So, um, we hate to admit it, but academic paper writing is important. Most of the time we advocate the opposite point of view because essays and research papers, as well as the approach to writing them, have a number of serious drawbacks. But today we decided to challenge ourselves and admit that college papers can be useful. We also decided to find ways and situations in which it can actively help you achieve your goals. So, first of all, let’s check why essays are important. But watch out, some portions of sarcasm are hidden here and there, because, apparently, we still hate essay writing.

What writing an essay can teach you

Essay writing is hard, stressful and demanding. However, some people believe (and they seem to be concentrated in college) that this activity can teach you something good. We tried to adopt this point of view and see positive impact of essay writing on students, and here’s what we managed to find.

1) It makes you more logical.

One of the most hated parts of academic writing is reasoning. You need to show the logic behind everything you write, and this is annoying for several reasons. For example, we are not used to saying, “I think so, because,” and citing three academic sources to prove the point. However, this is what you should do in your paper.

The positive impact this leaves on you is that you do become more logical and acquire better reasoning skills. Next time someone tries to persuade you that tea is better than coffee, you will be able to crush their opinions and establish the coffee lover’s power all over the world in just two minutes, and that’s a step away from overthrowing the world order. See, devoted essay writing can lead you to ruling the world one day.

2) It makes you dig deeper.

We all have fallen prey to false logical assumptions and the malfunctioning belief that correlation equals causation. This belief is the reason for all those questionable sayings, such as “vaccines cause autism,” “computer games increase violence,” and “mobile phones lead to cancer.” Such false accusations occur when people take information without critically analyzing it, and draw conclusions that can result in disaster. Concerns of parents of a newborn are understandable, but apparently declining vaccination can result in worse consequences than doing it.

While you are working on your essay or research paper, you learn to analyze primary data and acquire critical thinking skills. Next time you see a bold headline blaming some technological or medical invention, you are likely to check the source of the information and drive your own conclusions. No more misleading by the mass media and Illuminati! (Okay, we’re kidding, the Illuminati are much more powerful.)

3) It trains your willpower or whatever it is called.

Nearly every article on motivation, success and self-improvement you encounter will have something to do with willpower. Some authors argue that willpower is endless and you just have to push through, while others believe that it has a limit and therefore should be spent wisely. However, most of the authors agree that willpower can be trained, and the more you do things you don’t like, the better you become at disciplining yourself.

It was proven that you don’t actually need high motivation levels to succeed at complicated actions, such as essay writing or doing your assignments. In fact, a minimum level of motivation is usually sufficient. The more you do the better you become at it, and the easier you complete the task – and so the wheel of success spins.

Where you will need academic writing

Now let’s get more practical and talk about situations where you might need academic writing. You are probably expecting something like giving a valedictorian speech and writing your job application and cover letter, but we decided to take a different look on the situation and find out which skills acquired in the process of practicing academic writing will be needed, and in which situations.

Facebook

Here you need the ability to back up your opinion with at least three arguments, and still people won’t listen to you. Providing quotes and sources of the information may have a defeating effect and send your enemies into a state of shock and admiration over your knowledge, or they may block you because you spend so much time and effort on a quarrel on the Internet. Use your argumentative powers wisely.

Tumblr

All the suffering you withstood while trying to compose a heartfelt story of the time your brother threw a snowball at you, and you accidentally caught it with your mouth, goes for Tumblr. It teaches you how to narrate, capture your reader’s attention and deliver emotional messages – important skills that lead to better communication and creativity. And the more creative you are, the better you are at writing. It’s like a self-perpetuating circle, but in a good sense.

Pinterest

This thing is similar to research. Actually, when you are searching for that rare picture of your favorite celebrity, or the best ideas for burning your notebook after the school year is over, you are doing research. We believe we don’t have to prove to you that a lot of other things in life require research. For example, when you google “red pimple on my shoulder” and get a bunch of grim-looking forecasts for your future, you are also doing research. And when you are sufficiently informed about the rules of research, you would know that one red pimple is insufficient data to make dramatic conclusions.

Twitter

The ability to be precise, sharp and specific, trained by years and years of creating these sentences, titles and subject sentences for body paragraphs comes in handy here. You have been training your whole college life to design a perfect tweet that will engrave your name in the history of Internet greatest sayings. But we suspect that you have been training on your own by simply posting tweets. Well, too bad.

Blogging

This activity just requires great writing skills if you want your blog to be popular. But more than skill, it requires a distinct tone of writing, a peculiar sense of humor and sense of style – in other words, something to distinguish you from the army of people who write on a similar topic. Or you can invent a very specific topic like, let’s say, how to teach your unicorn to knit sweaters. Only then you risk not finding a single reader in a lifetime, but fortune favors the bold.

What are your secret weapons to make your posts and tweets pop up and work? Share your success stories with us, and let’s spread creative knowledge!

You can also use our free tools to improve your writing skills, for example, thesis statement generator, essay paraphraser, words to minutes converter, and many others. They will help you not only in academic writing, but also in everyday activities.