Seven Easy Steps to Write an Essay

A lot of times, the process of writing an essay might be an annoying and frustrating process. But does it have to be? My answer is an emphatic "No". Writing an essay can even be easy and fun. This paper offers a 7-step process of writing essays. These steps include:

• Research
• Analysis
• Brainstorming
• Outlining
• Writing
• Revising
• Language/Editing

1. Research: The first step in the whole writing process is to really understand what you are writing about. It is after this that all other things come in. The topic of the subject is very needful for research. You have to check for information about the subject because you cannot write brightly on something you do not know anything about. There are several places where you can get information. These include the internet, academic databases, and local libraries. The internet is especially a very important resource. There are over 500 billion web pages on the web, each or which can be quickly accessed through search engines such as Google.com, yahoo.com. The academic databases are also important sources of information. These include JSTOR, CQ researcher, Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, Academic Search Premier. You can also check your local libraries for more information about your subject of interest.

2. Analysis: The nest step is to analyze all the information at your disposal. This is because not all information will be necessary at that particular point in time. Although, in most cases, you analyze your information as you research.

3. Brainstorming: This refers to the art of thinking creatively and intensively. After the first two steps above, you would have generated a lot of ideas and concepts. Then you brainstorm over them. At this point, you ask yourself some critical questions about the subject. You examine the biases of the authors of the ideas you have gotten. You explore all the evidence you have and attempt to give a reasonable explanation. You do not have to just copy the ideas you have gotten. You attempt to create a new original idea. This gives your writing an edge.

4. Outlining: Have you ever seen a construction engineer that attempts to build a magnificent structure without having the blueprints? No. Similarly, a good piece of writing must have a set of blueprints or outline. Drawing up an outline gives a picture of what the final picture would be. When creating an outline, your points must be brief and concise, about one line each. Each point must summarize a whole idea. Then, you draw up a suitable arrangement for the outline, that is, how each point would fit in the whole build.

5. Writing: Now comes the writing proper. A classical essay should have three sections: an introduction, a middle part and a conclusion. The major role of the introduction is to capture the reader’s attention and to state your focus – the main topic. The introduction also should not be too long - a lengthy introduction is hardly needed. The middle part is the main body of the essay. It should contain two and above number of paragraphs. Each paragraph should explain a particular idea and in most cases should start with a topic sentence. Each paragraph should proceed in a logical sequence and all the ideas must be connected with transitions. When you write your ending (conclusion), you should restate your focus, summarize your main points, and more importantly should leave a lasting impression on the mind of the reader.

6. Revising: After finishing the first draft, it does not end there. You still need to revise all what you have written. You need to check the following traits: idea, organization, voice, word choice and fluency of the first draft. These traits are the major factors that determine the quality of the essay.

7. Language/Editing: Finally, you go over your work again and check for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, grammar, and sentence errors. You can use some tools offered in the Microsoft Word software. These scan your essay for spelling and grammar errors. Also, take note of the writing style. Add all necessary citations according to the writing style chosen.

Once you have gone through all these steps, your essay should be ready for submission or publication. Congratulations!

Seven Simple Steps to Improving/Building your Memory

Memory has been said to be the diary of life we all carry with us. Memory is important to every human and even all living organism. Practically, all of our actions and reactions depend on our memory. Memory allows us to retrieve events and situations from the past and from moments ago. Memory has been defined as processes by which people and other organisms encode, store, and retrieve information (“Memory (psychology)”, 2008). Simply put, memory is the act of storing and recalling information which you have learned or experienced. Most of us use only five percent to ten percent of our memory capabilities. How can we increase this? Some of the simple steps are outlined below:
• Conviction and Determination
• Create a relaxed environment
• Pay attention and concentrate
• Associate information with what you already know
• Use memory techniques
• Develop healthy habits
• Practice, practice, practice

The first step is to convince yourself that you do have a good memory and that this would improve. Most people have a misconception that they have a bad memory. There is no such thing as a bad memory. There are can only be trained or untrained memories. Remove the thought that you have a bad memory and decide to improve it. You need to commit yourself to the task and revel in your achievements. As you go on, you test yourself. It would motivate you when you are happy with your success.

