writing essays for fun

10 Tips to Write an Essay and Actually Enjoy It

by Joe Bunting | 40 comments

Writing an essay may not be easy. It may not come to you naturally. After all, writing is a skill, and skills take practice, whether it's playing a sport, performing an instrument, or playing video games.

But writing an essay   can be fun,  if  you have the right attitude.

With that in mind, here's an infographic with ten tips to write an essay without hating every moment of the process.

Click the image below to see a larger view:

Click here to view an enlarged version of this infographic .

To make it through high school and college, you're going to have to write essays, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the time you write them.

The secret is to stop trying to write a good essay. Instead, write an  interesting  essay, write an essay you think is fascinating.

In other words, start by writing what you think is interesting about the topic you're assigned. Then, when you’re finished, go back and edit with your teacher or professor in mind.

How about you? Do you like writing essays? Do you hate writing essays? Let me know in the comments section .

Use tip #3 and ask yourself, “What surprises me about this topic?”

Then, spend fifteen minutes writing an answer to that topic (here's a handy tool to help you keep track of your time ). Just write whatever comes to mind. Write for you, not for your teacher or professor.

When your time is up, share your answer in the comments section as a way to get feedback encourage others to have fun writing essays, too.

Happy writing!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

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• 13 Ways to Make Your Writing More Interesting to Read

There are numerous characteristics of a good essay: original thinking, a tight structure, balanced arguments, and many more .

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But one aspect often overlooked is that a good essay should be interesting . It should spark the curiosity of the reader, keep them absorbed, make them want to keep reading and learn more. A boring essay risks losing the reader’s attention; even if the points you make are excellent, a dull writing style or poor handling of a dry subject matter can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The problem is that many students think that essays should be like this: they think that a dull, dry style is suited to the purposes of academic writing, and don’t consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to find the essay interesting. Academic writing doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – boring. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to make your writing more interesting, even though you can only do so much while remaining within the formal confines of academic writing. Let’s look at what they are.

1. Be interested in what you’re writing about

If there’s one thing guaranteed to inject interest into your writing, it’s actually being interested in what you’re writing about. Passion for a subject comes across naturally in your writing, typically making it more lively and engaging, and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words – in the same way that it’s easy to chat knowledgeably to someone about something you find interesting. This makes it relatively easy to write interestingly about a subject you have a real passion for. However, problems arise when you’re forced to write an essay about subjects for which you lack enthusiasm. It’s difficult to conjure up passion for your least favourite subjects, and that will come across in your writing. There are steps you can take, though: here are some tips on writing about a subject you don’t enjoy.

• Adjust your mindset : convince yourself that there are no boring subjects. If the subject or essay comes across as boring, blame yourself; if you find yourself feeling negatively about it, try to find the interest in it. Think about how it relates to the real world and how important the subject is. Find interesting snippets of information about it and look at it from a new angle.
• Think about your reader : consider the fact that not everyone will find the subject as boring as you do. As you write, keep the reader in mind and imagine them to be the world’s biggest fan of this subject.
• Find the fans : if you find it impossible to get into the mindset of your audience, try Googling the subject to find forums, videos or blog posts in which the subject is discussed by people who do find it interesting. This will help you picture whom you’re writing for, and give you a different perspective on a subject you may not have found inspiring up to now.

2. Include fascinating details

Another factor that can make an essay boring is a dry subject matter. Some subjects or topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to make the essay more interesting through your written style (more on this later) and by trying to find fascinating snippets of information to include that will liven it up a bit and make the information easier to relate to. One way of doing this with a dry subject is to try to make what you’re talking about seem relevant to the real world, as this is easier for the reader to relate to. In a discussion of a seemingly boring piece of legislation, for instance, you could make a comment along the lines of “if it were not for this legislation, none of us would enjoy the freedom to do such and such today”, or “Legislation A ultimately paved the way for Legislation B, which transformed criminal law as we know it.” Make it seem exciting!

3. Emulate the style of writers you find interesting

When you read a lot, you subconsciously start emulating the style of the writers you read. It’s therefore beneficial to read widely, as this exposes you to a range of styles and you can start to take on the characteristics of those you find interesting to read. If you feel engaged with a piece of writing, the writer must be doing something right! As you read, think consciously about what the writer is doing to hold your interest, perhaps underlining or copying out certain phrases, techniques, sentence structures and so on. Then apply their techniques to your own writing.

