Vib[e]ration

writing an essay in college is very different from writing an essay in high school. personally, i write more research/history papers than literary essays (the liberal arts life and curse), so this is going to be a post on how a general research-y essay that has a thesis and arguments. 

intro

don’t open with a quote and don’t be overly broad. 

avoid generalizations 

your intro should address the topic of your essay (ex. the significance of gardens in renaissance society), and then narrow down to what you want to talk about in regards to your topic (ex. the political influence of the Medici gardens during the renaissance)

thesis! it should include the argument you want to make about the narrowed down topic, and three (or however many your class requires) reasons to support it. I like to think of it as W = X + Y + Z. 

your thesis explains who, what and why in a concise manner. 

body

topic sentences should not be a word for word copy of your thesis.

the order of arguments in your thesis is the order of your paragraphs 

depending on the length of your essay, there should be at least two justifications to your argument. 

so, just as the intro has a formula, X = A + B, and so forth. 

A and B should be backed up with some sources/quotes. don’t forget that if you are quoting from class notes to put either the prof’s last name, or (class notes)

be sure to have clear and concise arguments, don’t be flowery

USE WORDS THAT ARE ACCURATE. thesaurus is great but if you use a word that sounds cool but doesn’t capture the meaning you want to convey then don’t use it, because it may just change the meaning of your argument

quote whatever isn’t yours. it is completely fine if 90% of your sentences are quotes. its weird to get used to, but don’t worry about it. 

conclusion

the worst part in my opinion. 

synthesize don’t summarize. show how your arguments relate back to the thesis.

try not to copy paste your thesis into the conclusion, word it so that the readers understands that through XYZ, you were able to conclude and support argument W (referring back to the thesis formula)

do not add any new information, do not add quotes. 

your final sentence should tie up the essay in a pretty bow, but try to avoid clichés 

protips

when writing the body paragraphs, your ‘weakest’ paragraph should be in the middle, strongest as your last, and the second best as your first.

if you’re stumped on the intro, skip it. write out the body first, then the intro and you’ll be able to concisely word your thesis

think of your essay as an infomercial. your intro is the loud and clear HERES MY PRODUCT, the body is blasting information on why the product is so cool, and the conclusion is the final push for the viewer to buy that product. make your teacher want to agree with your thesis! 

use a mix of paraphrase and quotes!

don’t forget your works cited lmao (the MLA Handbook is a gr8 tool, also OWL Purdue)

prime time for essay writing is in the morning or at night, but make sure you edit it meticulously 

EDIT ON PAPER NOT ON YOUR SCREEN

There are many things to keep in mind when naming the town or city in your novel:

1) Genre/Theme/Tone

It’s very important to consider the genre and theme of your story when choosing a town name. Take these names for example, each of which indicates the genre or theme of the story: King’s Landing (sounds fantastical) Cloud City (sounds futuristic) Silent Hill (sounds scary) Sweet Valley (sounds happy and upbeat) Bikini Bottom (sounds funny) Radiator Springs (sounds car-related) Halloween Town (sounds Halloween-related) Storybrooke (sounds fairytale-related) 2) Time/Place It’s also important to consider the time and place where your story takes place. For example, you wouldn’t use “Vista Gulch” as a name for a town in Victorian England. You probably wouldn’t use it for a town in modern day North Carolina, either. Vista is a Spanish word and would normally be found in places where Spanish names are common, like Spain, Central and South America, the southwest United States (including southern California), Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Florida. 3) Size/Settlement Type An isolated town of 300 people probably won’t be Valley City, but a sprawling metropolis of 30 million could be called Windyville, because it could have started out as a small town and grew into a large city. 4) Geography Words like gulch, butte,and bayou tend to be regional terms. You probably wouldn’t find Berle’s Bayou in Idaho, or Windy Butte in Rhode Island. Words like mount, cape, and valley are dependent upon terrain. Most of the time, you won’t have a town named “mount” something unless there are hills or mountains nearby. You wouldn’t use “cape” unless the town was on a cape, which requires a large body of water. 5) History Is there a historical person or event that your town might be named after? The Simpsons’ hometown of Springfield is ironically named after its founder, Jebediah Springfield. Chattanooga, Tennessee is named after the Cherokee town that was there first. Nargothrond, in The Lord of the Rings, is an Elvish town with an Elvish name. 6) Combination of Words

person name + geographical term = Smithfield, Smith Creek

group name + geographical term = Pioneer Valley, Settlers’ Ridge

descriptive word + geographical term = Mystic Falls, Smoky Hill

person name + settlement type = Smithton, Claraville

landmark + settlement type = Bridgton, Beaconville

Word Lists: Types of Settlements

Geographical Features

Place Words

Common Suffixes

Other Descriptors

Sure! Haha! Let me make a quick tutorial! To start Let’s use Gag here:

Step 1: Make all your Layers into a Smart Object:

merge all your layers, then right click the layer and click covert to Smart Object. You can also go to  Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object. Name this layer Original.

Step 2: DUPLICATE :

make 4 copies of this original layer.  Name them Red, Green, Blue, and Distortion. Hide the Distortion layer.  You should have have layers like this:

STEP 3: BLENDING OPTIONS:

Right Click the Red Layer. Click Blending Options. Under advanced Blending Options, uncheck Blue and Green. Only red needs to be checked. Hit OK. It should look like this:

Repeat this step with the Green and Blue Layer, but make sure only the corresponding  Layer is checked. If you did it right, you shouldn’t have any distortion of the original pic.

STEP 4: SHEAR BABY

select the red layer.  Go to Filter > Distort > Shear. Make a subtle shear for the layer.  Repeat this with the Blue and Green, but make sure that each layer is a little different in the way the Shear looks.  You will end up with something that looks like this, ya know depending on how much sheer you used. It always looks different:

Step 5: SHEAR THE DISTORTION LAYER

turn the distortion layer back on. Add a tiny bit of shear. Now you have something that is kinda not as fucked up that looks like this:

STEP 6: RANDOM RECTANGLE TIME

use the rectangle marque tool (I think the shortcut is M ) and make a bunch of random rectangles that go all the way across the canvas. (hold down shift to make more than one) Do this on the distortion layer (I tend to not do this on important to see things Like the eyes. )After Then make a Layer Mask  (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection) After you do the mask, right click, hit blending options and uncheck red and Blue. You now have this:

STEP 7: ALL VCR TAPES HAVE LINES!

Go to  Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern. HIt OK on the first dialog box then when your layer fills in with sponge (I dunno why that is the default) hit the pattern box(it has the sponge in it) and select the 2nd option.  Make the scale 150% and hit OK. This makes a new layer. Change that layers blending to multiply and it’s opacity to 25% (or whatever you think looks good. I like 25%) You now have this:

STEP 8: COLOR CORRECTION

This gives the picture a more VCR tape tone (I.E. It makes it more blue). Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color. On the drop down it gives you select “Blacks” Set Cyan to 20 and yellow to -20. You will get something like this:

STEP 9: NOISE

Create a new layer. Name it Noise, Fill it with Black. Go to Filter>Noise. Set the Amount to 400%. Check Uniform, Uncheck Monochromatic. Set this to overlay for the blending mode. Set the opacity to 50%. You now have this:

STEP 10: CLEAN UP

Move the Original layer and put it between the Distortion layer and the Lines Layer. Set the opacity to 75%. That gives the original image a bit of a clearer easier read. 

And then Badabing, badamboom, you are done, here is the end result: