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4 Ways to Write Essays Faster

Life happens, and sometimes you forget to plan for an essay. All of a sudden it’s a couple of days before the deadline and you’re trying to figure out a way to get this essay done. If you’re in this situation, here are a few ways you can write that essay by the due date.

1. Write What You Know

If you’re stuck staring at a blank page with the time ticking down, the easiest way to put something to the page is to write what you already know about. Not only will it be the ideas and concepts you’re most familiar with so the essay will be accurate, but you’ll likely have a lot to say without having to do a lot of research versus something you’re not as knowledgeable about. And you’ll end up writing a lot of content quickly as well, so the more you know off the top of your head about the topic, the easier it’ll be.

But even if you don’t know about the topic or not enough to write most of an essay, some quick research can set you on the right track. If you’re writing on something that’s been well-researched or written about beforehand, a short 15 or 30-minute research session can give you a great resource for any topics you might want to go into and help you write down a few notes to include in your paper. Another way you can get an essay written by knowledgeable people is to work with an essay writing service Reddit users recommend, as they’ve likely been in your shoes and can help you decide the best service to write your paper.

2. Don’t Start From the Intro

Many students and even professional writers struggle with figuring out where and how to start their essays, no matter how long they’ve been writing. But if you’ve been assigned a certain topic or know you have a specific point or idea that you want to prove or get across, a great way to get started is to start not from the beginning, but at the end. It might seem counterproductive, but you’ll have a much better time working backward and putting all your focus on proving your point or explaining your perspective.

Or if you’re not sure what the ending of your essay or paper should be, writing the first sentences of the ideas you’re going over may give you the inspiration to get started and work from there. That way you’ll have covered what you want and can properly introduce or conclude the paper.

3. Make an Outline

If you’ve got a lot to cover or there are a lot of specifics you need to get into, writing an outline will be a big help. Not only will you have a better idea of where you’ll need to spend your time if you know the essay will cover a lot of ground and you have to insert information from your notes or research, but you can go ahead and knock out the paragraphs that’ll be easier to write.

An outline can also help you start each paragraph off on the right foot. When you’re outlining you shouldn’t just think about the basic idea, but plan out what the rest of the paragraph will cover. Drum up a couple of sentences to go along with it that summarizes the main point, how it connects to the rest of the essay, and any evidence that you’ll need to have.

4. Lose the Distractions

One of the easiest ways to lose time when you’re writing is to get distracted. You’ll end up spending more time looking at your phone or listening to music than actually writing the essay. But if you’re a big fan of technology, you can use a distraction blocker that locks you out of other websites and apps like social media and video players that aren’t relevant to your paper.

These can take a lot of forms but they’re all designed around the concept of either completely blocking or making it obvious if you do visit one of these sites or apps that you should be working instead.

The second is to do it the old-fashioned way and put your other electronics or potential time-wasters far away enough that you won’t be tempted to reach for them. While this requires a bit more willpower on your part, it can be a useful method if you need to go to a variety of websites for your research.

Get That Essay Done

Writing an essay is a large undertaking on its own, and adding a close deadline can make it extra difficult. But if you follow these tips, you’ll have a better time sitting down and getting to work on your paper without dreading that close due date. And even if you’re not writing close to the deadline you’ll be able to write your essays faster and get back to the other things in your life.

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How to Write a Timed Essay

Last Updated: August 10, 2021

This article was co-authored by Arash Fayz . Arash Fayz is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of LA Tutors 123, an academic consulting and private tutoring company based in Los Angeles, California. Arash has over 10 years of educational consulting experience, managing the tutoring of students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to score higher on standardized tests and gain admission to their target schools. He has a BA in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. This article has been viewed 21,683 times.

Whether it be in a class or for a standardized test, students are often required to write a timed essay. Writing a timed essay is as much about organization and time management as it is about the quality of writing. Visit Step 1 to get started.

Divide Up Your Time

Step 1 Figure out how much time you have.

  • Make sure the prompts wants you to write an essay and not just a simple short answer that could consist of a few sentences to one full paragraph.
  • Pick a position/argument to organize your essay. Think in terms of the pros and cons of the arguments and what supporting details lead you to the facts you'd like to present in the essay.
  • Jot down an outline on some scrap paper
  • Write the essay based on the outline! Don't ever write without some notes and knowledge of the subject at hand.
  • Proofread your essay. No reader ever wants grammatical and spelling errors to be present.
  • Submit on time.

Step 2 Organize your time for a 30-minute timed essay.

  • Read and understand the prompt = 1.5 minutes
  • Pick a position = 1.5 minutes
  • Jot down an outline = 2 minutes
  • Write = 21 minutes
  • Revise = 3 minutes
  • Submit = 1 minute

Step 3 Break down your writing time per paragraph.

  • Introduction: 3 minutes
  • Paragraph 1: 6 minutes
  • Paragraph 2: 5 minutes
  • Paragraph 3: 5 minutes
  • Conclusion: 2 minutes

During the Essay

Step 1 Focus on your outline.

Proofreading the Essay

Step 1 Double check the essay to proofread it.

Submitting the Essay

Step 1 Recognize who the essay must be turned into.

Expert Q&A

Arash Fayz

  • Wear a wristwatch during your timed essay. Not every testing room will have a clock on the wall or a proctor who announces the time remaining at regular intervals. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Don't panic if you go over time on a particular section. You can make it up by going a little faster on the next section. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Pay special attention to the outlining at the beginning. If you have a solid structure and direction, the argument will seem focused and organized even if it has been written faster than you would do without a time limit. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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  • ↑ Arash Fayz. Test Prep Tutor. Expert Interview. 1 November 2019.

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9 Tips to Ace That Timed Essay

Exams are almost upon us, and a familiar sense of foreboding has settled over the campus. One exam element that can be particularly intimidating for some students is the timed essay: an exam question which demands a full essay on a topic that is typically revealed for the first time during the test. While these kinds of questions may seem scary, there are plenty of ways to make them easy for yourself. Read on for tips about how to prepare in advance of the exam and how to approach timed essays before, during, and after the writing process.

While Preparing for the Exam: Become familiar with the course content. If the professor hasn’t told you in advance what a timed essay prompt will be, it can be intimidating to think that you will have to write about a subject you’ve never seen before. However, this thinking process does not reflect the reality of the situation. In fact, even if your teacher hasn’t given you any hints about the essay question, you do know what it will be about: the concepts and ideas you’ve discussed in the course. Therefore, if you take the time to review your notes and ensure you understand everything that was discussed, it should be difficult for the essay question to catch you off guard. As soon as you read the question, relevant course concepts will start popping into your head, and you’ll just have to organize them into a coherent essay. Start planning if you can. Although the situation described above sometimes occurs, it’s also very common for professors to give their students a fairly detailed idea of what an essay question will involve in advance of the test day. (After all, professors want to mark high-quality essays written by well-prepared students!) This heads-up gives you a great chance to prepare for the exam. If you have the time, consider mapping out a possible essay in point form before the day of the exam arrives. Consider practicing writing under time pressure. You’ve probably written dozens of essays before--the only thing that sets a timed essay apart is that it’s timed. Students often struggle to complete the full essay within the time constraints, particularly if they have to write longhand when they’re accustomed to working on the computer. For this reason, it can be helpful to simulate the conditions of a timed exam before the actual day: pick a practice question, find some lined paper, set a stopwatch, and see how you do! Before You Start Writing: Read the question carefully. The most critical part of the essay-writing process actually happens before you write your first word. When you flip to the essay question, make sure you read it as carefully as you can, noting the difference between words such as ‘contrast’ and ‘analyze’ and highlighting any details which the professor specifically instructs you to include. It’s not uncommon for excellent essays to receive low marks because the student answered a question other than the one that was asked. Make a clear and specific plan. Some students react to the time pressure of essay exams by scribbling down their introduction as soon as they’ve read the question and figuring out their points as they go. While it might seem counter-intuitive, taking five or ten minutes before you start writing in order to draw up a plan will be an enormous time saver. Decide on your thesis, the topic of each paragraph, and the arguments which you intend to cover, then jot down some quick point-form notes. This process won’t take long, and, once you complete it, all that’s left will be to expand those notes into a well-organized essay. Without a clear plan, you run the risk of realizing partway through that you’ve drifted off topic or written yourself into a corner, and fixing these mistakes will consume a ton of extra time. Schedule a set time for each paragraph. On the topic of planning, it’s important to sketch out an idea of how long you want to spend on each section of your essay. (If you know the number of paragraphs you’ll need to write ahead of time, you can do this before the exam even starts!) Take note of the amount of time allotted for the exam and split it into reasonably-sized segments, leaving some time at the end for revision if possible. Without a schedule to follow, it’s easy to become too focused on a single paragraph and run out of time to finish the essay. While You’re Writing: Write clearly and double-space. This tip may seem basic, but it’s easy to forget and it can make a big difference. Both these measures won’t just make it easier for the marker to read your paper; they'll also help you write it. If you have time left at the end of the exam for review, having the ability to skim quickly through your work and write revisions in blank spaces will be incredibly helpful.

Keep yourself on schedule.  Remember the paragraph-based schedule we discussed above? It’ll be useless if you don’t do regular check-ins during the exam. Keep an eye on the clock to ensure you’re always on track. If you realize that you’re falling dangerously behind schedule, it might be necessary to cut some arguments or examples you planned to include. Although making these omissions can be painful, it’s better to leave out a few points from one section than to leave out an entire paragraph because you ran out of time. Don’t worry too much about editing and revision before you finish. When composing essays, many students stop and read over each paragraph once they finish it, making sure that it’s well-written and free of errors before advancing to the next one. This approach is entirely logical when there’s no time pressure involved, but it can actually work against you during an exam. Perfecting paragraphs is a time-consuming process, and, if you spend too much time editing before the essay is finished, you might have to rush through the last few sections or leave them out entirely. For this reason, it’s best to focus on producing a complete first draft before you worry about edits and revisions.

After You’ve Finished Writing: Re-read the question and ensure you’ve addressed all parts. The most important part of writing an essay exam is ensuring that you’re answering the question was posed. Even if you made sure you were interpreting everything correctly before you began, you may have forgotten to address a subquestion or integrate an example as you were writing. Before you submit, read the prompt again and make sure your completed essay matches up! Edit if you have time. If you have enough time left over, read your essay again and make corrections. When you’re working under time pressure, it’s easy to make grammar mistakes or produce hard-to-follow sentences; the final few minutes are your chance to clean up those errors. Unless if you finished way ahead of schedule, don’t worry about major revisions like reorganizing the structure of the essay--it’s better to hand in an essay with an imperfect structure than a paper that’s impossible to follow because you had to stop halfway through the revision process.

Remember to have the right perspective. Once you hand your exam to the professor, relax! It’s easy to work yourself up after an essay exam when you didn’t get the chance to read your work over or you feel like your arguments were weak. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your professor understands the circumstances under which the essay was written. They’re fully aware of the time pressure you were dealing with, and they will judge your work far differently than they would judge a typical essay with a deadline set weeks after the assignment date. If you did your best to write a complete, clear, and insightful essay within the time allotted, you should have nothing to worry about. Best of luck during the upcoming exam season!

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How to Write Faster

Last Updated: April 25, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Bryce Warwick, JD . Bryce Warwick is currently the President of Warwick Strategies, an organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area offering premium, personalized private tutoring for the GMAT, LSAT and GRE. Bryce has a JD from the George Washington University Law School. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,063,169 times.

If you want to improve your writing speed, there are several steps that you can take to improve your efficiency and get assignments done faster. First, you'll want to do all of your research and organize your thoughts in an outline form. From there, you can set realistic goals for yourself and continue to practice until you improve. If you're struggling with the act of writing with a pen and paper, you should make sure that you're comfortable and have the right writing tools. With the right amount of practice and repetition, you can improve your writing speed.

Improving Your Handwriting Speed

Step 1 Use a pen or pencil that doesn’t require you to press down hard.

  • A mechanical pencil requires less force to write with than a traditional pencil.
  • You can purchase a pencil or pen grip to make your writing tool thicker.

Tip: A gel pen may be easier to write with than a ballpoint pen.

Step 2 Hold the pen or pencil in a way that’s comfortable for you.

  • The traditional way to hold a pen or pencil is to support the pen in between your index finger and thumb while the pen rests on your middle finger.
  • Angling the paper in a different way may also feel more comfortable for you.

Step 3 Maintain good posture.

  • Whenever you feel yourself slouching, adjust your posture so you’re sitting correctly.
  • If your chair is too low or your desk is too high, you may need to purchase new furniture.

Note: Maintaining good posture is also beneficial for your back and hips.

Step 4 Use shorthand if you aren’t writing for an assignment.

  • Keep in mind that these shorthand methods aren’t known by everyone and can’t be used for assignments or on tests.
  • It may take several weeks or even months to master these shorthand methods.

Step 5 Keep practicing.

  • If you still aren't improving after trying everything, just talk to a teacher and see if they have any techniques that may help you.

Note: If your hand cramps up or you feel fatigued, take a break and come back to writing later.

Finishing Writing Assignments Quicker

Step 1 Determine the time of day that you’re most productive.

  • Even if you’re a night owl, you may still be more productive in the morning. Write during different parts of the day to see what works best for you.

Tip: You can write during your productive times and go back and edit your work during your less productive times.

Step 2 Write an outline for your assignment.

  • For example, the main points of your article could be something like, "Describing circuits" and "Powering Electronics." "Describing circuits" could include points like "Explaining a simple circuit" and "Completing a circuit."
  • Researching things in the middle of writing wastes valuable time.
  • Include your sources in your outline to save time, especially if you have to make citations later. If you’re using electronic sources, bookmark them on your computer. Include notes in your outline about how you’re going to use your sources and what information you hope to take from them.

Bryce Warwick, JD

Bryce Warwick, JD

Our Expert Agrees: You will write faster and easier when you know what to put down before you get started instead of making it up as you go along. If you have 30 minutes to write an essay, try giving yourself seven to eight minutes of planning time.

Step 3 Write your first draft quickly and revisit it for edits.

  • Wasting time on smaller details can drain time and make the entire writing process much longer.
  • If you find yourself stuck in a section, move past it and revisit it later with a fresh mind.

Step 4 Minimize the distractions around you.

  • Clearing the clutter off your writing desk may also minimize distractions and improve your efficiency.
  • If you can, put away your phone, tablet, or other devices you might be tempted to use to check social media or browse the web. You can also use productivity apps or extensions (like StayFocused) that temporarily cut off your access to time-wasting websites.

Step 5 Set realistic goals and deadlines for yourself.

  • Set incrementally higher goals for yourself rather than taking on too much too fast.
  • If you haven’t written a lot in the past, you won’t be able to write quickly without practice. However, once you practice writing a lot, you will be able to write at a quicker pace.
  • For instance, you can set a goal that you’ll have a certain number of pages or words completed within a day. If you’re still working on building speed, daily goals can feel more manageable than more short-term ones (such as hourly goals).

Step 6 Use a timer to help meet your goals.

  • Don’t let the timer stress you out. It’s merely there to remind you of how much time you’re spending on an assignment.

Tip: Take 3-5 minute breaks every 30 minutes to an hour so that you don’t burn yourself out.