4. Write in the active voice

It’s the oldest trick in the book, but using the active rather than the passive voice will automatically make your writing more interesting to read. It results in more direct, energetic writing that makes the reader feel more ‘in the moment’. Unfortunately, many students employ the passive voice in the belief that it makes their writing sound more academic or intellectual; in fact, it makes their writing sound boring. Remember, the active voice is when the subject of the sentence “acts”, while the passive voice is when the subject is acted upon. Passive : It was concluded by the scientists that the methods used were… Active : The scientists concluded that the methods used were… The subject in this example is “the scientists” and the “act” they are carrying out is “concluding”. As you can see in this example, the active voice almost always results in neater and more elegant phrasing, which is more concise and enjoyable to read.

5. Borrow some creative writing techniques

There’s clearly a limit to the amount of actual ‘story-telling’ you can do when you’re writing an essay; after all, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesn’t, at first glance, feel very much like story-telling. However, you can apply some of the principles of story-telling to make your writing more interesting. For example, just as the opening sentence or paragraph of a novel is incredibly important in capturing the attention of the reader early on, so the first paragraph of your essay is essential in making your reader want to continue reading it. Start with an attention-grabbing ‘hook’ to draw them in, such as a controversial statement, a tantalising snippet of information or a rhetorical question (more on these below). Here are some more techniques you can adopt from creative writing to improve your essays .

6. Think about your own opinion

Your essay is bound to be boring if all you do is paraphrase what everyone else says about something. A good essay – in humanities subjects, at least – incorporates the writer’s intelligent responses to what others say, and this critical consideration not only shows that you’re thinking at a high academic level, but it automatically adds more interest and originality to your writing. So, think independently and don’t be afraid to demonstrate that you’re doing as much.

7. Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is boring, and almost guaranteed to lose the interest of your reader. You’re at risk of waffling if you’re not completely clear about what you want to say, or if you haven’t thought carefully about how you’re going to structure your argument. Doing your research properly and writing an essay plan before you start will help prevent this problem. Editing is an important part of the essay-writing process, so once you’ve done a first draft, edit out the waffle. Read through your essay objectively and take out the bits that aren’t relevant to the argument or that labour the point. As well as editing out chunks of text, it’s important to be economical with words – not using ten where five will suffice, and avoiding clunky phrases such as those outlined in this article . During the editing process, tighten up your phrasing by eliminating unnecessary words and reordering any sentences that read badly.

8. Using a thesaurus isn’t always a good thing

You may think that using a thesaurus to find more complicated words will make your writing more interesting, or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the wrong effect. It alienates the reader and makes you sound pompous, with the result that the essay is more laborious to read and the reader may quickly lose interest. Despite this, many undergraduates admit to deliberately over-complicating their language to make it sound more high-brow. If you want to keep your reader interested, keep your language clear and simple.

9. Avoid repetitive phrasing

Avoid using the same sentence structure again and again: it’s a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a range of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities as well as making your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound and complex sentences to avoid your writing becoming predictable.

10. Use some figurative language

As we’ve already seen, it’s easy to end up rambling when you’re explaining difficult concepts, – particularly when you don’t clearly understand it yourself. A way of forcing yourself to think clearly about a concept, as well as explaining it more simply and engagingly, is to make use of figurative language. This means explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. For example, you might use the analogy of water escaping from a hole in a bucket to explain the exponential decay of a radioactive substance, as the rate of depletion of both depends on how much remains, making it exponential. This gives the reader something familiar to visualise, making it easier for them to understand a new concept (obviously this will not be a new concept for the teacher who set your essay, but they will want to see that you can explain concepts clearly and that you have a thorough grasp of it yourself).

11. Avoid clichés

Clichés are overused words or phrases that make your writing predictable, and therefore less interesting. An example would be “at the end of the day”, but there are many such favourites of student essay-writers. Don’t forget that your teacher will have a stack of essays to read in one sitting; if you use the same tired expressions everyone else uses, your essay will blend in with all the others. Make it stand out by shunning the clichés you know your classmates will be using.

