Having been a student for most my life I have always found it particularly hard to write essays or assignments as I have to express my opinion. I find the topics easy to understand but cannot seem to get my words out in a coherent way. My points are often jumbled up and can’t find the right word to fit the sentence, understandably I get marked down. Has anyone found a way round this?
It's been my observation that opinions get easier to come by as you get older. I don't know that expressing them will get any easier though. One thing that I've always done is to try to look at topics from multiple sides, and research arguments about them from different points of view.
As an example, I will give my opinion on abortion. I am pro life and pro choice. Those might seem contradictory, but I believe that it is wrong to kill, and I also believe that I have no right to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her body. I could elaborate on that for several pages if necessary, as I have no personal experience either way with the topic, or to put it another way 'I have no dog in that fight'.
Try circling the topic from different points of view, as if you are considering the implications of different approaches or meanings of different interpretations. This will fill space, make you seem more informed (and possible be more informed by researching the different sides) and when you can't come to a personal conclusion or aren't able to express yourself adequately then say so in the conclusion. It's okay to write an opinion piece ending without an opinion, as long as you lay out the opposing opinions you are struggling with and state that you are still conflicted over them.
And if you have no true opinion (which happens often for me), fake it. Just lay out the possible opinions (research them if necessary, see what other people are thinking) and say you are still making up your mind ('I haven't formulated my own opinion yet.') Just the act of laying out other opinions implies personal consideration of them.
Hi rainbow!
I think "fake it" seems to be a good idea!
If you can't decide -> take the opinion, your teacher/prof wants to hear. Easy as this ;-)
I think it's not too bad to do so, if all of us were honest, we'd admit it. . .
If you have a fing good idea one day, keep it for yourself for a while ;-) And try to make something out of it.
No more wise words from SnowWhite today... "LOL"
(I don't like wiriting essays, too. It's 'a pin in the a**', you'd say in english... I am really bad at this... Instead, I like writing poems.)
Man, f
I too don't always have an opinion on the topic, but even when I do, I find it hard to start writing about it. Once I've started, I can bullshit for days, but it's that first step that's the toughest for me. So, I just do what my dad taught me when I was a kid. I find someone else's argument online, and then I begin to reword it. Once I've borrowed someone else's "spark" it gets easier and easier for me to write my own content. Even if you never get to the point where you're on a roll, you can reword and reorder their entire essay. It's not plagiarism if you figure out the concept behind the argument, and put it in your own words. The intro and conclusion, however, should be entirely of your own making, since all that you're doing there is summarizing everything that's in the body, and stating what your argument is (even if your opinion is that you have no opinion).
Good suggestions so far.
In the tradition of my high school teacher, I would say, pick a side, you're not married to it. Once you make a decision on what to write about, use a basic essay structure to affix your ideas to (say, five paragraphs, with three major points to your argument
1) intro- state your thesis, make it as specific as possible
2) first paragraph-a strong point in argument
3) middle paragraph can be a little weaker
4) last body paragraph- should be the strongest
5) conclusion- should somehow wrap up your argument- you could restate your thesis here, and go through the steps of your argument. something I like to do in the conclusion is to make a somewhat new point that puts a new spin on the essay, though teachers often dislike this approach. in any case, make sure to end on a strong note, as the end of an essay is the most memorable part.
I have always been a good writer, but I struggle to narrow down the focus. It feels like I agree equally with both sides of any argument, that I do not have an opinion, or that the issue doesn't matter.
What I usually try to do is find the side that I know the most about, or the side brings me the most joy to write: the most interesting one. If you can find something that you enjoy writing about, some ideas should come naturally. I don't really know how you might find this side, for me one thing just clicks, usually the more unusual option, and I just write.
Wow, after writing this I just realized the original post is from months ago. Oh well, maybe someone will find it useful.
Best of luck, essayers.
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Hi Rainbow.
I read what you wrote and I can relate to it. I'm a pretty deep thinker, I spend most of my time alone away from people just thinking about things and creating my own opinions about stuff but when I'm told to express how I feel about a certain topic or give my opinion about it I blank out or I find it hard to put it in words and I also feel a bit under pressure when this happens. I don't know why this happens but when I'm not asked to do so I have a pretty clear idea on how to make my point. I wasn't always like this before it used to be really easy for me to express how I felt or give my opinion but now I lack that ability , I've been failing my tests and essays due to this problem.
