how to make an essay fun

• 13 Ways to Make Your Writing More Interesting to Read

There are numerous characteristics of a good essay: original thinking, a tight structure, balanced arguments, and many more .

But one aspect often overlooked is that a good essay should be interesting . It should spark the curiosity of the reader, keep them absorbed, make them want to keep reading and learn more. A boring essay risks losing the reader’s attention; even if the points you make are excellent, a dull writing style or poor handling of a dry subject matter can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The problem is that many students think that essays should be like this: they think that a dull, dry style is suited to the purposes of academic writing, and don’t consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to find the essay interesting. Academic writing doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – boring. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to make your writing more interesting, even though you can only do so much while remaining within the formal confines of academic writing. Let’s look at what they are.

1. Be interested in what you’re writing about

If there’s one thing guaranteed to inject interest into your writing, it’s actually being interested in what you’re writing about. Passion for a subject comes across naturally in your writing, typically making it more lively and engaging, and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words – in the same way that it’s easy to chat knowledgeably to someone about something you find interesting. This makes it relatively easy to write interestingly about a subject you have a real passion for. However, problems arise when you’re forced to write an essay about subjects for which you lack enthusiasm. It’s difficult to conjure up passion for your least favourite subjects, and that will come across in your writing. There are steps you can take, though: here are some tips on writing about a subject you don’t enjoy.

• Adjust your mindset : convince yourself that there are no boring subjects. If the subject or essay comes across as boring, blame yourself; if you find yourself feeling negatively about it, try to find the interest in it. Think about how it relates to the real world and how important the subject is. Find interesting snippets of information about it and look at it from a new angle.
• Think about your reader : consider the fact that not everyone will find the subject as boring as you do. As you write, keep the reader in mind and imagine them to be the world’s biggest fan of this subject.
• Find the fans : if you find it impossible to get into the mindset of your audience, try Googling the subject to find forums, videos or blog posts in which the subject is discussed by people who do find it interesting. This will help you picture whom you’re writing for, and give you a different perspective on a subject you may not have found inspiring up to now.

2. Include fascinating details

Another factor that can make an essay boring is a dry subject matter. Some subjects or topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to make the essay more interesting through your written style (more on this later) and by trying to find fascinating snippets of information to include that will liven it up a bit and make the information easier to relate to. One way of doing this with a dry subject is to try to make what you’re talking about seem relevant to the real world, as this is easier for the reader to relate to. In a discussion of a seemingly boring piece of legislation, for instance, you could make a comment along the lines of “if it were not for this legislation, none of us would enjoy the freedom to do such and such today”, or “Legislation A ultimately paved the way for Legislation B, which transformed criminal law as we know it.” Make it seem exciting!

3. Emulate the style of writers you find interesting

When you read a lot, you subconsciously start emulating the style of the writers you read. It’s therefore beneficial to read widely, as this exposes you to a range of styles and you can start to take on the characteristics of those you find interesting to read. If you feel engaged with a piece of writing, the writer must be doing something right! As you read, think consciously about what the writer is doing to hold your interest, perhaps underlining or copying out certain phrases, techniques, sentence structures and so on. Then apply their techniques to your own writing.

4. Write in the active voice

It’s the oldest trick in the book, but using the active rather than the passive voice will automatically make your writing more interesting to read. It results in more direct, energetic writing that makes the reader feel more ‘in the moment’. Unfortunately, many students employ the passive voice in the belief that it makes their writing sound more academic or intellectual; in fact, it makes their writing sound boring. Remember, the active voice is when the subject of the sentence “acts”, while the passive voice is when the subject is acted upon. Passive : It was concluded by the scientists that the methods used were… Active : The scientists concluded that the methods used were… The subject in this example is “the scientists” and the “act” they are carrying out is “concluding”. As you can see in this example, the active voice almost always results in neater and more elegant phrasing, which is more concise and enjoyable to read.

5. Borrow some creative writing techniques

There’s clearly a limit to the amount of actual ‘story-telling’ you can do when you’re writing an essay; after all, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesn’t, at first glance, feel very much like story-telling. However, you can apply some of the principles of story-telling to make your writing more interesting. For example, just as the opening sentence or paragraph of a novel is incredibly important in capturing the attention of the reader early on, so the first paragraph of your essay is essential in making your reader want to continue reading it. Start with an attention-grabbing ‘hook’ to draw them in, such as a controversial statement, a tantalising snippet of information or a rhetorical question (more on these below). Here are some more techniques you can adopt from creative writing to improve your essays .

6. Think about your own opinion

Your essay is bound to be boring if all you do is paraphrase what everyone else says about something. A good essay – in humanities subjects, at least – incorporates the writer’s intelligent responses to what others say, and this critical consideration not only shows that you’re thinking at a high academic level, but it automatically adds more interest and originality to your writing. So, think independently and don’t be afraid to demonstrate that you’re doing as much.

7. Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is boring, and almost guaranteed to lose the interest of your reader. You’re at risk of waffling if you’re not completely clear about what you want to say, or if you haven’t thought carefully about how you’re going to structure your argument. Doing your research properly and writing an essay plan before you start will help prevent this problem. Editing is an important part of the essay-writing process, so once you’ve done a first draft, edit out the waffle. Read through your essay objectively and take out the bits that aren’t relevant to the argument or that labour the point. As well as editing out chunks of text, it’s important to be economical with words – not using ten where five will suffice, and avoiding clunky phrases. During the editing process, tighten up your phrasing by eliminating unnecessary words and reordering any sentences that read badly.

8. Using a thesaurus isn’t always a good thing

You may think that using a thesaurus to find more complicated words will make your writing more interesting, or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the wrong effect. It alienates the reader and makes you sound pompous, with the result that the essay is more laborious to read and the reader may quickly lose interest. Despite this, many undergraduates admit to deliberately over-complicating their language to make it sound more high-brow. If you want to keep your reader interested, keep your language clear and simple.

9. Avoid repetitive phrasing

Avoid using the same sentence structure again and again: it’s a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a range of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities as well as making your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound and complex sentences to avoid your writing becoming predictable.

10. Use some figurative language

As we’ve already seen, it’s easy to end up rambling when you’re explaining difficult concepts, – particularly when you don’t clearly understand it yourself. A way of forcing yourself to think clearly about a concept, as well as explaining it more simply and engagingly, is to make use of figurative language. This means explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. For example, you might use the analogy of water escaping from a hole in a bucket to explain the exponential decay of a radioactive substance, as the rate of depletion of both depends on how much remains, making it exponential. This gives the reader something familiar to visualise, making it easier for them to understand a new concept (obviously this will not be a new concept for the teacher who set your essay, but they will want to see that you can explain concepts clearly and that you have a thorough grasp of it yourself).

11. Avoid clichés

Clichés are overused words or phrases that make your writing predictable, and therefore less interesting. An example would be “at the end of the day”, but there are many such favourites of student essay-writers. Don’t forget that your teacher will have a stack of essays to read in one sitting; if you use the same tired expressions everyone else uses, your essay will blend in with all the others. Make it stand out by shunning the clichés you know your classmates will be using.

12. Employ rhetorical questions

One of the ways in which ancient orators held the attention of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by making use of the rhetorical question. What is a rhetorical question? It’s essentially one you ask without expecting your audience to answer – one that you will answer yourself, like the one we asked in the previous sentence. This can be an effective way of introducing a new line of enquiry, or of raising questions that you’re going to address in more detail. A good place to use a rhetorical question is at the end of a paragraph, to lead into the next one, or at the beginning of a new paragraph to introduce a new area for exploration. The rhetorical question, “But is there any evidence to support X’s claim?” could, for instance, begin a paragraph that discusses evidence for an opinion introduced in the previous paragraph. What’s more, as we’ve already seen, you could use a rhetorical question as your ‘hook’ to lure readers in right at the beginning of your essay.

13. Proofread

Finally, you could write the most interesting essay a teacher has ever read, but you’ll undermine your good work if it’s littered with errors, which distract the reader from the actual content and will probably annoy them. Before you submit your essay, proofread it thoroughly to ensure that the grammar is elegant, the punctuation is perfect and the spelling is flawless. Don’t just use a spelling and grammar checker, as these don’t always pick up on all the errors.

Do you want to take your writing to the next level? Our Creative Writing summer school will teach you how to experiment with a number of different writing techniques, plan, edit and proofread your own work and introduce you to new concepts and ideas. 

Image credits: banner ; carousel ; rose ; scientists ; baby ; thesaurus ; hawk ; questions . 

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7 Simple Tricks to Add Humor to Your Writing (without offending anyone)

Gay Merrill

You know that feeling when you’ve read a funny piece of writing — you smile and perhaps even laugh. You might share what you’ve read with someone else or refer to it in conversations with others.

Recently I read Scott Adam’s book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big . Scott Adams is the creator of the uber popular Dilbert comic strip. The book is packed with Scott’s philosophies on how to succeed despite many failures. And while it’s not intended as a humor book, it has its funny moments. One paragraph in particular had me laugh so hard, my millennial daughter looked up from her cell phone.

I want to write like Scott. And you?

So, I’ve been studying humor in various capacities for half a dozen years (more if you count years of sitcom, romantic comedy, and Pixar animated film watching). I wanted to know what the tricks are to make writing funny.

One of my mentors, travel humor writer Dave Fox, says “Humor isn’t a gift handed down by the gods. It’s a skill anyone can learn.” I trust Dave. He makes me laugh. Dave taught me about storytelling and the importance of editing to get to the punch fast. Dave has a set of twelve humor writing techniques he teaches. A few of those techniques I call simple tricks. Simple tricks #1 and #2 are literary devices I’ve picked up from reading and analyzing what’s funny.

But before we get into the tricks, it’s important to review a few humor rules.

