Writing essays for introductory English classes can be the most painfully ridiculous process ever, especially if your high school education never legitimately explained to you how to put a quote in context or how to write a conclusion. The ins and outs of academic writing are first taught towards the end of a student’s high school experience. While whatever you learn in your 11th grade English class is just a skeletal five paragraph outline of the 10-page papers you will soon be writing for your undergrad, it’s endlessly important that you get the basics down so that you’ll struggle less with the longer and more difficult assignments that are heading your way.

1. Remember the structure for body paragraphs.

The best thing about getting the structure for body paragraphs down is that you can use, rinse, and repeat. You never have to stick to five body paragraphs the way you did in high school – you definitely shouldn’t – but you do have to remember that each paragraph should still have a topic sentence, a piece of evidence to analyze, and the analysis itself in relation to your main idea

2. Never let the quote speak for you.

It’s really easy to put two or three quotes into a paragraph and assume that they explain the idea in your head well enough that they really don’t warrant an analysis. Even though your concept may make crystal clear sense to you, sometimes essay writing requires that you show your reader how you got from point A to point C. Your quote is never going to make your point “obvious,” so the rule of thumb is to always follow your evidence with at least two sentences of your analysis and the breakdown of this evidence. Oh, and if you have more than two quotes in a paragraph, you’re probably letting those quotes speak for you instead of with you.

3. Consider the lens in which you analyze.

Analyzing through a lens applies to upper-level English classes too, especially for research papers. This method allows you to narrow down your focus by giving you a specific viewpoint to focus on. There’s a world of difference in reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” through a historical lens versus a feminist lens, and your writing is going to reflect that. Choosing a religious lens or a gender lens or a psychological lens is going to impact your thesis and the research you look for, and all in all, is going to impact the path your paper takes.

4. Drop the mic in your conclusion.

Conclusions are probably the part I see most students struggle the most with. I’ve heard two great pieces of advice on conclusions over the years that I now use to help me write my essays. The first is that the conclusion needs to have a “so what?” factor. Explain to your professor why the heck they should even care about your paper; defend your thesis from disagreement. The second is that if you can’t see yourself dropping the mic after your bomb ass conclusion, your conclusion isn’t good enough. Which brings me to my next point…

5. Write what you love.

You’re not going to be endlessly passionate about every topic you’re told to write about. Maybe you don’t find anything interesting about Shakespeare’s plays, maybe you hated Chaucer with every fiber of your being. The goal is to find a single morsel of passion in the things you hate. Feminists, talk about the gender dynamics in "Macbeth." Historians, write a religious commentary on the impact of the Church in "The Canterbury Tales." Write about the things you know and love because those are the things that are going to yield your best papers. And hey, if all else fails, write a really great paper about why you hate "Hamlet" entirely. Write honestly or don’t write at all.