Skills You Learn When Writing Essays

Most students can’t wait to get the essay writing over and done with. They may not stop to think about what skills they have learned from writing the essays. At first, essay report writing seems like a daunting task. Once you have gone through the entire process a few times, you will see that you have picked up some very important skills.

Writing essays develops these skills:

• Time management – writing essays requires you to be a good scheduler and make the best use of your time. You must plan out all the phases of the work to be done, estimate how much time each phase might take, and then divide out the work over the number of available days in your schedule.
• Resourcefulness – this skill comes from researching your topic and finding all the information you need. It’s more than just a search at the local library or over the internet. You must find all the applicable resources you need to fully cover the scope of your topic.
• Motivation – in writing essays you will find there are times (many times!) where you feel like giving up, like quitting. It’s these times that you have to find a way to motivate yourself to keep going, to push through the difficult part and complete your assignment.
• Writing skills – the more you write, the better you get at writing. It’s a simple as that. Sometimes the best way to improve in an area is just to keep trying. Good writing skills are a benefit in every area of life. The ability to communicate effectively and clearly is very valuable. Good writing skills will serve you well both in academia and in the world of work.
• The ability to follow instructions and use guidelines and patterns. There are rules to follow when writing essays. It takes practice to get this right. Using a pattern to make something new that has a similar appearance but with different content is a widely applicable skill.
• The ability to sort the important from the unimportant. Researching uncovers an enormous amount of information, which must be sieved and sorted to find the golden nuggets you need for your essay. The remainder of the information is not as useful for your purposes.
• How to use the feedback of other people to improve and develop your skills. When you get someone to proofread your essay and suggest edits, you are basically asking for their feedback. When your instructor grades your essay, he is giving you feedback. It is a real skill to take feedback and turn it into something positive that can benefit an area of your life.