As soon as a school kid becomes a student, the intensity of their life increases several times. Like a sponge, university student absorbs a huge amount of information that they need to process:
- long lectures;
- challenging seminars;
- preparation of reports and essays.
Students never “get bored” with the amount of frequently occurring problems (further referred to as FOP). FOP number one is a shortage of time. FOP number two is a difficult topic to write a paper on. As you advance in your academic life, essay writing becomes your bread and butter.
Writing an essay is a process that involves the following:
- thorough research and data collection and analysis (time-consuming);
- outlining, structuring, and writing (complex);
- proofreading and editing (multi-layer).
In addition, you need to have the language you are writing in at your fingertips. It’s not only your thoughts that are evaluated when writing an essay. You also need to format and organize your text to reflect your point of view and ideas.
Why Is Essay Writing So Tedious?
One of the difficulties of writing an essay for eternally busy students is the need to check facts and figures in reference literature. Actually, you always need a thorough and deep search on the Internet, and in some cases – a visit to the library.
But these facts still need to be presented in a way that keeps a neat structure and makes the reader want to proceed with your paper.
For most people, this is a brain-racking experience. Even successful students can have a weakness when it comes to creative writing. And then they think: “Who could write an essay for me to save me from trouble?”. They look for third-party services, order ready-made papers to use as samples, and generally seek guidance.
But what can a student do if they want to improve their own writing game? This is when mobile apps come in handy, as they can:
- prompt the scheduling of classes;
- find material for coursework;
- help not to oversleep in the morning before the first class.
Actually, the list of functional benefits goes on and on. So, let’s overview the ten most helpful apps here.
EasyBib
The preparation of bibliography and in-text citation formatting is often the most unpleasant type of work a student faces when writing an essay. So, the EasyBib application can do this for you.
Just enter the name of the source and choose the required style to get a properly formatted citation. There is also a clear guide with examples of different citations to make this part of crafting a paper even easier for you.
Self-Control
This app is for those who want to concentrate on their studies. But you need to be ready to resort to the most radical measures for this. Self-Control will temporarily block access to social networks, websites, and Internet services.
To avoid distractions by TikTok or Instagram, add these apps to the blacklist. After that, select the blocking period and click Start. Now that nothing distracts you, you can easily figure out how to start an essay, do math homework, or listen to a lecture. Blocked resources will become available only when the specified time expires.
Scanbot
During studying, it is not uncommon to use library books that can be reviewed only in the reading room. Or you might want to read some rare manuals. Also, sometimes you might miss the lecture, so you would ask to borrow other people’s lecture notes.
If you need to copy a large amount of text quickly, use Scanbot. It immediately sorts the photographed documents into different albums. Later, you do not get confused and overwhelmed with info thanks to this feature.
What else does the free version offer? Well, you can upload the received images to the cloud and convert them to PDF files. The text recognition function is present in the paid version.
Clockwork Tomato
Have you ever come across the famous “tomato” technique? This simple and effective timer uses it as a basis. According to this technique, periods of intensive work alternate with short breaks.
The classic version helps the brain switch and rest (25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest). But the program allows the user to choose the number of time intervals.
You can also set
- the number of “tomatoes”;
- the length of the long break that occurs after several cycles;
- sounds at the end, etc.
Working with a timer has its advantages. First, it motivates you to focus on a certain task. Second, it will remind you about the need to rest so you don’t risk drowning yourself in work.
Dragon Dictation
Have you ever dreamed of typing fast? This app’s speech recognition software allows you to see the text you say on the screen immediately. Feel free to dictate and send statuses and messages to social networks, too.
Besides, if you are more comfortable talking than writing, you can dictate your essays to this app.
Prompts
The main purpose of this app is to provide over 300,000 prompts on how to write essays correctly. Prompts are a fountain of writing hacks and recommendations on how to start writing a paper and how to continue.
Suppose you have a blank-page syndrome – the application suggests the ideas. If you get stuck in the middle of your essay, the app will help with new thought directions.
Readability-Score
The Readability-Score service helps analyze your text comprehensively. Here’s what you can do with it:
- count the number of words and syllables;
- determine the reading time;
- analyze the mood of the story (positive, negative, or neutral).
In addition, the service uses different colors to highlight
- overly long sentences and words;
- clichés;
- overuse of adjectives and adverbs.
Thus, the app gives you a perfect chance to improve your writing skills.
Grammar Girl
Here, the most complex rules of the English language are explained in a simple form. This resource can help you with
- the use of tenses;
- the correct construction of a phrase;
- good old grammar in general.
Don’t underestimate the importance of error-free writing; remember to proofread your papers before submitting them.
Thesaurus
This is the world’s largest free online dictionary. It allows you
- to search for synonyms of words;
- to learn the definitions of the most difficult words.
As a result, regular use of the Thesaurus expands your vocabulary, and you begin to use richer language when working on essays.
Wordcounter
The name of the site perfectly describes its purpose: it counts words and repetitions in your text. As soon as you’re done writing, check your essay with Wordcounter and delete unnecessary words or replace them with synonyms.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, teachers give writing assignments so often that students accumulate up to ten of these tasks on various subjects for the weekend. And you just get lost, not knowing where to start, what you should read, or which movie to watch to get inspired. Or you are desperately trying to find time for everything you need to get done.
But if you use the apps mentioned above, you’ll notice that writing becomes easier and faster. Choose which ones appeal to you the most and start reaping the rewards!