Practice Exercises to Increase Writing Speed

how to write timed essays faster

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Express Anger in Writing

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • ↑ https://effectiviology.com/how-to-easily-improve-handwriting-speed/
  • ↑ https://omniglot.com/writing/shorthand.htm
  • ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-faster
  • ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/writingprocess/outlining
  • ↑ https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/chapter/8-4-revising-and-editing/
  • ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/faster-writer/

About This Article

Bryce Warwick, JD

To write faster by hand, use keywords instead of writing things word for word and use symbols like the plus sign, "@" symbol, and ampersand. Try learning a shorthand system and practice the techniques that work for you as much as possible. To write articles or essays more quickly, get all your research done first and create a rough outline. Focus on writing your ideas clearly and don't worry about making it sound perfect. Work somewhere you can concentrate and turn your phone off to minimize distractions. For tips on staying on track and more shorthand techniques, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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  • 20 Top Tips for Writing an Essay in a Hurry

how to write timed essays faster

In an ideal situation, you’d have all the time in the world to write a great essay, but sadly it doesn’t always work out that way. There will always be times when you’re required to write an essay uncomfortably quickly, whether because of a tight deadline imposed by a teacher, or because you’ve been so busy that the essay has ended up being put off until the last minute. However, it is possible to produce a good piece of work even when very pushed for time, and in this article, we’re going to show you how.

1. Adopt the right mindset

Before you start writing, it’s crucial to get yourself into the right mindset. You may be experiencing feelings of panic, feeling as though you don’t have enough time and you can’t do it. You may feel defeated before you’ve even begun. To be successful, however, you will need to banish these negative feelings . It’s vital to be positive, to try to relish the challenge, and to adopt a ‘can-do’ attitude. If it helps, imagine it’s a battle that you’re going to win. Give yourself a pep talk, and keep the end goal in mind: you’re going to do a great job and impress your teacher. You’re going to prove to yourself that you can take on this challenge, enjoy it, and write an essay in record time. Take a deep breath, remain calm, and start to attack the work systematically and logically.

2. Switch off your phone and social networks

The last thing you need when you only have a couple of hours to write an essay is to get distracted by your phone or social networks, which have a habit of eating away at your time without you even realising. Procrastination isn’t an option at this late stage, so it’s time to ban yourself from your phone, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, iPlayer, YouTube, and anything else you think might distract you. Sit somewhere quiet and put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. If it helps, install a full-screen text editor onto your computer, such as Darkroom , to force yourself to look at your essay and only your essay. You can also get browser apps that keep you off social networks for a time period of your choosing.

3. Type your essay rather than handwriting it

Most young people these days type faster than they write by hand, so unless you’ve been told that you must handwrite your essay, type it. This will make it much easier to edit what you’ve written and change things around, and you’ll be able to get more words in through typing quickly. It’s probably also going to be easier for your teacher to read a typed document than your handwriting, and you won’t suffer an achy arm that could slow you down, so that’s an added bonus.

4. Read the question carefully

When you’re in a rush, it can be easy to skim over the question and think you’ve understood it – only for you to realise, after writing most of the essay, that you got the wrong end of the stick and it’s too late to change it. This is particularly hazardous when you’re under pressure, because your brain has a tendency to see what it wants to see; it may tell you that the title is asking a question that you want to answer , while the reality might be subtly but crucially different. So, start by reading the question very carefully and ensuring you’ve completely understood what it’s asking you to do. If it helps, underline key instructional words in the title, such as “compare” or “analyse”. This forces your mind to focus on the right kind of task, so you write the essay with this in mind.

5. Get your books ready

Prepare your workspace by opening the books you’ll need to use on relevant pages, or putting Post-It notes in them to mark where relevant information is. This means you won’t have to keep wasting precious time hunting through books to find the information each time you need to refer to it.

6. Sum up your argument in a sentence

To get yourself thinking clearly about what you’re going to be writing, see if you can sum up what your argument is going to be in a single sentence – a bit like an ‘ elevator pitch ’. If you can’t do this, the chances are that you don’t quite know what you want to say, with the result that you may end up waffling in your essay, thereby wasting valuable time. It’s important to set out with a clear idea of what your argument is, because then everything you write subsequently will be working towards the goal of getting this particular argument across. Of course, don’t spend too long on this and end up with not enough time to write the actual essay!

7. Write your notes directly into the document

When you’re in a hurry, your notes can double up as an essay plan, killing two birds with one stone. Start by typing your essay notes directly into the document you’ve created for your essay. This could be bullet points or one-sentence summaries of what you want to write in each paragraph. For each point, also include a line or two on what evidence you’re going to use in support. Once you’ve done this, organise the notes into a sensible structure by dragging and dropping paragraphs into an order you think works. This becomes your detailed essay plan.

8. Then rewrite your notes into an essay with an argument

You now have the outline of your essay in note form. You can now turn your notes into an essay by rewriting them into academic prose, complete with ‘filler’ sentences that glue it all together and help build your argument.

9. Save the introduction and conclusion for last

Perhaps surprisingly, the introduction and conclusion of an essay are often the hardest bits to write. So, save these for last. By the time you’ve written the body of the essay, the task of writing the introduction and a summarising conclusion should be much easier, as you’ll already have spent plenty of time on your argument and you’ll be very familiar with it.

10. Do the references as you go along

If you’re required to add references and a bibliography to your essay, do these as you go along to save time. Each time you quote someone, add in a footnote saying where the quote is from, and at the same time, copy and paste the details of the book into a bibliography at the end of your document.

11. Proofread as you go along

Save time on proofreading by checking over each sentence or paragraph for spelling, grammar and typos as you write it. When you’ve finished writing, it’s still worth having a quick final read through your essay for a sense check and to ensure that it flows well – but this should take less time now that you’ve already checked for errors.

12. Don’t be tempted to copy and paste

The internet is full of resources that probably exactly match what you’re going to be writing about, and when you’re in a hurry, there can be a strong temptation to copy and paste useful paragraphs into your essay. Don’t ever do this! Plagiarism is not only immoral, but it also means that you won’t learn the topic in as much depth – and the whole point of writing an essay is to consolidate what you’ve learned and prepare you adequately for future exams. Teachers can use Google too, and if they suspect that you’ve stolen someone else’s work by copying and pasting something off the internet, all they need to do is type one of ‘your’ sentences in Google and they’ll instantly find where you’ve got it from. It’s normally easy to spot copied work, because the style will be different from the rest of the essay. It’s just not worth the risk, as you’ll lose your teacher’s trust and this will probably be reflected in the quality of the reference they give you for university.

13. Try not to over-quote

A common tactic by students pushed for time is to use too many quotes – or very long passages – from other people (scholars, sources and so on) to bolster the word count and reduce the amount of writing they actually have to do themselves. Try to avoid doing this if you can; it’s a transparent tactic and shows that you haven’t fully mastered the subject yourself, so you have to resort to hiding behind the words of others. The vast majority of the writing in the essay should be your own. Short quotes here and there, accompanied by your commentary on them, are a good thing; lots of long quotes that take up much of the essay, with little explanation from you, are not.

14. Keep your style concise

You’re not going to have time for long-winded sentences, so keep your written style as concise as possible. There’s nothing wrong with being short and to the point in your sentences, providing it adequately conveys what you want the essay to convey. Being economical with words will ensure that you express yourself clearly as well as saving you time, so it’s a good idea all round.

15. Try a change of scene

If you’re struggling to concentrate on writing your essay in your normal work space, a change of scene might be just what you need to focus your mind. If you normally work at home, try heading to the library or a local coffee shop to see if you can work any better there. If you’re distracted by noise at home, try some noise-cancelling headphones or simply put some music on.

16. Take a break (but only if you feel you need one)

It sounds counterintuitive when you’re pushed for time, but taking short breaks from time to time will stop you running out of energy and keep you focused. If you have two hours to write the essay, for instance, take a break for five minutes after you’ve worked for an hour. That said, if you’re really ‘in the zone’ and working efficiently, and you don’t feel you need a break, just work straight through and take advantage of your spate of productivity for as long as it lasts.

17. Don’t bother with the usual tricks

Many students try to trick their teacher into thinking that their essay is longer than it really is by widening the margins, selecting a bigger font and using wider line spacing. Your teacher will see straight through this, and it might irritate them – so don’t bother!

18. It’s OK to use Google for quick research

While Google is no substitute for reading what you’ve been told to read, it can be useful for quick definitions or getting to grips with something you’re struggling with at the last minute. Don’t rely on it, by any means, but if you’re writing your essay and haven’t quite understood something in class, a quick Google search should enable you to acquire the level of understanding you need.

19. Keep hydrated and fed

Make sure you drink plenty of water while you’re writing, as this will help you stay alert. You may also want to equip yourself with some snacks to keep you going, as this can make the process of writing an essay more bearable as well as maintaining your energy levels.

20. Reward yourself

Give yourself something to look forward to once you’ve finished the essay, as this will help to motivate you to complete it. It could be a chocolate bar, the promise of watching an episode of your favourite television show, or an evening out with friends – anything that will provide sufficient incentive to get your essay finished. You’ve worked intensively and have a great essay to show for it, so you deserve a reward!

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Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)

Timed essays: top 5 tips for writing academic papers under pressure.

Jerz > Writing > Academic

If you’re facing a timed essay very soon, this handout offers some very basic, very quick tips.

  • Plan your time wisely .
  • Answer the  right question .
  • Collect your thoughts .
  • Leave time to  revise .
  • Revise your thesis statement before you turn in your paper, so it looks like the conclusion you stumbled across was the one you planned from the start. (This small step can often make a  huge difference.)

1. Plan your time wisely.

Timed Essays: 5 Tips for Writing Under Pressure

You can also plan your time during the test itself . Your professor knows which paragraphs are harder to write, and will evaluate them accordingly. Does the question ask you to “evaluate”? If so, don’t fill your page with a summary. Likewise, if the question asks for “evidence,” don’t spend all your time giving your own personal opinions.

  • Start with the larger essay questions, so that you answer them before you burn out or run out of time.
  • If one essay question is worth 50% of the test score, spend 50% of your time on it.
  • If you finish early, you can always go back and add more detail.   (As long as your additions and changes are legible, your instructor will probably be happy to see signs of revision.)

2) Answer the right question.

Before you begin your answer, you should be sure what the question is asking. I often grade a university composition competency test, and sometimes have to fail well-written papers that fail to address the assigned topic.

If the question asks you to “explain” a topic, then a paragraph that presents your personal opinion won’t be of much help. If the question asks you to present a specific example, then a paragraph that summarizes what “some people say” about the topic won’t be very useful.

3) Collect your thoughts.

Resist the urge to start churning out words immediately. If you are going to get anywhere in an essay, you need to know where you are going.

To avoid time-consuming false starts , jot down an outline, or draw a mind map, which is like a family tree for your thesis.  Start with the “trunk” (a circle in the center of your paper).  Draw lines that connect that central idea to main branches (circles that represent subtopics), and keep fanning out in that manner.   If one particular branch is fruitful, cut it off and make it a separate entity.

If a branch doesn’t bear fruit, prune it off.   You should identify and avoid the deadwood in advance — before you find yourself out on a limb.  (Sorry… I’ll try to leaf the puns alone… I wood knot want you to be board.)

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Get right to the point .  Don’t bury your best points under an avalanche of fluff.

The author of the above passage not only wastes time composing six sentences before getting to her thesis (the very last sentence), she also clouds the issue by bringing up topics (religion, music, and Communism) that she has no intention of ever mentioning again. She could have spent that time on more depth, or on proofreading, or even on some other section of the test. If she had at the very least crossed out the unnecessary introduction, she would not have mislead the instructor.

The revised example is simply the [slightly edited] last sentence of the original wordy and vague paragraph.  This clear, direct thesis statement helps the student focus on the communication task at hand. Too often, the only revision students do is crossing out their false starts, or explaining their way out of a corner by adding to the end of their essay.

4. Leave time to revise.

Note: simply tacking on additional paragraphs or inserting words is not revision (see: “ Revision vs. Editing “).

Sometimes, in the middle of a difficult paragraph, students will glance back at the question, and get a new idea. They will then hastily back out of their current paragraph, and provide a rough transition like: “But an even more important aspect is…”.  They continue in this manner, like a builder who keeps breaking down walls to add new wings onto a house.

  • To avoid this problem before it starts, see the previous tip, or this nifty handout on “ Blueprinting .”
  • To handle this problem when it occurs, don’t automatically add to the end of an essay — write in the margins, or draw a line to indicate where you want to insert a new paragraph.
  • Leave space to revise too — write on every other line and leave the backs of pages blank, so you will have room to make legible insertions if you need to.
  • Obviously, if you are writing your test on a computer, you should just insert and rearrange text as you would normally.

5) Revise your thesis statement

If inspiration strikes while you are in the middle of an essay, and your conclusion turns out to be nothing like you thought it would be,  change your thesis statement to match your conclusion. (Assuming, of course, that your unexpected conclusion still addresses the assigned topic.)

When a writer realizes that an essay is veering off in a new direction, and handles it by tacking more paragraphs onto the end, the result can be extremely awkward.

  • Joe Student writes a thesis statement that examines the relationship between “independence” and public morals.
  • Midway through his essay, Joe hits upon a different idea that relates to “prosperity.”
  • To mask the transition, he writes a sentence that refers to “independence and prosperity”, as if the two concepts are interchangeable.
  • After writing a few more paragraphs on “prosperity”, Joe realizes he needs to unify the two ideas in his conclusion. He writes a new paragraph that examines the connections between independence and prosperity.
  • He then writes a conclusion that “proves” that independence and prosperity are inseparable.

Unfortunately, Joe started out by making a claim about independence and  public morals . If Joe tacks yet another paragraph onto the end of the paper, he will further dilute his conclusion. If he ignores the problem, his essay will appear disorganized.  Such  hasty additions will rapidly obscure the original structure .

Joe will have to wrap up his essay with something ghastly like “Therefore, this essay has discussed such important issues as A, B, C and D, all of which shed an important light on [rephrase essay question here].”

To avoid linear additions , you should ideally avoid going off on tangents.  But even a very short paper is a result of a process. If you stumble onto a good idea in the middle of your paper, go back and  change your thesis statement to account for your new ideas . Then, revise the subpoints and transitions so that your whole essay points towards that conclusion. Your professor will be pleased to see that you were able to make the connection, and your whole essay will be much stronger.

Dennis G. Jerz 04 May 2000 — first posted 26 May 2000 — typos corrected; puns added 26 Jul 2000 — minor edits 04 Dec 2002 — revision

Related Links

Writing that Demonstrates  Thinking Ability

MLA Style: Step-by-step Formatting Guide

MLA Format Papers: Step-by-Step Instructions for Formatting Research Papers in MLA Style

how to write timed essays faster

Thesis Statements: How to Write Them in Academic Essays

Integrating Sources: Using Quotations in an MLA Style Academic Paper

Integrating Sources: Using Quotations in an MLA Style Academic Paper

Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position

Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position

18 thoughts on “ Timed Essays: Top 5 Tips for Writing Academic Papers Under Pressure ”

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Nice tips! With the help of your article i can complete my academic writing work easily. Thanks for sharing this.

Hey, Just got through your article and found it really informative. It was totally worth reading. A similar article I had read on EssayMin blog and found that good, got my basics clear now.

It is very awesome article.

I noticed that the link to the more detailed article links to this same article, and the other links are unrelated. Could you link me to the detailed version please? This one has been very helpful and would like to see more of your insight.

How frustrating! At the moment it looks like this version is the only one that’s available.

