Are looking for essay writing tools to help you with your school or college essays? Students often struggle to submit their papers on time, but that will no longer be your issue. Once you arm your witty but perhaps slightly disorganized genius mind with the right tools, you’ll meet your deadlines and meet your teachers without having to avert your eyes in shame.
Just keep reading this review to learn everything about the handiest essay writing website for students.
Online Resources for Essay Writing
Nothing can help you write your essay better than learning more about the process. A tool is just that – a tool. It’s worthless without a skilled person using it.
Make your first step towards mastering essay writing reading. It’s a long-term game, but it pays so much to play it. Here’s what you have to do.
Read your professor’s notes. It’s amazing how many students forget this. Professors often leave invaluable tips with the assignment, it’s worth checking them out.
Read books on essay writing. A couple of suggestions are 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost and How to Write Better Essays by Bryan Greetham.
Read essays. A lot of them. There are several lists of top 100 essays ever written on the internet. Check out a dozen or more and see how you can learn from them.
Read blogs on essay writing written by pros. There are hundreds of those. Find the ones created by professors in your field of study and subscribe.
Free Editing and Writing Tools for Students
Now that you know where to start, let’s take a look at the actual tools. Here’s what we can recommend.
Essay Topic Ideation
A lot of students don’t even know where to start. If you find yourself in such situations, use an ideation tool to get the brainstorming session going.
These tools may work by providing a completely random topic from the database – roll the dice, and these tools will give you a random idea. Others may require you to type in a field you need the idea in to narrow down ideation. The tools are completely free so you can try until you find the best one!
Notetaking
Your professors may give you literature to use or you may ask for it in the library. But how do you compile half a dozen books into one essay? You take notes the right way.
Use Zotero instead of napkins to jot down quick ideas to save the planet. Then, you can use MindMup alongside it to connect your thoughts and brainstorm new ideas.
Writing
Nothing beats Google Docs in writing. It`s available on and offline, it`s completely free, and the odds are you already have an account.
If you`re a Mac user and often have to work offline, give Scrivener a go. Granted, it`s not free, but as an Apple user, you should be used to this sad fact.
If you need to collaborate a lot, though, you better stick to Google Docs.
Editing
Save for your own skill, Grammarly is second to none. It`s a free tool that highlights grammatical mistakes that students often miss so easily. It`s available as a Chrome extension and you can use it with Google Docs.
If you need another layer of programmatic help, try the Hemingway app. It`s a free web tool that checks readability and highlights stylistic mistakes.
Plagiarism Checker
Now, checking plagiarism isn`t always straightforward. Most tools you`d find like Grammarly only check the web. It`s not always indicative of academic plagiarism and your professor might use another tool.
A good plagiarism checker works with a database of academic texts and may provide a more accurate result. Aim for 15% or lower.
Citation Generator
Once your essay’s done and edited it’s time to create citations for it. That’s always a huge pain.
Save your time and use a tool to generate citations automatically.
All you have to do with a decent tool is type in all the information you have about the book you`ve read (should be on the first or last couple of pages), and the tool creates a citation for you.
Affordable and Professional Help with Academic Writing
Now you have a full set of online tools to make you a stronger writer. The best part is you didn’t pay a dime for it!
Don’t forget about sharpening your skills by educating yourself with books and blogs about essay writing.