essay writing difficulties

Essay Writing Guide

Essay Writing Problems

Essay Writing Problems - 5 Most Paralyzing Problems

#1 Lack of Confidence

The inability to believe in one’s capabilities and skills is one of the most common problems in essay writing that students have to face.

Students who think they are not good at writing will have trouble starting their papers. They doubt their capability to complete it as well. And with this self-doubt, they may never even try to start working on their paper.

As a result, these students end up not submitting an assignment or simply handing in a poorly-written one, fully accepting and expecting that they will get a low or failing grade.

How to Overcome This

There are various ways students can improve their writing skills. There are online courses they can take and they also have the option to take up traditional classes offered by local schools or tutorial centers.

Additionally, students should practice writing daily even if they make mistakes. As long as these mistakes are corrected, they will become better writers in the future.

Lastly, students who don’t know how to start an essay can always ask for assistance from their teachers, peers, and other people who are more knowledgeable and experienced in writing.

#2 Insufficient Knowledge

Many students will also have difficulties writing an essay about a topic taken up in school. The main reason is that they don’t have enough knowledge about the subject matter.

This difficulty can be caused by the student failing to take notes in class or not attending classes at all. He or she may not even understand the topic completely. This will cause anyone to have poor knowledge of any topic.

This is a problem that students can easily trounce. Students simply need to put in some extra time to study whatever notes they have. They can also do extra research to understand the topic.

Students can also ask their teacher to explain the topic to them again if they are having a hard time understanding it.

#3 Lack of Writing Skills

Although some students are confident about writing and have enough ideas to write their papers, if they lack language proficiency, they won’t submit an impressive essay.

Using the wrong words, misleading language, misplacing words, phrases, and punctuation will result in a poor paper. Some students may even resort to using technical words and jargon with the hope of impressing their teacher. Of course, this technique usually backfires.

Students should learn to use simple words and construct short, concise sentences to get a good mark on their papers. Students also need to read more since this is a good exercise for becoming a better writer.

They can also get help from the best assignment experts if they need help with polishing their papers. These writers will ensure students turn in good essays, reflective of their knowledge and abilities.

#4 Plagiarism

When all else fails, plagiarism is something that many students end up doing just so they can submit a paper. This is also their last resort if they are rushing to complete their essay at the last minute.

Teachers today check each paper for plagiarized content. Students who submit essays that contain copied paragraphs from published material will find themselves in a lot of trouble.

Students need to learn how to paraphrase the content they use for their essays. They should know when and how to use references as well.

Finally, they should make it a habit to run their essays through online plagiarism tools to ensure that they submit an original paper.

#5 Getting Stuck

Lastly, students are given a topic that has been discussed numerous times already. This can get the student stuck and unable to write anything about it. They think that there is nothing left to explore and they can’t have their own say on such topics.

Because of this, they are unable to start writing their paper, much less finish it.

Conducting more research will help students find an angle they will be interested in exploring, analyzing, and discussing. Students can also ask their peers, parents, and other people about the topic.

#6 Time Management

Time management is another main problem that students face. Some students think they can get away with working at the last minute. They might be in a big hurry or simply don't know what needs to be done yet. Because of this, they will submit bad-quality work.

How to Overcome This:

If you plan ahead, you can avoid having to spend a lot of time editing your paper.

Planning ahead will help you do better research, so your analysis of the issue is stronger. This will also help you set the paper aside and come back to it later with a fresh perspective, which means you can revise it more effectively.

#7 Awkward Structure

The structure of your sentences should be clear and understandable to allow the reader to follow what you are saying. Each sentence needs a meaningful connection with the topic so they can understand it fully without confusion, ultimately making them enjoy reading more.

Structure is key to making an essay readable. You should know the proper essay structure. Every sentence should be related and meaningful for your target audience.

Keep reading

Top 20 Errors in Undergraduate Writing

Main navigation.

The Top Twenty: A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing

Readers judge your writing by your control of certain conventions, which may change depending on your audience, purpose, and writing situation. For example, your instructor may or may not mark errors in your paper if he’s more concerned with its argument or structure than he is with sentence-level correctness; he could also decide an error is not serious. Some instructors may even see the errors listed below as stylistic options. However, a large-scale study by Andrea Lunsford and Karen Lunsford (2008) found that these errors are the most likely to attract readers’ negative attention. Before handing in your papers, proofread them carefully for these errors, which are illustrated below in the sentences in italics.

THE TOP TWENTY

1. wrong word.

Wrong word errors take a number of forms. They may convey a slightly different meaning than you intend ( compose instead of comprise ) or a completely wrong meaning ( prevaricate instead of procrastinate ). They may also be as simple as a wrong preposition or other type of wrong word in an idiom.

Use your thesaurus and spell checker with care. If you select a word from a thesaurus without knowing its precise meaning or allow a spell checker to correct spelling automatically, you may make wrong-word errors. If prepositions and idioms are tricky for you, look up the standard usage.

Here are a couple of wrong word examples:

Did you catch my illusion to the Bible?

Illusion means “an erroneous perception of reality.” In the context of this sentence, allusion was needed because it means "reference.”

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is a magnificent sixteenth-century allergy.

A spell checker replaced allegory with allergy.

2. Missing Comma after an Introductory Element

Use a comma after every introductory element—whether word, phrase or clause—to clarify where it ends and the rest of the sentence begins. When the introductory element is very short, you can skip the comma, but including it is never wrong.

Without a comma after the introductory element, it’s hard to see the location of the subject (“they”) in this sentence:

Determined to make their flight on time they rose at dawn.

3. Incomplete or Missing Documentation

Documentation practices vary from discipline to discipline. But in academic and research writing, it’s a good idea to always cite your sources: omitting documentation can result in charges of plagiarism.

The examples below follow MLA style. In this example, the page number of the print source for this quotation must be included.

The Social Media Bible defines social media as the “activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media.”

And here, the source mentioned should be identified because it makes a specific, arguable claim:

According to one source, it costs almost twice an employee’s salary to recruit and train a replacement.

Cite each source you refer to in the text, following the guidelines of the documentation style you are using.

4. Vague Pronoun Reference

A pronoun (e.g., he, this, it) should refer clearly to the noun it replaces (called the antecedent). If more than one word could be the antecedent, or if no specific antecedent is present, edit to make the meaning clear.

In this sentence, it possibly refers to more than one word:

If you put this handout in your binder, it may remind you of important tutoring strategies .

In some pronoun usage, the reference is implied but not stated. Here, for example, you might wonder what which refers to:

The authoritarian school changed its cell phone policy, which many students resisted.

To improve this sentence, the writer needs to make explicit what students resisted.

5. Spelling

Even though technology now reviews much of our spelling for us, one of the top 20 most common errors is a spelling error. That’s because spell checkers cannot identify many misspellings, and are most likely to miss homonyms (e.g., presence/presents), compound words incorrectly spelled as separate words, and proper nouns, particularly names. After you run the spell checker, proofread carefully for errors such as these:

Vladmir Putin is the controversial leader of Russia.

Every where she walked, she was reminded of him.

6. Mechanical Error with a Quotation

When we quote other writers, we bring their voices into our arguments. Quotation marks crucially show where their words end and our own begin.

Quotation marks come in pairs; don’t forget to open and close your quotations. In most documentation styles (e.g., MLA Style), block quotations do not need quotations marks. Consult your professor’s preferred style manual to learn how to present block quotations.

Follow conventions when using quotation marks with other punctuation. Here, the comma should be placed inside the quotation marks:

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction", Virginia Woolf argues.

7. Unnecessary Comma

We often have a choice about whether or not to use a comma. But if we add them to our sentences when and where they are not needed, then we may obscure rather than clarify our meaning.

Do not use commas to set off restrictive elements that are necessary to the meaning of the words they modify. Here, for example, no comma is needed to set off the restrictive phrase of working parents , which is necessary to indicate which parents the sentence is talking about.

