How to start/continue writing an essay when you get stuck

The entry on 'How to structure and approach writing a basic essay' in the FAQ section gives excellent guidance about out to create and refine essays. However, some students find it really difficult to start an essay, especially if they haven’t done any studying for a while. This guidance takes a step back and gives some suggestions about how to get going on writing an essay and how to get past blocks when you are stuck.

Research shows that it is easier to progress with something creative if you are not facing a blank sheet. When you start a new assignment the first thing to do is set out the document in a standard way. At the top put your name, student number, course name and unit number/name. Then put a heading Introduction, followed by headings, which to start with are the task questions, followed by a heading Conclusion and finally a heading References.

Start by writing out the main sections, ie the task questions. In most cases you can do these in any order. If you think one task looks easier, then start on that one. Write things down, reorder them, take things out - draft and redraft.

‘How do I include referencing in my assignments?’ in the Assignments & Examinations section, gives excellent guidance about how to put references in assessments. You will save time in the long run if you take the time to put references in properly as you go along. Do the in-text reference, then immediately scroll down to the Reference section and add the document name, source etc.  If you leave the reference list to the end it takes much more time.

If at any point you get stuck, and feel that you don’t know where to go next with that particular section, then put some sort of indication that it needs to be continued and get on with another section. If you are not sure about what you have written add  a note to check what you have written later.

Once you are reasonably happy with the main sections you can write the Introduction, which says what the reader is about to read. A lot of students get blocked by trying to write the Introduction first, which does seem logical. However writing is a process by which you work out what you want to say as you write and rewrite. So it’s only when you’ve pretty much finished that you know what you are going to do.

In what by now is a decent draft, write the Conclusion, which summarises what the reader has read. At this point revise your headings, and make them snappier, or remove them if they are not needed.

This is a good stage to edit your essay some more to make sure that the prose flows well from one paragraph to another, and tells a coherent ‘story’.

Lastly, don't keep redrafting to try to reach perfection. All written work is really just the 'best draft'!