Better safe than sued

Using humor can feel risky. You don’t want to offend anyone, lose your audience, or be charged with humor harassment. So, here are some points to keep in mind:

• Good taste. (If your taste is questionable, get another opinion.)
• Self-deprecation. You are a safe topic to joke about. Just don’t overdo it or readers might find you pathetic. Poke fun at situations, stereotypes, and relatable habits.
• A touch of humor. A little goes a long way.
• Your own brand of humor. Be yourself. Use what makes you laugh. Be original.
• Sarcasm, putdowns or GROSS* (gender-bashing, racist, obscene, sexual, or swearing) humor. *from CleanComedians.com
• Too much humor. We’re talking blog posts and articles, not standup routines. Like adding garlic to pasta sauce without a recipe, finding the right humor dose takes practice. (Better to err on the low side while you adjust to your readers’ taste buds.)
• Humor aimed at other people, your competition, or disadvantages (unless you can speak from experience about the disadvantage, but even then be careful).
• Forced humor. Don’t try too hard to be funny. And never use other people’s jokes.

Now you have the humor rules, let’s get down to the seven simple tricks.

Trick #1 — Psst

Have you noticed writers who use short messages in parentheses as if they are sharing a secret? Sometimes the writer uses an ellipsis (…) or several dashes (- -) instead of parentheses.

This writing device of sharing a quasi secret with readers is known as an aside. The device is similar to the technique actors use on stage to speak in private with the audience.

Humor writers use asides to poke fun at themselves, state the obvious, exaggerate, make a witty remark, add a tongue-in-cheek comment, or ask a rhetorical question.

Sometimes the writer might use the aside to add a sound effect, like the sound of clearing his throat (ahem), or a whisper (psst).

By making the message of the aside a bit unexpected, you can add a bit of levity to your writing. Because the aside is like sharing a secret, it can also help build a connection with your readers.

Here are some example asides (in bold) I’ve found online and in my inbox:

• “Which is why a new page on Wikipedia about, say, twerking will automatically get a higher ranking than a page about it on your Auntie Jean’s personal blog (which is a shame because Auntie Jean is one hell of a twerker) .” ~Excerpt from a post by Glenn Long
• “Samar Owais is a freelance writer and blogger. She loves writing (kinda goes without saying) , road trips, and helping writers succeed in their freelance writing businesses.” ~ bio from a blog post
• “I swear (under pain of being whipped by a wet noodle) that I meet all five criteria to receive a scholarship from Jon!” ~ Excerpt from an email offer by Jon Morrow
• “Pretend You’re Van Gogh (You Can Keep Your Ear) ” ~ subheading from an Ezine article by the managing editor

Trick #2 — Same sound sequence

Alliteration is a writing technique that uses a series of words that all start with the same sound. The words don’t have to start with the same letter, but they must have the same sound. For example fun and phone are alliterative. Cat and chair aren’t.

Alliteration can give your writing a lyrical sound that makes it funnier.

Consider these two sentences.

• Fred watched the crowd of attractive women on the beach.
• Bert ogled the bevy of beautiful babes on the beach.

Okay, maybe you wouldn’t write that last sentence, but it does sound funnier than the first one. Yes?

Alliteration is a fun way to make your content memorable. I notice writers often use alliteration in names. Severus Snape, Bilbo Baggins, and Fred Flintstone come to mind.

Here’s an example from a post by Kevin Duncan on his blog ‘Be a Better Blogger’, where he pokes fun at his blog name using a bit of wordplay and alliteration. (Kevin’s in depth posts, prolific writing, and sense of humor have made him a popular blogger.)

“ Gosh… a guest post from this cat would take a lot of time to edit. I’ll just email that Kevin Duncan guy from ‘ Be A Bitter Blabber ’ and have him write another guest post instead .”

Alliteration also works well when you write a list of items. For example, suppose you are listing a series of names. You might choose names that all start with the same sound, like Charlie, Charlotte, and Chewbacca.

The key is to make sure when you choose your words, your writing makes sense. You don’t want to be alliterative at the expense of clarity.

Trick #3 — Witty words and word tweaks

This trick has to do with the words you choose.

Some words are inherently funnier than others according to humor experts (there’s always an expert). Words that contain the consonants p, b, d, g, t or k (known as plosives for anyone who cares) are funnier.

Some examples of funnier words:

• brouhaha, pandemonium, or hullabaloo instead of chaos
• scamper, bustle, or skedaddle instead of hurry
• hoodwink, dupe, or bamboozle instead of mislead

Make friends with your Thesaurus to find funnier sounding synonyms.

Another way to add humor through word choice is to use specific words. When writing, it’s easy to opt for weak words. And that’s okay when you’re in draft mode. But when you edit your writing, try to replace those unimaginative nouns with more specific ones.

For example if you’re writing about the last experience at your auto repair shop. Describe your car. What type of repair did it need? Discovering your 2003 Ford Focus had loose lug nuts seems funnier than taking your car in for a rattle. (Almost true experience. I don’t drive a Ford Focus, but my car did suffer loose lug nuts.)

Be specific. Unless you’re writing about the Dr. Seuss characters in his book The Cat in the Hat , find a better word than thing (or its relative something).

Trick #4 — Surprise ending

The Rule of Three is a popular humor writing technique based on the setup and punchline formula comedians use to create jokes. You start with two straight items (the setup) and add a third item that is a comedic twist (the punchline). The effect of the twist is a surprise.

