Structure of a paper

The last time I wrote something that took time and effort and it was not assigned in class was when I answered the essay question for the application form to get into BGSU. I chose to write about how living in Europe these last seven years has affected my perspective on life and me as a person. I did not do anything before I started writing my essay. I usually just plan out a short outline of just some ideas about what I have to write in the paper and then start writing. But for this assignment I just choose to start writing and to keep reading over my work and changing things until I was content. S...