Half the battle of writing an academic paper is in knowing where to start. Will a strong metaphor capture the reader’s attention? What about a straightforward acknowledgement of the paper’s purpose?

It may be undeniably important, but why is grammar in communication so hard sometimes?

Luckily, the process of paper-writing can be broken into 5 simple steps—and CorrectEnglish can help you through all of them.

Powered by revolutionary AI, CorrectEnglish compares your writing against over 63,000 grammar rules as you type every day. It’s the best way to learn or improve your English grammar online, whether you’ve spoken English for a long time or are a new learner.

Read on to discover how this easy-to-use software can help you write fantastic essays.

Step #1: Outlining

The first step for crafting a successful essay is outlining. There are several ways to go about doing this; the specifics can change according to your personal preference. Basically, an outline is the “spine” of your essay, guiding you as you write the rest of the “body” later.

You can make that spine a bullet-point list, a tiered list, or simply subtitles for each section.

Let’s say you were writing an essay about outlining. Your outline might look like this:

• Intro
  • Writing papers is hard
  • Outlining can help
• Outlines organize your thoughts
• Outlines increase clarity
• Outlines show readers what to expect
• Conclusion
  
  • Organization
  • Clarity
  • Expectations
  • Outlining is worth the hassle

Your outline can be more or less complicated than the example above. As long as you understand where you want your essay to start and end, you’re on the right track.

CorrectEnglish works on both desktop (as a plugin) and mobile (as a keyboard,) so even if you’re outlining on-the-go between other activities, you can be sure that your outline is polished.

Step #2: Drafting

Once you have a finished outline, it’s time to start drafting. The most important rule of drafting: trust the outline. That’s why you wrote it in the first place. If you have a spontaneous great idea that you think could improve the paper, revise your outline so you still know where you’re going.

Don’t go back and change the draft as you’re writing it. If you keep doubling back on your previous work, you’ll never finish. To fix an essay, you have to write it first; you can’t fix a blank page. So don’t panic and keep writing!

If you make mistakes as you go, don’t worry. CorrectEnglish can catch misspelled words, incorrect grammar, and even common word confusions, such as “affect” versus “effect.”

Step #3: Proofreading

Just search “published articles with grammatical errors” if you need a reason why proofreading is necessary. Luckily, thanks to CorrectEnglish, most of the hard work in this step will already be done.

From subject/verb agreement to sophisticated word suggestions, CorrectEnglish fortifies your writing with intuitive suggestions as you type. You can start the proofreading step by simply reading the AI’s comments on your work so far.

Step #4: Revising

Once you’ve identified where you need to make changes—aided by CorrectEnglish—you just have to implement those changes. Strengthen your verbs, carefully choose your adjectives, tighten your structure, and complete an essay that should earn a resounding A+ from your teacher or professor.

CorrectEnglish even features a built-in plagiarism checker. If you’ve accidentally echoed any of your sources a little too closely in your own work, you’ll be grateful for this useful tool.

Step #5: Submitting

You’ve outlined, drafted, proofread, and revised your essay. Celebrate—all that’s left is to submit it for grading! Your determined dedication, combined with CorrectEnglish, has created an essay you can take pride in.

When the next assignment comes your way, you’ll be ready to face it with confidence.

To learn more about how CorrectEnglish can empower your academic writing, visit correctenglish.com.