12. Employ rhetorical questions

One of the ways in which ancient orators held the attention of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by making use of the rhetorical question. What is a rhetorical question? It’s essentially one you ask without expecting your audience to answer – one that you will answer yourself, like the one we asked in the previous sentence. This can be an effective way of introducing a new line of enquiry, or of raising questions that you’re going to address in more detail. A good place to use a rhetorical question is at the end of a paragraph, to lead into the next one, or at the beginning of a new paragraph to introduce a new area for exploration. The rhetorical question, “But is there any evidence to support X’s claim?” could, for instance, begin a paragraph that discusses evidence for an opinion introduced in the previous paragraph. What’s more, as we’ve already seen, you could use a rhetorical question as your ‘hook’ to lure readers in right at the beginning of your essay.

13. Proofread

Finally, you could write the most interesting essay a teacher has ever read, but you’ll undermine your good work if it’s littered with errors, which distract the reader from the actual content and will probably annoy them. Before you submit your essay, proofread it thoroughly to ensure that the grammar is elegant, the punctuation is perfect and the spelling is flawless. Don’t just use a spelling and grammar checker, as these don’t always pick up on all the errors.

Do you want to take your writing to the next level? Our Creative Writing summer school will teach you how to experiment with a number of different writing techniques, plan, edit and proofread your own work and introduce you to new concepts and ideas. 

Image credits: banner ; carousel ; rose ; scientists ; baby ; thesaurus ; hawk ; questions . 

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How to Make Essay Writing Fun and Easier

Some tactics to help you have more fun while writing your papers. 

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If you ask students to name their least favorite part of the university experience, a plurality, or even a majority, will name essay writing as their biggest academic obstacle. Most students dislike the process of developing essays, especially when those papers require extensive research. But essay writing doesn’t have to be a slog. There are ways to help make the process easier and more fun. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the strategies you can employ to write your essays faster and have a better time writing them so you won’t think of essays as a chore—or at least as less of one.

Why Students Don’t Like Writing Essays

Before we get into the question of how to have more fun writing essays, we should talk a minute about why students don’t like writing essays. 

One of the biggest reasons that students don’t like writing essays is that they don’t have the college-level writing skills to produce essays quickly and effectively. According to surveys, a majority of freshmen entering college or university have not been adequately prepared in college-level academic writing. Many colleges and universities report sending a majority of their incoming freshmen to remedial or introductory writing courses in order to build those missing skills.

When students don’t have the writing skills they need, it can add an extra layer of challenge to writing a paper, making it that much harder for students to achieve good results. Consequently, the frustration and upset can turn students off of essay writing.

This skill gap is one reason that so many students turn to a professional essay writer from online academic writing services like SmartWritingService.com in order to get expert help to bring their writing up to snuff and to get papers from legitimate services that can help to take some of the pressure off of students who are often struggling to balance school with part-time or even full-time work, family obligations, extracurriculars, and even a little bit of free time.

How to Make Essays Easier to Write

So, what can you do to make it more enjoyable to write your college essays? Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can help to make the process faster, more efficient, and more fun.

First, the most important way that you can improve the essay writing experience is to build your writing skills. Brush up on your grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. Makes sure that you are familiar with writing styles like MLA, APA, and Chicago so you can cite sources and format your paper with ease. When you do this, you will have an easier time moving through the mechanics of writing, and when you don’t have to slow down for mechanical issues, writing becomes more fun.

Similarly, outlining your paper before you write can help to smooth the process along. Outlining allows you to work through the most difficult parts of the essay-writing process before you start the actual writing. You can organize your paper, select the research and supporting facts you will need, and plan out the transitions to connect sections together. The more detail and depth you put into your outline, the easier it becomes to do the actual writing since the hard part is already done. This can remove a lot of the frustration factor and make the process smoother and more enjoyable. 

It can also be helpful to use a few tricks to make the writing easier. Save the introduction for last. Many students get hung up on crafting the perfect introduction, and it is often easier to do this after you’ve finished the body of the paper. You can use your conclusion to help craft a matching introduction that will set the reader up for the conclusion you’ve reached.