If I recall correctly I initially wrote a version that was more like an essay, but I created a “Top Tips” format to give more immediate help in a more web-friendly format. It looks like I might have buried the older version, or perhaps I carved it up and moved it to other documents, such as

https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/personal-essays/ https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/showing/ https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic1/thesis-statement-writing-academic-essays/ https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic1/writing-that-demonstrates-thinking-ability/

All of the above apply to writing any kind of essay.

If I find that longer document, and it has any content that’s not already covered on those other pages, I’ll find some way to post it.

Ok, many thanks and best of luck finding it!

Mikaela, I was able to find the old file, and as I suspected above I had moved all the remaining good stuff to another handout on a more general topic. https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic1/short-research-papers/

So what this means is at the moment this page does present all my best advice that is specifically for writing a timed essay. I have edited the page to remove the reference to the longer document.

Ok, thank you!

Mr. Denis G Jerz, In the writing of your paper on ‘Timed Essays’ 04 May 2000, I note that the time to finish was seven months. From first post to last revision. Does this represent a working plan as described in your paper or merely that even professionals can suffer procrastination ?

Gregg Miller. BHort. BSc (Hon) UCrap.

There is no connection between my revision history and procrastination. After I posted the first version in 2000, I made additional changes after responding to comments from readers. The last change was 2002. I have reformatted the page since then, adding the graphic, though if I made any other changes at the time they don’t seem to have prompted me to update the revision history list.

thank you!!!…..this has been really useful to me

JJ, did you seriously think I would approve that comment?

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Thank you that was cool!! That was very very awesome and it invigorated my brain.

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how to write timed essays faster

How to Write an Essay Fast: Tips and Examples

how to write timed essays faster

Almost every student has experienced a circumstance where they had just a few hours before the essay deadline. So, what is the best course of action in this case? We suggest that you should either begin writing right away or seek professional assistance. Hiring a pro to write your essay is an easy way out. You can just order essay from our research paper writing services , and in a blink of an eye, your piece is ready to be sent out on time. But, if you want to write it yourself, then you need to know how to write an essay quickly.

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Write an Essay Fast

The essay writing process isn't simple. Especially when you want to do it quickly under the pressure of upcoming deadlines, but don't panic! Whether you’re wondering how to write an essay in a day or just an hour, you can still write an engaging and good essay fast. Here are some tips to help you write a paper faster:

  • Make a plan for your writing process - The first and most important thing to do is to understand a thesis statement, spend 10-15 minutes planning your essay, and brainstorm some ideas about your main point.
  • Start essay writing - Start with a hook in the introduction; add three body paragraphs and explain your major point. Make a clear image of your ideas in the conclusion.
  • Edit your paper - Always keep the last 5 minutes for proofreading your essay; slowly read complex sentences to avoid any grammar mistakes; after editing, give the appropriate title to your work.

These are some useful short tips to do a paper fast. But if you don’t feel like doing any writing, you can use the help of qualified writing service to get yourself a solid essay.

How Can You Write an Essay as Fast as Possible

We discussed a few tips to write an essay fast, but they may still not be enough for everyone to do their essay quickly. There are many reasons why it can get difficult: you struggle to understand the essay topic and the main idea of it, you lack motivation, you overthink an essay prompt, you get constantly distracted, etc. Sometimes we all feel that way, and it's normal, but to make writing your last-minute essay easier, we should overcome those feelings.

So, let's dive deeper into how to write an essay fast to help you with the paper you completely overlooked.

How to Write an Essay Fast

Step 1. Get Rid of Distractions and Plan Your Time

One of the reasons why you can't focus on writing is a constant distraction. Our digital gadgets distract us not only from the essay writing process but from many important things in life. So when you need to focus, set your mind on it and keep the electronic devices away from the working space.

The next step is to manage time. If you want to learn how to write essays quickly, you need to know how to divide the time left correctly. If you have only 2 hours before your deadline, it's crucial to distribute it accordingly. You have to do it in three main parts: outline, body paragraphs, and conclusion paragraphs. Besides that, keep extra 10 minutes for proofreading and revising your essay. Spend 25 minutes on essay structure and half of your 2 hours on shaping the paper's body. Usually, body paragraphs are needed most of the time, but distribution is on you. Spend more of it on the part you struggle to write.

Step 2. Write First Ideas Which Spring up in Your Mind

While reading an essay question carefully, start making a note of the very first ideas that pop up in your mind. This way, you'll have a view of what to write about. Then start analyzing the thesis statement, highlight the major points of the key sentences you want to discuss and then choose which ideas fit best to them.

Don't overthink the statement. To write essays faster, you need to have a concise view of what you are writing about from the very beginning. You don't have much time, so do not spend any of it on overthinking.

Step 3. Elaborate a Plan to Write an Essay Fast

If you have ever had only an hour left to write your essay or are now in that situation, you're lucky to be here reading this. It's entirely possible to do your paper in an hour, and we'll show you an essential step-by-step plan on how to write an essay fast.

But before planning the whole essay, you have to choose your topic. This is a no-brainer, but people are often stuck at this point. If you have the freedom to choose your own topic, determine the kind of theme you are familiar with and can discuss without having to spend much time on research. But if you have several topics, choose the one on which you can deliver a more in-depth analysis.

Now let's move to the next steps on how to plan the process to write an essay fast.

Step 4. Conduct a Research

Conducting research may seem difficult when you have an hour for the whole essay, but don't worry. You can manage that too! You already have the topic and the thoughts around it, and now you need a little research. So be brief and concise, look for the specific information that you're definitely using in your paper, and don't waste time on general concepts. To write an essay fast, you have to conduct research faster.

While searching on the internet, save bookmarks of your needed pages. This will serve not to start looking for the information all over.

Do these tips to write an essay fast make enough sense for you yet?! Anyways, don't pressure yourself! If it's manageable for others to write essay fast, then it is for you too. So read through carefully, act according to this plan, and you'll make it.

Step 5. Make an Outline

Before you start writing:

  • Create an outline of your ideas, and organize your thoughts around the theme.
  • Write down your words on paper and determine how they are logically connected.
  • List your ideas and relate them to the larger concepts.

This way, you can have a general structure for your paper and step forward to write an essay fast. Regardless of how much effort and time you put into the work, it's useless if you can't organize your thoughts.

Now that you have an essay topic and the main idea around it, you can think of creating the thesis statement. Refer to the outlines you noted and try to express the major points of your essay with them. The statement will have two parts - outlining the topic and outlining the objective of your essay.

Now you are one step closer to mastering how to write essays quickly. Several steps to go, and you're all done!

Step 6. Write a Draft with Key Sentences for Each Paragraph

You should develop your arguments in the body and turn every idea you outlined before into separate paragraphs. Remember that each of the sections should have the same format. Start to incorporate your primary ideas into the opening sentence. After that, add your secondary supporting ideas to it. Also, do not forget to use proper sentence format.

You should clearly explain your topic in key sentences to strengthen the arguments. Every paragraph should contain supporting evidence, main points, and summarizing sentences.

Does it seem easier now to write an essay fast? Then, let us make it completely manageable for you with further steps.

Want to research how Steve Jobs revolutionized the world?

Discussing how Steve Jobs shaped modern technology makes a perfect research paper. Our writers are ready to make it even more perfect!

Step 7. Intro: Start with a Hook

After finishing the previous steps, then it is time to write an introduction. But how will you introduce something that hasn't been created yet? It may be unusual to write the beginning after you've already got the middle part, but it makes sense. Now that you have your thesis and arguments on paper, you can take the interesting elements and turn them into an attention-grabbing intro. Write a hook preceding it - it can be statistical information, a dialogue, a relevant anecdote, a quote, or just some fact, but it has to tie in with your thesis.

Also, if it's more comfortable to think of the hook first and then about the other parts, you're free to do so. Starting with the hook can help your creative process, but don't think too much about it. This way is more adjustable when you don't need to search for ‘how to write an essay quickly’ and have enough time to spend on it.

Step 8. Make a Strong Conclusion

Writing the conclusion paragraph is an important part of making a clear expression of everything you wrote above that. It is your opportunity to reinforce the thesis. Restate the arguments to leave the reader with something interesting to think about. It should be 3-5 strong conclusive sentences that place the whole information into a broader context. Don't forget to avoid introducing new points or ideas in your conclusion,

The introduction and conclusion is often the hardest part to write. So, you should save both for last, especially when you want to write an essay fast. It will take all of your time if you start thinking about them in the beginning when you haven't discussed any arguments yet. When you have the body paragraphs of your essay, it should be much easier to write a summarized conclusion and introduction.

Step 9. Check Everything

If you just typed ‘how to write an essay quickly’ and now reading this, then you already know you have to review your paper besides how much time you have before the deadline. So you always have to keep extra minutes to revise your work.

Check if there are any grammatical errors, if the paragraphs are in order - the main argument should be the first and last paragraph in your body, or if your work makes sense at all. These little elements affect the quality of your essay, especially the one you're writing in an hour.

This is the ultimate guide and your last step in learning to write an essay fast. Just don't panic and set your mind on doing it properly.

How to Write 500 Word Essay Fast

The essay writing process isn't so easy, especially when you want it done quickly. But it doesn't mean it's impossible. For example, have you ever wondered how to write a 500 word essay fast? If you are reading this article, you already have the answer. The previous examples we examined about writing papers faster are also adjustable to 500-word essays.

Let's do a small recap! First, decide on an interesting topic you want to write about, but don't overthink it. Instead, choose the one you know more about. Secondly, make a quick, basic outline of your thoughts and thesis statements. Then start working on your body paragraph, and lastly, do your introduction and conclusion. You can read above how to do each of these steps very easily.

In addition, you might be writing an SAT paper. In this case, you can apply these tips to the writing process with specific needs.

How to Write a Research Essay Fast

If you ever looked up 'how to write a research essay fast' and couldn't manage to find the solution through research, then we're here to help you out.

While writing a research paper requires a lot of effort—from developing a compelling thesis to locating relevant literature—doing so may be more fun if you select a topic you are passionate about. In addition, you have an opportunity to consider other people's discoveries and draw your own conclusions about what they signify.

Most essays have specifics that should be considered to be worth a good grade. If you don't know these needs, it can be difficult for you to complete the task properly. So then, what's your answer to it? Are you just sitting there wondering, 'how can I get research paper writing help ?' If you still haven't found the way, click on it, and there is your solution.

Pros and Cons of Writing an Essay Fast

As with everything else, writing your paper fast has its positive and negative sides too.

Let's start with the cons:

  • When writing fast, you may not leave yourself the time for proofreading and editing the work, which will lead to not a very good essay and a satisfactory grade.
  • Knowing that the deadline is coming closer can pressure you while preventing the creative process which can be destructive for your essay.
  • Time spent on each part of the paper may not be enough or correctly distributed, which can mess with essay structure.

Pros of writing essay fast:

  • The positive side of writing an argumentative essay fast is that now you know how to do it and don't need much time to waste.
  • You are always on time for deadlines when you know how to write a good essay fast.
  • Improves your time management skills.

So, It's entirely possible to write a good essay fast. For example, if you need to know how to write a process analysis essay, consider what we have already discussed above, and just like that, you are left with a great piece in a very short period!

There are many reasons why you can't finish your paper before the deadline. But it's not the end of the world, right? That's why essay writing services provide support for students. When you are in a position where you need to get your paper done fast by a professional, you can turn to EssayPro's cheap essay writing service. It's not a problem you have to worry about.

It doesn't matter if you need, for example, descriptive or expository essays, EssayPro's experts can provide both for you. You're just one click away from your perfect paper!

Need urgent writing assistance?

Contact our experts to get a perfect paper tailored to your requirements!

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Illustrations depicting aspects of Google’s “Help me write” tool for Chrome.

Google has started rolling out “Help me write” — an experimental Gemini-powered generative AI feature for its Chrome browser that aims to help users write or refine text based on webpage content. Following the stable release of Chrome M122 on Tuesday, the new writing assistant is now available to try out on Mac and Windows PCs for English-speaking Chrome users in the US.

“Help me write” focuses on providing writing suggestions for shortform content, such as filling in digital surveys and reviews, enquiring about product information, or drafting descriptions for items being sold online. Google says the tool can “understand the context of the webpage you’re on” to pull relevant information into its suggestions — for example, highlighting key features mentioned on the product page for items you’re leaving a review on.

An example screenshot of Google Chrome’s “help me write” feature showing a message requesting to return a faulty bike helmet.

The “Help me write” feature has undergone some visual changes since it was first announced for Gmail during Google’s I/O event last May , now appearing as a floating application window beside the webpage text fields that are being filled with separate options to adjust length and tone. The Chrome release offers similar functionality to what Microsoft released for Edge and Bing search last year .

Users in the US will need to enable Chrome’s Experimental AI to use the feature, which can be found by clicking on Settings within the three-dot drop-down menu on Chrome desktop and then navigating to the Experimental AI page. From there, click on “Try out experimental AI features” and select “Help me write” and then “relaunch.” Users can then navigate to a webpage on Chrome and right-click on an open text field to use the writing assistant feature.

The Google support page includes a disclaimer that tells users not to provide personal information like their name, phone, address, social security number, or credit card information to the feature and that the tool shouldn’t be used on websites that contain personal or sensitive information. But if you do input such information, Google says that “Chrome will not use it for model training purposes.”

An example screenshot of Google Chrome’s “help me write” feature showing an ad for a used air fryer.

I’m not convinced the “Help me write” tool will prove very useful for most people — it’s not exactly a must-have feature driving the adoption of Edge and Copilot over the last year. The use cases provided by Google seem reasonable if the feature spits out the exact copy you need, but any time spent writing the prompts and adjusting the resulting text to suit your needs diminishes any time-saving benefits it may have provided. I can see some benefits for disabled users or people who aren’t completely fluent in English, but there’s also plenty to be concerned about — the ease with which this tool could be used to leave fake or disingenuous product reviews being one of them.

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How to write fast — or at least faster

12 fast-writing strategies that will give you energy, focus and momentum..

how to write timed essays faster

Not long ago, I received a memo from a college journalism professor asking how to help his students become faster writers. I believe that the best public writers are the versatile ones, the scribes who can write fast when they need to and slow when they have a chance to. I have not included much about fast writing in my books on the craft. But I found some advice I once offered to Poynter readers . Here it is, with a few updates.

To be a good writer, you have to learn to write slow. Some sentences or passages just take a long time. But slow writing need not be the norm. In journalism and all public writing, the goal should be fast writing — or at least faster writing.

I’m a pretty fast writer, but not the fastest. I would give that title to Bill Blundell, formerly of The Wall Street Journal and author of “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.” I once attended a workshop with Blundell in which the class was assigned a news feature story. We all had access to the same information. In the allotted time, I managed to squeeze out a couple of clumsy paragraphs. Blundell, who nervously chewed paper (literally), knocked off three pages in no time, good enough to be published the next morning.

Ray Holliman, a sports writer from Alabama, may have been the fastest writer in journalism history. The St. Petersburg Times used to send him to cover the late-night West Coast football games, knowing that Holliman could deliver on deadline. More than one sports writer told me, “Ray was always the first one out of the press box.”

When it comes to spot news, I would declare that CBS News Radio correspondent Peter King is Johnny-on-the-spot. I’ve watched him take a fat document from NASA, digest it in no time, and turn it into a 30-second report before the competition can stir its coffee.

I’ve studied writers like Blundell, Holliman and King and have come up with a list of fast-writing strategies that may not turn you into a fast writer, but will make you faster. (Jane Caplan, the late wife of the great medical ethicist Arthur Caplan, once told me, “When Arthur cleans the house, it is never really clean, but it is cleaner.”)

