There’s this moment every semester when a student opens their laptop, stares at a blank document titled “Essay Draft,” and immediately wants to do literally anything else. Check Instagram. Reorganize their desk. Suddenly remember they need to do laundry. It’s not laziness exactly. It’s something deeper than that.
After years of working with students and watching this pattern repeat, the reasons why students hate writing essays become pretty clear. And honestly? They’re more justified than most professors want to admit.
The Real Problem Isn’t What You Think
Most educational experts will tell you students struggle because they don’t plan enough or haven’t mastered thesis statements. That’s partially true, but it misses the bigger picture. The actual essay writing struggles start way before anyone opens a Word document.
Consider this: a typical college student at schools ranging from Ohio State to UCLA is juggling five classes, maybe a part-time job, plus whatever constitutes a social life these days. When a professor assigns a 2,000-word essay on Kant’s categorical imperative due in two weeks, that student isn’t thinking about arguments and evidence. They’re doing mental math on how many hours of sleep they can sacrifice.
The desperation gets real fast. Some students even find themselves typing “someone to write my essay” into Google at 2am, not because they’re trying to cheat the system, but because the system feels impossibly stacked against them.
Breaking Down the Hatred
Here’s what actually makes students despise essay assignments:
The blankness is paralyzing. Starting from nothing feels impossible. You’re supposed to magically produce an original argument about something a thousand scholars have already analyzed. Where do you even begin?
Perfectionism kills momentum. Students know their professors have read hundreds of essays. Probably thousands. That knowledge creates this crushing pressure where every sentence needs to sound intelligent and polished. So they write one sentence, delete it, write another, delete that too. An hour passes and they’ve got nothing.
The format feels artificial. Nobody in the real world writes five-paragraph essays with a thesis statement, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion that “restates the thesis in different words.” Yet students spend years being drilled on this structure. It’s like learning to paint but only being allowed to paint inside pre-drawn lines.
Citation anxiety is real. MLA? APA? Chicago? When did documenting sources become harder than the actual research? Students spend more time formatting their Works Cited page than developing their arguments.
What The Data Shows
Recent surveys from the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 27% of high school seniors are proficient in writing. That means nearly three-quarters of students entering college already feel behind. Stanford researchers in 2023 noted that student anxiety around academic writing has increased 34% since 2019.
The numbers tell an uncomfortable story about how we teach writing versus how students actually learn.
| Common Essay Obstacles | % of Students Affected |
| Starting the introduction | 68% |
| Finding credible sources | 52% |
| Managing time effectively | 71% |
| Overcoming procrastination | 64% |
Source: National College Writing Assessment, 2024
The Speed Trap
Students constantly search for college essay writing tips or strategies on how to write essays faster, and in moments of extreme overload may look for a KingEssays dissertation writer because time is the real enemy. Not lack of intelligence. Not poor writing ability necessarily. Just pure time scarcity.
Think about it. A well-researched essay requires reading sources, taking notes, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, and formatting. That’s easily 15-20 hours for a solid paper. Multiply that by multiple classes assigning papers simultaneously and you’re looking at a 60-hour work week just for essays. While also attending lectures, doing problem sets, studying for exams.
Something has to give. Usually it’s quality, sleep, or mental health. Sometimes all three.
The Anxiety Factor
The need to overcome essay writing anxiety has become its own mini-industry. Writing centers at universities report record numbers of students seeking help not because they can’t write, but because they freeze up when they try. Harvard’s Bureau of Study Counsel notes that writing anxiety often stems from high-stakes assessment culture where one bad essay can tank your entire grade.
When the consequences feel that severe, the brain goes into fight-or-flight mode. Writing becomes associated with stress, judgment, and failure. No wonder students hate it.
Where This Leaves Us
Maybe the hatred isn’t really about writing itself. It’s about a system that asks too much in too little time with too few supports. Students aren’t wrong for feeling overwhelmed. They’re responding rationally to irrational expectations.
The students who figure out how to navigate this system, whether through better time management, utilizing writing centers, or just accepting imperfection, don’t necessarily love essay writing. They just develop a tolerable relationship with something that will never feel natural.
And perhaps that’s the real lesson nobody teaches. Writing essays doesn’t have to be enjoyable. It just has to get done. That’s not inspiring, but it’s honest. Sometimes surviving the requirement is success enough.