3 Ways to Make Essays More Fun to Write

Nothing is likely to make essays more enjoyable than watching a movie or playing a video game, but there are some tactics that can help you have more fun while you write your papers. 

• First, try to choose topics that are interesting, enjoyable, and fun . Writing a dull essay about a topic you don’t care about isn’t likely to get your creative juices flowing. But if you choose a topic you feel passionate about, it can make the process of researching and writing about it feel less like work and more like fun. Even if the essay has to be on a subject you aren’t enthusiastic about, by choosing a specific subject that is unusual or can be related to your own interests can give you a little extra spark of creativity to help get you motivated to write.
• Second, approach your paper with a positive attitude . When you look at your topic from a positive perspective rather than a negative one, you’ll be more likely to see the writing process as enjoyable. You can help improve your attitude by breaking your paper down into manageable chunks of work and celebrating your success after completing each part of the writing process.
• Third, make the writing process into a game . Competition can help to make the process more fun. Set daily goals for words written, sources researched, etc. and try to beat your benchmarks. Challenge a friend to a writing contest and see who scores better on the resulting essay. There are many ways to turn essays into a game and make them more fun.

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Writing for Fun 5 Pages 1138 Words

             Often when people become bored, television is the first source of entertainment that they turn to. There are extensive amounts of hobbies in the world. But many are ignored my the new technological and electronic advances of today. As fun as television, music, and surfing the net may be, people can become bored and very tired easily. Because people often hate writing in school, they often avoid doing it unless deemed necessary. However, writing can be fun; but it all depends on you. For all of those times when there is nothing to do, there is a new hobby in town. Writing for fun is an activity that people of all ages will enjoy. There are not too many hobbies that has no age boundaries. However, writing is one hobby in which there are no restrictions. There is no age requirement for writing for fun. Everyone can profit from writing. It can also be very fun for families. Families can gather together and participate in various writing exercises that will not only create stronger family bonds, but will also make a great weekly family hobby. Once you start writing, the possibilities are limitless. There is so much that you can do with writing. So you have the desire to write, but you're not sure if you know how? If you can spell, then most likely you can write.              It is very likely that most of you are probably thinking, "I don't have a clue about writing." Writing for fun can actually be very beneficial. It can help to enhance your writing skills. Do you have a diary? If the answer is yes, then you already have a clue about writing. Although a journal is often your personal thoughts, it is writing. It is actually a good form of writing because it is from the heart. For those who don't keep a diary, you have clues about writing. You just don't know it. All you need to do is develop your creative niche. Start writing about fun things. Look around the room that you are in and record your thoughts. Well what ...

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How to teach essay writing in a fun way – A guide

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Helpful tips and guidance to essay writing...

Essay writing can not be considered fun at all, especially when combined with other assignments, and tough deadlines. Still, what should teachers and professors do to change the hatred/boredom in love or at least slight excitement?

Logically, to assume, making jokes with students about their burden of writing essays won’t work. Yet, conducting lessons with games might be a go-choice.

Let’s learn how to make this assignment entertaining.

Preparing the persuasion of students

You might agree that assignment of essays simply would not be considered a prize. So, a professor has to first share their own considerations about an essay. For instance,

Share your funny stories when you have been assigned essays It can be either your failures in delivering them or stupid mistakes you have made. You should be sincere and demonstrate students that you had experience before the same opinions about writing as they have now.

Share some tips on writing them faster During the first essays (when the studying course only started), share with them alone helpful sources or materials which may fasten their writing. It will strengthen your bond with students, and they will be eager to speak to you about their hurdles.

Make advances with missed deadlines If one or more students lag behind others, no need to turn on your inner “devil”. Find the excuse for such an event, and give one more chance to deliver the paper without lowering the grade.

When proceeding with the above-mentioned tips, you have a favourable ground for your students to consider you as a cool professor.

Writing humorous essays

If applicable in your educational establishment, you can change the curriculum regarding the essays a little.

1. Assign students to their preferred topics Discuss with the students the upcoming essays, and learn what they find interesting researching and writing about.

Yes, the topics should correspond to the set requirements, but you should give some freedom to them too.

Such intentions will be appreciated because you’re not “suffocating” them with a trite theme.

After the discussion of the selected topics, say that there will be a competition in declamating the essays with other students.

