Author:
Randy Alexander
Date Of Creation:
4 April 2021
Update Date:
1 July 2024
Content
Sometimes you need to be able to write a good essay in a short amount of time such as on an exam and with limited time, such as the High School Advanced Placement Exam. Or in another case when you find yourself in a difficult situation is forced to write a quick essay because you delayed writing earlier or when writing time is rushing. Although an essay written at the last minute will almost never be as good as an essay you spend more time on, it is still possible to write an essay properly and quickly. With a little planning and diligence, you can write a good essay (or good enough!) In just a short amount of time.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Prepare your essay
Planning. Consider how much time you need to write your essay and develop a time-based plan. It will help you figure out how long you need to take each part of the writing process, and will keep up with the progress.- Be honest with your strengths and weaknesses when making a plan. For example, if you're good at research but not good at editing, spend less time on research and prioritize spending more time editing.
- Make sure to take some time off to relax your mind and recharge.
- An example plan for a one-day essay writing plan is as follows:
- 8:00 - 9:30 - Ponder question and argument point on the topic of the writing.
- 9:30 - 9:45 - Break time.
- 10:00 - 12:00 - Conduct research, seek information.
- 12:00 - 13:00 - Set up an outline.
- 13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch break.
- 14:00 - 19:00 - Essay writing.
- 19:00 - 20:00 - Dinner break.
- 20:00 - 22:30 - Edit essay.
- 22:30 - 23:00 - Print and prepare to submit.
Think about the question essay. You may know the topic of an essay when your teacher gives it to you, but even if you don't know the topic, first think about a different question and reasoning about the topic. This preliminary brainstorming step will guide the appropriate research, it helps the writing process faster.- Make sure you understand what the question is asking for! If you write a summary while your essay requires "analysis," you will go wrong.
- If you don't have an essay topic, choose one that interests you and consider the essay question afterwards. You tend to write a good essay on a topic that interests you.
Develop a thesis statement or standpoint. The statement expressing your argument or stance is the main idea expressed in the whole essay through evidence and analysis. Develop your thesis to guide your research and make the writing process faster.- Without a lot of experience on your topic, it can be difficult to develop your argument. You can still review your argument and then use your research to support or refute the point you want to make.
- A good practice to help you quickly find your question and argument is to write "I am studying (choose a topic) because I want to know (what you want to know) to prove (this is where the argument of you develop) ”.
- For example, "I am researching medieval witch trials because I want to know how lawyers applied evidence in their cases to see that the defense process influenced Medical technology and legal practice of modern times ”.
- Examine the critical arguments to reinforce your essay.
Study essay topic. You will need to have a topic research strategy to find evidence that can help you build your argument and form an outline for your essay. There are many different resources you can use for your research, from online journals and journals to the primary source at the library.
- Since you don't have much time to write, focus on just one or two places where you can find information. The library and the Internet, for example, provide a variety of information resources.
- Be sure to use trustworthy sources of information, such as peer-reviewed journals, government websites, universities, newspapers and magazines written by experts.Do not use information from personal blogs, sources lack objectivity, sources do not guarantee expertise.
- You can use the information you know to speed up the research process. Simply find a (reliable!) Source to support your essay and include it in the resources section.
- Online preliminary research will help you find resources in libraries such as books and articles. It also helps you find resources from web pages that include other articles or research on the same topic.
- If you read a book, "read quickly" to find the main content of the book and switch to other sources. To "find out the essence" of a book, skim the introduction and conclusion and then choose a few details from the book to use as your reference.
- Note the research resource. This shows that you have done legitimate research on the topic while also showing respect for the person with whom you have consulted their ideas. This is especially important if you plan on using direct citations and will also help you add captions and bibliographic information to your essay without having to re-search for that information from multiple sources.
Write an outline for your essay. Develop an outline of the essay to guide you through the writing process. By creating the right outline for your essay and getting more evidence, you will simplify and speed up the writing process. You will also be able to identify areas that are not good for improvement.
- Outline your essay's structure, with introduction, body, and conclusion.
- The more detailed your outline, the faster and easier your essay writing will be. For example, instead of just writing the basic content of a body paragraph, you can add content with some arguments or sentences representing your position and argument as bullet points.
Part 2 of 3: Write essays with no time limit
Limit a fixed amount of time to write. Giving a specific amount of time helps you write faster because it puts pressure on you to do it. Set up your study environment so that nothing distracts you during this time and let yourself write freely and comfortably.
- If you go online or watch cartoons for eight hours in a row, you won't be able to finish your essay on time. Turn off the TV, set your phone to silent, exit Facebook and other social media / online chat sites.
- Make sure you have all your documents nearby when you start writing. Looking for a book or a piece of paper or a snack is going to take up precious time.
Write a compelling introduction. The opener task does exactly as it sounds: explaining to the reader what you are going to say in the essay. The introduction should grab the reader's attention and convince them to read the rest of the essay.
- The most important part of your introduction is your thesis statement or position. This allows the reader to understand the main points you make in the essay.
- Write a "bait" to get the reader's attention at the beginning, then introduce some of the topic-related arguments to guide the story. mine.
- An example of a bait is, "People say that Napoleon was massive because of his size, but he actually had an average height during his time."
- Sometimes it can be helpful to write your introduction after you've written your body, because at that time you know how to best cover your topic and thesis.
- One rule to master is not to write an essay that is more than 10% in length. Therefore, for a 5 page essay you should not write an opening article longer than one paragraph.
