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Sleep and memory in university students

Students who don't sleep enough do worse in exams.

Make it more academic

Students who sleep less than recommended tend to achieve lower examination scores.

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A selected sentence and its more academic rewrite, from the example review on sleep and memory.

Does this sound like you?

You have done the reading but cannot get the first paragraph down.
How Papero helps: An outline from your essay question, with a prompt for every section.
Your sentences sound clunky and you are not sure how to fix them.
How Papero helps: Select a sentence to simplify, shorten, expand or make it more academic.
You need sources for your points and the deadline is close.
How Papero helps: Find papers for the sentence you are writing and cite them in your style.

The guide

How to write a strong academic essay

An essay is marked on your argument: a clear position, evidence for it and an honest look at the other side. The blank page is the first problem, and finding sources that back up your points is the second.

Tools that write the whole essay for you leave you with something you cannot defend in a seminar, and often with sources that do not exist. More and more universities ask you to say how you used AI.

What markers look for

An academic essay is marked on its argument: a clear position, good evidence for it, and an honest look at the strongest objection. Style matters, but a well-written essay with no argument still scores poorly.

That means the work starts before the writing. Decide what you think about the question and why, then build the essay so every paragraph moves that argument forward.

Three common essay types

The question usually tells you which one is expected.

ArgumentativeTakes a position and defends it against objections.
ExpositoryExplains a topic clearly, with evidence, without arguing a side.
Compare and contrastWeighs two ideas, texts or cases against each other.

Step by step

Question
Position
Evidence
Draft
Revise

Read the question carefully and underline what it asks you to do. Decide your position in one sentence: that is your thesis. Gather the evidence that supports it, and the best evidence against it.

Draft with one point per paragraph: make the point, give the evidence, explain how it supports your thesis and link to the next paragraph. Revise for argument first and for wording last.

Common mistakes

Avoid: Summarising instead of arguing
Do: Every paragraph should move your thesis forward
Avoid: Ignoring the other side
Do: Answer the strongest counterargument
Avoid: New points in the conclusion
Do: Pull the argument together and stop

A worked example

Worked example

Point: sleep loss harms learning more than students expect. Evidence: in one study, students who slept less scored lower in their exams (Okafor & Lindqvist, 2022). Explanation: memories are strengthened during sleep, so cutting it short undoes study time. Link: this matters most in exam weeks, when sleep is shortest.

Why it works: one point, one piece of evidence, and an explanation that ties it to the thesis. The study is illustrative: it is made up for our homepage example.

The usual way vs with Papero

The usual way: Stare at the question until the deadline gets close.

With Papero: Turn the question into an outline with a prompt for each section.

The usual way: Rewrite a clumsy sentence again and again.

With Papero: Select it and simplify, shorten or make it more academic.

The usual way: Hunt for a source after the paragraph is written.

With Papero: Find papers for the sentence while you write it.

How it works

Start from the question
Paste the essay question, pick a citation style and get headings with a prompt for each.
Write with suggestions
Papero offers the next sentence as you type. Accept it, take one word or keep writing your own.
Cite your points
Find papers for the sentence you are writing, or look one up by DOI, and cite it in place.
Polish and declare
Proofread the essay and insert an AI use statement if your course asks for one.

What you get

Outline from the question
Headings with a prompt for every section, from a short description of the essay.
Rewrite
Simplify, shorten, expand, make academic or fix the grammar of a selected sentence, or give your own instruction.
Citations
In-text citations in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard or IEEE on every plan; the full reference list is readable and exportable on Plus.
Proofread and AI use statement
Spelling, grammar, punctuation and clarity fixes, and a short paragraph declaring the AI help you used.

Where Papero stops

Papero drafts only from your outline and section prompts, one section at a time, and every sentence is yours to accept, change or delete. The argument and the final wording are yours.

Who it is for

Students

Learn more

Questions people ask first

Will Papero write my essay for me?

Not in one click. It suggests sentences as you write and can draft a section from your outline's prompt, but you choose what stays. Your argument, your sources and your final wording are what get marked.

Is using Papero cheating?

Using AI for planning, wording and references is allowed on many courses and banned on some. Check your course rules. Papero can insert a short AI use statement so you can declare the help you used.

Can it find sources for my essay?

Yes. One click finds papers for the sentence you are writing, from a catalogue of 250M+ scholarly works, and you can cite them in your style.

Is there a free plan for students?

Yes. Outlines, suggestions (30 accepted a day), rewrites and in-text citations work on Free. Plus costs 12 a month or 96 a year and makes the reference list readable and exportable.

Which citation styles are there?

APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard and IEEE.

What makes a good thesis statement?

One sentence that takes a position someone could disagree with, and that the rest of the essay can support. If it only describes the topic, it is not a thesis yet.

How should an essay be structured?

An introduction ending in your thesis, body paragraphs that each make one point with evidence, a fair look at the strongest counterargument, and a conclusion that pulls it together without new points.

How many sources should an essay have?

Follow the brief. In general, cite a source for every claim that is not common knowledge, and prefer a few strong scholarly sources to many weak ones.

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