Writing essays as a student can be a daunting task. Between researching various topics, organizing your thoughts coherently, and meeting stringent word count or page requirements, the essay writing process demands a significant time investment. It’s no wonder procrastination is so prevalent among students faced with essay assignments. With the right approach and techniques, essay writing becomes more manageable. This is where adopting a “gonerdify” mindset can help streamline your process and make essay writing less painful.
What does it mean to “gonerdify” your essay writing? At its core, taking a gonerdify approach means applying structured, analytical thinking common in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields to the essay writing process. Just as an engineer might break down a complex design challenge into discrete steps and assign tasks to specialized teams, gonerdifying your essay writing involves breaking the assignment down into clearly defined stages and adopting habits that optimize your efficiency.
The first step is to thoroughly analyze the essay prompt or question. Carefully read and re-read what is being asked of you to ensure you have a solid understanding of the scope and expectations for your response. Underline or make notes of any important terms, parameters, or criteria the instructor provides. Ask clarifying questions of your professor if anything in the prompt is ambiguous or unclear. Approaching the prompt with a problem-solving mindset helps ensure you start your research and planning from a position of understanding exactly what needs to be addressed.
With the parameters of the prompt clearly defined, the next stage is research. Gonerdifying your research process means applying structure and specialization. Create separate files or sections for each type of research source – one for peer-reviewed journal articles, one for books, one for websites, etc. This helps avoid a disorganized pile of undifferentiated research. Within each file, take detailed notes using a consistent format to capture essential details like the author, title, publisher, date, and main arguments or insights in a manner that makes your sources easy to retrieve and cite.
As your research progresses, analyze findings through the lens of the prompt’s expectations. Continually ask how each source informs or helps prove your eventual thesis statement. Only thoroughly research avenues clearly relevant to the scope of the assignment; avoid going off on unproductive tangents. When the research phase is complete, you’ll have specialized files of clearly organized, on-point evidence ready to shape your essay’s structure and content.
With research organized, it’s time for the planning stage. Gonerdifying your approach means applying systematic thought to map how you will translate your findings into a well-constructed written work. Develop an outline or concept map plotting the key points or arguments you want to make in support of your thesis and how sources will be woven into each section. Leave space underneath each outline point to later insert specific evidence or details as you write. This gives your essay a logical flow mirroring the thought process of an engineer designing a system.
As you begin writing based on this plan, further structure your process. Develop specialized templates or formats for different types of paragraphs like topic introductions, analysis, direct source incorporation, and conclusions. Within your writing, adopt consistent stylistic elements like signal phrases, in-text citations, and formatting to integrate sources smoothly. Set writing goals to help monitor your progress, such as aiming to complete one body paragraph subsection per session.
The final step is polishing and review. Just like engineers run tests and inspections on prototypes, gonerdify your editing process by doing multiple thorough reads of your own work with a critical eye. Have study partners review your content and structure as well. Update any flaws discovered through this iterative review process. Before submission, you’ll have a clean, coherent final product worthy of any engineering marvel.
Applying STEM-inspired structure, specialization, planning and precision to essay writing in this way has numerous benefits. It converts an otherwise daunting task into clear, manageable steps. Having everything well-organized from the start keeps you focused and on track to succeed. Your prof will be impressed by the logical flow and carefully incorporated evidence. Best of all, gonerdifying the process alleviates stress by systematizing your workflow. So don’t just wing writing assignments – gonerdify your process for more efficient, higher quality results!
A student’s essay writing does not need to consist of frantic last-minute all-nighters. Taking cue from STEM fields by breaking the process into specialized steps, doing thorough planning and analysis, and maintaining consistent formats builds discipline that optimizes productivity and outcome quality. Gonerdifying the approach converts what could be a chore into stimulating, structured problem-solving. Applying these principles transforms students into capable scholar-engineers able to methodically tackle any essay challenge.