  • Don’t separate the reporting and writing process. Integrate them. Begin writing it in your head from the moment you get the assignment and all during the research.
  • Find your focus in the field. If you wait until you get back to your desk to realize what your story is really about, you may not be able to go back and get what you need to make it work. If you have to go back, it will take time.
  • Annotate your notes while taking them: “This is lead.” “Goes up high.” “Transition.”
  • Before drafting, scratch out a five-point plan on a yellow pad. The little time you take to do this will save you valuable minutes in the end. Denote the big parts:
  • Trump as insulter-in-chief
  • History of presidential insults
  • Famous insults from literature
  • Insults in popular culture, from rap to pro wrestling
  • Why people like insults
  • Draft earlier than you think you can. On returning from an interview, write a “zero draft” to teach you what you know and what’s left to learn.
  • Lower your standards for the first draft. Let your hands do the thinking. You can raise your standards during revision.
  • If pressed for time, shoot for a draft and a half: a blast of writing followed by a quick read that corrects mistakes and cuts needless words.
  • Keep it short: To borrow from Strunk and White, erect a pup tent, not a cathedral.
  • Use social media early in the process to learn and announce your main points.
  • On a breaking topic (such as a baseball game), you can conceive a story (“The Yankees will win”) and then be willing to reconceive it (“The Rays are staging a comeback”) as circumstances change. In essence, you are writing the story before you know the completed arc.
  • Get on a wavelength with your editor through short debriefing sessions, right before the reporting, and right after. Two minutes at the front end can save precious time near deadline.
  • Have at your fingertips a number of reliable forms in which to write and deliver the news: pyramid, trapezoid, hourglass, anecdote/nut graf, five blocks. These prefabricated containers will streamline your process.

I like the feeling of writing fast. It places me “in the moment,” giving me energy from adrenaline, focus and momentum.

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To better connect with Spanish-speaking journalists, introducing a Spanish-speaking Poynter

Poynter to launch trainings for Spanish speakers, with courses offered virtually, in St. Petersburg and across Latin America

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Gannett’s 2024 priorities include ‘rebooting’ small newsrooms and keeping voters informed

The country's largest newspaper company ended 2023 with a $27.8 million loss, but expects to flip revenue from declining to growing by the end of 2024

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Opinion | I’m thrilled that Jon Stewart is back. But I don’t get it.

He says he wanted a ‘place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season.’ There are other ways he could have done that.

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How PolitiFact improved social media trust (and how your newsroom can do it, too)

Over 100 days, we used these methods to improve our trust with audiences that only casually engage with our content.

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Trump compared his civil fraud fine with the punishment of Russian opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny, who died Feb. 16 in a Russian prison.

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How to Write an Essay Fast ­– A High-Quality Paper

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Essay writing, particularly crafting a college essay under a tight deadline, can be a daunting and stressful experience.  The challenge intensifies when you are expected to complete an essay in just a few hours or days. Time becomes a valuable commodity, and maximizing it efficiently becomes critical for success. To navigate this high-pressure situation, you’ll need all the guidance and assistance you can get. Read on to discover how to write an essay fast without compromising on quality.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

  • 1 How to write an essay fast – In a nutshell
  • 2 Definition: How to write an essay fast
  • 3 Basic essay format: How to write an essay fast
  • 4 The 5 steps of How to write an essay fast
  • 5 How to write an essay fast: Example
  • 6 Essay checklist

How to write an essay fast – In a nutshell

  • Always plan your time before writing an essay
  • Brainstorm and outline the structure your essay will take
  • Aim to revise your essay a few times before submitting it

Definition: How to write an essay fast

Essay writing is a fundamental skill for college students, regardless of their major. You’ll be obliged to compose an essay at some point during your degree. This can be a compulsory assignment where you must write on a predetermined topic or an essay on your chosen topic. Either way, essay writing is something you can’t avoid as a student.

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Basic essay format: How to write an essay fast

Essay writing isn’t merely a linear listing of concepts. It also necessitates a well-structured framework and format to compile all research in one place. Each essay must include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion to contain all the pertinent material.

The 5 steps of How to write an essay fast

Follow these procedures on how to write an essay fast to meet the deadline, whether you have a week, a few days, or just a few hours remaining.

How to write an essay fast: Step 1: Organize

Having a basic schedule of how much time you invest in each section of your essay helps you avoid lingering longer than necessary in an area. Set deadlines with built-in breaks regardless of the time you have.

When planning on how to write an essay fast, time allocation should be as follows: 

  • Brainstorming: 10 %
  • Outlining: 10 %
  • Writing: 40 %
  • Revising: 30 %
  • Taking breaks in between: 10 %

If you have a few hours:

  • Brainstorming: 15–30 minutes
  • Outlining: 15–30 minutes
  • Writing: 2–3 hours
  • Revising: 1–2 hours

If you have a few days:

  • Brainstorming: Day 1
  • Outlining: Day 1
  • Writing: Days 1, 2, and 3
  • Revising: Days 2 and 3

How to write an essay fast: Step 2: Brainstorm

The second step in devising a plan on how to write an essay fast should be brainstorming. Complete these tasks to quickly brainstorm your topic:

Top 5 things I want colleges to know about me

  • I’m an honors student
  • I play football
  • I am the eldest in a family of four
  • I beat cancer
  • I love cooking, comics, and science

Adjectives related to my personality and character

  • Responsible

2 things that make me different from other applicants

  • Extensive knowledge of history that has won me many trivia competitions
  • Self-taught fluent Korean and Spanish speaker

How to write an essay fast: Step 3: Outline

Outlining is the third step on how to write an essay fast. Use a narrative framework if you have a single story on overcoming a challenge or personal growth. This essay genre narrates a story chronologically. This structure is simpler if you are short on time.

If several of your stories share a common theme, use a montage framework to link them. Use this outline if you have more than a few hours to work on your paper.

How to write an essay fast: Step 4: Write

Unique storytelling sets you apart from others and helps your essay stand out. Keep these in mind on how to write an essay fast:

  • Emphasise key instances rather than summarizing a lengthy time frame.
  • Be open and honest with your feelings and thoughts.
  • Be authentic and strike the right tone.
  • Keep the spotlight on you and not on someone else.
  • Describe sensory details to evoke vivid images.

How to write an essay fast: Step 5: Revise

Finishing up on the conclusion doesn’t mean you’re done with the essay. Always review your paper for completeness and allow sufficient time for revising your essay. You should strive for three rounds of revision to review the content, clarity, and grammar.

Prioritize clarity and precise grammar if you’re pressed for time.

How to write an essay fast: Example

Overcoming a challenge, a sports injury narrative.

This essay describes how a student overcame a hardship, specifically a sports injury, using a narrative structure. As this topic is often overused, the essay must contain a vivid description, a compelling opening and conclusion, and an insightful analysis.

Essay checklist

Topic and framework

  • I’ve chosen a topic with personal significance.
  • This essay reveals something distinct from the rest of my application materials.
  • My narrative is lucid and well-structured.
  • I’ve concluded with a creative or insightful ending.

Writing style and tone

  • I’ve created an attention-grabbing introduction with vivid visuals.
  • My essay is demonstrative rather than descriptive.
  • I’ve used the proper tone and style.
  • I’ve used detailed, vivid, and difficult-to-replicate personal stories.
  • My article demonstrates my positive characteristics and values.
  • This essay is about me, not another individual or entity.
  • My writing contains self-reflection and insight.
  • I’ve kept to the word limit, staying within 10% of the maximum word count.

How to write an essay fast?

When planning on how to write an essay fast:

  • Set yourself deadlines

How to write an essay fast and meet the word count?

If your college essay exceeds the word count, trim sentences that contain digressions or irrelevant information.

How to write an essay fast and revise thoroughly?

While editing your college essay, first consider the essay’s message and overall structure. Then, evaluate the text’s flow, tone, style, and clarity. Lastly, concentrate on correcting grammar and punctuation errors.

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When You Write

How to Write Faster: 23 Tips to Speed Up Your Writing Output

As a writer, you already know the essence of learning how to write faster and putting out more writing work.

You hear other writers talk about “I average 7k words per day” or “my weekly output is roughly 20k.”

But your fiction has been lingering around chapter one for months… What are you doing wrong? 

I cannot diagnose your problem, but I will give you some tips that you can use to perform a self-diagnosis and increase your writing speed.

Writing Is a Game of Numbers

For 21st-century freelance writers, novelists, or any other professional writer, quality matters. But without quantity, you are just going to lumber in the abyss of the world wide web libraries. 

Writing is a game of numbers – the more you put out, the more you get noticed. Likewise, the more gigs you complete, the more money you get.

It’s as simple as ABC.

The faster you write, the faster the ‘cha-ching’ comes in. So once you learn how to write fast, you can get more work done in a shorter time and probably earn more.

So, writing-faster hacks are essential life hacks for any serious writer.

23 Tips To Writing Faster (And Better)

Out of the 23 tips, 1 and 2 are the most essential. That is why I have given them more meat than all the rest.

1. Learn How to Increase Your Handwriting Speed

Almost everyone learns the art of handwriting at a very young age, but we tend to forget this important skill as we grow older. This trend has been exacerbated by the more convenient computers and mobile phones.

With the dawn of the Age of Ultron digital age, handwriting has become an even more obscure skill.

However, handwriting speed is still essential for people who take notes using pen and paper (students, for example). 

There are a couple of benefits of increased handwriting,

  • Better performance. You take better handwritten notes and save time in an exam.
  • Increased Automaticity. This means that your brain will have to burden itself with other important intellectual stuff rather than the physical movements of your hand.
  • Less writing gaffes. We often commit errors because we think faster than we write. But if the writing pace catches up, there will be fewer errors.

Handwriting Speed Tips 

Use Better Writing Tools: The type of pens you use affects your writing speed. Your ballpoint pens don’t rank in the speed ratings. You’d be better off having a fountain pen, a roller pen, or a gel pen.

Learn or Develop a Shorthand System: Instead of using bulky words, why not try symbols or abbreviations. There are no limits, so you can develop your own shorthand writing system or learn pre-existing ones like (Pitman, Gregg, Teeline).

Be Comfortable: Somebody might have shown you the ‘best way’ to hold a pen, you tried it, and it didn’t feel comfortable at all. Don’t force it, it’ll just slow you down.

Always hold the pen in a way that feels comfortable. The way you hold a pen doesn’t really affect writing speed, but if you are comfortable, your pace might improve.

Maintain a Good Posture: Writing is laborious; not only does it stress your fingers, but your spine also gets a beating too.

There are ergonomic kneeling and upright sitting office chairs which help you to improve your sitting posture. The chairs should be complemented by your own efforts. 

  • Your feet should lie flat on the floor.
  • Your knees should be at a 90-degree angle.
  • The lower back should be supported by the chair.

2. Learn to Type Fast

The idea is that every finger should have its place on the keyboard. To help the fingers get used to ‘their’ position on the keyboard, you have to type without looking at the keyboard. 

Home Row Finger Placement: place four fingers (from your index finger to the pinkie) on the ASDF and JKL. The keys are in the center row of the letter keys, also called the HOME ROW.

When you are typing, you should always start and return to the “ASDF – JKL” letters (that’s why they are called the middle row and are called the home row). The letters ‘F’ and ‘J’ have little ridges for your fingers to sense the initial position by groping the keys. 

Your thumbs should always hover around the space bar, and the SHIFT key should be assigned to the pinkie opposite to the hand that is pressing the other key.

Good Sitting Posture for Typing

I also covered this when I wrote about ergonomic office chairs . But let me just hash over a couple of important tips:

  • The top of your screen must be level with your head.
  • Relieve the pressure in your shoulders, arms, and wrists. You can invest in a keyboard with a wrist rest so that your body weight isn’t shifted to your wrists. 
  • Sit straight.
  • Keep a good distance between your eyes and the computer screen (at least 40cm).
  • Keep the elbows bent at a 90-degree angle.
  • DON’T SLOUCH.

3. Write Rhubarb, Edit Later

Hi writer, no one is going to see your very first draft: nobody but you. 

When you start writing, all you need to do is pour raw thoughts. Forget the typos and coherence; none of that matters, for now.

Editing is actually the most arduous step of writing. That is because we tend to rewrite a lot of the initial stuff and pay a lot more attention to detail. Have you ever written a whole page only to come back and erase it because it is pure garbage?

So just focus on putting words to paper and leave the corrections to the other you, the editing you.

4. Follow the Cliché 

“Practice makes perfect.”

This is the most overused cliché and… the most accurate. You have to write every day. Do not force the writing speed. As long as you are applying the proper techniques and writing consistently, you will get better. 

5. Write the Intro at the End

Writing the introduction earlier than the main body will slow you down nine out of ten times. The introductory paragraphs (in some cases, an abstract) give a taste of the juice contained in the main body of your work. Writing this part first usually means setting unnecessary standards for yourself. 

The introduction will always mess up your head, trying to align your content with the introduction. 

But if you start with the main body, you will probably write faster and use the content to create an abstract afterward.

Introductions and abstracts write themselves.

6. Gather Information Before You Start Writing

Doing research is a vital part of writing. Literal work (especially academic) with unverifiable content exposes the writer’s knowledge gaps and stinks of unprofessionalism.

However, researching while writing is counterproductive. You spend huge chunks of time on the web or bookshelves instead of writing. And sometimes, you are ready to write again, only to find out that all the creative juices have dried up.

Google your stuff beforehand, scour the bookshelves and take notes and pictures before the actual writing begins. When you sit down to write, you should WRITE.

Another cliché, “failing to plan is planning to?”

Freestyling is good because you just hop around and before you know it, you have 25k words. But, setting an outline helps you save time thinking about what to do next.

Write an outline, then freestyle inside the outlined topics. You can jump from the first topic to the last, then back to a middle section.  

8. Set challenges

Challenging oneself is one of the greatest traits of successful people in any field. Most professionals, likely you too, work well with deadlines.

Give yourself word counts and deadlines. It may seem like a simple overused old hack, but when you start employing this technique you will realize that whatever the circumstance, failing feels bad.

You will zealously want to beat your deadlines.

9. Fragment Your Work 

Writing a book may seem like a tough thing to do (that’s because it is). But if you break the book into chapters or scenes and work on them one by one, the workload seems a whole lot lighter. 

As a matter of fact, Mark Twain did say something just like this, he said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one”.

10. Play Typing Games

Thanks to apps and websites, learning to type faster has become fun. Nowadays, there are a squillion web-based or offline games, tests, and YouTube tutorials. 

Websites like WordGames.Com and Typing.com provide typing games and challenges which can help you improve your typing speed.

11. Go blind and Invent 

You can do your research beforehand or completely write from your head. This is usually effective for fiction writers. Create worlds, words, names, cities, et cetera.

There’s a writing technique that I call “Blitzkrieg Freestyle Writing.” It’s something similar to the “write rhubarb, edit later” style, just that with blitzkrieg freestyle writing, you can include some nonexistent stuff and create your own stuff that can even make it past the final draft.

After setting up a few things beforehand, jump onto the chair and wing it! Just blitz through the pages without pressing backspace, googling, or verifying.

12. Ignore the Schedule (Sometimes)

Creativity is spontaneous, and sparks of genius usually occur sporadically. If you are writing a scheduled article but the words aren’t coming, it’s better to disregard your schedule and look at something different.

It might be another article or your poems from five years ago. You need to be concerned with the magic, not the time frame. 