Many children, of working parents, walk home from school by themselves.

Do not use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) when the conjunction does not join parts of a compound sentence. In this example, no comma is needed before the word and because it joins two phrases that modify the same verb, applies.

This social scourge can be seen in urban centers, and in rural outposts.

Do not use a comma before the first or after the last item in a series.

The students asked their TAs to review, the assignment rubric, a sample paper and their comments, before the end of the quarter.

Do not use a comma between a subject and verb.

Happily, the waiters, sat down during a break.

Do not use a comma between a verb and its object or complement.

On her way home from work, she bought, a book at the bookstore.

Do not use a comma between a preposition and its object.

On her way home from work, she bought a book at, the bookstore.

8. Unnecessary or Missing Capitalization

Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives, the first words of sentences, and important words in titles, along with certain words indicating directions and family relationships. Do not capitalize most other words. When in doubt, check a dictionary.

Financial Aid is a pressing concern for many University Students.

9. Missing Word

If you read your work outloud before submittingit, you are more likely to notice omitted words. Be particularly careful not to omit words from quotations.

Soccer fans the globe rejoiced when the striker scored the second goal.

10. Faulty Sentence Structure

If a sentence starts out with one kind of structure and then changes to another kind, it will confuse readers.

The information that families have access to is what financial aid is available and thinking about the classes available, and how to register.

Maintain the grammatical pattern within a sentence. Each sentence must have a subject and a verb, and the subjects and predicates must make sense together. In the example above, thinking about the classes available does not help the reader understand the information families have access to. Parallel structures can help your reader see the relationships among your ideas. Here’s the sentence revised:

Families have access to information about financial aid, class availability, and registration.

11. Missing Comma with a Nonrestrictive Element

A nonrestrictive phrase or clause provides additional information that is not essential to the basic meaning of the sentence. Use commas to set off a nonrestrictive element.

David who loved to read history was the first to head to the British Library.

The clause who loved to read history does not affect the basic meaning of the sentence. The clause could be taken out and the reader would still understand that David was the first to head to the British Library.

12. Unnecessary Shift in Verb Tense

Verbs that shift from one tense to another with no clear reason can confuse readers.

Martin searched for a great horned owl. He takes photographs of all the birds he sights.

13. Missing Comma in a Compound Sentence

A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. When the clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), use a comma before the conjunction to indicate a pause between the two thoughts.

Miranda drove her brother and her mother waited at home.

Without the comma, a reader may think at first that Miranda drove both her brother and her mother.

14. Unnecessary or Missing Apostrophe (including its/it's)

To make a noun possessive, add either an apostrophe and an s (Ed's phone) or an apostrophe alone (the girls’ bathroom). Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive pronouns ours, yours, and hers. Use its to mean belong to it; use it's only when you mean it is or it has.

Repeated viral infections compromise doctors immune systems.

The chef lifted the skillet off it’s hook. Its a fourteen-inch, copper skillet.

15. Fused (run-on) Sentence

A fused sentence (also called a run-on) joins clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence with no punctuation or words to link them. Fused sentences must be either divided into separate sentences or joined by adding words or punctuation.

The house was flooded with light, the moon rose above the horizon.

He wondered what the decision meant he thought about it all night.

16. Comma Splice

A comma splice occurs when only a comma separates clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence. To correct a comma splice, you can insert a semicolon or period, connect the clauses with a word such as and/or/because, or restructure the sentence.

The students rushed the field, they tore down the goalposts.

17. Lack of pronoun/antecedent agreement

Pronouns typically must agree with their antecedents in gender (male or female, if appropriate) and in number (singular or plural). Many indefinite pronouns, such as everyone and each, are always singular. However, they can be used to agree with a singular antecedent in order to use inclusive or gender-neutral language. When antecedents are joined by or or nor, the pronoun must agree with the closer antecedent. A collection noun such as team can be either singular or plural, depending on whether the members are seen as a group or individuals.

Every guest left their shoes at the door.

18. Poorly Integrated Quotation

Quotations should be logically and smoothly integrated with the writing around them, the grammar of the quotation complementing the grammar of the neighboring prose. They usually need to be introduced (with a signal phrase) rather than dropped abruptly into the writing.

An award-winning 2009 study of friendship "understanding social networks allows us to understand how indeed, in the case of humans, the whole comes to be greater than the sum of its parts" (Christakis and Fowler 26).

"Social networks are intricate things of beauty" (Christakis and Fowler xiii). Maintaining close friendships is good for your health.

19. Missing or Unnecessary Hyphen

A compound adjective requires a hyphen when it modifies a noun that follows it.

This article describes eighteenth century theater.

A two-word verb should not be hyphenated.

The dealers want to buy-back the computers and refurbish them.

20. Sentence Fragment

A sentence fragment is part of a sentence that is presented as if it were a complete sentence. The following illustrate the ways sentence fragments can be created:

Without a subject

The American colonists resisted British taxation. And started the American Revolution.

No complete verb

The pink geranium blooming in its pot.

Beginning with a subordinating word

We visited the park. Where we threw the Frisbee.

These 20 most common errors can be avoided in your writing if you reserve time to proofread your final draft before submission.

Works Cited

Lunsford, Andrea A. and Karen J. Lunsford. “Mistakes are a Fact of Life: A National Comparative Study.” CCC 59 (2008) 781-806.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

We're Hiring!
Help Center

Exploring University Students’ Difficulties in Writing English Academic Essay

AL-ISHLAH: Jurnal Pendidikan

Academic wiring is one of the essential skills in academic writing, and it is vital to support students' self-development through opinion writing, grant essay writing and others. This study explores students' difficulties in writing English academic essays and the dominant challenges by using a mix-method approach. The qualitative is used to collect data, while the quantitative is used to find the difficulty percentage—the data analysis uses indicators from Brown (1999). The sample of this study was 30 students in the fifth semester of the English Education Study Program at Universitas Kristen Artha Wacana. The results showed that students still experienced serious difficulties in four aspects of academic writing; content, organization, discourse and mechanics. The most dominant difficulties (97%) were found in; 1) thesis statement; 2) related ideas; 3) development of ideas; and 4) use of description/cause and effect, comparison/contrast; 5) effective introduction; 6) topic ...

Related Papers

European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching

Bui Thi Thu Trang

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difficulties faced by English-majored students in writing academic essays. To collect the data for the investigation, the sample involved was twenty-seven English-majored students who have been studying English as their specialization at a public university in Vietnam. The instruments of this study conducted a mix-method as a qualitative and quantitative approach. To achieve the purpose of this study, the questionnaire was administered as the quantitative data collection and the semi-structured interview as the qualitative data collection. Then, five of the total participants were randomly interviewed to gain insight ideas of the difficulties that they face when writing academic essays in their writing course. The results of this study demonstrated that the majority of students had obstacles related to insufficient linguistic knowledge namely, lexicon-grammar, vocabulary, and the structure of sentences. The findings from the interview...

English Language Teaching Educational Journal

Suhaimah Bulqiyah

This study is primarily designed for investigating the tertiary students’ perspectives on the writing difficulties of essays. This study was conducted in explanatory research in which quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from the web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interview, then analyzed separately. 21 undergraduate students have enrolled in the survey and 6 of them were invited to the interview section. This research reveals tertiary students' problems in essay writing course are categorized into: affective problems which raise from students’ and lecturers’ attitude while teaching and learning Essay Writing Course, cognitive problems that considered as the difficulties in the areas of writing viewpoint, transferring language, and the process of writing, and linguistic problems in the area of lexico-grammar, vocabulary, and the structure of the essay. Due to the findings, those aspects of academic writing should be serious attention for both EFL students and...

Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Languages and Arts (ICLA-2019)

Desvalini Anwar

Celt: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching and Literature

Hikmah Zalifah Putri

International Journal of English and Literature

mulat guadie

Journal of History Culture and Art Research

Hasan Sağlamel

Su-Hie Ting

English Language and Literature Studies

ABDULAMIR ALAMIN

Nur siti Fatimah

There are some demand and facts on English teching and learning that made the research conducted. They are the teaching and learning in the academic writing class, the feedback from lecturers on the students language performance, the students’ weaknesses in writing, the students’ expectation for the materials, and the requirement on publishing scientific articles. The study, then, reveals the students’ needs for academic writing at the English Education Department of Ahmad Dahlan University and their problems in academic writing. The aspects investigated were teaching materials, learning activities, skills and learning resources. The data were obtained by a questionnaire to describe whether the stated items very interesting/very important – not very interesting/not very important. The number of population is 370. Krejcie and Morgan table was referred for the sample. An open question was responded to enable respondents to share more feedback on their academic writing skills and probl...

Listyani Listyani

Writing is one of the most difficult skills in learning English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Foreign Language (EFL). Many language learners encountered difficulties from the writing process. At the tertiary level, students are required to produce academic essays, which are difficult and may frustrate students. The purpose of this study was to analyze factors contributing to students’ difficulties in an Academic Writing course based on the students’ perceptions. This study used a qualitative method. The instruments used were open-ended questionnaires and interview protocol. In this study, all the participants’ answers were coded and analyzed descriptively. The participants were 22 students who were taking Academic Writing class for repeaters in Semester I, 2018/2019 academic year, in an English Language Education Program, in a university in Central Java, Indonesia. Questionnaire data were coded and classified by the researcher. In conducting the interview, data were audio-re...

RELATED PAPERS

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

Andrew Detwiler

Promet Traffic Transportation

Bozidar Ivankovic

Katrin Schweitzer

Biota Neotropica

Detony Petri

Adriana Zapata

Quaderni d'Italianistica

Massimo Ciavolella

María Soledad García Lerena

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Dr. Sumona Bhattacharya

Carcinogenesis

cho mi mi aung

European Journal of Clinical Investigation

Revista Archai

Davi bastos

Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan

Md Delwar Hossain

The European respiratory journal

CRISTINA ORTIZ MARTINEZ

Revista Fitotecnia Mexicana

Fernando De León González

European Scientific Journal, ESJ

KONE MAMADOU

Granular Matter

Daniel Bonn

Archives de Pédiatrie

Sandrine Essouri

Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism

Parimal Tayde

Semiconductor Science and Technology

Richard Noetzel

The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Yong Poovorawan

Farid Karimian

约克大学毕业证York成绩单留信网认证【87527357微/Q】办理加拿大学历证书York大学文凭毕业证书原件，YU文凭留学归国人员证明York University

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

Amod Sharma

Advances in Space Research

Joanna Sarmiento

Elena Ivanova

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write the “Overcoming Challenges” Essay + Examples

What’s covered:.

What is the Overcoming Challenges Essay?
Real Overcoming Challenges Essay Prompts
How to Choose a Topic
Writing Tips

Overcoming Challenges Essay Examples

Where to Get Your Essay Edited

While any college essay can be intimidating, the Overcoming Challenges prompt often worries students the most. Those students who’ve been lucky enough not to experience trauma tend to assume they have nothing worth saying. On the other hand, students who’ve overcome larger obstacles may be hesitant to talk about them.

Regardless of your particular circumstances, there are steps you can take to make the essay writing process simpler. Here are our top tips for writing the overcoming challenges essay successfully.

What is the “Overcoming Challenges” Essay?

The overcoming challenges prompt shows up frequently in both main application essays (like the Common App) and supplemental essays. Because supplemental essays allow students to provide schools with additional information, applicants should be sure that the subject matter they choose to write about differs from what’s in their main essay.

Students often assume the overcoming challenges essay requires them to detail past traumas. While you can certainly write about an experience that’s had a profound effect on your life, it’s important to remember that colleges aren’t evaluating students based on the seriousness of the obstacle they overcame.

On the contrary, the goal of this essay is to show admissions officers that you have the intelligence and fortitude to handle any challenges that come your way. After all, college serves as an introduction to adult life, and schools want to know that the students they admit are up to the task.

Real “Overcoming Challenges” Essay Prompts

To help you understand what the “Overcoming Challenges” essay looks like, here are a couple sample prompts.

Currently, the Common Application asks students to answer the following prompt in 650 words or less:

“The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?”

For the past several years, MIT has prompted students to write 200 to 250 words on the following:

“Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?”

In both cases, the prompts explicitly ask for your response to the challenge. The event itself isn’t as important as how it pushed you to grow.

How to Choose a Topic for an Essay on Overcoming Challenges

When it comes to finding the best topic for your overcoming challenges essays, there’s no right answer. The word “challenge” is ambiguous and could be used to reference a wide range of situations from prevailing over a bully to getting over your lifelong stage fright to appear in a school musical. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind when selecting an essay subject.

1. Avoid trivial or common topics

While there aren’t many hard-and-fast rules for choosing an essay topic, students should avoid overdone topics.

These include:

Working hard in a challenging class
Overcoming a sports injury
Moving schools or immigrating to the US
Tragedy (divorce, death, abuse)

Admissions officers have read numerous essays on the subject, so it’s harder for you to stand out (see our full list of cliché college essay topics to avoid ). If events like these were truly formative to you, you can still choose to write about them, but you’ll need to be as personal as possible.

It’s also ideal if you have a less traditional storyline for a cliché topic; for example, if your sports injury led you to discover a new passion, that would be a more unique story than detailing how you overcame your injury and got back in the game.

Similarly, students may not want to write about an obstacle that admissions committees could perceive as low stakes, such as getting a B on a test, or getting into a small fight with a friend. The goal of this essay is to illustrate how you respond to adversity, so the topic you pick should’ve been at least impactful on your personal growth.

2. Pick challenges that demonstrate qualities you want to highlight

Students often mistakenly assume they need to have experienced exceptional circumstances like poverty, an abusive parent, or cancer to write a good essay. The truth is that the best topics will allow you to highlight specific personal qualities and share more about who you are. The essay should be less about the challenge itself, and more about how you responded to it.

Ask yourself what personality traits you want to emphasize, and see what’s missing in your application. Maybe you want to highlight your adaptability, for example, but that isn’t clearly expressed in your application. In this case, you might write about a challenge that put your adaptability to the test, or shaped you to become more adaptable.

Here are some examples of good topics we’ve seen over the years:

Not having a coach for a sports team and becoming one yourself
Helping a parent through a serious health issue
Trying to get the school track dedicated to a coach
Having to switch your Model UN position last-minute

Tips for Writing an Essay About Overcoming Challenges

Once you’ve selected a topic for your essays, it’s time to sit down and write. For best results, make sure your essay focuses on your efforts to tackle an obstacle rather than the problem itself. Additionally, you could avoid essay writing pitfalls by doing the following:

1. Choose an original essay structure

If you want your overcoming challenges essay to attract attention, aim to break away from more traditional structures. Most of these essays start by describing an unsuccessful attempt at a goal and then explain the steps the writer took to master the challenge.

You can stand out by choosing a challenge you’re still working on overcoming, or focus on a mental or emotional challenge that spans multiple activities or events. For example, you might discuss your fear of public speaking and how that impacted your ability to coach your brother’s Little League team and run for Student Council.

You can also choose a challenge that can be narrated in the moment, such as being put on the spot to teach a yoga class. These challenges can make particularly engaging essays, as you get to experience the writer’s thoughts and emotions as they unfold.

Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need to have succeeded in your goal for this essay. Maybe you ran for an election and lost, or maybe you proposed a measure to the school board that wasn’t passed. It’s still possible to write a strong essay about topics like these as long as you focus on your personal growth. In fact, these may make for even stronger essays since they are more unconventional topics.