We use three items because three is the smallest, and most memorable, number that forms a pattern.

You find series of three everywhere:

• In titles like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles;
• in expressions like “lights, camera, action”;
• and in classic jokes like the Englishman, Irishman, and Canadian.

With this technique, people are expecting a certain pattern. You throw them off track when you break the pattern.

You can use the Rule of Three anywhere:

• In your bio: John Cleese — “writer, actor, and tall person”
• In your tagline: Mother Reader — “The heart of a mother. The soul of a reader. The mouth of a smartass.”
• In a list: The Catcher in the Rye, Wuthering Heights, and Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader

The key to using this trick is to break the pattern with an absurd ending to your list.

You can extend the rule of three to include sentences as your list items. Start with two straight sentences and make sure the last sentence has an element of surprise. To demonstrate, here’s an example from blogger Kevin Duncan…

“ For four months, I was in limbo. Paychecks stopped being deposited. Savings accounts started dwindling. Ramen noodle consumption skyrocketed. ”

Trick #5— Gigantic proportions

Exaggeration is one of the most effective ways to add humor. But to be funny, the exaggeration needs to be extreme. You need to create a mismatch between reality and the exaggerated image your words create.

Dave Barry, Miami Herald newspaper columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner for humor writing, is the master of using humorous exaggeration. As an example, here’s a paragraph he wrote to describe men’s concern over their ability to handle laundry. Notice the extreme condition Dave uses to describe shrinking a woman’s bra.

“We worry that if we get just one variable wrong, we will find ourselves facing a wrathful spouse, who is holding up a garment that was once a valued brassiere of normal dimensions, but is now suitable only as a sun hat for a small, two-headed squirrel .” ~ Dave Barry

So when you use exaggeration, stretch it as far as it can go to make it absurd. If you succeed, your readers will enjoy the humor.

Here are some other examples I found online:

• “About two years into my blogging career, to my surprise and delight, my dream came true. One of my blog posts was tweeted by marketing superstar Guy Kawaski, who has a Twitter following roughly the size of France .” ~ from a post by Mark Schaefer on his blog
• “But any 30-second ad about generalized “build quality” in barns is likely to suck harder than a Dyson vacuum .” ~ from a post by Brian Clark on Copyblogger
• “It only got worse after I turned 50, as my metabolism seemed to have taken an early retirement. I now have to jog five miles just to work off a tic-tac I ate in the 90’s . The only things that fit from my earlier years are my earrings .” ~ from a post by Judy Carter on the Psychology Today blog

Trick #6 — Twisted cliché

A cliché is an expression that was once clever but has lost its original impact due to overuse. You can twist a cliche to add humor by adding a surprise ending. Here are some examples from well known personalities:

• Cliché: Where there’s a will there’s a way. Twisted: “Where there’s a will, there’s a family fighting over it.” — Buzz Nutley
• Cliché: A fool and his money are soon parted. Twisted: “A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place.” — Harry Anderson
• Cliché: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Twisted: “If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving isn’t for you.” — Mel Helitzer

Want to make your reader smile? Take a well-known phrase (Google can help you search for clichés) and change the ending to create a humorous twist.

Trick #7 — Déjà vu

Déjà vu is a sense of familiarity or previous experience. Comedians use a callback to make a clever association at the end of their set with a joke made earlier in the set. In a sense, the callback is like a déjà vu for the audience because they are reminded of a funny bit they heard before.

You can use a callback in your writing by referring to a notable point or topic you wrote earlier. Here’s a small example to illustrate:

“The marathon is over and, I must say: I accomplished what I wanted to….

I didn’t die. I kickstarted my health journey. I raised money for Ronald McDonald Charities. I didn’t die.” ~ Excerpt from a Huffington post article by Jennifer Bertrand

In this excerpt, the sentence “I didn’t die” is repeated at the beginning and the end, resulting in a sense of repetition. I find it funny because the author is exaggerating how difficult the marathon was by repeating that line.

The idea of a callback though isn’t to repeat the words verbatim. Instead, you reintroduce the reader to a funny point you made earlier in your writing. The callback is an effective trick to end a piece of writing. For examples, read some of Dave Barry’s work.

Dilbert, Dave Fox, Dave Barry. What if your name doesn’t start with the letter D? Can you still write funny? Yes, even the Dave’s had to start somewhere.

And you don’t have to become a full blown humor writer to add a bit of humor to your writing. You can apply the seven simple tricks I’ve shared to give your blog posts, your emails, or your Dear John (or Jane) letters an element of levity.

Try one or more of these seven simple tricks to lighten up your writing. Follow the guidelines to avoid offending anyone.

Humor gets attention. Humor makes people laugh and feel good. And if it’s done its job, humor makes writing memorable and share worthy.

Let me know if you’ve tried any of these tricks. Which ones do you use? Which ones will you try?

If you want to add a dash of humor and personality to your writing, join my free 7-day course: From Bland to Brilliant .