Word of caution; do not mistake the “spontaneous creativity” that I’m talking about with that mischievous demon of procrastination.

13. Find Your Optimal Writing Times

The ‘night owls versus early risers’ thing isn’t genetic, you are not born to be a night owl or somebody that wakes early every morning. 

Our bodies have a reprogrammable biological clock. If you keep late nights a lot, your body readjusts and you start to notice that instead of feeling sleepy in the after-hours, your eyelids usually give up in the wee hours of the morning.

The issue here is not trying to program the clock but understanding it (although it’s okay if you want to). You must observe what time(s) of the day you’re most active. It’s during those hours that you’ll write faster, and the content will be of better quality.

14. Always Stop Writing Mid-Sentence  

This might seem counterintuitive at first; why would I stop writing mid-sentence? When my flow is so on point? So undue.

However, when you stop writing in the middle of an exciting, fully developed (in your head) plot, you exactly know what to write when you resume writing.

When you go back to write, you know where to pick from. It’s vroom vroom from the first keystroke, your phalanges going Luis Hamilton fast. 

15.  Set a timer

Just like the previous method, this seems counterintuitive too. Imagine blitzing through a paragraph, then the alarm rings. 

I know, I know, it seems inconvenient but, there are a lot of hidden benefits.

Taking breaks after the clock runs down also helps you refresh the brain and stretch your body. A fresher brain means more productivity, and since you are probably going to stop writing mid-sentence, you will have a lot of content already thought out (hence faster writing), and you save yourself a world of pain and stress. 

Sometimes the timer helps you pace up so that you can write a lot of stuff in the short given time.

16. Use The Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management scheme that helps people to effectively use time to their advantage when working. 

This is similar to the previous hack (you obviously use a timer), but unlike the former, it has preset time margins.

It’s a simple system, you have 25-minute focused work sessions followed by five-minute breaks. The breaks are what are called Pomodoros. After four Pomodoros, the break should be longer (about 20 minutes).

Just like the normal timer setting, you get the benefits of stopping mid-sentence, plus you save energy.

17. Schedule Undisturbed Writing Time or Just Hang a Sign.

For me, it is hard to hang a sign and expect that the other ‘creatures’ in the house will observe the new rules.

No no no no. Nope!

I live with toughies, and it’s almost impossible to tell them what not to do. My solution? Doing my writing when they’ve exhausted all their energy.

At night, the guys turn to sloths. That’s when I attack my keyboard with zero distractions. However, putting up a “don’t disturb sign” usually works, especially in a professional environment.

18. Start from Anywhere

When you are writing a book, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to think that you MUST write it chapter by chapter, chronologically.

You might start off quite brilliantly, but you will — 9 out 10 times—get stuck somewhere before you even the first chapter.

Start from wherever content seems to flow seamlessly. After a while, some other parts will start revealing themselves.

19. Write drunk, edit sober

I first saw this advice on a certain blog, and I said to myself, “this is rubbish, these people just write things just to fill up articles.”

But I found out, from my writer circles, that this actually works for a lot of writers. Apparently, a hard drink (a gentleman’s quantity) can spur creativity since it snaps some wires in the head. However, you should expect some content to be utter rubbish, so you’ll have to follow the “write Rhubarb, edit later” hack.

20. Get a Journal

Not only will a journal help you increase your handwriting speed (because you will be writing frequently), it will also help you save your ideas. You can use the ideas later, reducing the time you spend on brainstorming during a writing session.

You can also use the journal to create characters or write some rhubarb to be edited later.

21. Switch Your Perspective

Looking at a writing project just in terms of the word count and workload is demotivating. Somehow, the word count always seems like a mountain to climb.

And hiking isn’t for everyone. Ha-ha.

But seriously, you have to switch the perspective and start looking at a blinking cursor as a metronome, your chance to write creative stuff that will wow millions – Your chance to shine. 

22. Go Incommunicado 

The digital space is full of distractions; Facebook, Insta, Twitter, Pinterest, a movie perhaps.

Your computer or mobile phone can be both your ally and foe when you have some content to write. 

One minute, you want to see your Facebook inbox and an hour letter you’re pinning stuff on Pinterest. A few days later and you still haven’t started typing that chapter.

Shut it off!

But if you use the computer for writing, then shutting it off is equally counterproductive. You have to have software that turns your computer into a digital offline typewriter.

There is a lot of software that will block all the background distractions, i.e., FocusWriter , Typora , Mark text , and Ommwriter .  

23. Use Squiggly Line Reminders

Sometimes, your typing speed isn’t the problem. Sometimes, it is those missing words in your head.

You can blitz your way through a chapter only to get stuck explaining what kind of dress ‘Daisy’ wore. Then you go on the web and start scouring for dresses and fashion trends, and before you know it, you’ve spent a whole hour looking for a “dress.”

Many word processors use red squiggly lines to tell you that you’ve made a mistake. Using misspelled words or symbols when you get stuck helps you put markers to which you can come back to make corrections or fill with text.  

Final Words 

Experiment, the tips are not a “one shoe fits all” type of solution. Trial and error won’t hurt.

And… one more cliché. 

“If you want to be successful, you should do what you love.”

Make writing a top priority, a full-time thing. You’ll discover a lot of writing hacks on your own. Some things just come naturally.

Note: You cannot do all of them simultaneously. While some will work for you, others won’t make any sense at all. You just have to mix and match and see what works best for you.

Recommended Reading...

Best music for writing – be more focused and productive, what is the iceberg theory, why do authors use pen names, how to stay focused while writing.

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The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

  • Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
  • Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
  • Revision:  Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

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Table of contents

Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

  • Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
  • Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
  • Do your research: Read  primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
  • Come up with a thesis:  The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
  • Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Write your essay introduction

The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a  topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

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The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

  • Returns to your thesis
  • Ties together your main points
  • Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

  • Including new arguments or evidence
  • Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
  • Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Write your essay conclusion

Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

  • An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
  • Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
  • A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

  • It gives your writing direction and focus.
  • It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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how to write timed essays faster

Strategies for Timed Essays

Timed essay tests can bring about a great deal of stress for students. The ticking clock is certainly a catalyst when it comes to test anxiety; however, the unknown components of an timed essay test are also daunting. The fact of the matter is, timed writing tasks will be a standard aspect of every student’s education at some point. Another fact, thankfully, is that there are strategies that students can employ to conquer these seemingly insurmountable timed essays.

Reread the prompt and put it into your own words

When students sit down to take an essay assessment, the clock begins counting down and nerves often take over. In a time-crunch, many students follow the impulse to put pencil to paper as quickly as possible and write until their wrists can take no more. The issue, however, arises when the completed essay fails to actually address the prompt or essay question. To avoid this, students should first carefully reread the prompt in an effort to put it into their own words. By rephrasing the question, students ensure that they fully comprehend what the prompt is asking and are able to more specifically begin to address it in their writing.

Spend 3-5 minutes drafting a simple outline

The few minutes that students spend sketching a plan for their essay will be returned twofold in the sense that, with this quick roadmap, they will have to spend less time figuring out the general direction of each paragraph since the essay is already loosely mapped out. The outline should include only bulleted information, not complete sentences. Page numbers for direct quotes or other references are also helpful on the outline. While each essay and outline will obviously vary, the same components are usually suggested for informational, argumentative, or expository responses.

  • A general statement, in which the topic, subject, theme, or concept is very generally introduced.
  • A specific statement, in which the general statement is given some specificity, elaboration, clarification, etc.
  • A thesis statement, in which the argument, claim, or goal of the response is introduced.
  • Transition words to organize the points, evidence, support, etc., in order of importance.
  • Introduction to the text evidence by title and/or author.
  • Direct quotes to support the original thesis statement or claim made in the introduction.
  • Interpretation of the quotes and explicit statement of how the quotes support the claim or argument.
  • A restatement of the thesis; advanced writers in middle and high school grades should work to rephrase the thesis statement. The overall claim or argument is the same; however, the wording is varied to avoid redundancy.
  • A final confirmation of the texts that were referenced and how they specifically relate to the topic or prompt.
  • A final statement to again generalize the purpose of the essay. **Students should get in the habit of using words directly from the prompt in their introduction and conclusion paragraphs to ensure that their responses are thoroughly and clearly connected to the prompt.

Reread each paragraph individually

It helps to read a response with fresh eyes to determine that writing is consistent and relative to the purpose of the prompt. If students have time at the end of a timed writing assessment, it is beneficial to reread each paragraph individually, referring back to the prompt in between paragraphs to ensure that each component (paragraph) serves its purpose and clearly answers the prompt.

Don’t get hung up on spelling

Unless otherwise specified by the teacher, students should avoid spending too much time contemplating spelling errors. Most often, timed essays are scored on content, including word choice, sentence structure or variation, and other content-driven writing skills. Therefore, perseverating over spelling is generally unnecessary. Instead, students should spend their time crafting and honing their argument.

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The Wordling

The Wordling - The info and tools you need to live your best writing life.

How to Write Faster: 19 Effective Strategies to Increase Your Writing Speed

how to write timed essays faster

It’s strategy, not talent, that will help you write thousands of words a day.

By Natasha Khullar Relph

Two years into my writing career, I made a simple but career-changing realization: If I could double my writing speed, I could do twice the work in the same amount of time, allowing me to increase my income significantly .

More than just the money, though, one of my biggest frustrations as a writer until then—with a folder full of unfinished manuscripts to prove it—had been that the longer I took to finish a project, the more likely it was that I would get bored and abandon it midway. I knew that if I could teach myself to write faster, my freelance writing career would benefit from increased income and opportunities, and my books would actually get finished .

I made it my mission to learn how I could write thousands of words each day and, as a result, over the last fifteen years I have written 1,000+ articles for national and international publications, 3,000+ blog and newsletter posts , and almost a dozen books .

How fast you write impacts your work in a number of ways. It allows you to create more free time in your life if that’s what you choose; increase your income, if you need it; or simply create a larger body of work, giving you the room to experiment with new projects frequently instead of remaining stuck on a single one for years.

If you, too, want to learn how to write faster, here are some practical tips to boost your writing speed:

  • Don’t start with a blank page
  • Minimize distractions
  • Use triggers to get into writing flow
  • Honor your own creative process
  • Create a workflow
  • Use writing sprints
  • Learn to type faster
  • Try freewriting
  • Use placeholders
  • Know that editing is not writing
  • Embrace the art of productive procrastination
  • Be comfortable when you write
  • Utilize the Pomodoro technique
  • Write by hand
  • Try dictation
  • Improve by 1% each day
  • Take part in writing challenges
  • Be accountable
  • Give it time

1. Don’t start with a blank page

Listen, the trope of the writer battling the blank page? It’s largely false when it comes to professional writers. Anyone who has a deadline and needs to meet it in order to pay their bills knows that starting with nothing is the domain of the uninformed. Most professional writers know what they want to say before they sit down to write, even if they’re not quite sure how they’re going to do it yet.

You don’t need an entire outline before you begin, though some people prefer to use one as a creative map. If you’re just beginning to get clarity on your writing project, begin with what you have.

  • If you’re a journalist on deadline, jot down the main points of the story idea you’ve discussed with your editor and the questions your article will need to answer.
  • A blogger wondering what your next post should be about? Do a brain dump of the topics your audience is interested in.
  • If you’re a nonfiction author, jot down the main points that the next chapter will need to cover, and divide it up with subheadings.
  • A first-time novelist stalled on the next scene? Use a character template to better understand your protagonist, or list out all the major events that happen in the next scene.

2. Minimize distractions

Hear me when I say this: If you leave Instagram or other social media open on a browser tab as you’re writing, you will be tempted to check in. It’s important to minimize and, when possible, eliminate distractions that can derail your focus, slow your progress, and sap your creative energy. Here are a few ways to maintain undivided focus:

  • Have a dedicated writing space and make it a distraction-free zone.
  • Silence devices and mute notifications when you’re writing.
  • Block out any noise disturbances with headphones or soothing music.
  • Keep your area organized.
  • Let other people in your home know when you’re writing and would like to not be disturbed.
  • Use apps like Freedom , which block distracting websites and apps for a set period of time.
  • Use the full-screen option on your word processor or writing tool of choice, which eliminates everything on your screen, except your page. Most writing software, including Microsoft Word and Google Docs, offer this option.

3. Use triggers to get into writing flow

The best way to build a writing habit that results in faster writing? Trick your brain. Just as Pavlov’s dogs associated the bell ring with food, your brain associates the trigger with writing. This creates a conditioned response, making it easier to quickly shift your mental state from distraction to concentration, leading to improved writing speed and efficiency.

To use triggers effectively:

  • Identify your trigger: It can be as simple as lighting a scented candle or playing a specific playlist.
  • Create a routine: Implement your trigger consistently before each writing session, establishing a habit.
  • Associate it with writing: Ensure the trigger is uniquely associated with the act of writing. Over time, your brain will connect the two.

4. Honor your own creative process

Some writers like to wake up in the morning and get their work done before anyone else is out of bed. Others are night owls. Some of us write full time, while others do it part time or as a hobby. Some writers prefer scene-by-scene outlines before they’ll commit a single word to the page while others fly by the seat of their pants.

If you’re a night owl who’s being forced to write in the morning, you’re not going to be your most creative self. That will show up in both your writing speed and the joy you experience in the actual writing process.

That’s why it’s important to be true to yourself and honor your unique creative process. When you work with your creative energy rather than against it, speed will naturally follow.

5. Create a workflow

One of the best things I did to increase my writing speed is to create templates and workflows for every piece of writing.

There are always going to be the same steps involved in writing a blog post—outline, research, first draft, editing, proofreading, finding or creating images, and publishing—and if I could systematize the process, then I’d spend less time worrying about the next step and more time actually doing it.

For example, I know from experience that I’m more productive when I’m batching my tasks. So I make a list of all the stories I have due to my editors over the next two weeks and do certain tasks, such as researching and setting up interviews, for all the stories in one go. Similarly, when I know I have a bunch of book chapters to write , I’ll outline as many as I can before I start the actual writing. The editing process? Far easier to get through ten posts at once when I’m in the self-editing zone than trying to do them one at a time.

6. Use writing sprints

This is the single most important writing tip I can give you to increase speed. Because when I started implementing writing sprints into my process, my word count practically exploded . I went from writing 500-1,000 words a day to 3,000-5,000 words, often effortlessly.

So what are writing sprints? They’re focused, time-limited writing sessions typically lasting from 10 minutes to 25 minutes, during which you commit to uninterrupted, intensive writing, with the goal of writing as much as possible. Sprints, especially when they’re short and focused, can be an excellent way to channel your focus and boost your productivity —and word count.

Sprints are an excellent writing tool for a few reasons:

  • They encourage intense, concentrated speed writing by giving you limited writing time.
  • They can help you push through writer’s block , resistance, and hesitation.
  • The pressure of a sprint can lead to creative breakthroughs and innovative ideas.
  • Completing multiple sprints in succession builds writing momentum and a sense of accomplishment without having to spend a lot of time in the chair.
  • By sprinting with others, you can share writing goals and progress, fostering accountability and motivation.
  • Word sprints allow you to allocate time specifically for writing and use it wisely.
  • You don’t need to write every day to see results.

7. Learn to type faster

It’s not frequently talked about, but think about it: If you’re a slow typist, you’re limiting how many words you can get out on to the page, right?

