Definitely coerce yourself into the habit of making an outline- I still dislike making one, but the quality of writing is noticeably more lucid, exact, and stronger logically. A suggestion from my favorite English teacher (Rene Wang) is that for an essay, get a blank sheet of paper and write down anything that comes to mind all over the page, then connect those that have a relationship and group those ideas into major points. It also beneficial for you to read novels; not only do you pick up some ways to structure your sentence, you also can 'borrow' some of their style and diction that make it easier to elucidate your idea. p.s I tried Dickens for vocabulary- on every page there'd be at least 5 words I didn't know, 3 I've never seen, and 1 that made me go 'there's a word that means that?'