7 Creative Ways to Write a Paper in College

College students write a lot of papers. The average college student produces between three and eight papers per course, and full-time students take as many as five or six courses per semester. That means that the average full-time student could be producing as many as forty-eight papers per semester, a burden that can leave even the best student exhausted and bored. When you are writing a lot of papers all at once, it can become easy to fall into a rut and churn out boring, uninspired essays. This can cause you to lose points if your instructors don’t feel that you have put enough effort into your papers. So, how can you develop more creative papers that will get you out of your rut and show your instructors that you are actively engaged with your writing?

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the ways that you can write a paper creatively in college.

First, it’s worth considering why so many essays are dull and uninspired. One reason for that is that many essays follow a rigid format that leaves little room for creativity. The typical essay has an introduction, which leads to a thesis statement. Several body paragraphs follow, each amplifying one part of the thesis. Then, the paper comes to a close by repeating the thesis and finishing with a final thought.

Following the format can make it easier to write a paper, but it can sap a paper of its creativity. A stronger paper will go beyond the standard format to match the structure of the paper to the requirements of the assignment and the topic. Sometimes, all it takes is a little bit of creativity.

Match Your Essay Structure to the Assignment

Not every assignment needs or requires a standard five-paragraph essay model. You should feel free to match your assignment structure to the requirements of the essay. For example, if the essay is a descriptive essay, you might use a looser structure that focuses on sensory details and painting a word picture rather than the more rigid structure associated with argumentation. To spark your creativity, think about the best way to organize your paper to highlight the key elements of the assignment.

Start with an Anecdote

You can dress up even a boring paper by adding a compelling anecdote in the introduction to give some drama and color to your assignment. When you start with an anecdote, you can have some room for creative storytelling and a bit of dramatic or even comedic flair to interest the reader in what you have to say before you get into the meat of the argument. Just be sure not to get so caught up in the anecdote that it overwhelms the paper.

Switch Up Your Organizational Strategy

If you write many papers for the same course, such as a course that has a weekly essay, it can be refreshing to switch up your organizational strategy. Instead of the same five-paragraph model every week, try a Rogerian response or a chronological framework, depending on the assignment. Trying a new strategy can spark creativity by forcing you to think about familiar ideas in a new way.

Approach from an Unexpected Angle

Part of what makes an essay creative is a sense of novelty. Try approaching your topic from an unexpected angle to pique the audience’s interest. When you trigger a sense of surprise, you can capture the audience’s attention by harnessing their natural curiosity to get them interested in learning more about your topic.

Don’t Try Too Hard to Stand Out

You might find that you have derailed your paper if you try to be too creative or take too many risks. You want your paper to stand out for the right reasons—not because it’s too weird for the instructor to understand, or because your attempt to be creative made the instructor laugh. No matter how creative you want to be, try to keep your creativity within the bounds of an academic essay so that your paper will always meet the requirements of the assignment and of academic writing conventions. You want your instructor to notice your content and your good ideas—not to gawk at how weird the paper is.

Be Yourself

Too many students will try to present themselves as super-academics, using inflated language, complicated words, and a stilted style that they associate with academic journal articles and scholarly writing. When you try to be someone you’re not, your writing will suffer, and your writing will often become stiff. Keep your creativity intact by using your own voice and vocabulary—just avoid slang and text-speak.

Hire an Expert

You can learn how to be more creative when you pay someone to write essays and papers for you online. When you hire experts from an online writing service, you’ll get the expertise of a professional writer who can free you from some of the most difficult essay-writing challenges. Simply contact a reputable service similar to WriteMyPaperHub and say, “I need you to write a paper for me online,” and once you receive the completed assignment, you can see how a professional would approach your topic creatively, and this can help to spark your own creative juices so you can write a terrific essay of your own that finds a unique and compelling way to address your topic.