Essays

1767885186

hi!! this is such a good question, and honestly the fact that you want to get better already puts you in a really good place.

for me, the biggest thing that helped was writing badly on purpose first. like genuinely allowing the first draft to be messy, awkward, repetitive, or way too long. a lot of essay anxiety comes from trying to sound “smart” immediately, but clarity almost always comes after you’ve already written something down.

some things that helped me specifically:

read essays you actually enjoy, not just ones you’re assigned. personal essays, opinion pieces, blogs, long-form articles. pay attention to how they start, how they move between ideas, and how personal or conversational they allow themselves to be.

outline very loosely. not a strict formal outline, just bullet points like “idea i care about,” “example,” “why this matters.” it gives your writing a shape without trapping you.

write like you’re explaining it to one person, not an audience or a professor. you can always make it more “academic” later, but it’s much harder to make stiff writing feel human.

revise in layers: first for ideas (does this make sense?), then for structure (is this in a good order?), and only last for grammar and wording.

for personal essays especially, lean into specificity. concrete moments, small details, specific feelings. that’s what makes writing feel alive.

also: struggling with essays doesn’t mean you’re bad at writing. it usually just means you haven’t found a process that works for you yet. writing is a skill, not a talent—you get better by doing it repeatedly and imperfectly.

be patient with yourself, and try to make space for writing that’s just for you, with no pressure to be graded or impressive. that’s often where improvement sneaks up on you.

good luck—you’re definitely not alone in this 💛

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