2. Focus on the internal

When writing about past experiences, you may be tempted to spend too much time describing specific people and events. With an Overcoming Challenges essay though, the goal is to focus on your thoughts and feelings.

For example, rather than detail all the steps you took to become a better public speaker, use the majority of your essay to describe your mental state as you embarked on the journey to achieving your goals. Were you excited, scared, anxious, or hopeful? Don’t be afraid to let the reader in on your innermost emotions and thoughts during this process.

3. Share what you learned

An Overcoming Challenges essay should leave the reader with a clear understanding of what you learned on your journey, be it physical, mental, or emotional. There’s no need to explicitly say “this experience taught me X,” but your essay should at least implicitly share any lessons you learned. This can be done through your actions and in-the-moment reflections. Remember that the goal is to show admissions committees why your experiences make you a great candidate for admission.

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the g arb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire.

Furiously I rubbed the twigs together—rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers. No smoke. The twigs were too young, too sticky-green; I tossed them away with a shower of curses, and began tearing through the underbrush in search of a more flammable collection. My efforts were fruitless. Livid, I bit a rejected twig, determined to prove that the forest had spurned me, offering only young, wet bones that would never burn. But the wood cracked like carrots between my teeth—old, brittle, and bitter. Roaring and nursing my aching palms, I retreated to the tent, where I sulked and awaited the jeers of my family.

Rattling their empty worm cans and reeking of fat fish, my brother and cousins swaggered into the campsite. Immediately, they noticed the minor stick massacre by the fire pit and called to me, their deep voices already sharp with contempt.

“Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” they taunted. “Having some trouble?” They prodded me with the ends of the chewed branches and, with a few effortless scrapes of wood on rock, sparked a red and roaring flame. My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame.

In the tent, I pondered my failure. Was I so dainty? Was I that incapable? I thought of my hands, how calloused and capable they had been, how tender and smooth they had become. It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive. And I’d gotten glasses, having grown horrifically nearsighted; long nights of dim lighting and thick books had done this. I couldn’t remember the last time I had lain down on a hill, barefaced, and seen the stars without having to squint. Crawling along the edge of the tent, a spider confirmed my transformation—he disgusted me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to squash him.

Yet, I realized I hadn’t really changed—I had only shifted perspective. I still eagerly explored new worlds, but through poems and prose rather than pastures and puddles. I’d grown to prefer the boom of a bass over that of a bullfrog, learned to coax a different kind of fire from wood, having developed a burn for writing rhymes and scrawling hypotheses.

That night, I stayed up late with my journal and wrote about the spider I had decided not to kill. I had tolerated him just barely, only shrieking when he jumped—it helped to watch him decorate the corners of the tent with his delicate webs, knowing that he couldn’t start fires, either. When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.

This essay is an excellent example because the writer turns an everyday challenge—starting a fire—into an exploration of her identity. The writer was once “a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes,” but has since traded her love of the outdoors for a love of music, writing, and reading.

The story begins in media res , or in the middle of the action, allowing readers to feel as if we’re there with the writer. One of the essay’s biggest strengths is its use of imagery. We can easily visualize the writer’s childhood and the present day. For instance, she states that she “rubbed and rubbed [the twigs] until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers.”

The writing has an extremely literary quality, particularly with its wordplay. The writer reappropriates words and meanings, and even appeals to the senses: “My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame.” She later uses a parallelism to cleverly juxtapose her changed interests: “instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano.”

One of the essay’s main areas of improvement is its overemphasis on the “story” and lack of emphasis on the reflection. The second to last paragraph about changing perspective is crucial to the essay, as it ties the anecdote to larger lessons in the writer’s life. She states that she hasn’t changed, but has only shifted perspective. Yet, we don’t get a good sense of where this realization comes from and how it impacts her life going forward.

The end of the essay offers a satisfying return to the fire imagery, and highlights the writer’s passion—the one thing that has remained constant in her life.

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite.

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin.

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

While the writer didn’t succeed in getting the track dedicated to Coach Stark, their essay is certainly successful in showing their willingness to push themselves and take initiative.

The essay opens with a quote from Coach Stark that later comes full circle at the end of the essay. We learn about Stark’s impact and the motivation for trying to get the track dedicated to him.

One of the biggest areas of improvement in the intro, however, is how the essay tells us Stark’s impact rather than showing us: His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

The writer could’ve helped us feel a stronger emotional connection to Stark if they had included examples of Stark’s qualities, rather than explicitly stating them. For example, they could’ve written something like: Stark was the kind of person who would give you gas money if you told him your parents couldn’t afford to pick you up from practice. And he actually did that—several times. At track meets, alumni regularly would come talk to him and tell him how he’d changed their lives. Before Stark, I was ambivalent about running and was on the JV team, but his encouragement motivated me to run longer and harder and eventually make varsity. Because of him, I approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

The essay goes on to explain how the writer overcame their apprehension of public speaking, and likens the process of submitting an appeal to the school board to running a race. This metaphor makes the writing more engaging and allows us to feel the student’s emotions.

While the student didn’t ultimately succeed in getting the track dedicated, we learn about their resilience and initiative: I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Overall, this essay is well-done. It demonstrates growth despite failing to meet a goal, which is a unique essay structure. The running metaphor and full-circle intro/ending also elevate the writing in this essay.

Where to Get Your Overcoming Challenges Essay Edited

The Overcoming Challenges essay is one of the trickier supplemental prompts, so it’s important to get feedback on your drafts. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Writing Anxiety

What this handout is about.

This handout discusses the situational nature of writer’s block and other writing anxiety and suggests things you can try to feel more confident and optimistic about yourself as a writer.

What are writing anxiety and writer’s block?

“Writing anxiety” and “writer’s block” are informal terms for a wide variety of apprehensive and pessimistic feelings about writing. These feelings may not be pervasive in a person’s writing life. For example, you might feel perfectly fine writing a biology lab report but apprehensive about writing a paper on a novel. You may confidently tackle a paper about the sociology of gender but delete and start over twenty times when composing an email to a cute classmate to suggest a coffee date. In other words, writing anxiety and writers’ block are situational (Hjortshoj 7). These terms do NOT describe psychological attributes. People aren’t born anxious writers; rather, they become anxious or blocked through negative or difficult experiences with writing.

When do these negative feelings arise?

Although there is a great deal of variation among individuals, there are also some common experiences that writers in general find stressful.

For example, you may struggle when you are:

adjusting to a new form of writing—for example, first year college writing, papers in a new field of study, or longer forms than you are used to (a long research paper, a senior thesis, a master’s thesis, a dissertation) (Hjortshoj 56-76).
writing for a reader or readers who have been overly critical or demanding in the past.
remembering negative criticism received in the past—even if the reader who criticized your work won’t be reading your writing this time.
working with limited time or with a lot of unstructured time.
responding to an assignment that seems unrelated to academic or life goals.
dealing with troubling events outside of school.

What are some strategies for handling these feelings?

Get support.

Choose a writing buddy, someone you trust to encourage you in your writing life. Your writing buddy might be a friend or family member, a classmate, a teacher, a colleague, or a Writing Center tutor. Talk to your writing buddy about your ideas, your writing process, your worries, and your successes. Share pieces of your writing. Make checking in with your writing buddy a regular part of your schedule. When you share pieces of writing with your buddy, use our handout on asking for feedback .

In his book Understanding Writing Blocks, Keith Hjortshoj describes how isolation can harm writers, particularly students who are working on long projects not connected with coursework (134-135). He suggests that in addition to connecting with supportive individuals, such students can benefit from forming or joining a writing group, which functions in much the same way as a writing buddy. A group can provide readers, deadlines, support, praise, and constructive criticism. For help starting one, see our handout about writing groups .

