Essay Writing Hacks

Every student is looking for essay hacks, and we’ve got the best ones to share (and that’s not even us being cocky. It’s just the truth.). If your essay needs a pick-me-up or some serious revamping, please look no further.

QuillBot’s free, cutting-edge tools are game changers when it comes to making essay writing painless. From jumpstarting your writing momentum, to busting writer’s block, to finding a simpler research workflow, these essay writing hacks will save your grade and your time.

We totally get it: research papers, academic papers, entire essays, and each thesis statement you have to craft seems like an unreachable goal when you’re staring at the blank page.

So it’s a good thing our website has all the professional tools and essay hacks to help.

Here are 7 essay writing hacks to help you write essays effectively.

1. Jumpstart Your Momentum
2. Avoid Boring, Cookie-Cutter Sentence Structures
3. Avoid Using the Same Words and Phrases Over and Over
4. Check to See If Your Point is Coming Across Correctly and Clearly
5. Bust Writer’s Block Quickly and Easily
6. Fix Those Awkward Sentences You Can’t Bear to Delete
7. Give Credit Where Credit’s Due

1. Jumpstart Your Momentum

The beginning of any project, much less an assigned essay, can be difficult. In fact, for many students, it actually is the hardest part of the entire process, either because they’re prone to procrastination or they’re not confident in their essay writing abilities.

Part of why it’s so difficult to begin is that we are dreading the task━perhaps because we don’t know what we want to write about yet, we don’t want to create an outline, the assignment grade is weighted heavily, we fear doing poorly, or the topic is boring.

Condense Each Source to Its Main Points

Use QuillBot’s Summarizer tool to jumpstart your momentum and flow by helping you evaluate, compare, and digest sources quickly and easily.

Use it to find what parts of the essay writing prompt interest you the most or to find a comprehensive source you can reference for the bulk of your entire essay.

A text summary of the information will get you picking and sorting through relevant articles and papers without the agony of spending hours reading material that isn’t helpful to your argument or assignment.

Reading something in-depth that you’re not even going to end up using is a waste of time, which is why the services on our website aim to save you time and brain power.

Try Different Language

Use QuillBot’s Paraphraser to rewrite your text in a variety of ways so that you never get stuck struggling to articulate your thoughts.

If direction for your essay isn’t a problem, but you can’t seem to put words on the page, this tool will help you by acting as a second pair of eyes as you pick and choose what kind of phrases, verbs, and tone fit for your essay.

Our Word Counter tool can help you identify the readability level of your text, and our paraphrasing tool can help you easily turn those clunky first sentences into polished topic sentences that lay the foundation for a polished paragraph.

2. Avoid Boring, Cookie-Cutter Sentence Structures

When we get into a writing flow state, the goal is usually to get as much of our thoughts out as possible before we get tired or lose the motivation that flow brings.

However, sometimes when we go back to edit what was written, we sometimes find the same sentence structure repeated over and over, making our writing seem cold and boring.

For instance, maybe every sentence is simple, with just one thought, which can sound choppy and jointed when repeated too often.

Conversely, perhaps all of our sentences are compound and very long. This can make points unclear or muddled, and it becomes hard to follow this type of redundant sentence structure due to length.

Find an (Online) Writing Partner

Hey, we’re now living in the future. No shame in using an AI writing service to help you out when the going gets tough.

QuillBot Flow will write alongside you, giving you suggestions to make your writing more varied, textured, and easy to understand. If you’re stuck and don’t know how to get out of your rut, the QuillBot Flow will take over and build the bones of your essay.

Experiment with Different Writing Modes

You want to make your essay stand out? You’re going to have to think outside the box and write in a way that is engaging and unique.

Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially if you don’t see yourself as a particularly strong writer (which is, perhaps, why you’re looking for essay writing hacks).

Use QuillBot’s Paraphraser to explore different sentence structures and styles. Try different Modes, like Standard, Fluency, Formal, and Simple, to see various ways to articulate your thoughts.

Better yet, try Compare Modes to see all the options at once! Click on words and phrases to get a drop-down list of even more options.

Which leads us to another common, related issue to avoid…

3. Avoid Using the Same Words and Phrases Over and Over

In the same way that it’s easy to get stuck in a sentence structure rut, if we’re repeating the same words over and over, word redundancies make our writing seem bland and uninspired.

