Tools and Websites To Help You Write Your Academic Essay

By John Levi Caturan Masuli

Having problems writing your latest academic essay? A pleasant surprise for you: it's the internet age! Researching, writing, and polishing your ideas has never been easier since the time when they invented essays and academic requirements. With the web wide web's plethora of resources and tools, you can finish that essay in no time without going through your dusty library or seeking help from your more nerdy friends. Here are a few sites and their specialized tools that you can use to speed up your productivity and save some time.
1. Google Books
Of course Google Books is here, if not for the most obvious of reasons. With almost every book available in their database, you can easily cut and paste quotes that you needed to support your essay arguments without going through the internet inside and out.
2. Jstor
Jstor.org is a behemoth of online journals. While you have to pay for subscription to their staggering roster of journals, its definitely worth it. If your topic is too specific and you cannot find a book as a reference to your own study, check out jstor and more likely than not, you can find related studies there. And more: most universities really endorse jstor, so it's worth more than the penny you paid for the subscription.
3. Cite this For Me
Citethisforme.com is godsend for students who are yet to master their citation skills, struggling with new citation styles, or simply too lazy to arrange their sources' info to match their professor's preferred citation style. Upon entering the site, you simply need to copy and paste your sources' info, page number, publisher and other whatnot, then wait for the site to arrange them to the citation style of your choice. Simply copy and paste the generated reference entry into your essay. Do not waste hours of your precious time arranging and double-checking your bibliography. Let the computer do its thing, and go do something more worthwhile.
4. Academia.edu
Academia.edu is a social networking site, and it is way lamer than Facebook, but if academics is your interest, it would be good thing to sign up there. Academics, both undergrad and grad, are posting essays and papers there, some passed to their professors, some just written for a vague sense of accomplishment. But what is good about academia.edu is the enormous amount of academic resource there, especially the variety. You can have a lot of ideas sprouting now and then through their networking-based interface.