Written by Gay Merrill

Educational content creator and laughter lover. Add a dash of humor and personality to your writing. Join my free 7-day course https://subscribepage.io/AdDz4l

Text to speech

10 Tips to Write an Essay and Actually Enjoy It

by Joe Bunting | 41 comments

Writing an essay may not be easy. It may not come to you naturally. After all, writing is a skill, and skills take practice, whether it's playing a sport, performing an instrument, or playing video games.

But writing an essay   can be fun,  if  you have the right attitude.

With that in mind, here's an infographic with ten tips to write an essay without hating every moment of the process.

Click the image below to see a larger view:

Click here to view an enlarged version of this infographic .

To make it through high school and college, you're going to have to write essays, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the time you write them.

The secret is to stop trying to write a good essay. Instead, write an  interesting  essay, write an essay you think is fascinating.

In other words, start by writing what you think is interesting about the topic you're assigned. Then, when you’re finished, go back and edit with your teacher or professor in mind.

How about you? Do you like writing essays? Do you hate writing essays? Let me know in the comments section .

Use tip #3 and ask yourself, “What surprises me about this topic?”

Then, spend fifteen minutes writing an answer to that topic (here's a handy tool to help you keep track of your time ). Just write whatever comes to mind. Write for you, not for your teacher or professor.

When your time is up, share your answer in the comments section as a way to get feedback encourage others to have fun writing essays, too.

Happy writing!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

41 Comments

This is excellent! I’ve been struggling with my essay for two days and I already know that this is going to help me tremendously! Thank you so much, for writing this at the perfect time:)

Awesome! Good luck!

These are great tips, not only for those writing essays, but also for bloggers too. Thank you!

Very true, Em. Thanks for reading!

You’re welcome Joe. Thank YOU!

Although the article is geared toward school essays, I found some good tips to use in my personal essay. Thanks.

Great! Glad you found it helpful, Jayne.

This came at the perfect time! I’ve been putting off writing an essay for a week now since I dread writing them. This post helped me have a new perspective; I can’t wait to try these tips out on my work. 🙂

That’s so great, Dara. What’s the essay about?

This essay is about the power of silence. It filters through our culture being so “noisy” that many of us don’t have time for quiet or solitude anymore.

Those 10 tips are great and they all say writing is for fun and relaxation so stop stressing and I guarantee you will bring that inner you to the top and your reader will be dazzled and amazed at the mind-blowing and interesting essay you have developed.

My hardest goal in writing an essay is I can do the research as a matter of fact I love the research, but until I have determined by target audience, I can’t seem to put a word on paper and I decided that my professor and his colleagues are not my target audience.

That’s a great point, Parker. It’s much harder to write when your target reader is your teacher/professor.

I love essay writing! I have always done all of the tips you mentioned naturally. To me it is a way to organize what I know about a subject. Essays are usually done because they are required for some reason, but when you relax and start organizing your thoughts they(essays) can be very enjoyable.

That’s so cool! I’m glad these principles are working for you (also, I wish I had this perspective when I was writing essays!).

I love making my 13 year-old write them. They are pretty funny.

Um, can you please post one of them!

I had never thought of essay writing in the way you have described. Many thanks. These are really helpful!

Great! Thanks for reading!

This couldn’t have come at a better time! I have a rough draft of a surprise paper due Monday about Rhetoric in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, and that is literally all we have discussed for three weeks. Pathos, Ethos, Logos, Fallacies… ugh. I’ll give the out-of-order method a try and see how it goes.

Ha, I hear you Laren. Just remember all those Latic words are just code for intense and emotional situations and ideas. People like to dress them up in serious sounding words, but they’re the same emotions you see in your own life and on TV. Don’t take them too seriously.

Okay, here’s my essay:

Inspired by a young man’s account of being thrown out of work in 1930 and surviving through the Great Depression, I started studying that history and the facts behind the Stock Market Crash in October 1929.

I was intrigued by the similarity between conditions leading up to the 1929 Crash and conditions leading up to the economic recession the US went through in the 1990s. I guess what surprised me most is how little we seem to learn from history. Even some of the greatest man-made tragedies get repeated.

Historians tell us that in the “roaring Twenties” the stock market was booming. Share prices were rising and everyone and his pup wanted in on the action. The market seemed so secure that banks began making collateral-free loans to individuals wanting to buy stocks. So many people with money to buy drove the demand and the price of stocks through the roof. Then the building collapsed.

In the 1980s the builders unions started putting pressure on US banks to make home mortgages more readily available, even to home buyers with no collateral. This was to boost home sales and stimulate building. Great idea in theory. Bank loans officers started handing out “no-down payment” mortgages. People started buying houses on spec. But when these mortgages came up for renewal, reality hit home. Owners tossed their keys on the bankers’ desks and walked away.

Collateral-free loans didn’t work for long in the 1920s and they didn’t work for long in the 1990s either. Were there not a few historians saying, “Wait a minute here”?

There are other events of those years that we would do well to remember. Sometimes I fear we lack the connection to history that would spare us further grief. Maybe It’s time we delve into our past again so we can avoid repeating bad history?