Even if the prompt has specific key words that seem like they need to be included when making points, it’s important that we be creative with our word choices. No college professor wants to read the word “therefore” over and over.

Look Through All of Your Options

Use QuillBot’s Paraphraser to find synonyms for overused words and phrases. Use the drop-down thesaurus by clicking on the word/phrase to see alternatives.

Additionally, the Word Flipper tool allows you to change more (or less) of your writing to find more creative ways to talk about your topic and important key words.

Different writing Modes will also offer you more options, and you can compare all modes at once using the Compare Modes feature.

4. Check to See If Your Point is Coming Across Correctly and Clearly

Often when we write, tangents happen, and while they don’t always detract from the point, they can be distracting and take away from the flow of your arguments.

Check out these pro tips for making sure that your writing is saying what you think it does and that your points are clear.

When in Doubt, Ask a Robot

Use QuillBot’s Summarizer to give you a text summary of your own work. Does the AI understand what you’re trying to say?

If not, re-read your essay, and find any paragraphs that are tangents. Remove them temporarily and re-summarize the text to see if taking out the tangent makes your summary more to-the-point.

Cut to the Chase

Use QuillBot’s Paraphraser to enhance the clarity of your arguments.

Meandering, long sentences can be unclear, and a long paragraph is even worse. If you locate one of these in your work, try plugging it into the Paraphraser to try and make it shorter and more clear.

You might also consider separating long sentences to make your points more distinct.

5. Bust Writer’s Block Quickly and Easily

Writer’s block is a bother for us all, whether we’re writing an email, social media caption, or an essay. While it’s hard to get unstuck, QuillBot has you covered with solutions to get you back on track ASAP.

The Hardest Part is Starting

Use QuillBot’s Paraphraser to simply get something on the page. Take the stress off of yourself and just write in the input box without any worries for how good/bad it is.

Compare Modes and the drop-down thesaurus are great tools to see numerous ways to articulate your thought and find traction in your writing workflow.

All you need to do is to try something━anything━to get yourself writing again. Then, let the Paraphraser do the heavy lifting to communicate your ideas exactly how you want them to be showcased.

Get a Second Opinion

Use QuillBot’s Summarizer to examine portions of your work to find new directions. When you input certain paragraphs, what does the text summary think your main point is?

Alternatively, you can also digest and compare new sources quickly with this tool to find inspiration for expanding on interesting ideas within your essay.

6. Fix Those Awkward Sentences You Can’t Bear to Delete

Once a first draft has been written, it’s time to edit. When we re-read our own work, sometimes there are certain sentences, especially topic sentences, that we love but know they are awkward or clunky.

However, somehow we’ve managed to incorporate everything we want to say into that sentence, so we can’t just delete it, but at the same time, we know the wording isn’t good enough.

Anything Can Be Fixed

Use QuillBot’s Paraphraser to look at new options for expressing the thoughts in the problem/awkward sentences.

The many Modes, Word Flipper, and drop-down thesaurus features will help preserve the meaning of the sentence, while offering up a myriad of new options to enhance the meaning and clarity.

7. Give Credit Where Credit’s Due

It is so important to ensure that your writing is uniquely your own, and that others’ writing is uniquely their own. Not properly citing a source can lead to terrible consequences, so it’s imperative you don’t forget this step!

Cite, Cite, Cite

When you’re completing the final draft of an essay or research paper, you’re going to need to create citations to cite your sources accurately.

QuillBot’s Citation Generator supports dozens of citation styles, so no matter what style guide you’re following, you’ll be able to create correct citations with just a few clicks.

Using the correct format is of the utmost importance, and with our Citation Generator, you can rest assured that is happening.

Be Original

The last step to writing any good essay is to make sure you avoid plagiarism in your essay or paper. Before you submit anything, you’ve got to make sure all of your sources are cited━if not, the consequences could be dire.

QuillBot’s top-of-the-line Plagiarism Checker will scan your essay and create a report based on your project. This report will show the percentage of original text contained in your essay, and the percentage of similar or duplicated text that would be considered plagiarism without the proper citation.

If you’re going to use even just one QuillBot tool, have it be this one. Plagiarism is not worth it.

Final Thoughts

Writing essays can be tough no matter how you slice it, so the next time you have an essay or writing assignment, try out these essay writing hacks to increase your productivity and decrease the time it takes to write by using QuillBot’s professional tools!