We all have been there. You were given a college writing assignment a few weeks back and it is due tomorrow. As you stare at the assignment task, you wonder, how on earth are you going to complete a 1000 word academic essay by tomorrow? You wonder if this is it, that if you are going to fail your assignment for sure and retake the entire semester. Thankfully, we live in a time where there are so many tools available to us. Tools that could help you write a great academic essay packed with relevant references in a very short period of time.

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Tokyo_University_Entrance_Exam_Results_4.JPG" alt="Image result for passing college exams" /><br/>
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<h2><strong>GOOGLE SCHOLAR</strong></h2>
Google Scholar is an excellent tool that solves two major problems. First off, it has a large library of articles and papers compiled from almost every major journal on the internet. This should help you in finding evidence for your arguments in your academic essays. However, that's not the best part.

In the advanced search section of Google Scholar, you will be able to narrow your search down to specific phrases. For example, if you are writing about a comparative study between two cases, you can type in the exact phrase that you want to appear in the studies you are searching for. After compiling the different studies that fit your topic, discussing it should be easy. This is because you would have many studies that are related to the topic of your assignment. Now comes the most tedious part. Referencing these articles.

It can be a pain to manually type out every single reference which you have cited in your article. That is where Google scholar comes in. The second major issue that Google scholar solves is automatically generating a reference for you. Just click on the cite button located next to the star under each article. A pop-up window will appear and you can copy and paste the reference into your work.

<img src="https://i1.wp.com/openscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/googleS.png?fit=729%2C483&amp;ssl=1" alt="Image result for google scholar" /><br/>
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<h2><strong>OATD</strong></h2>
Using Google scholar is great if you have an idea on what to write. However, what if you have no idea how to even start your essay. This is an issue for year-end dissertations and theses. Often, we may ponder for days on end and have absolutely no idea how to write an academically acceptable thesis. That problem can be solved via OATD which stands for open access theses and dissertations.

You can access the site via oatd.org and search for published theses and dissertations of your field. From there, you can reference and emulate the ideas and structure of these published work. I find that after reading through a few of theses, I would have a better idea of what to write. Often, studying the theses and dissertations on OATD is much more productive than just staring at the computer screen.

<img src="https://bluesyemre.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/oatd.png" alt="Image result for open access theses and dissertations" /><br/>
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<h2><strong>GOOGLE DOCUMENTS</strong></h2>
If you have found Google scholar and OATD to be unhelpful, it is time to request for reinforcements. Now, pick up your phone, scroll through your contacts and pick a good friend who is great academically. Chances are, that friend of yours would have already completed his written assignment.

Now, start telling that friend how awesome he/she is and ask if that friend would help you co-write your assignment. You can then start a Google document for free and share this document with your friend. Make sure to grant that friend access to edit the document. I find this method effective because if you have problems starting, that friend could help by starting the essay off for you. With your friend's help, you are more likely to complete your work at a faster pace. This is because if you were to hit any mental roadblocks, that friend would be there to help you pick up from where you left off.

You know what they say, a friend in need is a friend indeed. Just be sure to buy that friend a cup of coffee later.

<img src="https://news4c.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Download-Google-Docs-1.7.412.06-APK-Update-for-New-Features-and-Improves-Stability.jpg" alt="Image result for google documents" /><br/>
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<h2><strong>CONCLUSION</strong></h2>
Those are my three tools to help you ace your college writing assignments. As a college lecturer and a doctorate student myself, I have gotten myself out of assignment troubles more than once with the methods above. I am sure that if you were to use the tools above, you will likely pass your written assignment.

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