Identify your strengths

Often, writers who are experiencing block or anxiety have a worse opinion of their own writing than anyone else! Make a list of the things you do well. You might ask a friend or colleague to help you generate such a list. Here are some possibilities to get you started:

I explain things well to people.
I get people’s interest.
I have strong opinions.
I listen well.
I am critical of what I read.
I see connections.

Choose at least one strength as your starting point. Instead of saying “I can’t write,” say “I am a writer who can …”

Recognize that writing is a complex process

Writing is an attempt to fix meaning on the page, but you know, and your readers know, that there is always more to be said on a topic. The best writers can do is to contribute what they know and feel about a topic at a particular point in time.

Writers often seek “flow,” which usually entails some sort of breakthrough followed by a beautifully coherent outpouring of knowledge. Flow is both a possibility—most people experience it at some point in their writing lives—and a myth. Inevitably, if you write over a long period of time and for many different situations, you will encounter obstacles. As Hjortshoj explains, obstacles are particularly common during times of transition—transitions to new writing roles or to new kinds of writing.

Think of yourself as an apprentice.

If block or apprehension is new for you, take time to understand the situations you are writing in. In particular, try to figure out what has changed in your writing life. Here are some possibilities:

You are writing in a new format.
You are writing longer papers than before.
You are writing for new audiences.
You are writing about new subject matter.
You are turning in writing from different stages of the writing process—for example, planning stages or early drafts.

It makes sense to have trouble when dealing with a situation for the first time. It’s also likely that when you confront these new situations, you will learn and grow. Writing in new situations can be rewarding. Not every format or audience will be right for you, but you won’t know which ones might be right until you try them. Think of new writing situations as apprenticeships. When you’re doing a new kind of writing, learn as much as you can about it, gain as many skills in that area as you can, and when you finish the apprenticeship, decide which of the skills you learned will serve you well later on. You might be surprised.

Below are some suggestions for how to learn about new kinds of writing:

Ask a lot of questions of people who are more experienced with this kind of writing. Here are some of the questions you might ask: What’s the purpose of this kind of writing? Who’s the audience? What are the most important elements to include? What’s not as important? How do you get started? How do you know when what you’ve written is good enough? How did you learn to write this way?
Ask a lot of questions of the person who assigned you a piece of writing. If you have a paper, the best place to start is with the written assignment itself. For help with this, see our handout on understanding assignments .
Look for examples of this kind of writing. (You can ask your instructor for a recommended example). Look, especially, for variation. There are often many different ways to write within a particular form. Look for ways that feel familiar to you, approaches that you like. You might want to look for published models or, if this seems too intimidating, look at your classmates’ writing. In either case, ask yourself questions about what these writers are doing, and take notes. How does the writer begin and end? In what order does the writer tell things? How and when does the writer convey their main point? How does the writer bring in other people’s ideas? What is the writer’s purpose? How is that purpose achieved?
Read our handouts about how to write in specific fields or how to handle specific writing assignments.
Listen critically to your readers. Before you dismiss or wholeheartedly accept what they say, try to understand them. If a reader has given you written comments, ask yourself questions to figure out the reader’s experience of your paper: What is this reader looking for? What am I doing that satisfies this reader? In what ways is this reader still unsatisfied? If you can’t answer these questions from the reader’s comments, then talk to the reader, or ask someone else to help you interpret the comments.
Most importantly, don’t try to do everything at once. Start with reasonable expectations. You can’t write like an expert your first time out. Nobody does! Use the criticism you get.

Once you understand what readers want, you are in a better position to decide what to do with their criticisms. There are two extreme possibilities—dismissing the criticisms and accepting them all—but there is also a lot of middle ground. Figure out which criticisms are consistent with your own purposes, and do the hard work of engaging with them. Again, don’t expect an overnight turn-around; recognize that changing writing habits is a process and that papers are steps in the process.

Chances are that at some point in your writing life you will encounter readers who seem to dislike, disagree with, or miss the point of your work. Figuring out what to do with criticism from such readers is an important part of a writer’s growth.

Try new tactics when you get stuck

Often, writing blocks occur at particular stages of the writing process. The writing process is cyclical and variable. For different writers, the process may include reading, brainstorming, drafting, getting feedback, revising, and editing. These stages do not always happen in this order, and once a writer has been through a particular stage, chances are they haven’t seen the last of that stage. For example, brainstorming may occur all along the way.

Figure out what your writing process looks like and whether there’s a particular stage where you tend to get stuck. Perhaps you love researching and taking notes on what you read, and you have a hard time moving from that work to getting started on your own first draft. Or once you have a draft, it seems set in stone and even though readers are asking you questions and making suggestions, you don’t know how to go back in and change it. Or just the opposite may be true; you revise and revise and don’t want to let the paper go.

Wherever you have trouble, take a longer look at what you do and what you might try. Sometimes what you do is working for you; it’s just a slow and difficult process. Other times, what you do may not be working; these are the times when you can look around for other approaches to try:

Talk to your writing buddy and to other colleagues about what they do at the particular stage that gets you stuck.
Read about possible new approaches in our handouts on brainstorming and revising .
Try thinking of yourself as an apprentice to a stage of the writing process and give different strategies a shot.
Cut your paper into pieces and tape them to the wall, use eight different colors of highlighters, draw a picture of your paper, read your paper out loud in the voice of your favorite movie star….

Okay, we’re kind of kidding with some of those last few suggestions, but there is no limit to what you can try (for some fun writing strategies, check out our online animated demos ). When it comes to conquering a block, give yourself permission to fall flat on your face. Trying and failing will you help you arrive at the thing that works for you.

Celebrate your successes

Start storing up positive experiences with writing. Whatever obstacles you’ve faced, celebrate the occasions when you overcome them. This could be something as simple as getting started, sharing your work with someone besides a teacher, revising a paper for the first time, trying out a new brainstorming strategy, or turning in a paper that has been particularly challenging for you. You define what a success is for you. Keep a log or journal of your writing successes and breakthroughs, how you did it, how you felt. This log can serve as a boost later in your writing life when you face new challenges.

Wait a minute, didn’t we already say that? Yes. It’s worth repeating. Most people find relief for various kinds of anxieties by getting support from others. Sometimes the best person to help you through a spell of worry is someone who’s done that for you before—a family member, a friend, a mentor. Maybe you don’t even need to talk with this person about writing; maybe you just need to be reminded to believe in yourself, that you can do it.

If you don’t know anyone on campus yet whom you have this kind of relationship with, reach out to someone who seems like they could be a good listener and supportive. There are a number of professional resources for you on campus, people you can talk through your ideas or your worries with. A great place to start is the UNC Writing Center. If you know you have a problem with writing anxiety, make an appointment well before the paper is due. You can come to the Writing Center with a draft or even before you’ve started writing. You can also approach your instructor with questions about your writing assignment. If you’re an undergraduate, your academic advisor and your residence hall advisor are other possible resources. Counselors at Counseling and Wellness Services are also available to talk with you about anxieties and concerns that extend beyond writing.

Apprehension about writing is a common condition on college campuses. Because writing is the most common means of sharing our knowledge, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we write. This handout has given some suggestions for how to relieve that pressure. Talk with others; realize we’re all learning; take an occasional risk; turn to the people who believe in you. Counter negative experiences by actively creating positive ones.

Even after you have tried all of these strategies and read every Writing Center handout, invariably you will still have negative experiences in your writing life. When you get a paper back with a bad grade on it or when you get a rejection letter from a journal, fend off the negative aspects of that experience. Try not to let them sink in; try not to let your disappointment fester. Instead, jump right back in to some area of the writing process: choose one suggestion the evaluator has made and work on it, or read and discuss the paper with a friend or colleague, or do some writing or revising—on this or any paper—as quickly as possible.

Failures of various kinds are an inevitable part of the writing process. Without them, it would be difficult if not impossible to grow as a writer. Learning often occurs in the wake of a startling event, something that stirs you up, something that makes you wonder. Use your failures to keep moving.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Hjortshoj, Keith. 2001. Understanding Writing Blocks . New York: Oxford University Press.