For instance, who will persuade the students with their delivered ideas? Otherwise, speak to the headmaster about the college/university competition on the best essays of the studying course.

2. Use Pictures Manage to find one picture (demonstrating nature, one or another phenomenon or event) and simply tell students to discuss what they see in an essay. The main goal is not to give any other requirements or hints to the picture.

Such exercises will definitely puzzle their heads with considerations, and they will literally reinvent the wheel of what to write about the best.

Upon receiving the essays, you can all read them and compare the answers. In the end, you can just make jokes to students by saying – that the picture did not carry any hidden mystery, and you just wanted to see how students’ imagination works.

3. Play with Grammar For language classes, or particularly English, you can assign students to write an essay by using in every sentence one certain word without any exclusions. Or, it can be an essay written in one grammar tense only.

To assume logically, the whole context will be fun. On the other hand, it can help students to practice in grammar and have a cheerful class by listening to each other.

4. Assign essay with different endings Read one random story to your students, and ask them to write an essay by developing the conclusion or ending. How does it work? By completing the task, you will again read the story to students, and then ask one by one to proceed with the ending. It will help to find out the variations to the ending, and understand who was the most creative one in terms of happy or tragic conclusions.

5. Ask about students’ personal opinions If you want to understand what students think about essay writing, ask them to write one where they can discuss what an ideal essay from their point of view should look like. For the best results, announce that it can be an anonymous task if they are scared to share with you sincere feedback. Students will feel like they really affect the studying curriculum, and can add changes to essay requirements.

6. Ask different year groups to write the same essay What can be better than exchanging knowledge between courses? Ask your colleague about assigning the essays to different topics. Once done, conduct a class with both classes. The freshman year will compete against the senior year.

You will see how one topic can be considered by different age groups. Yet, every delivery of the essay should not be classified as a competition, but just as a fun exercise. In the end, all years should be rewarded with some guilty pleasures to leave a good imprint on their attempts.

7. Ask students to exchange their papers Last but not least, an exercise for fun writing is the exchanging of papers. For instance, all the students are assigned a paper on one topic.

After delivering all of them to you, you distribute the papers randomly among other students. One by one, they should read it and share their opinion on the writing. It can initiate negotiation within the class.

Yet, you should ensure that your students do not mind having their essays read by others.

If you are a student who still cannot manage essay writing in a professional way, you can first refer to an essay writing service where your custom paper will be done by academic experts.

You can pick up the highly qualified writer who fits your liking and requirements, and access the affordable pricing.

Note, with such custom writing services, you can also order samples that will only hint at tips of paper writing. They come occasionally on a free basis, so you do not spend a penny. Yet, do always try to cope with the task alone because writing will stalk you for your whole life.

• Date Posted: 12 July 2021

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Showcasing Personal Voice and Style

When writing your creative essay, try to showcase your unique voice by being authentic and as original as you can. It can also be fun to experiment with style. 

Change up your sentence structures! 

Use new and bold words, and create exciting rhythms! 

If you have a distinct personal voice, your work will be sure to stand out.

“Incorporating some dialogue can also be a good way to draw readers in.” 

“You should try to use varying sentence lengths as well.” 

“Definitely!”

Overall, the most important thing to showcase when writing a creative essay is allowing your individuality to shine through. Write in a way that is bold and different, and show the reader what makes you stand out as a writer.

Editing and Revising

Once you’ve finished writing your creative essay, your work isn’t finished! Editing and revising are both really important elements of the creative process. Try reading your piece aloud to gain a new perspective on the flow of your sentences, and seek feedback from others. Don’t forget to also check for any grammar and spelling errors that you may have missed during the writing process.

Multiple rounds of revision can help to refine the essay and enhance its overall impact. This means that you don’t have to be nitpicky or pedantic when you write your first draft; you’re free to express your ideas creatively and messily. Then you can put on your editing hat. Reread, rewrite and correct as much as you can until you are left with your masterpiece! 

Writing creative essays should be fun and enjoyable. It’s a great way to embrace your creativity and experiment with different writing techniques. If you want to practise your essay-writing skills, you can take part in the OxBright essay competition to showcase your skills!

Looking to improve your creative writing?

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