.

  20. Hey! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a extraordinary job!

  21. A large percentage of of whatever you assert happens to be astonishingly appropriate and that makes me ponder the reason why I had not looked at this in this light before. Your piece truly did switch the light on for me personally as far as this topic goes. Nonetheless there is one issue I am not too comfy with and whilst I attempt to reconcile that with the core idea of your position, allow me see exactly what the rest of the readers have to say.Well done.

  22. A lot of thanks for every one of your labor on this blog. My mom delights in engaging in internet research and it is simple to grasp why. Most people know all concerning the compelling tactic you offer rewarding suggestions by means of this web site and as well encourage participation from some other people on the subject while our princess is undoubtedly becoming educated a lot of things. Take pleasure in the rest of the year. Your carrying out a tremendous job.

  23. Hi there very cool web site!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I am satisfied to search out a lot of helpful info right here within the put up, we need work out more strategies in this regard, thank you for sharing.

  24. Fantastic beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your website, how can i subscribe for a blog website? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea

  25. Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same results.

  26. FitSpresso: What Is It? FitSpresso is a natural weight loss aid designed for individuals dealing with stubborn weight gain. It is made using only science-backed natural ingredients.

  27. My wife and i got quite fortunate that Michael could complete his basic research using the ideas he acquired when using the web site. It’s not at all simplistic just to find yourself handing out tips which many people could have been making money from. We really figure out we have got the website owner to thank for that. The explanations you have made, the straightforward site navigation, the friendships your site make it easier to engender – it is most astonishing, and it is assisting our son in addition to us reckon that that topic is excellent, which is exceedingly serious. Thank you for everything!

  28. Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!

  29. Hello very nice web site!! Guy .. Excellent .. Superb .. I will bookmark your site and take the feeds also…I am glad to find a lot of helpful information right here within the submit, we’d like develop extra strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing.

  30. Fantastic beat ! I wish to apprentice whilst you amend your web site, how can i subscribe for a blog website? The account aided me a applicable deal. I have been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided vivid transparent concept

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

THE STAND