This is a particularly excellent resource for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Hjortshoj writes about his experiences working with university students experiencing block. He explains the transitional nature of most writing blocks and the importance of finding support from others when working on long projects.

Rose, Mike. 1985. When a Writer Can’t Write: Studies in Writer’s Block and Other Composing-Process Problems . New York: Guilford.

This collection of empirical studies is written primarily for writing teachers, researchers, and tutors. Studies focus on writers of various ages, including young children, high school students, and college students.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey

Problems That Students Encounter With Essay Writing

How to Write a 3,000 Word Essay

There's nothing more frustrating than staring at a blank piece of paper or computer screen. But that is often the reality when starting an essay. Whether it's a narrative, a persuasive piece or a research paper, writing an essay is often quite challenging. The writing process as a whole is a long road of false starts and lengthy revisions. Not to mention dodging the bullet of writer's block and plagiarism. Correctly citing sources, writing a thesis statement and elaborating on ideas are a few common problems you may face. Knowing these pitfalls can help you remedy the situation as you complete your essay.

Getting Started

Difficulty starting an essay is often one of the first problems you may run into. Typically, this happens if you skip the pre-writing step. You can save time by first identifying the purpose of your essay, then brainstorming points you might make to achieve that goal. Brainstorming works best if you don't censor your thoughts; write down every idea you think of, even if you are certain it won't end up in the essay. Then, you can take this material and find the most important points to address.

Thesis Statements

A thesis statement is a sentence, usually located at the end of the first or second paragraph, that explains the essay's main point. Without a clear thesis statement, it can be more difficult to structure and organize your ideas. One good tactic is to draft your thesis statement before you begin writing the body of the essay, then show it to teachers and fellow students for suggestions on how to make it more specific.

Voice and Audience

Because academic writing requires an objective, third-person voice that fits the formality of an essay, you may struggle with omitting slang, colloquialisms and everyday speech patterns. Conversely, you may feel the need to use big words and complex language in order to sound "smarter." The fact is: good writing is written to express, not impress. You can accomplish good writing by selecting the clearest, most effective language within your vocabulary that will best fit the topic and will be best understood by your target audience.

Fear of Failure

If you struggle with insecurities about your writing abilities, you're not alone. It's okay to be apprehensive about writing, especially if you've had some negative experiences in the past. The first draft will never be perfect. Accepting that it is merely a starting point will help you gain confidence in the writing process. Simply getting through the first draft is often enough to lift your confidence level. Expressing your insecurities to your instructor can also increase your confidence; teachers want to see you succeed and will most likely be eager to offer encouragement.

Citing Sources

Documenting sources through in-text citations and works cited pages is an important convention of academic writing. Unfortunately, confusion about how to properly cite these references can result in plagiarism. Because most universities punish plagiarism regardless of intent, even one mistake citing a source can be considered a violation. You can avoid plagiarism by carefully documenting sources as you do research. This gives you time to review the correct way to directly quote and paraphrase sources.

What Does Sentence Structure Mean?

How to Write an Essay on Overcoming Adversity

Difference Between College-Level and Casual Writing?

How to Write a One Page Essay

How to Write an Anecdotal Essay

Basic Elements of Effective Writing

How to Write a Thesis & Introduction for a Critical Reflection Essay

How to Start an Introduction When Writing an Essay About Poetry

Bright Hub Education: How to Write a Thesis Statement
PBS: Misunderstood Minds: Writing Difficulties
Purdue Online Writing Lab: Prewriting
Purdue Online Writing Lab: Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block
The University of North Carolina Writing Center: Thesis Statements

Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since 2006. She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

How it works

Why Students Struggle With Essay Writing

Published by Alaxendra Bets at August 19th, 2021 , Revised On August 23, 2023

Writing comes naturally for some of us. Students with good essay writing skills have words flow into sentences , sentences, paragraphs , and paragraphs into an essay or dissertation . However, for many students, writing is tedious work they want to avoid.

If you are struggling with essay or dissertation writing , rest assured you are not the only student facing this problem. But it’s important to understand the reasons for your essay, coursework, exams, or dissertation writing failures to put your academic life back on track.

Here, we discuss and attempt to figure out the causes as to why are so many students struggling with essay writing.

In the unfortunate event that you have already failed coursework, dissertation, essay, or exam, we have compiled comprehensive guidelines on what you could do to improve your situation.

Reasons Why Students Struggle with Essay Writing

Before we shed light on the obscure causes of students finding it hard to deal with essay and coursework writing , let us look into the more apparent causes. Research studies have confirmed that writing and reading are reciprocal processes. Apart from providing professional writing guidelines to students, we also provide professional writing services , i.e. essay services , coursework writing services and dissertation writing services .

If you read regularly enough, your writing will improve by leaps and bounds. Likewise, your writing improves your reading significantly. Many students apprehend the importance of this relationship as they read complicated transcripts and texts to improve their writing abilities.

But not all students can comprehend this relationship between reading and writing, and eventually, writing becomes a continuous struggle for them. Debbie Lee, in her article published on Educator Community (2017), states that;

“To write, we use many parts of our brain at the same time as well as the kinesthetic process of writing. For many students, especially those with language or fine motor skill delays, the task of writing is challenging.”

Poor Mechanical & Content Skills

In the same article, Debbie argued that students with poor processing and poor content and mechanical skills often struggle with essay writing. The most notable processing skills that many students would often lack include fluent development of ideas, language formulation and ideation, and active working memory.

Content and mechanical skills that are essential for any student to be good at writing are as follows;

Expressing ideas
Organising ideas
Punctuation
Capitalisation
Basic Spelling & Vocabulary
Automatic Letter Formation
Clarity of Expression
Use of appropriate grammar in essay
Different styles of essay writing
Flexibility in the writing process
Understanding the viewpoint from the text in books
Lack of enthusiasm and passion

Want to know what essay structure and style will work best for your assignment?

Problem fixed! We can write any type of essay in any referencing style. We ensure every essay written is beyond your expectations.

When you consider all of the above underlying skills that students should master to become proficient writers, you can understand how frustrating it can be. Perhaps, it also explains why most students prefer not to write their papers and get experienced writers to write .

No Right Answers When You Are Inexperienced

Unable to find what the right answer to a particular problem question is? Many students end up scratching their heads around the basic question they must answer as part of their essay or dissertation assignment.

While every other skill student learns the right way to do it, it can be hard to figure out the correct way to write an essay because most of us approach writing naturally and emotionally.

But let it be clearly stated here that the right or correct way of writing an essay does exist if your supervisor or tutor is not teaching the essay writing structures for different types of essays , dissertations, and research papers, you are not getting the help you deserve, and the confidence needed to jump into an assignment writing task.

To produce a high-quality essay paper, you need to learn to be good at brainstorming, writing the essay outline, and developing the rough draft and the final copy because that is how you will improve your writing skills.

ResearchProspect provides the tools, and they help students need to have their essays written to the highest possible academic standard.

Fear of Failure

Have so many questions in mind before writing even a word of your assignment? What is the question I need to address ? What is the objective of this assignment? Which academic sources should I use as reference material? What should be the structure of the essay ? What abilities and skills will I be graded on? What writing style must I follow?

These questions and many more could swarm around in your mind. Don’t worry, Don’t Panic. Don’t Be Overwhelmed! It’s normal to have so many questions. It’s completely normal to fear failure, especially if you haven’t had much writing experience in your previous academic years.

If you haven’t been taught about the writing and structuring processes (yes, a range of writing structures and styles exist), it can be pretty hard to get going. The fear of failure will stay with students if they do not provide help on creative writing rules and the different types of essay writing structures .

For example, this is an article on how you structure a dissertation paper.

Also read: Sociology Essay Writing Service .

