Essay writing?

[YesterdaysNews]

I suck at writing essays. I tend to procrastinate and then freak out because it's the beginning of the week that they are due (like now). Does anyone have any tips? I have to write a History essay, 800-1000 words with footnotes for Friday and that's my main concern. I have another essay (civics) due Wednesday that I'm not as concerned about. However, this other essay doesn't specify a length so I'm freaking out about that.

Help.

[FullyAlive]

I stress out a lot about work essays in particular, but I find if i just take a few minutes to do a proper plan paragraph by paragraph including quotes if it's a subject like history then I'm much more confident when writing them.
And if the length is unspecified then I wouldn't worry too much as long as it isn't ridiculously short or long but it has all relevant information in it then you should be ok.
Good luck, I hope some of this helped even if it was only a little. :)

[AutumnDae]

Make a kick ass intro. It should set up your essay. If you have 5 things mentioned in your intro, go in the same order with your five examples or whatever. It flows nicely that way.

Don't introduce new ideas when writing your conclusion. Don't ramble. Get to the point and move on.

[YesterdaysNews]

Do you have to include a bibliography if you're using footnotes? (Dumb question but neither of my teachers said anything).

Thanks you two, it has helped.

[ShatteredWings]

If you're citing something, you need a bibliography/work cited page, yes

[FullyAlive]

When I write history essays I use footnotes with the book title, author and page number then I also do a bibliography which I'll write book name, publisher, date published, author etc. But I'm not sure if this is necessary sorry.

[YesterdaysNews]

I'm using mostly online sources for my civics essay, and I'm stating the author(s), title of the article, title of the website, date of pub., and web address in my footnotes, But I'm going to do a works cited page anyways I guess.

if I made no sense while describing my footnotes (http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee334/XmandiX_2008/Untitled-5.jpg)

[ShatteredWings]

if you're doing inline footnotes, you definitely need the bibliography, since you note it with the numbers alone.

[Cryofthewolf]

I just noticed that you already passed the stuff in after typing, like, the whole comment, so I'll write it anyways. Use my tips for later essays if you want. ;)

The first and foremost thing I would do is to look at one essay at a time, that way you aren't too overwhelmed when working on the things. I personally would start with the History essay, since you said it is the hardest one to do.

Do you have all of your information? All of your sources? (I'm assuming you need them, since you need footnotes.) That would be the second thing to do after taking a chill pill =-p You can't write an essay if you don't know what you are talking about, can you?

Once you feel like you know what to write about, create an outline. There are many different ways to do so and the choice is yours, unless your teacher provided you with a certain outline. I would search online for an outline style that works for you and stick with that. A good outline will tell you to clearly state what the topic sentence is for every paragraph, the points you make in every paragraph, What your thesis and warrant is, etc. Also, be sure to stick to the topic at hand in the paragraphs as well as the essay as a whole. It is easy to branch off into other stuff.

After going through the outline, it's time to write your paper! What I do when I start a paper is write the topic sentence of each paragraph first. It is kind of like doing the outside fo a jigsaw puzzle before you do the inside. It might work for you, or it might not. I would definitely try it though.

When you are done typing your essay, remember to proofread it! I know it takes a lot of time to do, but it can bring your grade up substantially if you find mistakes. Even better than doing it yourself is to get a peer/sibling/parent/whoever to read it for you. If they are putting an effort into it, they can find things that you might miss. My mom and I are both in school and we proofread each other's papers all the time.

So yeah, finally you are done with it. If you finish it early feel free to go back and add some changes if you deem it neccessary. Don't do it too much though, or you might end up freaking out and changing the whole thing. Done that numerous times. x-P

Good luck with your future essay writing. If you ever need someone to proofread your essays send me a message/email with the attachment and I will look it over for you. (That goes for anybody. Yes, I have a lot of time on my hands right now...) -_- By the way, my email is my Skype name (on my page) ending with @gmail.com

Let me know if you need any help! (Alright, this essay is over.) x-D