A couple of friends (who remains “friends” despite reading my most private documents without permission or even a good excuse) have described my journal entries as “like little snippets of David Foster Wallace’s essays, except not quite as good” (which to me is still a great compliment, apart from, you know, the total rape of my privacy and peace of mind). If that’s the case, I find essay-writing cathartic, rather than painful (and probably ought to write an essay on encryption, in the interest of finding a better way to store my files).

When you think as much as I do—and, that probably sounds like boasting, but it’s not; I should say, when you *ruminate* as much as I do—trying to put your inchoate, rambling, chaotic thoughts into a more-or-less coherent and cohesive form, without the impetus for perfection attendant to publication, imparts a certain freedom to just *riff* … and riff, and riff, and riff, occasionally for hours at a time, talking at length about nothing, or something, or something ex nothing. Trying to explain this sort of Vesuvian vernacular vehemency to a normal, functional human being is an exercise in vanity; people don’t care, and aren’t interested in being convinced to care. It’s easy for me, with sedulous attention to detail and a few shots to loosen the nerves, to make basically anything interesting, if you can get into it—my trouble lies in getting people into it. I’m bad at marketing. It’s not that I think it’s not important, mind; I just suck at it. As easily as I understand how people work in my absence, I’m totally incapable of comprehending their behavior before my own work.

The biggest surprise, that being the point of this little exercise, comes in the ease of writing it: being a complete narcissist, I can make absolutely anything about myself, which makes anything easy to write about. It’s probably the ultimate source of Gonzo journalism; when you like talking about yourself too much not to include yourself in the content of your writing. When your head races a mile a minute, the trick is not in coming up with things to write about something, but in figuring out what *not* to write, and trying to find ways to include all the little prosodical gems you uncover in the course of your excursus—there’s a million different little ways to impress people, which is, ultimately, the point, far and above convincing anyone of anything.

And that, in itself, reveals so much about the process: at this point, in the blither[^1]-saturated internet media, the subject of the essay becomes a secondary concern, at best; in the traditional fashion of celebrity culture, the author of the essay is the paramount concern; the validity of the opinions therein are of, at best, second concern—everything now revolving around the self, the informative nature of the essay falls short of the opinions and personal anecdotes conveyed thereby. It isn’t that people don’t care about facts or perspectives or reality, it’s merely that it is no longer possible to discern truth from fiction, or reality from fantasy, at least not without a Ph.D. in the subject matter: maybe an M.D. could tell the difference between a legit article in the Lancet or the NEJM, but I sure can’t, and it’s true across all professions, even scientists between disciplines—a molecular biologist is no more apt to descry the falsities of any essays or articles written on the Alcubierre drive than I am, and the same holds true for pretty much anyone, across any field.

Personality has supplanted information; entertainment has supplanted enlightenment. The spin doctors of the nineties and early 2000s got smart—verisimilitude is the key to belief, and with everyone believing everything they write (and they write it because they believe it), the truth is, at best, an abstract principle. It’s a philosophical issue, one totally unrelated to the vagaries and vicissitudes and batshit insanity of modern living.

And but the point of all this remains unknown to me—somehow it related to essay-writing, and the attempt to convey opinions or state of mind (cf. actual facts, which are few and far between), but the relation thereof to the subject of today’s practice—whatever the hell it is—remains elusive, or illusory, or something, and I don’t know where I stand anymore. I think that’s the end point of most supposedly illuminating pieces, anyway.

[1]: Here synonymous with “information.”

It’s probably hard to believe I wrote that in fifteen minutes but I promise I did; I was (am) drunk and not really thinking about it and I type like 150 wpm and etc. This will probably be a total embarrassment tomorrow morning.

I could never figure out the difference between an essay and an opinion piece. I’ve hesitated before submitting to publications that welcome essays but say things like “please, no opinion pieces.” I thought an essay was, basically, an opinion piece, in which you try to convince the reader that your way of interpreting or evaluating an event or series of events or life or whatever is the most objectively correct or least painful interpretation.

I guess essay-writing could be hard if you’re being forced to write about things you could care less about. I think the solution, there, is to find a way to be unboreable. If you can make yourself interested in anything, you will thrive no matter where you are or what ringers they put you through.

Since my pet peeve is fiction writing, I never thought about essay writing yet now that I’m reading about it, it makes sense that I need to keep in mind a few basic tips. I like journal writing, and to an extent, I can say it’s similar to essay writing since I make it a short writing on a particular subject, not just random thoughts.

What surprises me about this subject is that some people might actually hate the process, especially in a writing group. Perhaps someone does not like it, or realises that it’s not their strong suit . These ten tips are simple and useful, and of course, I am going to use Wikipedia, who wouldn’t?

But I if I were to boil it to one tip would be tip number seven. Whatever I write, I want it to be best in class.

Super cool info graphic! Good tips too. I actually love writing essays too (as long as I’m interested in the topic) but I’ll keep your graphic in my downloads to help me out sense it’s got some great, well organized advice.

Being a writer I’ve loved these tips, because they not only for those writing essays. I’m a contributor to many websites and I’m finding helpful this infographic for me.

Joe, thank you.

Yeah post it here!

