I usually can get my point across easily on online forums yet struggle a lot with academic essays even if i understand the issues/text etc. very well and have a very good idea of what I want to say (so it's not lack of interest). It gives me a major guilt trip because theoretically, if you can easily go off on a tangent and rattle of a few paragraphs on a forum, you darn well should be able to sit down and write an essay.
I notice many people can express their thoughts concisely and succinctly on online forums like here, yet report having difficulty writing academic essays. What's the difference? Do you think there is a difference?

Because here, we're people on the other side of the screen.

For class.. you have a professor/teacher... and other students listening to you if it's read in class.

The anonymity of online gives you a safe haven.

What if you tried writing your essay, as if you were writing it to us?

Ive tried tricking myself by telling myself I'm writing to an old friend or something, but somehow it doesn't quite work. This whole thing is as ridiculous as writing a novel on being unable to write a novel. I have thought of stopping writing/arguing on forums altogether just to assuage my guilt about being given extension after extension because it feels like i'm cheating the professors, because I obviously have the capacity/ability to write. Which of course doesn't solve the problem, but yeah. It just seems such a simple, straightforward thing to do and yet in an academic context it just goes to pieces.

I believe the main difference is the style of writing and the order needed to make it work.

The most evil tool invented for writing essays is sources, I just can't stand having to stifle my creativity to stick in a source about a certain text when they don't actually add anything to my essay just because I must have a minimum amount of sources.

In my experience, creativity is actually a problem when trying to write essays for 1st degree classes, they care more about how you write then what you write about and make a point of telling you that, offer to write a paper about a new theory you have which has nothing to do with any sources and it won't get passed the one teacher comitee.

The second frustrating tool is having to have a beggining paragraph which is structured in a certain way and an ending which is the same, there is nothing I hate more then repeating myself and it forces you to do that, you never know if you have to include sources in that opening paragraph and it's just annoying, it feels like empty filler.

Also you are expected to use Academic language, which is actually quite vague which pretty much makes you overanalyze every sentance you write to try and understand if the language used is good enough for the teacher in question, or will she randomly take off points because you didn't write in third person or forgot to write a comma somewhere.

I try to lay out my general plan, as if looking at it from a very high altitude. Next is just cut the general plan in a few big chunks. Then I can dig in the details of every chunk, in the order I wish. I am then sure I won't miss any point.

Writing it this forum is like laying out your ideas in one small chunk, without a need for a higher structure. I think this is why it is easy.

The focus we put on something can be on two opposite side: detailed or general. Switching to the right one and get the right balance is the goal we must achieve. Having ADD is not helping us doing it, but our ability to think outside of the box sometime help get the general idea.

I tend to agree with tazoz... Essay writing is a different writings style than forum writing with different expectations. If you're already a pretty effective written communicator, posting an educated post on a forum might not be a large jump to writing a formal essay, but there are still quite a few differences.

I think one of the biggest things comes with citing sources... On a forum, there isn't the same level of requirement to citing sources. If you heard X was true from somewhere, but couldn't remember where, things are informal enough to say "I heard X was true" and not really have anyone question or harshly judge you as to where you heard that from. Wheras, if you heard "X was true" and you were trying to write a formal report about it, you better know where you found that out if it wasn't common knowledge.

That's funny, because I've never had problems with writing. I think that posting on web forums and chatrooms for a long time have helped develop my writing skills. I've gotten an A in every english/writing class in college, all the way to my upper division writing class.

Just write what you want to the way you want to, let it sit for a day or so, then go back and edit it the following day.

I teach college and I have noticed the same "gap" myself. In fact, I have concluded that writing for professors is simply the worst condition under which to write an essay.

Just for kicks, I once had my students write a short summary of a project on their facebook pages .... and I read them. Those short writings were blisteringly good! ... Funny, sharp. to the point.

More and more, I'm thinking that this gap shows that there is a flaw in the structure of college education. Or let me put it this way: I think young people these days simply write better under "real world" conditions than they do when writing for a professor and a grade.

I've talked to colleagues about this and we're still trying to sort it out and figure out what to do ... I'm starting to think I'm going to have students put more and more of their work on the web. In fact, I've already started some classroom "discussions" on a forum similar to the layout of this one.

Anyway, you are not imagining things when you notice how relaxed you are on the forum and how stiff you get when writing an essay. Most students (hell a lot of faculty) have the same problem. Now we need to figure it out to undo it.

Thanks for all the replies guys!

On another note, I just don't know how to justify my problem... it's a real problem because I end up being WEEKS late... but if it's rooted in formal/informal settings which it seems to be I don't understand how the difference can be so great. The traffic jam that just piles up in my brain despite notes, trying to structure it, mindmaps blah blah blah is just crazy. My profs have been far too kind with me, they've been letting me off the hook but I still that despite it being so difficult, it shouldn't be and I'm just being an idiot complicating things for myself..

Lurker,
You are NOT being an idiot. One of the problems we adhd'ers have is a low ability to prioritize and execute. We can "intellectually" know a deadline is approaching--so that part of the brain works.

But the part of the brain that should help us execute the next step--hey, if it's due Friday, I need this much done by Tuesday and this much by Wednesday and so I'm gonna have to not do this and this--that part of the brain does not work so well.

Probably what's happening is that writing here end-runs all the confusion of the above. You also might have some perfectionism going on that is creating, as you describe it, a traffic jam in your head. Expecting papers to be perfect or even good on first draft is just entirely unrealistic.

But I hope you can be more gentle with yourself--the only way you're going to be able to "fix" this problem or minimize it is to relax and let your brain think creatively about solutions. Also, you need to start asking for more help and help earlier on. Forget the embarrassment involved in this. You cannot solve this problem overnight or with willpower. Sorry. We've all tried that.

Calling yourself names and criticizing yourself is actually only going to add more cars and accidents to the existing traffic jam in your head.

I understand the frustration, but I just want to say you are not willfully doing this. There is nothing "wrong with you." It's just that you need to figure out how to work with the brain you have. And that's hard because very few people have our type of brain. It takes time, but it can be done.