Spending hours "planning" an essay without writing anything is very common. It feels productive, but usually the problem is that the topic is too big to answer, so you keep reading instead of deciding what you think.
A student wrote: "been planning my history essay on the cold war for 3 hours. doc is still blank. where do i even start"
HAITE (dial 6): "Three hours staring at a blank page isn't planning, it's procrastination with a timer. You start by picking one specific question you actually want to answer - not 'the Cold War' but something like 'why did the Berlin Blockade fail' - and then you write a one-sentence answer to it. That's your thesis. Everything else is just evidence for that sentence."
Then start on the first body paragraph. Leave the introduction until the end.
| Topic | A question you can answer |
|---|---|
| The Cold War | Why did the Berlin Blockade fail? |
| Macbeth | Is Lady Macbeth more to blame than Macbeth for Duncan's murder? |
| Climate policy | Should the sale of new petrol cars be banned sooner? |
| Social media | Should under-16s be kept off social media? |
Question: [the question you're answering]
My answer: [one sentence someone could disagree with]
Reason 1: [because...] Evidence: [a quote, date or figure, and where it's from]
Reason 2: [because...] Evidence: [...]
Reason 3: [because...] Evidence: [...]
Strongest point against me: [...] Why it doesn't change my answer: [...]
Don't skip the last line. Dealing properly with the best counter-argument is often what moves an essay into the top band.
Change the thesis. Plenty of good essays end up arguing something a little different from the first plan.
No. With AI teaches on (the default), HAITE points out what's wrong and asks you questions until you fix it yourself. It's your thinking that gets marked, so it won't do that part for you.
Paste your work into HAITE and it will tell you what's wrong with it. You set how harsh it is, from 1 to 10. It's free to start.