I’m so glad to see you used Wikipedia as source tool. As someone that is more of a technical writer, research scientist/business person and who sells his work in the form of technical reports and occasional publications – I am a huge proponent of Wikipedia.

There is no better way for the average person to research a subject (and that is a fact, see below).

I am always saddened when I run into some severely handicapped and uninformed soul who thinks that Wikipedia is not a valid source because it isn’t on paper. Few people take the time to read the comparison studies that have been done regarding the accuracy of Wikipedia and other encyclopedic sources, none of which are 100% accurate and or unbiased. The first of such comparisons was done by Nature in 2005:

“For its study, Nature chose articles from both sites in a wide range of topics and sent them to what it called “relevant” field experts for peer review. The experts then compared the competing articles–one from each site on a given topic–side by side, but were not told which article came from which site. Nature got back 42 usable reviews from its field of experts. In the end, the journal found just eight serious errors, such as general misunderstandings of vital concepts, in the articles. Of those, four came from each site. They did, however, discover a series of factual errors, omissions or misleading statements. All told, Wikipedia had 162 such problems, while Britannica had 123.”

Since 2005 there have been several other comparisons and Wikipedia fairs very well in all. One article I found in Forbes also reveals a curious phenomenon, conservative personality types tend to have a general bias against Wikipedia – and are also uninformed as to accuracy. Not unlike conservative college professors who have biases against even high quality online courses. Never underestimate the limitations of the conservative personality type. Here are some the references I’ve found regarding Wikipedia accuracy:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7084/full/440582b.html

http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/02/seven-years-after-nature-pilot-study-compares-wikipedia-favorably-to-other-encyclopedias-in-three-languages/

Conservative bias and Wikipedia

http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/01/20/wikipedia-or-encyclopaedia-britannica-which-has-more-bias/

Thanks so much for this. I teach 12th grade English and will share this info-graphic with them tomorrow. They have an essay coming up and I’m always looking for new ways to push the idea that essays really aren’t so evil. I completely agree with you that they can be fun.

I would’ve loved to see you add an example of an essay you’ve written or one you find to be a well-written piece as well.

Thanks again for the great post!

I’m on Facebook a lot, but Facebook can be a true learning experience. For instance, I learned something truly amazing. The universe began at midday on the 23rd of October 4004 BC. I never knew that. That makes the universe, that’s the universe mind you, all those millions and millions of stars you see on a dark and starry night, are only a maximum of 6,000 years old. It seems that in 1650 Archbishop James Ussher conducted his own literalistic exegesis of all those begets and begots in the book of Genesis, and determined that time and date.

So close all those science books, put away all those instruments of measurement because the Holy Bible says they ain’t so. Really? Absolutely and positively it tain’t possible for the center of the galaxy to be 25,000 light years away, ‘cuz da Bilbe say da universe be only 10,000 years old. The Andromeda spiral galaxy cannot possibly be 2.1 million light years away because the universe tain’t old enough for the light to get here. ‘Cuz da Bible says it’s so. Einstein was WRONG. The speed of light cannot possibly be a constant, ‘cuz da Bible says da universe is only 6,000 years old and if Andromeda appears to be 2.1 million light years away dat means light had to move ever so much faster to get here long long ago. Why did it slow down. I dunno, da Bible don’t say.

See there, Facebook can be such a front, or is that fount of information.

Wow, impressive infographic and great tips, Joe! Practice part is also awesome, I like the way you advice to think about. Truly, it’s so simple – write about your thoughts on this topic without trying to adapt them to your professor.

In your infographic, you mentioned some words and phrases which are highly desirable to avoid. Adding clichés is not a good choice for making your essay more wordy. Everyone is sick of them already, and – foremost – teachers and professors. Reading similar and not pure writing daily could simply lead to educators’ contempt of all students. Besides, one of modern problems in writing is lack of originality. It’s easy to google and find some short reviews of any more or less well-known book. Some ignorant people without any slight doubt could use that material. Or articles from Wikipedia. Or some other resources on the web, without any citations or with incomplete quotations. It is called plagiarism. For discernable reasons, being part of such situations, it’s extremely undesirable both for the students and for any creative person – writer, blogger, content creator. Because easiness of taking credit of the other’s person proceedings transforms into the complexity of getting out of this situation. Sometimes, plagiarism problems could even destroy a starting writing or academic career.

Moreover, occasionally students face with unintentional plagiarism – when they have non proper citation – they didn’t intend to commit plagiarism, but it happened. What are the best ways to prevent such situations? Do more deep research, learn how to make proper quotations, use plagiarism detection tools. These tools could be free of charge (as PlagTracker) and those you have to pay for (as Unplag plagiarism checker). If you have career connected with writing is more rational to choose a more proficient tool. Or use both, if they had a different working algorithm. Personally, I prefer software for a fee, because using it, I could be sure that the team of professionals is working for me

Love the tips! I never liked writing essays. But, I have grown to learn my own tricks to make sure I do it right the first time. Thanks for the tips! Just in time to work on my second essay!!

I write plenty of essays for school, all the time. I have actually learned to enjoy them. The best thing about an essay is that although you have a question and a style in which it likely has to be written, the approach you take to it is all yours. And I have fun being creative and inventive with the way in which I approach the subject and support my opinion.

