Being a college student isn’t easy, especially if you don’t enjoy writing papers or doing extensive research for weeks on end. According to American Addiction Centers, 87.9% of students reported that their school life was stressful, with homework being responsible for 74.2% of students feeling overwhelmed.
Writing papers in the form of various essays, research papers, case studies, and presentations is what you’ll do for the bulk of your studies. You must find a way to make your life easier by learning how to approach different writing tasks suitably. Let’s take a look at how you can improve your writing as a college student.
1. Learning About Academic Writing
Depending on what you study, you’ll have to write different types of papers throughout the semester. To improve your academic writing, you should learn to differentiate the basic types of essay writing found in academia:
- Descriptive essays – present certain facts to the reader
- Analytical essays – analyze a certain topic for the reader
- Persuasive essays – convince the reader of your point of view
- Critical essays – present your critical thoughts and opinions to the reader
You might sometimes get stuck when writing these papers because it’s deceptively easy to mix up your essay types. You can use Trust My Paper when you’re in a pinch and need some help from a professional writer or editor. Familiarize yourself with these academic writing formats, and you’ll improve the way you write your assignments.
2. Daily Journaling
Journaling is a great idea not only as a creative exercise but also as a form of self-reflection. As a student, you’ll likely run into new challenges and fresh new experiences almost daily. So, why not put it all on paper?
You can grab a nice notebook or a journal from your local bookstore and have at it. Daily journaling will enable you to reflect on your experiences, practice writing, as well as create long-lasting memories to look back on years down the line.
3. Online Blogging
You can start your blog fairly easily with platforms like Tumblr and WordPress. Once you’ve created a blog, you can write about anything you’re passionate about or simply journal about your life. Blogs are an amazing creative writing exercise because there’s no commitment involved.
You can easily edit, reformat, and rewrite entire blog posts if you don’t feel content with what you’ve written. You can also hire an essay writer to help you turn blog post ideas and topics into academic essays which you can then hand in. Once you start working on academic assignments, you’ll do so with more confidence and a richer vocabulary thanks to your blog writing efforts.
4. Creative Writing Prompts
If you’re not feeling too creative, don’t worry – creative writing prompts have you covered. You can find hundreds of creative prompts to write stories about online. These will enable you to practice different tones of voice, and writing formats, as well as expand your vocabulary. Some of the apps you can check out for writing prompts include:
- Lists for Writers
- The Brainstormer
- Prompted Journal
- Rory’s Story Cubes
All you need is a piece of paper or your favorite text editor to get started. This will help you improve your writing by challenging your creative muscles and forcing you to think outside your area of comfort. In turn, you’ll be better prepared to tackle actual academic assignments as they roll around.
5. Writing Fan Fiction
Are you a fan of a particular TV show, a novel, or a video game? Fan fiction is a genre of writing which revolves around creating new stories based on existing properties. This is a great creative writing exercise for students and anyone who wants to try their hand at storytelling.
You can practice writing dialogues, monologues, action scenes, dramatic moments, and anything else involving your favorite characters. Ordering the best essays online for your academic writing assignments is easy – you’ll simply need to provide the writer with some guidelines and stand by. All the while, you can practice your writing by creating fan fiction, sharing it online, and using it to further expand your writing prowess.
6. Writing to Pen Pals
While letters have gone a bit out of fashion, many people still like to write letters or even emails to pen pals. You can find pen pals online and start writing to one another in your spare time. Writing letters by hand is a great creative writing exercise.
You’ll be limited by the size of the paper and have to focus on really getting your points across to the recipient. Also, this is a great spelling and proofreading exercise because writing by hand feels much different than typing text on a computer. And who knows – you might just enjoy some retro letter writing and make a few friends along the way.
7. Role Play as Someone Else
Have you ever imagined that you’re someone else? If you could be anything from a ship captain to an archeologist or an airplane pilot, what would you become? Role-playing is a great way for you to practice writing by being someone else.
Academic papers will often require you to assume a different tone of voice and vocabulary due to their topics and formatting. A good way to practice doing that is by becoming someone else for a few hours. By imagining that you’re a fashion designer, a firefighter, or a CEO, you’ll have an easier time switching tones of voice and writing differently.
Improving Your Student Writing
The only way for you to improve your writing as a student is to stay persistent and practice daily. You should always go back to your previous papers and essays and think about what you would have done differently today.
Try to spot your hiccups instead of solely focusing on the work at hand. This will help you grow not just as a writer but as a person who welcomes mistakes and learns from them.