The pecking and hunting of keys I was doing in my first year of freelancing wasn’t getting me to my goals fast enough, and so, the impatient writer that I am, I taught myself to touch type. This involves learning how to type without looking at the keyboard. By mastering touch typing, you can type faster and more accurately, and this automatically increases your writing speed.

To become proficient at touch typing:

  • Familiarize yourself with your keyboard layout, since knowing the position of each key and its function is essential for efficient typing.
  • Considering using typing software and apps designed to improve your typing speed and accuracy.
  • The key to improving typing speed is consistent practice. You may find it incredibly frustrating in the beginning when you’re learning the basics and your speed crashes to a halt as you figure out where your fingers go. However, I can promise you that the more you practice, the more exponentially your speed will rise when you become proficient.
  • Online typing games and tests can be both fun and educational. They provide real-time feedback on your typing speed and accuracy, motivating you to improve.

8. Try freewriting

To eliminate perfectionist tendencies, try freewriting.

Freewriting involves setting aside your inner critic and letting your thoughts flow freely on to the page or screen. It’s a process of writing without rules or structure. During a freewriting session, your goal is to generate stream of consciousness writing. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors. Let the grammar checker handle that later. For now, just focus on capturing your thoughts, feelings, and ideas as they arise.

Freewriting isn’t something you’ll be doing when you’re working on deadlines or work that’s meant for publication. Instead, use freewriting for practice. By learning to loosen up your mind and your fingers during freewriting sessions, you’ll find it easier to do when writing for publication as well.

9. Use placeholders

If all else fails, try using the old journalist’s trick of using TK as a placeholder when you need to check a fact or research something. TK stands for “to come” and easily stands out in a document because there’s no word in the English language where those two letters appear together.

Using TK as a placeholder allows you to do a global search of your document once you’ve finished the first draft and find areas you need to address without breaking the flow of your writing in the moment. This is an especially great tip for writers who waste time going down a rabbit hole of research and end up losing hours or days of writing time to aspects of the work that are better handled later.

10. Know that editing is not writing

The simplest answer to the question “How do I write faster?” is “By not stopping when you’re in the middle of it.”

That’s exactly what most writers do, of course. You’ll be in the flow with a scene and you’ll stop to fix a typo. Or you’re racing through your rough draft when you notice that the formatting is wonky and must be fixed before you can type another sentence.

Hear me when I say this: Researching is not writing. Revising is not writing. Proofreading? Not writing.

There will be time for all of that later. When you’re in the editing phase, you will come back to this manuscript and go through it with an editor’s eye. But when you’re writing, the creator in you needs to have the freedom to race ahead without being bound by the constraints of spell check.

If you want to become a faster writer, leave the editor at the door when you sit down to write.

11. Embrace the art of productive procrastination

Productive procrastination is my superpower and one of the main reasons I’m able to remain prolific even when I get creatively blocked on certain projects.

The concept itself refers to a situation where you delay or avoid working on a primary or essential task by engaging in other productive activities or tasks. These alternative activities, while unrelated to the primary task, are still productive in nature and can provide a sense of accomplishment.

For example, this morning I was meant to be working on a novel synopsis that an editor has requested. I found myself procrastinating on this job, but instead of watching Netflix or playing a video game, which is what I would have done a few years ago, I started writing this article. While I am still procrastinating on the synopsis, rather than engaging in unproductive or time-wasting behaviors, such as mindlessly browsing social media or watching TV, I’m bringing another project closer to the finish line instead.

12. Be comfortable when you write

While many writers like to get dressed and put on make-up before they sit down to write so they can feel more professional while “on the job,” I lean more towards comfort.

Being comfortable while I write, whether that’s in bed or in a coffee shop, is essential to nurturing my creativity and sustaining productivity. When I’m physically comfortable, I can focus on my plot and how my character’s situation is going to work out, rather than the cramp in my leg or the way the chair is digging into my back.

Create an environment that promotes focus and minimizes distractions. This can make a significant difference in the quality and quantity of your output. Consider investing in an ergonomic chair, a well-designed workspace, and proper lighting to enhance your comfort, especially during extended writing sessions. Maintaining good posture and taking short breaks to stretch can prevent discomfort and fatigue, allowing you to stay immersed in your writing without interruptions.

13. Utilize the Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique is a time management and productivity method that’s designed to help individuals enhance their focus, manage distractions, and improve productivity by breaking work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.

With this method, you’d select a task you want to work on, set a timer for 25 minutes (a Pomodoro) and don’t stop writing until the timer goes off. When the Pomodoro timer rings, take a five-minute break, and then start another Pomodoro to continue working on the tasks. Typically, after completing four Pomodoros (about two hours of work), you’d take a longer break of 15-30 minutes.

Here are some ways in which the Pomodoro technique can be useful for writers and why I recommend you try it:

  • Structured work intervals: The Pomodoro technique breaks your work into focused intervals, during which you commit to focused writing, eliminating distractions and maintaining a consistent pace.
  • Time management: By allocating a specific duration to your writing tasks, the Pomodoro technique encourages you to manage your time effectively .
  • Preventing burnout: The regular breaks built into the Pomodoro technique are crucial for preventing burnout. Extended writing sessions can lead to mental fatigue, which hampers your creativity and productivity. Short breaks provide an opportunity to recharge, clear your mind, and return to writing with renewed energy and focus.
  • Incremental progress: Writing a large document or tackling a substantial project can feel overwhelming. This method encourages you to approach your work in smaller, more manageable chunks. Over time, these focused intervals accumulate, leading to a significant amount of written content.
  • Tracking and reflection: The technique’s structured approach allows you to track your writing sessions more effectively. You can monitor how many Pomodoros you complete in a day and use that to assess your productivity.
  • Enhanced concentration: One of the biggest benefits of the Pomodoro technique is in its ability to enhance concentration. During each Pomodoro, you’re encouraged to maintain a laser-like focus on your writing. Over time, this practice can improve your ability to concentrate for extended periods, making your writing sessions more efficient.

14. Write by hand

When it comes to the decision of whether to type or write by hand, the choice may not be solely about handwriting speed. It’s also about which method opens up a different creative part of your brain. Many writers find that picking up a fountain pen and putting it to paper can to be a conduit to a more profound connection with your thoughts and ideas.

So, how do you write faster when using this analog method? My recommendation would be to use this process for idea generation and deeper connections through journaling, especially if you’re stuck with a project and need to generate a path forward quickly.

15. Try dictation

Dictation can be a game-changing tool for many writers, especially if you’re a slow typist and find it difficult to keep pace with your thoughts. Dictation, which involves speaking your words aloud for transcription, uses voice recognition software to significantly boost your writing output. Here’s why.

  • Faster than typing: For most people, speaking is faster than typing. You can articulate your thoughts quickly and naturally, and this speed advantage allows you to capture ideas as they flow.
  • Hands-free multitasking: Dictation frees up your hands, allowing you to “write” while you’re doing household chores, taking a walk, or relaxing on the sofa.
  • Conversational tone: Dictation often results in a more conversational tone in your writing. This can be particularly useful for dialogue in fiction, blog posts, or speeches.

To get started with dictation, you’ll need a compatible device or software, such as a smartphone with voice recognition capabilities or dedicated dictation software. It’s also important to remember that while dictation can be a powerful tool to increase your writing speed, it may take some practice to become proficient and start creating high-quality content.

16. Improve by 1% each day

The principle of improving by 1% each day is a powerful concept that can have a profound impact on your writing speed and overall productivity. It’s based on the idea that consistent, incremental progress can lead to significant improvements over time. While aiming for massive leaps in writing speed may seem daunting, committing to a 1% improvement over the next day is manageable and sustainable.

The beauty of this approach is that it allows you to focus on small, achievable goals. By dedicating a small portion of your time to deliberate practice and skill development, you gradually build proficiency. Over weeks and months, these incremental gains compound, resulting in noticeable enhancements in your writing speed.

Moreover, the 1% improvement mentality encourages consistency and perseverance, key traits for any writer.

17. Take part in writing challenges

If you want to level up quickly, on the other hand, a writing challenge can push you out of your comfort zone and be a powerful motivator. Knowing that you have a limited window of time to complete a writing task encourages you to focus and hit those word count goals efficiently. This time pressure can help you overcome procrastination and writer’s block, forcing you to dive into writing and maintain a steady pace. Over time, this practice improves your ability to work swiftly without compromising quality.

Here are the challenges I recommend for speeding up your writing:

  • NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) : Write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days during the month of November. (If you’re doing this, don’t forget to check out our 30-day book writing plan .)
  • Story a Day : A month-long short story challenge in which writers write a short story every day in May.
  • 12 x 12 : Write a children’s picture book every month of the year
  • The 365 Writing Challenge : Write 1,000 words a day for a year.
  • 30 Days, 30 Queries : Our very own freelance pitching challenge, in which writers write and send 30 pitches to national and international publications over 30 days.

18. Be accountable

There’s only so much you can do on your own. When your motivation starts lagging, it’s time to bring in some accountability. Accountability can look different from writer to writer, depending on how much help you need to say on track, your relationship with external validation, and your personal preferences.

Some ways to build accountability into your writing process include:

  • Join a writing group: Participate in a group or workshop where members share their goals and progress.
  • Find a writing partner: You can set goals together, as well as check in at a certain time of day or week, in order to track progress.
  • Use apps: There are multiple apps and online tools designed to help writers set and track their goals. These can send reminders, track word count goals, and provide visual progress updates.
  • Create a reward system: Reward yourself for meeting writing milestones. It could be a small treat, a special activity, or anything else that keeps you motivated.
  • Publicly declare your goals: Share your writing goals on social media or with your friends and family. Knowing that others are aware of your objectives can boost your commitment.

19. Give it time

Fast writing doesn’t develop overnight. It’s a skill that evolves alongside your overall writing proficiency. As you progress along your journey, your writing skills and speed will naturally improve. However, it’s crucial to understand that achieving excellence in writing, whether in terms of speed or quality, primarily comes from practice and dedication.

Want to write better? Write more.

Want to be a writer faster? Write more.

Want to produce a larger body of work? Write more.

Good writing comes from practice. Make sure, daily, to practice more.

Fast track your way to writing speed

No matter whether you’re building up your writing speed so you can make more money or because you’re ready to finish that damn novel, Wordling Plus can help you find the tools and strategies you need to make it happen more easily.

In less than five minutes, you can sign up and get access to 5K Every Day, our 8-video training bundle, that will show you how to get started writing 5,000 words a day, today .

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How to Write an Essay Fast

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Do you need to write an essay fast and get an excellent score? Are you in a rush and need to complete the writing task in a day or just 1 hour? Or maybe you have an upcoming test with strict time constraints for the writing section, such as a 30-minute limit for the SAT essay or 45 minutes given for an ACT writing prompt? Whatever your case is, it's important to stay focused, organized, and efficient. And you are in the right place to master speedy writing. 

In this guide, we have compiled 12 valuable tips to help you create top-notch papers and write faster within tough time constraints. Whether you are faced with a challenging topic that requires in-depth analysis, or need to produce a high-quality essay quickly for a test or assignment, these suggestions will come in handy. 

Let’s jump into the topic and find out how to write an essay quickly and efficiently. Alternatively, you can pay for essay to get results twice as fast.

How Long Does It Take to Write a Paper Fast

Every student wants to know how to write an essay fast and with less effort. It is a complicated task, as it requires a lot of previous preparation and understanding of basic writing and research principles. The amount of time required to complete a paper depends on several factors:

  • Length of an essay
  • Topic complexity
  • Depth of preliminary research
  • Writing skills.

Generally, if you have a good topic understanding and have a solid outline, you will be able to write a 5-paragraph essay in a few hours or even less. On the other hand, if you are writing a research paper , it may take several days to complete, even if you are working fast. 

In this blog, we will discuss how to write a paper fast to help you quickly cope with assignments and enjoy your student life.

Tips on How Write an Essay Fast

Let’s start with a clear goal – you need to write an essay quickly and get the highest possible score. Start with appropriate preparation. Ensure you dedicate enough time to planning, understanding the task, creating an outline, and writing your essay. Consider an essential structure for your text that can be easily applied during the test or assignment.

The secret of fast and effective writing is appropriate planning and a clear understanding of assignments. Practice and learn from the best essay examples to write papers faster. In the following sections, we will focus on quick essay writing tips to improve your essays and make the whole writing process much more manageable.

1. Ged Rid of Distractions

To write essays faster, you need to be entirely concentrated on your work. Focusing intensely on something for an hour or more can be complicated, but this is the only way to complete your task quickly. Remember that you don’t have much time. Most likely you will spend 30% of your time on the planning and research part. Turn off all your gadgets, and ensure that messages and calls don’t distract you. Organize your workplace and dedicate time to writing. 

You can write your essay fast but should focus only on this task. It is essential to clarify what can be a distraction and fix it. For example, you may want to check your social media all the time. Then put your gadgets in another room to focus on your assignment.

2. Plan Every Minute of Your Time

Every minute of your writing process should be planned. If you need to learn how to write an essay in an hour, start planning the exact amount of time for creating each section of your paper. You may use our Assignment Calculator to divide your task into smaller pieces and stay on track. 

Let’s look at this 60 minutes example and what your time-planning can look like. You will need 5 minutes to create an outline and 10 minutes for each part of your text. An introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion will take 50 minutes in sum. Allot additional 5 minutes for revision. 

Ensure you are not spending 30 minutes on the hook intro to your essay. Be precise with the timing.

3. Set a Timer to Achieve Your Writing Goal

For fast essay writing, you need to have a lot of experience. As we have mentioned before, being proficient in time management is essential. But how to feel time and see the difference between 10 and 20 minutes? Practice is the answer. Set up a timer for 60 minutes and try to finalize your essay. Ultimately, you will see how much more time you need to improve your text. 

You may be a talented college essay writer and find that you can create a masterpiece in 60 minutes without any specific preparations. Who knows! But try working with a timer first! Write your essay fast and check how many essential points you are missing.

4. Carefully Read the Task

Start with careful assignment reading to learn how to write a good essay fast. No doubt that this is 50% of your success. 

When it comes to writing assignments, you may be given a prompt that includes questions or 3 different positions to choose from. Alternatively, you may be presented with a quote and tasked with elaborating on its meaning and explaining your understanding. It is essential to understand what each specific task is about. In this case, you won’t spend 20 minutes writing the answer to a wrong question. 

If you find that you don't fully understand the writing task at first glance, don't worry. Get acquainted with instructions again, and if necessary, read them one more time. And only after that move to the next step to avoid unnecessary confusion.

5. Do Quick Research

If you need to write an essay in 30 minutes, it may sound problematic to conduct research before commencing. However, if you have an hour or 2 for your text, it is possible to run a quick research that will improve your text significantly. 

To finish an essay fast, you must learn to conduct research quickly. If you have the Internet access, look at the statistics on your topic, as numbers often strengthen your statements. Search for the latest data, new discoveries, or approaches in analysis in your area. Maybe, you’ll find interesting facts or evidence supporting your point of view. Do not forget to save all relevant links.

6. Identify the Main Idea and Stick to It

Before jumpstarting the writing process, you must define the statements you will argue in your essay. Be clear with your main idea to do an essay fast. Otherwise, you will spend all your time discussing what viewpoint is the best to stand on. 

