A lot of us hate writing essays or papers. And there's nothing worse than going to all that effort and then getting your work failed, rejected or slated. So here's five things that you might want to learn (if you don't know them already) that can help you improve your writing--and perhaps even help you enjoy it a little more.
Touch typing. If you're poking away at your keyboard with one finger at a time, it's really going to make it difficult for you to write with fluency and gusto. You want to be able to capture all those ideas flowing out of you, and then you want to feel fine about writing and rewriting and re-editing without worrying about how much time it's going to take. So try out one of those touch typing programmes if you're a slow typist. Yup, that means using your little finger too, but it'll be worth it. I said to my 12-year old son just recently that touch typing was one of the most important skills I ever learnt in my life (Answer, ‘Dad, that’s so sad!’).
Styles. Not Harry. Yes, those annoying things at the top of your screen on Microsoft Word. They might seem pointless, but they're a great way of being able to organise your essay, particularly the different levels of headings. Essentially, if you attribute a style to your headings, and then use the headings tab in navigations, you can see the outline of your essay as you are going along. It means that you've always got a sense of the overall shape of your essay, can put things where they need to go, and means that you'll end up with a much more coherently structured piece of work.
Reference software. Programs like Endnote or Refworks are amazing, and there's ways of using them on the Web for free. Essentially, they keep a list of all the text you've read through, and then you can really easily paste them into your essay as and when needed. Brilliant thing is that they also do the reference list for you and if you need to change your style of referencing... hey presto! They can do that at the touch of a button. Never scrabble around amongst your files for references again.
Formatting. There's so many things about how to format that are really easy to learn. If you're doing a psychology or counselling course, I'd strongly, strongly recommend getting hold of the APA 7th Publication manual, having a really good read through of it, and then just keeping it as a deskside guide every time you're writing essays. It tells you everything you need to know: how to reference, what to put in the different sections of a research paper, how many spaces you should have after a full stop, etcetera, etcetera. Of course, it's the content of an essay that ultimately counts, but if you use a standardised format your writing will look really professional and you'll be able to express your ideas in the clearest possible way. And once you get into the habit of it it will just stick with you, so why not learn it now?
Citation searches. Say you've found a really brilliant book, or research article, on just the topic you're working on. Great. Only problem is, it was written back in 1957: Has anyone done anything relevant since? Citation searches are a really cool way of finding out. Go to Google Scholar (or even better an online database like PsychINFO if your library gives you access to it), search up the text you like, and then click on 'Cited by'. That'll tell you everything since then that references your original text. And, of course, if you find anything else you like, you can citation search that one as well.