Not even sure if this is an essay, but neither is it fiction. After listening to the webinar I had to get up out of bed zzz to check out The Write Practice… so, if this is an essay or not, here’s 593 words: Morning Musings. Christmas your way.

So beautiful, sitting here in the half dark of early morning, fire already lit, candles and lamps making puddles of yellow light in corners and on floors and against walls.

Feels like Christmas.

Christmas. When beauty hangs in the house, it having been decorated in seasonal favourites speaking of all those other years, leaning back into the comfortable familiarity of my children’s childhoods, when the world was often tired, frequently stretched, sometimes stressed but always simpler. And full of the joy of children emerging, little people growing into their next surprising iterations.

Christmas at home – not the manic version on the city streets. This Christmas, the one you make yourself within your four walls, be they big or small, literal or metaphorical. Be they the walls you want, or the walls you don’t. Within them: its yours to make. Even if that means starting in your own head.

This Christmas, the one you make yourself. When the air seeps with good will and we can set aside the conflicts and irritations and it seems easier, somehow, to have grace for everyone’s shortcomings. When you steal precious moments away from the distractions and sit in the candlelight and with the lamps throwing yellow puddles on the floor. When forgiveness comes easier and peace, as Yeats so famously said, comes dropping slow.

And when, despite the financing of it all which could darn near break the bank if you weren’t wise, at least somewhat planned and decidedly restrained, there is the joy of plotting and finding something just right for someone and anticipating their face when they get it.

A joy for every sorrow. Other times, it seems there is a sorrow for every joy, that every good thing is marred with a disappointment or a difficulty. What’s the difference? What my eyes see? Both are there. How come sometimes I see only one, and other times I see the other?

What if we were to live life with eyes wide open, knowing that sorrow abides in every corner, pain is rife out there and often in here, and difficulty or trouble is just the nature of everyday stuff. LIke men of old might say, it is a fallen world. And then, then look for the joy, look at, look for, the childhood that’s emerging not the exhaustion of accompanying it. Look for the grace to overlook the shortcoming, not the fact of the shortcoming being there. (Of course its there, duh!). Look for the potential in the problem. Looking for, creating, enjoying, the mastery of managing the budget – despite the pain and strain and limitation of the budget.

I have a premise and its this. If we quit (if I quit) moaning about the problem and start being grateful for what’s good about it, we will (I will ) actually become more able to actually tackle the darn problem in the first place. The real problem… is that my problem with the problem binds me to it… rendering me unable to tackle it: therein lies its power. The problem is definitely a problem in the first place. Giving it power by not accepting it enough to actually tackle it constructively… not that just takes the biscuit.

Givin’ that up this year! Gonna make this Christmas my Christmas. The one with the joy for every sorrow and the lift for every drag – the one full of wonder and people and loving them and ourselves and loving life and the beauty nestling hidden within it… however we are able to.

Thanks, Joe. I will keep this handy to share with my students! Peace, Sherrie

Awesome tips, Joe. But I’m just curious about the number 8 – if you write about too many things, won’t your essay be messy? For example, if you check this discrimination essay out, you’ll see there are many points and nothing concrete about either of them. But if the author wanted to go more deeply into each and every of them, he may have ended up with a research paper. Besides, when it comes to editing, lots of things are crossed out because 90% have nothing to do with the topic. So, I guess this tip may be good for those who are writing big papers but if you have to write a one or two page essay, isn’t it better to stick to the topic?

Nice tips. Hope they can help me to write better.

It was very informative when any student ask or would like to know about the do’s and don’ts about a great essay. To improvise a proper structure in essays it would be wise enough for any writer to take advantage from these aforementioned tips and rules. There are multiple essay writing service that are presenting available services for the students who are just learning to build an informative and detailed essay. Top essay writing services UK are also available online for assistance for UK students that deals with essay writing tips for competitive exams UK.

A 500 word essay is a common assignment for high school and college students. Many students ask how long is this kind of an essay? It is approximately 2 pages. Preparing a 500-word essay for college often means that you will need to conduct preliminary research in order to have useful materials and prepare a good topic for your paper. Once you complete your research, you will need to prepare an outline before starting to write the first drafts. Do not forget about proofreading, i.e. fixing grammar and spelling errors. In order to conduct research, you may visit numerous libraries and search for the books which cover the topic of your paper. Make sure you take notes on the cards. This will help you remember some very important facts related to the topic of your research.

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Excellent tips! Many students have a hard time finding the right words to express their thoughts and feelings in writing. Online tutors from platforms like Sweetstudy or Homeworkmarket can help with this. A tutor will work with you on your specific needs and goals in order to help you achieve them. They’ll work with you to form a plan for success that is tailored specifically for your needs as a learner. Tutors can also be a great resource for those who are looking to improve their writing skills or build confidence in this area of academic study. They’re trained professionals who have been through the process of learning how to write effectively themselves! This means they have experience guiding other learners through this process as well as knowledge about what works best when it comes time for students to submit their work online.

Great Post, Keep it up always.

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