The eNotes Blog Step Into Our EssayLab

Step Into Our EssayLab Looking for help on your latest essay or term paper? Essay Lab is designed to cater to your every writing need. Search our list of tips to tackle the most common essay hurdles, or ask a question of our educators to receive specific help with your prompt, outline, or latest draft. Its all explained in depth below! For many of you, midterms are approaching, which means so are the essays and term papers. If you struggle with writing it can be hard to get the specific help you need, especially from the comfort of your own home. Tutors are expensive, and teachers are often too busy to offer the one-on-one help you need when writing or proofing essay drafts.  But at weve got you covered. With our new and improved  Essay Lab  you can browse the most important writing tips for free, plus ask questions tailored to your very own essay using our  Homework Help  service. Let us walk you through this area of and show how it can help you to study smarter: First, find the Essay Lab section at  this link, or by searching   Study Guides  via the navigation bar at the top of every page. On the Essay Lab home page, youll see a list of our most popular essay writing topics. Each section is further broken down into step-by-step tips under the topics of How to Write an Introduction, How to Write a Compare-Contrast Essay, How to Write an SAT Essay and many more. You can use these tips to self-correct the way you go about writing each kind of essay. For assistance catered to your essay alone, head to the Essay Labs  Homework Help  area to talk with staff of expert educators. educators are teachers and professors themselves; who could be better to provide feedback on your first draft, or assistance with forming a thesis statement or essay outline? Just take a look at some of our recommended questions and answers  here  to see for yourself. You can browse hundreds of answered questions for free any time, or post your own question and decide how much to pay for an expert answer. Many students post a first draft of their essay in a question to receive detailed proofreading and constructive criticism. Having that second pair of eyes- especially an expert set of eyes- on your paper can be a vital step to receiving the grade you want. Were making magic in the Essay Lab. Ready to step inside? Check it out at this link today.

Letting Your Challenges Define Youâ€Finding Your Niche

Letting Your Challenges Define You- Finding Your Niche I had every reason not to write. With all three of my kids having major disabilities, my life was about plate-spinning and hoping that my plates would not all come crashing onto the floor- at least, not all at once. I felt sorry for myself- for leaving teaching to play caregiver, and for quitting on the writing I loved. But, helping my kids was my callingand yet, also a challenge that stopped my career and defined who I was. Caregiver. Not writer. Sure, I wrote some lessons for their teachers. I had my teaching credential and a masters in educational curriculum development. Why not? But, mostly, I just volunteered. My kids are now 20-something; only my son has launched. Both of my girls still need help with crisis-management and life skills. It seemed like my life was all about helping kids navigate theirs. There was no room for a writing career. Until the day, twelve years ago, my sons teacher asked me for help. Federal law mandates schools teach transition skills to students with special needs. Students need to learn how to adultfrom cooking and cleaning, to finding and keeping a job. What she found was either too-print-rich or too ba It felt good. Here was a project I could do while my kids were asleep. It was creative and needed. Â  It was almost like Id been training my whole life to write this work. It took off. First, I sold hard copies to local teachers. Word spread. Soon, teachers wanted new topics for different populations- kids who needed basic life skills, kids on the autism spectrum, kids who were in workability programs- and Daily Living Skills emerged. As sales grew, I submitted to educational publishers. They rejected me because my niche market was too small. I continued to self-publish. I joined Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT). They sell digital lessons During this time, Hope wrote about a call for submissions from Chicken Soup for the Soul in Funds for Writers. I wrote about the miracles of life with special needs kids. Im now a regular author for them. Â  I soon added a bi-weekly column about parenting special needs teens on HealthyPlace.com. I began speaking at conferences and developed a following. A new family crisis inspired me to write a novel about a bipolar teen finding the hero within herself. The Edge of Brilliance was my first YA novel, published Ironically, I now write every chance I get. I speak at conferences and post on blogs, my articles appear in magazines all over the country and books on a regular basis, Ive published one novel and am working on another, and Im considered an expert in my field. I do this while still staying home as a caregiver for my daughters and helping them navigate the last steps of transition. And yet, I am a writerbecause I let my challenges define my niche. Links: www.susantraugh.com www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Susan-Traugh www.teacherspayteachers.com https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/author/straugh https://www.facebook.com/transition2life.dailylivingskills/ susan.traugh@gmail.com