Write the body of your essay. The body of the essay will contain supporting ideas for the thesis statement or stance stated in the opening. Analyze 2-3 main points to reinforce your argument and add more words to your essay.
- Pick 2-3 main points to state your argument or position. If the number of main ideas is less, the evidence will not be enough to support the point, and the more main points may prevent you from implementing each idea thoroughly and deeply.
- Use evidence to support main points concisely. You will be wasting your precious time giving too many rambling facts.
- Support your main points with evidence gathered during your research. Sure you will explain how your evidence supports your point!
- If the article does not have enough word, choose a main point and do more research on it to expand your ideas.
Write as clearly as possible. If you are writing fast, write simple sentences without complicated grammatical structures. This also reduces the likelihood of misused jargons.
- Avoid using language prolix when writing. Text that includes long prepositions, passive verbs, and passages that don't make your point of view are a waste of time that should be used to better re-read or correct the essay.
Allow yourself to "write freely" to make the most of your time. It's easier to compose text and then edit it than it is to have nothing to write. Just let yourself write freely, you can rest assured that you will have the outline for editing.
- Freelance writing can also help you overcome many of the obstacles many writers face when they don't know it way to express something. If you are struggling with how to express an idea, write as freely as you want and then come back to edit later.
Write the conclusion of the essay. Like the opening, the ending does exactly what its name suggests: the end of the essay. It summarizes the arguments and leaves the reader with a strong impression of the essay.
- The conclusion should be relatively short. The goal is to make up about 5-10% of the essay's total length.
- Try to write your conclusion more effectively than just reaffirm your argument and evidence mentioned in the previous section. You can acknowledge the limitations of your argument, and suggest a direction for future research, or extend the topic's relevance to a broader field.
- Just like you captivated your readers with an interesting opening, end your essay with a sentence that makes a lasting impression on them.
Review and read the essay carefully. Essay is not considered good when there are some errors. Correcting and rereading will ensure that the essay you write quickly is free of any obvious errors. At the same time rereading and revising will help you leave a good impression on your readers.
- Read the entire essay again. Make sure you are still sticking to the content of the argument, agreeing it from start to finish. If not, you should reconsider and revise your thesis.
- Make sure your paragraphs are linked together and don't feel cluttered. You can use transitions and outstanding topic sentences to make connections between your paragraphs.
- Spelling and grammar are the most common mistakes and need corrections, but you will leave a bad impression on your readers if you don't correct them.
Part 3 of 3: Writing essays with limited time
Planning. Even if you only have a few hours to write your essay, taking some time to create a quick plan will help you perform at your best.
- Read the request carefully! If the question asks you to write about an argument, stick to it. For example, if the topic requires an evaluation of the events leading to the fall of the Roman empire, do not just give a summary of Roman history.
- Draw an idea map. You may not have time to write a formal outline. However, you should have ideas for the main points you want to write about and how they relate to the essay's layout. If you can't figure out how to connect key points, it's a sign that you need to think a little more before you start writing.
- Find your thesis. Once you have recorded some of the key points, think about what you want to write about them.Even time-limited essays need a unified stance or argument.
Limit your writing time strategically. If you have to answer more than one essay question in a given period of time, make sure you have enough time to write all of them. It is also a good idea to check the score values for each essay question.
- For example, you would not want to spend the same amount of time and effort on an essay question with 3 paragraphs accounting for 20% of the score and questions with 2 essay pages with 60% score,
- It's also a good idea to deal with a question that you find difficult to deal with. This way you can get rid of the problems when your mind is clear.
Cut out long sentences. This is a very common mistake, students will only write down their real ideas after writing a general meaningless overview. Especially in the essay is limited in time, it is extremely important to directly express the main content and give evidence for it. Spending too much time on your introduction will leave you with only a little time to write for the next one.
- If you find that your introduction describes something too broad or general, such as "Throughout history, people have been fascinated by science," cut it out.
- Don't write anything that does not support your point of view. If you're talking about the importance of religious beliefs in modern society, don't undermine your argument by adding references to Hollywood or a banana farm.
Explain links between evidence and opinions. A common problem with essays, especially those that are put under pressure, is that students often come up with evidence without explaining how it connects to a given opinion. Make sure you follow the following formula for the paragraphs: "C-E-E" (Claim / Viewpoint - Evidence / Evidence-Explaination / Explain):
- Opinion. This is the main point of the passage. It is probably in the topic sentence.
- Quote. This is the supporting detail to justify your point.
- Explain. It helps to connect evidence with your point of view and explain why the evidence supports what you think is right.
- If there is a point in the paragraph that does not match any of these three factors, it is a sign that you do not need that point in the paragraph.
Spend time editing. Even in time-limited situations, you still need some time to edit. This means you need to do more than correct spelling and other minor errors. Read the entire essay again.
- Does the essay really support and support your main point? It's also common for ideas not to appear when you write. If this happens, revise your thesis accordingly.
- Are the paragraphs coherent and smooth? Time-limited essays don't have the same standards as regular essays, but readers can still understand your thesis in a logical sequence without feeling confused or confusing.
- Do you have a summary that summarizes your thesis? Avoid leaving your essay unfinished without a conclusion. Even if it is very concise, the conclusion will bring a sense of completeness to the essay.
Advice
- Matching words like "more", "indeed", and "fact" can help the flow of text flow more smoothly.
- Don't write too many rambling essays. The reader wants you to get straight to the point as soon as possible.
- When starting a new paragraph, remember to indent the line.