Calculate your Plagiarism Score

Compare your paper against millions of publications and billions of web pages.

The most advanced plagiarism tool
Detect plagiarism and generate similarity report
Largest database

Calculate your Plagiarism Score - ResearchProspect

Helping Students Who Struggle with Essay Writing

The world we are living in is changing rapidly. With texts, tweets, posts, snaps, and Insta around us, it’s no wonder students don’t want to get in struggle with writing. This is particularly frustrating for teachers and students alike, as students scrap to express their thoughts and views clearly in the traditional fashion their schools expect them to.

But the world of academia has remained pretty much unchanged over centuries, with universities expecting students to become good researchers and capable writers . We will never replace essays , assignments, research , dissertation , and analysis with tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook stories in universities.

Your teachers will not be delighted with you if you eagerly indulge in social media postings but struggle with basic essay writing tasks. A study conducted by ResearchProspect concluded that as many as 3 of every 5 students lack proficiency in writing – a number that cannot be ignored.

Our Essay Writers

ResearchProspect writers know the writing rules and are proficient in all types of writing structures and styles.

Our essay writers understand that essays aren’t going anywhere, and so they have mastered the art of presenting their expression, arguments, and analysis through their writing. They love sentence diagrams and grammar drills because it is their job to do so.

Have a last-minute essay to finish? Don’t panic! Please fill out our online order form and get your essay paper delivered to your email address promptly. Any subject, any deadline, any complexity – we promise 100% plagiarism free and 100% confidential service.

The essay writing tips in this blog post aim to help readers establish why they struggle to write a first-class essay or dissertation paper that meets academic expectations. The post directly aims to help students experiencing writing difficulties in achieving the grade they desire despite their writing limitations.

View some essay writing samples here!

Learn how to write an essay with a bang!

Helping Students Succeed Since 2011!

ResearchProspect is the UK registered essay writing website helping students across the globe since 2011. Our writers hold master’s to Ph.D. degrees from reputed educational institutes. No matter how urgent or complex your requirements are, our services have helped thousands of students over the years at a time when they needed them the most. So stop struggling with essay writing and get essay writing help from our professional essay writers . View our essay services here or view our full range of services here.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many students struggle with essay writing.

Many students face challenges with essay writing due to various factors such as lack of effective strategies, time management issues, language barriers, and unfamiliarity with academic conventions. Support and guidance can help mitigate these struggles.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Announcements
Editorial Board
Submit a Paper
Publication Ethics
##PAPER TEMPLATE##
##Retraction Policy##

Identifying EFL Learners Essay Writing Difficulties and Sources: A Move towards Solution The Case of Second Year EFL Learners at Tlemcen University

It is commonly known that EFL learners need to be skillful enough at the four language skills namely: listening, speaking, reading and writing to have a good command in the target language. Typically, teaching/learning how to write in a foreign language is not an easy task for EFL teachers and learners alike. Though countless research and efforts have been done by researchers and teachers to develop the writing skill among these learners, many EFL students still face a number of serious difficulties that prohibit them from constructing satisfactory essay writing. Actually, the present article aims primarily to identify EFL learners essay writing difficulties together with the sources associated with their difficulties in an attempt to find out the possible remedies for the achievement of better productions. Data as regards the topic in question were collected by means of questionnaire, interviews and some studentsâ€™ finale essay writing drafts. The attained data reveal that students meet difficulties in both coherence and cohesion due to the lack of reading, first language transfer and low writing practice. In hope to decrease studentsâ€™ essay writing difficulties, attention to these sources is required.

Baily, S. (2003). Academic writing: A practical guide for students. New York, Routledge.

Bishop, J. L., & Verleger, M. A. (2013). The flipped classroom: A questionnaire of the research. In The American Society for Engineering Education, Atlanta, GA.

Blanchard, K., & Root C. (Ed.) (2004). Ready to write more: From paragraph to essay (2nd ed.). New York, Longman.

Cox, K.E., & Guthrie, J. T. (2001). Motivational and cognitive contributions to studentsâ€™ amount of reading. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 116 â€“ 131.

Damiani,M.F., Alves, C.V.P., Frison, L.M.B., & Machado, R.F. (2011). Diagnosis and analysis of academic writing problems of students of pedagogy. Language and Teaching Journal, 14, (2), 455-478.

Derewianka, B., & Jones, P. (2012). Teaching language in context. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Dornyei, L. (2005). The psychology of the language learners: Mahwah, New Jorzy: Laurence Ulbanm Associates.

Droga, L., & Humphrey, S. (2003). Grammar and meaning. An introduction for primary teachers. Berry, NSW: Target Texts.

FÃ vero, L.L. (Ed.). (2010). Textual cohesion and coherence (11th ed.). Sao Paulo: Atica.

Freidlander, A. (1997). Composing in English: effects of a first language on writing in English as a second language. In B. Karoll (ed.), Second language writing: Research insight for the classroom (pp. 109-125). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Halliday, M., & Hassan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

Harmer, J. (Ed.). (2006). How to teach English (5th ed.). Addison Wesley: Longman Limited.

Harmer, J. (Ed.). (2007). How to teach writing (5th ed.). Person Education Limited.

Hemmati, F. (2002). Vocabulary problems in the EFL writing of Iranian students: Taxonomies and strategies (Doctoral dissertation). University of Essex, UK.

Joyce, de Silva. H., & Feez, S. (2012). Text-based language literacy Education: Programming and methodology. Putney, NSW: Phoenix Education.

Kouch, I. G. V. (2004). Introduction to textual linguistics: Trajectory and great themes. Sao Paulo: Download Fonts.

Kroll, B. (Ed.). (1997). Second language writing: Research insight for the classroom (6th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lee, I. (2002). Teaching coherence to ESL students: A classroom inquiry. Journal of Second Language Writing, 11 (2), 135-159. Retrieved from http://wenku.baidu.com/view/2344e230b90d6c85ec3ac652.html

Qaddumi, M. (1995). Textual deviation and coherence problems in the writing of Arab students at the University of Bahrain: Sources and solutions ( Doctoral dissertation). University of Nottingham, UK.

Raims, A. (1998). Teaching writing. Annual of Applied Linguistics, 18, 142-167.

Rose, D., & Martin, J. (2012). Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge, and pedagogy in the sydney school. Sheffield: Equinox.

Storch, N. (2007). Investigating the merits of pair work on a text editing in ESL classes. Language Teaching Research, 11 (2), 143-159. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362168807074600

Tribble, C. (1997). Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

There are currently no refbacks.

