5 Reasons Why Essay Writing Feels So Hard (and How to Fix It)
Have you ever wondered why essay writing feels so hard?
If you are studying a course that requires lots of written assignments, essay writing can start to feel like it is taking over your life. You finish one essay, barely have time to catch your breath, and immediately have to start the next one. It can weigh heavily on your time, energy and motivation.
If you find essay writing overwhelming, difficult or frustrating—or if your grades are not where you want them to be—you are not alone. Many students blame themselves, when often the real problem is the system, the lack of proper support, or simply missing the right approach.
In this episode of the Chloe Made Me Study podcast, I am sharing 5 reasons why essay writing feels so hard—and what you can do to make it easier.
This post originated as a podcast episode which you can listen to below or watch on YouTube. Or, if you’re more of a learn-by-reading student, carry on for the blog version based on the podcast script.
Let’s dive into the five reasons why essay writing feels so hard.
1. You never got taught how to do it properly
Most students were never properly taught how to write academic essays. School focuses heavily on delivering lots of subject content, not on developing strong academic writing skills. At university, you might get even less direct teaching. Some of you are studying mostly self-paced or hybrid courses, which can make it even harder.
When you do receive teaching, it often focuses on delivering content or theory rather than helping you build your writing skills. You are expected to ‘just know’ how to plan, structure and write academically—or to magically improve through feedback alone.
Often that feedback is vague: ‘just answer the question’ or ‘be more critical’. If you ask for help, you might simply be told to ‘read the guidance carefully’, without being taught how to do that effectively. It can feel like you are missing something important, but you cannot quite name what it is.
That is exactly why I created The Essay Fix training—to slow down, fill those gaps and teach you a clear, strategic way to write better essays.
2. You are studying for your essays in the wrong way
Most students spend the early part of a module focusing on completing all the recommended reading and note taking. The essay or assignment is left until later, and by then time is running out. This creates panic and overwhelm.
This is not your fault. Universities often guide students week-by-week through readings and lectures but do not show you how to think strategically about your studying in relation to your assignments.
Instead of completing all the reading first and then rushing to plan and write the essay, I recommend flipping it around. From the beginning of a module, look at the assignment question and guidance. Even if you do not know the content yet, you can still understand the task you are being asked to complete.
Once you understand the task, you can prioritise your reading and note taking around the assignment. You can create two piles: what is relevant to the assignment and what is not. You can also take much more strategic, useful notes that help you write the essay, rather than copying down lots of information that does not align.
3. There is no room to practise
Essay writing at university is a very high-stakes environment. Every assignment you submit contributes to your final degree classification—or if it does not yet (for example, in your first year), the habits and skills you build now will directly impact your future grades.
The system often expects you to learn by doing, but there is no safe space to practise your skills without it counting towards your results. Feedback often arrives after the deadline, and sometimes it is not detailed or actionable enough to help you improve significantly before the next assignment.
I recently realised that this feels similar to how my netball team operates. When I joined my team, I was expecting practice sessions, but instead every week was just another competitive match that counted towards the league. There were no drills, no coaching, no opportunities to learn and make mistakes in a low-stakes environment.
That is exactly what happens with essay writing. You are constantly playing ‘matches’ without any structured ‘training sessions’ to improve your skills.
4. You are relying on outdated or confusing frameworks
Many students are taught to use frameworks like PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link) to structure their paragraphs. While PEEL can provide a basic structure, it is often too vague, too rigid, and not sufficient for higher-level academic writing.
PEEL does not teach you how to generate meaningful points, how to integrate evidence critically, or how to structure your analysis. It does not show you how to link back effectively to the essay question or how to create coherent arguments that build towards a strong conclusion.
You need flexible, reusable tools that help you plan and structure your essays in a way that supports deeper thinking and criticality.
5. You are working hard—but not in the right way
Essay writing feels so hard––not because you’re not working hard enough. Often, you are working incredibly hard—but not always in the most efficient or strategic ways.
Some common traps include:
Starting to write without a clear plan and hoping the structure will work itself out
Trying to write and edit at the same time, which increases overwhelm and slows you down
Cutting words from the wrong places, removing higher-level critical analysis instead of lower-level description
Essay writing benefits enormously from a structured approach. Every sentence needs to earn the right to be there. Having a clear structure helps you prioritise higher-level thinking (such as critical analysis and evaluation) over basic description and explanation.
You also need to separate writing and editing into two different phases. Trying to do both at once increases cognitive load and reduces the quality of your ideas.
If even one of these reasons why essay writing feels so hard resonated with you, know that you are not alone—and that there are practical ways to make essay writing easier, more strategic, and more rewarding.
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