College Writing Toolbox For A+ Marks

Writing is a craft, not just a necessary human function. And to truly write well and achieve successful grades, college students must have a variety of honed skills. A solid piece of writing must have a stable foundation, a natural flow and a creative voice.

Writing a successful essay or paper can be a daunting task. Not everyone is going to be a famous author and even professionals need editors and outside assistance. Thankfully, technology is making it easier than ever before for college students to find the help they need as well.

Check out the following and use them as your college writing toolbox. Build your essays and writing assignments from the ground up, and learn how to consistently achieve satisfactory marks.

Ideas & Research

Evernote

Allows the student to develop story ideas, collect web pages, notes and images in one place. Content may be shared among groups. Keeps tasks organized and up to date for presentations.

Hubspot

A free content idea generator. Choose your topic and place three nouns into the search most associated with the topic. This tool generates ideas for storylines, characters and other helpful hints.

Recommended: Generate Free Calendars Online

I was contacted recently pointing me in the direction of a new site - www.freephotocalendar.net. It's a ridiculously simple idea; select a month to print, upload a photo in jpg or png format, press generate and you have your own calendar in PDF format to print off.

Read Aricle »

Mindnode

Uses mind mapping capability. It allows the student to write ideas freely without having to worry about the formatting. It’s “all about the content” which saves time and increases creativity.

Organization & Productivity

Mendeley

Organizes student searches for keywords and places subsets of information into a data base for ideas. Peers may share content and reference materials with each other. The price for the software is $99-249.00 depending on the amount of searches used.

Penultimate

A free app available only on the iPad. Students may use this in association with the Evernote app if they wish. It captures hand written notes and stores them in an easily readable format.

Producteev

Creates papers, organizes documents, tracks individual progress and ranks tasks according to priority and deadlines. Students may use this free app to track progress on a group project/paper.

Editing & Writing

Hemingway

A free text editor. Copy and paste the words into the generator. The editor highlights problem areas such as sentence structure, sentence clarification, overuse of words, and adverbs.

Scrivener

Available only on MAC and costs $49.95 for the software. This uses keywords to organize topics and reference material. Writers can draft and save papers. More complex writers use this for large content such as novels.

Self Control

A free anti-distraction tool. It allows the student to pick and choose certain websites to block or allow. This increases productivity and lessens the urge to surf the Internet.

Proofreading & Plagiarism

Plagiarism.Org

This website is informative for all students. It contains a wealth of information including how to properly site references, avoid plagiarizing work, examples of bibliographies and proper referencing and offers numerous videos and educational resources. For $7.95, the student may input their paper to check for plagiarism violations.

Essaymama

This writing service is made up of professional writers who can help college students with any writing query. Use their one-on-one service to obtain proofreading help, structure advice and more. They even offer access to a free writing guide and a blog full of inspiration.

Help.Plagtracker

Of course plagiarism is a big NO. It’s unethical and you chance being expelled or ruining your college career and reputation. It’s not worth it. Double check your writing with Plagtracker’s unique checking algorithm and be sure your work is always 100% original.

References & Citation

Ref Works

This free tool generates and stores all references and bibliography materials.

Recommended: Get Evernote For Free!

EverNote allows you to easily capture any information you like, and find it whenever you want. Create text or handwritten notes, import mobile phone snapshots, clip web pages, and grab content from any application directly into EverNote - so everything is kept in a single place.

Read Aricle »

Son of Citation

This tool automatically places the bibliography into the format required by the professor. For an additional fee, it is checked for plagiarized content. Cost ranges from $10-30 per month.

Maybe you need help with proper citation, or perhaps your spelling skills are lacking. No matter where you struggle with the writing process, there’s a resource accessible to help. First assess your own strengths and weaknesses, and then try the tools listed above as a starting point.

Find what works best for your specific needs and stick with it. Remember to stay motivated and consistent, and never be afraid to find the assistance you need. You can always improve your writing skills and you can always add to your trusted toolbox of helpful instruments.

About The Author

Kenneth Waldman is a professional content writer with over 5 years of experience, Сopyreader and Designer at Essay Writing Services Reviews (read the latest UkEssays Review). His expertise includes education, marketing, freelancing.

• Follow Kenneth Waldman on:
•