Here’s what you should consider in choosing the right statement for your essay:

  • You don’t need the right answer – opt for the one you can find argumentation on. Choose the main idea that can be easily elaborated and developed.
  • Find a unique angle. If you have 3 prompt perspectives and need to select only one, be original and try to stand on an issue not presented in a prompt.
  • To finish essays quickly, do not choose the most complicated but the most perspective point of view. It’s better to have a lot of various arguments for your statements.
  • If possible, choose a position that can be supported by personal experience. Giving personal examples or sharing your feelings on the topic is vital and will make your text outspoken.
  • Do not change your statements while developing the topic. If you want to get an essay done fast, be consistent with your chosen position.

7. Create an Outline

When you need to write a long essay fast, don’t spend much time on devising a detailed essay outline . However, you need to build a basic structure for your text, as it will definitely save time in the long run. 

What can be included in your outline?

  • Intro: Write a few catchy sentences to introduce your topic.
  • Thesis statement: Outline your position on this topic.
  • 1st Body paragraph: Present the first argument followed by analysis and examples.
  • 2nd Body paragraph: Mention the second argument.
  • 3rd Body paragraph: Elaborate on the third argument.
  • Conclusion: Summarize your argumentation and provide a call to action.

Even if you don’t go deep with each point in your outline, clarify the critical thoughts for each part of your paper.

8. Follow a Basic Structure

The fastest way to write an essay is to be strict with the basic structure you decide to use. Usually, it will be an introduction, 2 or 3 body paragraphs and a conclusion section. If you already have an outline, you know the crucial points for each section. In this stage, the best way to save time is to stick to this essay structure without trying to add a few new paragraphs. 

For a solid paper, you should be logical and consistent in argumentation. If you are working on 5 paragraph essay, do not try to change its organization in the middle of the writing process.

9. Choose Quality Over Quantity

Writing an essay really fast does not mean you need to write a lot and put into the paper everything you have in your head. Submitting longer text than required doesn’t mean you will have a better score. Paradoxically, students tend to make more mistakes in lengthy pieces.

For example, if the task is to write a 1000-word essay, and students are trying to expand it to 1500 words, there is a risk that such paper will contain many errors. In this case, you will have less time for planning, research, and outlining and probably no time for proofreading. Don’t compromise on the quality of your text, since it’s more critical for advanced scoring! 

>> Read more: How to Write a 1000 Word Essay

10. Write an Introduction and Conclusion Last

If you want your paper done fast, start with the main body and argumentation paragraphs first. It can sound strange, as we got used to beginning with the essay introduction . But how will you hook your reader if you are unsure about your arguments yet? The solution is simple. Create 3 paragraphs with argumentation, then move to an introduction section. It will be way easier to identify what can entice your reader and become a benefit for the intro paragraph. 

Also, you will write your conclusion section only after you finish everything. By doing so, you will be able to paraphrase your thesis statement and wrap up only essential aspects.

>> Learn more: How to Conclude an Essay

11. Separate Drafting and Revision

Drafting your essay and carrying out a final essay revision are two separate processes, and you need to plan time for each one accordingly. For writing papers faster, draft your text right after creating an outline. It does not mean you should go into details. But add one introductory sentence to each text part and then move to more profound idea development. 

Revision of your ideas and argumentation is also a separate process. Plan at least 5 minutes to go through drafted ideas and critically analyze them. 

Quite often, students do drafting and revision at once. But we recommend separating this process to make your writing more efficient.

12. Proofread Your Essay

Writing a paper in less than an hour does not mean you can submit it with grammar or spelling mistakes. You should have at least 5-7 minutes for proofreading. Even if you are working on a 20-minute essay, allocate enough time for further improvements. Deep and valuable thoughts and arguments won’t help if your paper has many mistakes. Check the most common spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors that may occur in your text. Pay attention to the general structure and ensure you are not missing any logical connections. 

Proofreading is as important as building a solid statement for your essay. This is the ground for excellent grading.

Mistakes to Avoid While Writing an Essay Quickly

You may feel pressure to write your essay in under 30 minutes, but it does not mean you can’t create great work. How to succeed with this task? Be focused on your paper and try to avoid the most common mistakes. 

Here is the list of typical flaws:

  • Repeating introduction sentences in the conclusion. You need to summarize your thoughts at the end, not paraphrase your intro.
  • Not planning enough time for research and revision. You may think you won’t forget to proofread your essay before submission, but you will often run out of time.
  • Including too much information into a 200-word essay. Use only facts and information that will benefit your text, not everything you know on a topic.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Fast Essay Writing

Submitting a last-minute essay can be quite a challenge for anyone. However, after some practice, you may feel it is more effective than spending days on a paper. It is evident that fast writing has pros and cons, and here we will cover them.

The advantages of a fast-written essay are:

  • Ability to submit your work on time
  • Honing effective time management skills and increasing productivity
  • Nurturing concentration on important facts and only necessary information
  • Gaining confidence and approaching future tasks with ease.

At the same time, there are a lot of disadvantages of working with time-limited writing assignments. Here are some of them:

  • Deadline pressure can make writers less creative.
  • You may not plan enough time for proofreading, and it will affect even a well-written essay.
  • You may have no time for research, and it will make your essay less valuable and robust.
  • Focusing on each essay part separately may cause logic gaps in a text.

Bottom Line on How to Write Essays Quickly

In your study life, you will definitely face situations when you need to write an essay fast – in 20 or 60 minutes. It may look tricky, as last minute paper submission is always stressful. But in this blog, we provided you with the most effective tips on writing your essay fast and easy. 

It can be a piece of cake for you – just plan your time, pay attention to details, and do not forget about the proofreading part. We did our best to share actionable suggestions on how to write faster. Follow our advice on content writing and be confident in your academic writing success!

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Buy essay papers from our academic writing service. Powered by great experience, our writers will find a quick solution to your request.

FAQ on How to Write an Essay Fast

1. can you write an essay in 30 minutes.

As a student, you will often be given tasks with 30 minutes allotted to complete it. Creating a solid essay in 30 minutes can be daunting, but it is definitely achievable. You need to hone time planning and research skills to handle your paper quickly.

2. How to finish an essay fast?

Usually, you will come to a conclusion section at the last minute. To finish a good essay fast, you can use suggestions at the end, underline your point of view or ask your reader to think on this topic. For example, you may ask the readers’ choice in this situation. Or you may come up with a rhetorical question at the end.

3. How many minutes is a 300 word essay?

On average, people will need 7.5 minutes to type 300 words on a computer and almost 15 minutes for handwriting. However, it does not mean that 7 minutes will be enough to finish your assignments. Identify statements and argumentation, spend time on an outline and draft, and finally have some time for editing and proofreading.

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Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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How to Write Essays Faster in Exams: Tips to Pass Timed Essays

Tips to Write Faster & Pass Timed Essays

Tips to Write Faster & Pass Timed Essays

Writing timed exam essays can be challenging for many students because it is often difficult to produce high-quality work within a short time. 

However, this should not worry you because this article will lay down the tips to write essays faster in addition to giving you the best methods of managing time during timed essays and ways of studying for essay exams. 

How to write Essays faster in Exams

start-stop-sign

1. Understand the Question

When assigned a timed essay, take some time to read the essay prompt carefully. Ensure that you clearly understand the requirements before doing anything else.  

how to write timed essays faster

It is very easy to go off-topic when you miss out on important details within the instructions. You may write the required essay length but still produce irrelevant content.

Therefore, it is imperative to take some time to read the prompt and understand the requirements carefully. 

To ensure that you maintain focus on the topic as you write, you should highlight or underline key points. 

2. Plan your Essay

Once you have understood the requirements of the essay, take some additional time, probably a few minutes, to plan before commencing the writing process. 

Planning is very important when beginning the writing process because it gives you a roadmap of what you are going to present in your writing. 

When planning, you should develop a brief outline that indicates the main points you will be addressing in each paragraph and their supporting arguments. 

One of the benefits of an outline is to ensure that you remain organized throughout your essay. It also helps give your essay a logical flow whereby your points are well structured.

It will also make the writing process considerably faster.

3. Stick to the Structure

While planning your essay, ensure that your outline adheres to the standard structure of an introduction paragraph with a thesis statement as its last sentence, body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. 

By doing so, you will be giving your essay a clear framework that also helps maintain coherence. As such, the structure should also be reflected during the actual writing. 

4. Use Concise Language

You do not have time to play around with words when writing essays during exams. You have very limited time to support your arguments adequately.

Because of this, you should use clear and concise language to avoid unnecessary wordiness.

You should focus on effectively expressing the strongest ideas without using unnecessary phrases or words. 

Additionally, you should avoid using passive voice since it is wordier. Use active voice because it is clear, concise, and less wordy. 

5. Write an Impactful Introduction

essay introduction

Start the essay with a strong and engaging introduction when you begin writing. 

It should begin with a hook that catches your readers’ attention, followed by a brief overview of what will be discussed within the essay, and end with a thesis statement (main argument). 

A good introduction sets the tone for the essay in addition to grabbing the readers’ attention. 

6. Focus on Key Points

Once you have written the introduction paragraph, write the body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should contain an individual point with supporting arguments and evidence. 

Avoid delving into unnecessary details because it may result in going off-topic. Stick to the main idea and move on to the next point, which will be contained in a different paragraph.

7. Use Transition Phrases

Always use transitional words and phrases between paragraphs. This creates a good flow between sentences and paragraphs. 

Transitional words and phrases help connect your ideas to make your essay more coherent. 

8. Provide Concise Explanations

Though supporting your points and arguments with evidence is good, be concise when explaining your points. 

Stick to precise language and avoid wordy explanations that take your writing time.

9. Write a Succinct Conclusion

In the conclusion paragraph, restate the thesis statement and summarize the main points. 

Produce a concise and impactful ending to reinforce your main argument. Avoid introducing new ideas within the conclusion. 

10. Proofread and Edit well

Take a few minutes to proofread and edit your essay. While doing so, locate any grammatical errors, awkward sentences, and typos. Make quick edits without rewriting entire paragraphs. 

Tips on how to Manage Time in Timed Essays

Read and analyze the prompt fast.

managing time during exam

Use the first few minutes to read and understand essay instructions. Make sure that you identify the central topic and the key points that need to be addressed.

Plan your Essay before you Commence Writing

Take a few moments to brainstorm and create a brief essay outline for the essay.

Put down the main points for each paragraph. This gives you a clear structure that will save time while writing.

Set the Goals for each Section

Divide the time given for the essay based on the different sections, such as the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Set a specific time limit for each part.

Begin with a Strong and Concise Introduction

Start with a captivating introduction that is not only concise but also impactful. Do not spend unnecessary time on your introduction.

Focus on the Main Points

The body paragraphs should address particular arguments or points. Adhere to the main ideas and supporting evidence. Avoid excessive explanations or unnecessary tangents.

Use Time-saving Techniques

Some of the well-known time-saving techniques include the “rule of three”, whereby you present three supporting examples for each idea or argument. 

This approach helps avoid spending too much time on one idea or argument.

Keep an eye on the Clock

Keep checking the time regularly while writing a timed essay to determine the remaining time. If you know the remaining time, you can make adjustments or pace yourself.

Leave time for Proofreading

When planning the time for the essay sections, leave a few minutes for editing and proofreading. Here you can correct any grammatical errors, typos, or inconsistencies. 

How to Study for Essay Exams

1. understand the exam format.

When studying for essay exams, familiarize yourself with the requirements and format of the exam. Know the possible time limit and essay length.

Exams in progress

2. Review the Course Material

Review the course material, such as textbooks, readings, lecture notes, and other resources your instructor gave. Identify the main themes, arguments, and concepts discussed throughout the course. 

3. Organize your Material and Notes

Create an effectively organized system for your materials and notes that utilizes color coding, headings, and subheadings to highlight and categorize the most important information.

This helps locate the most relevant content when studying for essay exams.

4. Identify Potential Topics 

Make a list of potential areas of focus or essay topics based on the course discussions and material. Look for emphasized topics, controversial issues, and recurring themes and prioritize them for study.

5. Review Sample Essay Questions

Review previous exam questions given by your instructor or sample essay questions. Take note of the questions’ structure, main points addressed, and expectations of responses. This will give you an idea of what to expect. 

Finally, if you have more time to study for essay exams, you may practice: outlining and brainstorming, creating strong arguments from potential essay topics, and timed writing from those topics

Timed Essay Examples (Topics)

1. Discuss the impact of social media on interpersonal communication

2. Analyze the causes and consequences of climate change

3. Examine the advantages and disadvantages of online education

4. Analyze the role of technology in shaping society

5. Discuss the impact of social media activism on social change

6. Discuss the role of government in addressing income inequality

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Josh Jasen or JJ as we fondly call him, is a senior academic editor at Grade Bees in charge of the writing department. When not managing complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In his spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

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Summarize With AI: A Comprehensive Guide

Matt Ellis

Whether you’re researching, searching for sources, or summing up your own writing, AI summarization can make the work go faster. Below we talk about how to summarize with AI: why it’s useful, when it comes in handy, and how to do it yourself.

But first let’s talk about what AI and data summarization is and how automated summarization technology works.

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What is AI summarization?

AI summarization is the use of AI like Grammarly or ChatGPT to provide a brief synopsis of a larger document. By using AI for quick information processing, you can read short summaries of long works to see if they contain what you’re looking for before you commit to them. You can also use AI and data summarization for your own writing as a shortcut to condense your own points.

How to summarize with AI

Automated summarization technology works just like other AI: It all starts with AI writing prompts . An AI prompt is the command a user types into the message window that tells the AI what to do and explains the details, such as the topic or length. The wording of your AI prompt is crucial to getting the results you need.

First you need to research AI tools to find one that suits you. When you’re ready, tell the AI to summarize what you need. If it’s a shorter document or passage, like an email, you can copy and paste the text directly into the AI message window. If it’s a longer work, like a book, you only need to mention the title, as the AI should be able to reference it from the internet. If it’s a website or an online article, you can paste the URL in the prompt window.

The writing prompt doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should include everything the AI needs to know. A basic AI summarization template prompt could be as simple as:

Summarize this text: [paste copied text] .

Summarize [title of document] .

Summarize the text here: [URL]

However, you’ll get more precise results if you add more details.

Summarize The Count of Monte Cristo in three paragraphs, using language a third-grader could understand.

One last tip—it’s best to include all the information the AI needs in a single message. Some AI tools treat each message as an independent session.

AI document summarization: Books, articles, emails, etc.

AI document summarization has a variety of uses, including practical applications in research and more personal conveniences in everyday life.

Using AI in content analysis is perhaps the most common use. When conducting research for academic writing like a research paper , you don’t have time to read every potential source to see if it has what you want. Instead, you can use AI to summarize both primary sources and secondary sources to reveal if they fit your research topic.

You still need to read the final sources to find the key information (summaries don’t typically cover those details). Still, AI summarization can narrow down your sources so you only have to read the ones you think are relevant.

AI summarization can also make your daily life easier by giving you the gist of materials so you don’t have to read or watch them yourself. For example, if you’re behind on your emails, AI email summarization can sum up particularly long messages so you don’t have to read each one word for word.

Summarizing with AI can even help you choose which books to read or movies/TV shows to watch, although if you don’t phrase your prompt carefully, you might get spoilers. Also, if you forget where you left off with a TV series, you can read AI summaries of episodes until you find your place.

Summarize your writing with AI

It can be difficult to summarize your own work because you’ve spent so much time on it and see the relevance of every detail. Summarizing with AI provides an unbiased, outside perspective on what the key points are that you might have missed.

AI summarization is useful whenever you need to summarize yourself. For example, when applying to jobs, employers often want you to give a résumé summary in the cover letter (even though the résumé is right there , but whatever . . .). Summarizing your résumé with AI can save you some time, especially if you need to write a few cover letters simultaneously.