The next step is to monitor your learning environment. The place where you want to study should be free and not cluttered with books and the likes. The memory works in an organized way, so your environment also should be organized. The brain cannot do much productive work under stress. Any learning process done under such condition would amount to nothing. It is important to relax the brain so as to accommodate enough facts as possible during the learning process.

Also, concentration is vital to the learning process. You cannot remember something you never learned in the first place. This means if you never encode it into your memory, you would never be able to recall it. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through your hippocampus and into the appropriate memory centre (“Improving Your Memory”, 2009). Do one thing at a time. No multitasking. This is why a quiet and relaxed atmosphere is needed for constructive learning.

The brain is made up of billions of cells called neurons. These neurons are like links or pathways for data storage. These neurons are also linked together by trillions of dendrites. The brain tends to store recent information by forming links to previously stored data. It works like a computer by organizing information in such a way that, for instance, science-related information is stored together in one compartment, arts-related information is stored together in another compartment. As you read, try to create associations. Create vivid mental images. Let’s say for example, you are reading about atomic bombs. You can try and link this to the atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US military, which you must have learned at one time or the other during your high school history lesson. This images formed makes it easier to recall the big picture (the atomic bomb) later on when it is needed.

The use of memory techniques cannot be overemphasized. There are several memory techniques in use by different people. One of the most effective memory techniques is the use of mnemonics. The word mnemonic was derived from the name of the Greek goddess, Mnemosyne, and it has been used as far back as the Greek civilization. An example is the ‘nonsense word’, ROYGBIV. Each letter stands for a color in the light spectrum. You can create your own mnemonics as you read. Mnemonics can be in form of sentences, as in “Every Good Boy Does Fine” which represents the musical notes of E, G, B, D and F; Acronyms, as in ROYGBIV; Rhymes and Alliteration, as in “thirty days hath September, April, June and November”; etc. Mnemonics form links and associations between new information and old information using facts and figures. Other memory techniques include the Number/rhyme technique, Alphabet technique, Mind maps (Memory maps).

Healthy habits are vital to memory improvement. Some of these habits include regular body exercises, stress management, good sleep habits, avoidance of smoking, and good nutrition. These habits aid in the healthy development of the brain. Regular exercise improves the oxygen supply to your brain. Cortisol, which is a stress hormone, when accumulated in large quantities can damage the hippocampus which is vital in the whole memory process. You must have noticed that when you do not sleep at night, you become tired and unable to concentrate the next day. Sleep is necessary for consolidation of memory.

The last step is to practice, practice, and practice. Note the verb. It is very important that you practice. If you do not practice, you forget all the learning techniques and you are back in square one. Practice makes perfection. Your memory is inexhaustible. The only limits are the ones that you allow by your own thinking.

List of References
Memory (psychology). Microsoft Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007.
Improving Your Memory. (2009). Help Guide 2009. Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://helpguide.org/life/improving_memory.htm

Reaction Paper on Franz Kafkas’ A Country Doctor

Franz Kafkas’ A Country Doctor is a nightmarish story full of challenges and frustrations. The story is about a doctor who, because of his dedication to his job and duty to humankind, had to go through a lot of difficulties and make some sacrifices. The doctor went through a lot of challenges and these gave him some feelings of frustration. The doctor can be said to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed because of the losses on his own part – his servant girl, Rosa; his flourishing practice – all because he had to answer the call of a dying man.