e-ISSN: 1694-2116

p-ISSN: 1694-2493

COMMENTS

PDF Investigating writing difficulties in essay writing: Tertiary students
gain theoretical and practical knowledge of English essay writing. However, the data from the lecturer claimed that the majority of the students have encountered serious problems in writing a good English essay (Personal information, October 24th, 2019). Contemporary researches on essay writing difficulties have been mushrooming in many different
PDF Strategies for Essay Writing
Harvard College Writing Center 5 Asking Analytical Questions When you write an essay for a course you are taking, you are being asked not only to create a product (the essay) but, more importantly, to go through a process of thinking more deeply about a question or problem related to the course. By writing about a
7 Essay Writing Problems That Students Often Deal With
Below are the top five common problems that can stop students dead in their tracks, as they begin or complete their essay writing assignments, and tips to overcome them. #1 Lack of Confidence The inability to believe in one's capabilities and skills is one of the most common problems in essay writing that students have to face.
Top 20 Errors in Undergraduate Writing
THE TOP TWENTY. 1. Wrong Word. Wrong word errors take a number of forms. They may convey a slightly different meaning than you intend ( compose instead of comprise) or a completely wrong meaning ( prevaricate instead of procrastinate ). They may also be as simple as a wrong preposition or other type of wrong word in an idiom.
(PDF) Academic Writing: Challenges and Potential Solutions
The findings demonstrated that, despite the students encountering numerous difficulties during their essay-writing exercises; the self-reflection-based instruction had a significant positive ...
(PDF) Exploring University Students' Difficulties in Writing English
This study is primarily designed for investigating the tertiary students' perspectives on the writing difficulties of essays. This study was conducted in explanatory research in which quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from the web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interview, then analyzed separately. 21 undergraduate students have enrolled in the survey and 6 of them were ...
How to Write the "Overcoming Challenges" Essay + Examples
1. Avoid trivial or common topics. While there aren't many hard-and-fast rules for choosing an essay topic, students should avoid overdone topics. These include: Working hard in a challenging class. Overcoming a sports injury. Moving schools or immigrating to the US. Tragedy (divorce, death, abuse)
Writing Anxiety
When a Writer Can't Write: Studies in Writer's Block and Other Composing-Process Problems. New York: Guilford. This collection of empirical studies is written primarily for writing teachers, researchers, and tutors. Studies focus on writers of various ages, including young children, high school students, and college students.
Problems That Students Encounter With Essay Writing
Difficulty starting an essay is often one of the first problems you may run into. Typically, this happens if you skip the pre-writing step. You can save time by first identifying the purpose of your essay, then brainstorming points you might make to achieve that goal. Brainstorming works best if you don't censor your thoughts; write down every ...
(PDF) Investigating writing difficulties in essay writing: Tertiary
Abstract and Figures. This study is primarily designed for investigating the tertiary students' perspectives on the writing difficulties of essays. This study was conducted in explanatory ...
"Writing is challenging": factors contributing to undergraduate
This research aims to investigate the difficulties in English essay writing and its factors. Framed in a narrative inquiry, 33 students and one lecturer volunteered to participate. Data were ...
Why Students Struggle With Essay Writing
The essay writing tips in this blog post aim to help readers establish why they struggle to write a first-class essay or dissertation paper that meets academic expectations. The post directly aims to help students experiencing writing difficulties in achieving the grade they desire despite their writing limitations.
[PDF] Investigating writing difficulties in essay writing: Tertiary
This study is primarily designed for investigating the tertiary students' perspectives on the writing difficulties of essays. This study was conducted in explanatory research in which quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from the web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interview, then analyzed separately. 21 undergraduate students have enrolled in the survey and 6 of them were ...
Misunderstood Minds . Writing Difficulties
A language problem may manifest itself in a child's writing as: poor vocabulary. awkward phrasing and unconventional grammar. inappropriate use of colloquial language. difficulty with sentence ...
Prevention and Intervention of Writing Difficulties for Students with
This paper presents six principles designed to prevent writing difficulties as well as to build writing skills: (a) providing effective writing instruction, (b) tailoring ... K. R., & Graham, S. (1998). Self-regulated strategy development and the writing process: Effects on essay writing and attributions. Exceptional Children, 64, 295-311 ...
PDF Exploring Senior High School Students' Academic Writing Difficulties
students' writing skills, many students still experience difficulties in academic writing. Therefore, there is a need to fill the gap and advance an in-depth understanding of students' academic writing difficulties. In order to satisfy the said aim, this Qualitative study grounds on Flower and Hayes' (1981) Cognitive Process Theory of ...
EFL University Students' Difficulties in the Essay Writing Process
distribu ted to identify students' difficulties during. writing process. The results of the questionnaire are as. follow: Figure 1 shows that 2 6% of the students chose step 3. ( making an ...
Exploring Senior High School Students' Academic Writing Difficulties
The results expound on the different Academic Writing difficulties encountered by the participants in terms of the Task Environment, Writers' Long-Term Memory and Writing Process. A model for teaching academic writing was formulated anchored on the identified difficulties. The model will benefit the teachers as it may serve as a guide in more ...
Identifying EFL Learners Essay Writing Difficulties ...
In hope to decrease students' essay writing difficulties, attention to these sources is required. It is commonly known that EFL learners need to be skillful enough at the four language skills namely: listening, speaking, reading and writing to have a good command in the target language. Typically, teaching/learning how to write in a foreign ...
Analyzing Students' Difficulties in Writing English Essay
Abstract. Analyzing students' difficulties in writing essays is a valuable tool for educators to enhance their teaching methods, provide personalized support, and ultimately improve students ...
Identifying EFL Learners Essay Writing Difficulties and ...
Actually, the present article aims primarily to identify EFL learners essay writing difficulties together with the sources associated with their difficulties in an attempt to find out the possible remedies for the achievement of better productions. Data as regards the topic in question were collected by means of questionnaire, interviews and ...
The Needs Analysis of ESL Learners' Expository Writing Challenges
Effective communication in English, especially in writing, holds increasing global significance. Despite exposure to all four language skills, ESL learners often find writing most challenging. This sentiment is echoed within English education system and ESL learners in Malaysia, which highlight the importance of writing while acknowledging its difficulty to master. This research addresses the ...
(PDF) Exploring University Students' Difficulties in Writing English
The. most dominant difficul ties (97%) were found in; 1) thesis. statement; 2) related ideas; 3) development of ideas; and 4) use. of description/cause and effect, comparison/contrast; 5 ...

Essay Writing Problems - 5 Most Paralyzing Problems

Top Essay Writing Problems Students Deal With

#1 Lack of Confidence

How to Overcome This

#2 Insufficient Knowledge

#3 Lack of Writing Skills

#4 Plagiarism

#5 Getting Stuck

#6 Time Management

How to Overcome This:

#7 Awkward Structure

Other Writing Problems You May Face

Keep reading

Top 20 Errors in Undergraduate Writing

THE TOP TWENTY

2. Missing Comma after an Introductory Element

3. Incomplete or Missing Documentation

4. Vague Pronoun Reference

5. Spelling

6. Mechanical Error with a Quotation

7. Unnecessary Comma

8. Unnecessary or Missing Capitalization

9. Missing Word

10. Faulty Sentence Structure

11. Missing Comma with a Nonrestrictive Element

12. Unnecessary Shift in Verb Tense

13. Missing Comma in a Compound Sentence

14. Unnecessary or Missing Apostrophe (including its/it's)

15. Fused (run-on) Sentence

16. Comma Splice

17. Lack of pronoun/antecedent agreement

18. Poorly Integrated Quotation

19. Missing or Unnecessary Hyphen

20. Sentence Fragment

Works Cited

Exploring University Students’ Difficulties in Writing English Academic Essay

Related Papers

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS

What are your chances of acceptance?

Your chancing factors

How to Write the “Overcoming Challenges” Essay + Examples

Overcoming Challenges Essay Examples

What is the “Overcoming Challenges” Essay?

Real “Overcoming Challenges” Essay Prompts

How to Choose a Topic for an Essay on Overcoming Challenges

1. Avoid trivial or common topics

2. Pick challenges that demonstrate qualities you want to highlight

Tips for Writing an Essay About Overcoming Challenges

1. Choose an original essay structure

2. Focus on the internal

3. Share what you learned

Where to Get Your Overcoming Challenges Essay Edited

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Writing Anxiety

What are writing anxiety and writer’s block?

When do these negative feelings arise?

What are some strategies for handling these feelings?

Identify your strengths

Recognize that writing is a complex process

Think of yourself as an apprentice.

Try new tactics when you get stuck

Celebrate your successes

Works consulted

Problems That Students Encounter With Essay Writing

How to Write a 3,000 Word Essay

Getting Started

Thesis Statements

Voice and Audience

Fear of Failure

Citing Sources

Related Articles

What Does Sentence Structure Mean?

How to Write an Essay on Overcoming Adversity

Difference Between College-Level and Casual Writing?

How to Write a One Page Essay

How to Write an Anecdotal Essay

Basic Elements of Effective Writing

How to Write a Thesis & Introduction for a Critical Reflection Essay

How to Start an Introduction When Writing an Essay About Poetry