Writing essays in college is pretty much unavoidable (you can take all the PE electives you want, but writing is going to come up eventually). It's perfectly understandable: it's hard to begin, and when you do it's difficult to organize your thoughts. Here are some writing tips to get the ball rolling.

Writing an outline can make or break your essay in college. While some students prefer not to take the extra time to brainstorm their thought, a perfect outline can make the essay writing experience even easier. If you strategize and plan out your outline correctly, writing your essay will be a smoother experience.

Find a friend that's an English major (they love words and catching grammar errors). It's highly likely a second pair of eyes look over your essay will find mistakes you overlooked. You can also use an editing service with Ultius to work with an expert editor to correct fundamental mistakes and provide feedback.

Plagiarism is stealing and getting caught doing it, whether it's intentional or not, can lead to failure of a class and even expulsion. Instead, cite your sources as you write your essay and use plagiarism checkers to double-check your work. The  Purdue Online Writing Lab contains information about the different citation styles and tips to avoid plagiarism.

With help from a little research, an essay outline can go a long way. Having an editor look over your essay will avoid getting docked on little mistakes. Find out which citation style is best for your paper to avoid plagiarism.