The first challenge the doctor faced was that of the unending harsh weather. There was a severe snowstorm standing between him and his destination ten miles away. The icy winter was also a cause of his horse’s death. The doctor’s feelings of frustration were evident when he commented thus, “Naked, abandoned to the frost of this unhappy age, with an earthly carriage and unearthly horses, I drive around by myself, an old man.” The doctor’s response to the cold weather was to wrap himself in a coat of fur, although he had to discard this on his return journey when he had to quickly escape from the house of his patient.

The doctor’s second challenge was that of transportation. After meeting the frost challenge headlong and overcoming it, he could not go anywhere. This was because the cold icy winter had resulted in the death of his horse. Now, there was no other horse for him to use. His carriage was just as useless. His servant girl, Rosa, had to run around the village to see if she could help the doctor borrow a horse, but alas, could get none. He demonstrated his frustration when “distracted and tormented, he kicked his foot against the cracked door of the pigsty which had not been used for years.” However, his problem of transportation was solved when out of the pigsty crawled a team of two powerful horses which the groom hitched up to the doctor’s wagon.

The groom posed another challenge to the doctor. The intention of the groom was to exchange his animals with the doctor’s servant girl. The emergence of the groom with his animals from the pigsty was, to the doctor, a kind of God-sent solution to his problem at that point. When the groom’s intention became known to the doctor, the doctor could not do much. He was indeed helpless. All he could do was to cry out “You brute” in fury. Then the doctor’s attention was shifted from Rosa to the ‘beautiful team of horses’. Unknowingly, he climbed into the carriage happily, but before he could do anything to rescue Rosa, he was bounded out of the scene. His frustration was evident when his thoughts returned to Rosa throughout the remainder of the story.

Another challenge faced by the doctor was that of how to manage his patient’s condition. His inability to immediately discover his patient’s sore fully demonstrated his incompetence as a physician. Upon his arrival at the house of the patient, he was received with open hands and large expectations. The father gave him a glass of rum, the sister helped him to remove his fur coat, the mother enticed him, all in order for him to save their dying son and brother. Yet, he had to disappoint them due to his incompetence.

A nightmare has been defined by Psychology Today as "a dream occurring during....sleep that results in feelings of inescapable terror, fear or extreme anxiety" (Stephens). This story by Franz Kafkas can well be described has a nightmare because it, in its entirety, fulfills the conditions for the definition. The doctor in this story demonstrated feelings of anxiety when he said that he “couldn’t see what to do” about the condition of his patient. In the course of the story, the doctor described himself as being tormented, demonstrating his feelings of terror, fear and anxiety. Also, some pieces of the story are things that cannot happen in real life, except in a dream. Examples are the emergence of big, powerful horses out of the pigsty; horses peering through the open window of the invalid; the family removing the clothes of the doctor, leaving him naked.

One of the themes of this story, as indicated by Kafkas, is opportunism. Opportunism, as defined by Wheeler, refers to taking advantage of a person’s situation for purposes of personal advancement (112). This was exactly what happened between the groom and the doctor. The groom knew that the doctor needed a horse badly. He allowed the doctor to make use of, not only one horse but two horses. He did this so that he could take advantage of the doctor’s situation and have Rosa all to himself. The doctor had no choice but to leave his servant girl in the hands of this malicious groom. In fact, the doctor was totally helpless to rescue Rosa.

The habit of placing blame on other people is another theme which was obvious in this story. The doctor places blame on other people by using confusion tactics in arguments, subtly or overtly changing the subject (Bancroft 67). The doctor knew that he had inadequacies, but instead of living up to them and confronting them squarely, he prefers to push the blame on others. He blamed the absence of a horse for his inability to travel to the patient’s house. He blamed his neighbors for failing to give him a horse, an action probably due to his poor relationship with them. On and on like that, he just continued to put blames on others.

WORKS CITED

Bancroft, Lund. Why Does He Do That?. Berkley Books. 2003.

Stephens, Laura. “Nightmares.” 30 Mar. 2006. Psychology Today 25 May 2009

Wheeler, Edward. Current Literature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1997.