Likewise, writing an executive summary of a business report or another work document can be faster with AI. This applies even if you’re tasked with summarizing a work document you did not write, although in that case you should probably read it yourself, as AI is known to make mistakes.

Another less obvious application for AI summarization is helping you write a thesis statement for a research paper or other academic writing. A thesis statement is a succinct sentence that encapsulates the entire point of your paper, usually placed in the introduction as a way to explain to your readers what the paper is about.

Thesis statements can be difficult to write—after all, if a topic takes pages to explain, how can you cut it down to a single sentence? An easier workaround is to finish the rest of the paper first and then summarize it with AI into a sentence. You can then work that sentence, your thesis statement, into the introduction when you revise .

When using AI summarization with your own work, the most important thing to remember is that you need to reword it . Copying AI text is still plagiarism, even if the AI is summarizing you . The AI summarization can help you see which points to mention and recommend certain phrasing, but be sure to change the wording and revise it to make it your own.

AI summarization FAQs

How do you use ai for summarization.

In the AI prompt, simply ask the AI to “summarize” a text. You can refer to the text by its title if it is a well-known work or copy and paste the text directly into the message window if it’s not too large. If you want to summarize a web page or an online article, you can add the URL to the prompt.

Can you use summarizing with AI for papers and reports?

Summarizing with AI is incredibly helpful when it comes to finding sources for research. AI summarization can reveal whether or not a source is relevant to your paper’s topic before you commit to reading the entire thing.

What are the best tools for efficient summarization with AI?

Most functional AIs can handle summarization, although some are better than others. Try using an AI tool that’s already established itself, like ChatGPT, or one from a well-known brand, like Grammarly.

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To order a paper, you must sign up and calculate the price while filling out the order form, which is less convenient than using a price calculator. After receiving the final version of your paper, you will have ten days to request revisions and send your comments on how the college essay writer could improve their work.

Prices start at $9.94 for proofreading, $11.70 for editing, and $17.55  for writing. You can get a 15% lifetime discount on all your future papers if you buy more than ten essays from BBQPapers.

BBQPapers offers a 10% first-order discount for new customers, so be sure to use the code HELLOBBQ to claim it.

#3. EssayPro  — Best for Balance Between Quality and Affordability

EssayPro  Best for Balance Between Quality and Affordability

  • Ability to pick your own writer.
  • Direct communication with a professional writer is possible.
  • Unlimited revisions.
  • Free plagiarism report.
  • No price calculator.
  • Reports of typos and grammar errors in final drafts.

EssayPro is a legit essay writing service that connects professional writers with college students who need an excellent assignment on short notice. Their primary services include writing, rewriting, editing, and proofreading.

The ordering process is easy. All you need to do is complete a form detailing your assignment details and upload the necessary files. Professional college essay writers will then bid on your assignment, and you can pick one based on pricing, rating, number of completed orders, job completion rate, and customer reviews. Writers will also provide a free plagiarism report at your request.

Once your paper is ready, download it and request revisions if necessary. EssayPro can help you with a research paper, admission essay, lab report, thesis, or academic dissertation. This site covers all high school, college, and university writing assignments.

Their prices start at $11.40 , but there is no price calculator to quickly estimate the cost. EssayPro operates as a bidding-based platform, and professional paper writers offer the final price. The most prominent standout feature of EssayPro is that their prices don’t dramatically scale depending on the urgency of your paper and stay roughly the same across all deadlines.

For this reason, EssayPro is the top pick for students who need their papers written urgently and are looking for a good balance between price and quality.

#4. ExtraEssay  — Best for Last-minute College Papers

ExtraEssay  Best for Last-minute College Papers

  • Great quality.
  • On-time delivery guarantee.
  • 15% discount for first-time customers.
  • Urgent turnaround time available (1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours).
  • Price calculator to get a quick cost estimate.
  • Decent reputation, lots of positive essay writing service reviews.
  • Slightly more expensive than other services.
  • Documented negative experiences with some support agents.
  • Plagiarism report costs $15.

ExtraEssay has been writing college papers since 2016. During this time, they have amassed a large team of over 3,500 experts who can help you with all writing emergencies.

They offer a wide range of college essay services and do not only focus on academic assignments. You can use this service for some non-conventional tasks like PowerPoint presentations, retyping (handwriting to word), rewriting, paraphrasing, equation solving, and more.

Similarly to EssayPro and PaperHelp, ExtraEssay has a cost estimator for your convenience. The prices are on par with BBQPapers, with basic essays starting at $13.00  per page. Choose the type of paper you want, and select your academic level, deadline, and preferred word count to receive the total cost of your order. If you need to reach them, their team is available 24/7.

One of the unique features of ExtraEssay is that it’s the only website that offers a 1-hour delivery. However, this urgency level only applies to short essays of up to three pages.

Although they can deliver your work quickly, we found that some writers at ExtraEssay can struggle to provide complex, university-level assignments on short deadlines. It might be better only to use their urgent academic writing services if you find yourself in a pickle and need a simple assignment produced on very short notice.

Overall, even though this academic writing company sits in fourth place in our list of the best paper writing services, ExtraEssay is a relatively good choice for anyone who’s looking for good quality at a fair price.

#5. WritePaperForMe  — Best Cheap Essay Writing Service

WritePaperForMe  Best Cheap Essay Writing Service

  • Cheap services, good quality.
  • Quick & timely delivery.
  • Installment payments for big orders.
  • College essay writers are available 24/7.
  • Free unlimited revision.
  • Price calculator.
  • Slow customer support.
  • Plagiarism reports are offered for a fee.
  • Sometimes, you have to copy-edit your paper to adapt it to your writing style and language.

When it comes to cheap essay writing services online, you have to be extra cautious. Writing is a complex activity, so the lower the price, the higher the chance that you will get a carelessly written, maybe even plagiarized, paper that you won’t be able to submit to your instructor.

However, this isn’t the case with WritePaperForMe, as this is one of the few legit essay writing services that provide well-written, original papers at a low price. If your budget is tight, this is the perfect option to choose. The company mostly works with knowledgeable ESL writers from Kenya to offer a quality service at a low price. Prices here start at only $6.99  per page.

They will blow you away with the range of services they offer. So, whether you need a case study, a PowerPoint presentation, college essay help or assistance with mathematical assignments, WritePaperForMe will accommodate you.

To make their professional essay writing services even more accessible, they offer customers to pay in installments for expensive papers, as they understand that you might not be able to provide the lump sum right away.

FAQs: College Essay Writing Service Explained

You’re probably desperate to write your paper if you found yourself typing ‘write my college essay’ into Google search.

This can indeed be a challenging task. For this reason, we answered some of the most common questions that students seek answers to when choosing an essay writing service.

What if I am not satisfied with my paper?

This is a common concern when ordering essays online, and it is entirely justified. Thankfully, all the paper writing services presented in this article offer a free revision service. If you are not satisfied, you can send detailed comments to the writer, and they will make the necessary adjustments to your paper.

The least flexible college essay service on this aspect is PaperHelp, which only allows three revisions. All the other services will offer unlimited revisions, at least for some time after product delivery.

If revisions don’t help, you can ask for a full refund. However, in most cases, you must explain why you did not find the work satisfactory.

How far in advance do I need to order?

It is important to try your best to request an assignment as early as possible. Most of the essay writing websites featured in this article have a very short deadline of three hours, except for WritePaperForMe, which has a minimum deadline of six.

However, even the best and fastest writers cannot produce a well-researched 30-page assignment in under three hours. But the best essay writing services will undoubtedly deliver if you need a short assignment done at the last minute.

Will a native English speaker write my essay?

Most websites allow you to choose between a native English speaker or an ESL online essay writer. An ESL writer is usually cheaper and sometimes better if you’re not a native speaker of English yourself.

If you choose PaperHelp, for instance, you must select a writer from the TOP category to guarantee a native English speaker from the U.S., Canada or the U.K. However, a writer from the TOP category will cost up to 50% more.

Is buying essays online confidential and safe?

When using a paper writing service, confidentiality is a must. EssayPro and PaperHelp provide complete anonymity, even when using their services and speaking to their writers and representatives.

Other than that, these websites take the highest precautions to protect your financial information by offering secure payment options. Lastly, none of the featured companies will ever share your personal information with third parties unless you provide them with written permission.

Are essay writing services legit?

Yes, legitimate essay writing services exist, but it may take some time to find a trustworthy service if you’re ordering for the first time. If you read Reddit threads dedicated to college paper writing services, you will see hundreds of positive reviews about companies that write essays for you.

Besides, some reputable websites are dedicated to helping students find reliable essay writing help online by collecting customer reviews on assignment writing services.

Where do essay writing companies find their professional essay writers?

Every essay writing company is different, therefore the approach to hiring writers can differ from one company to another. Most companies hire freelancers all across the globe to be able to provide essay writing services round the clock and in any timezone.

Successful candidates usually hold at least a bachelor’s degree in a field that they apply to and successfully pass a few grammar tests to be able to get access to students’ orders.

Some other companies also have in-house teams of writers. These professionals typically proofread and copy-edit all the academic writing assignments done by freelancers and improve the content if it lacks depth, research, or has any stylistic flaws.

Will my paper be plagiarism-free?

If you turn to a reliable essay writing service for help, you can rest assured that the content you will receive is original. A professional essay writer will craft a paper tailored to your requirements. Besides, you will remain its sole owner because reputable companies never resell the academic papers they write.

Some academic writing companies like BBQPapers and EssayPro provide originality reports free of charge to give you peace of mind that your essay is unique and free from plagiarism.

Are essay writing services legal?

One aspect that many students ponder over is whether it is legal to use a professional essay writing service. Plenty of misinformation is spreading, leading some students to think that purchasing a paper from an essay writing website could be illegal.

Let’s make one thing absolutely clear. It can never be illegal to purchase a written piece of work. The student simply requests a paper, and an expert essay writer provides a written piece of content that matches the requirements.

This is a transaction between a company and an individual, and nothing could imply a breach of legality. You can be sure it is safe and legal to use online essay writing services. No laws exist against using such services, regardless of what you may have been told.

Moreover, any trustworthy essay writing site has a clear disclaimer and a terms/conditions page that outlines the terms of use. It shows that these services are acting within the law and are not breaking any regulations.

A custom essay writing service is a third party that provides assignments, reports, and essays for personal private use. Therefore, the website is not liable for what happens with its content.

Reliable Essay Writing Services: Summing Up

Hopefully, this article gave you a better understanding of the topic and helped you find an essay writer service that could perfectly match you. Getting qualified college paper help  is easy if you know what to look for.

Each college paper service is unique, with its advantages and disadvantages, and it is up to you to pick the one that will help you achieve the best result possible. Life gets busy, and sometimes, we just do not have the time to dedicate hours and hours to writing essays. These services can be true lifesavers and free up some time for you to focus your energy on other important goals.

We will leave you with this final tip: if you ever request a writing service, provide detailed instructions. This information will help writers produce high-quality papers that match your expectations.

Article paid for by: Ocasio Media The news and editorial staffs of the Bay Area News Group had no role in this post’s preparation.

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17 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level

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ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other tools like them are making artificial intelligence available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These chatbots can compose sonnets, write code, get philosophical, and automate tasks.

However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you. There are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This "prompt engineering" is becoming a specialized skill of its own.

Sometimes all it takes is the addition of a few more words or an extra line of instruction and you can get ChatGPT responses that are a level above what everyone else is seeing—and we've included several examples below.

While there's lots you can do with the free version of ChatGPT, a few of these prompts require a paid ChatGPT Plus subscription —where that's the case, we've noted it in the tip.

ChatGPT can give you responses in the form of a table if you ask. This is particularly helpful for getting information or creative ideas. For example, you could tabulate meal ideas and ingredients, or game ideas and equipment, or the days of the week and how they're said in a few different languages.

Using follow-up prompts and natural language, you can have ChatGPT make changes to the tables it has drawn and even produce the tables in a standard format that can be understood by another program (such as Microsoft Excel).

If you provide ChatGPT with a typed list of information, it can respond in a variety of ways. Maybe you want it to create anagrams from a list of names, or sort a list of products into alphabetical order, or turn all the items in a list into upper case. If needed, you can then click the copy icon (the small clipboard) at the end of an answer to have the processed text sent to the system clipboard.

Screenshot of ChatGPT

Get ChatGPT to respond as your favorite author.

With some careful prompting, you can get ChatGPT out of its rather dull, matter-of-fact, default tone and into something much more interesting—such as the style of your favorite author, perhaps.

You could go for the searing simplicity of an Ernest Hemingway or Raymond Carver story, the lyrical rhythm of a Shakespearean play, or the density of a Dickens novel. The resulting prose won't come close to the genius of the actual authors themselves, but it's another way of getting more creative with the output you generate.

ChatGPT can really impress when it's given restrictions to work within, so don't be shy when it comes to telling the bot to limit its responses to a certain number of words or a certain number of paragraphs.

It could be everything from condensing the information in four paragraphs down into one, or even asking for answers with words of seven characters or fewer (just to keep it simple). If ChatGPT doesn't follow your responses properly, you can correct it, and it'll try again.

Another way of tweaking the way ChatGPT responds is to tell it who the intended audience is for its output. You might have seen WIRED's videos in which complex subjects are explained to people with different levels of understanding. This works in a similar way.

For example, you can tell ChatGPT that you are speaking to a bunch of 10-year-olds or to an audience of business entrepreneurs and it will respond accordingly. It works well for generating multiple outputs along the same theme.

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Tell ChatGPT the audience it's writing for.

ChatGPT is a very capable prompt engineer itself. If you ask it to come up with creative and effective inputs for artificial intelligence engines such as Dall-E and Midjourney , you'll get text you can then input into other AI tools you're playing around with. You're even able to ask for tips with prompts for ChatGPT itself.

When it comes to generating prompts, the more detailed and specific you are about what you're looking for the better: You can get the chatbot to extend and add more detail to your sentences, you can get it to role-play as a prompt generator for a specific AI tool, and you can tell it to refine its answers as you add more and more information.

While ChatGPT is based around text, you can get it to produce pictures of a sort by asking for ASCII art. That's the art made up of characters and symbols rather than colors. The results won't win you any prizes, but it's pretty fun to play around with.

The usual ChatGPT rules apply, in that the more specific you are in your prompt the better, and you can get the bot to add new elements and take elements away as you go. Remember the limitations of the ASCII art format though—this isn't a full-blown image editor.

Screenshot of ChatGPT

A ChatGPT Plus subscription comes with image generation.

If you use ChatGPT Plus , it's got the DALL-E image generator right inside it, so you can ask for any kind of photo, drawing, or illustration you like. As with text, try to be as explicit as possible about what it is you want to see, and how it's shown; do you want something that looks like a watercolor painting, or like it was taken by a DSLR camera? You can have some real fun with this: Put Columbo in a cyberpunk setting, or see how Jurassic Park would look in the Victorian era. The possibilities are almost endless.

You don't have to do all the typing yourself when it comes to ChatGPT. Copy and paste is your friend, and there's no problem with pasting in text from other sources. While the input limit tops out at around 4,000 words, you can easily split the text you're sending the bot into several sections and get it to remember what you've previously sent.

Perhaps one of the best ways of using this approach is to get ChatGPT to simplify text that you don't understand—the explanation of a difficult scientific concept, for instance. You can also get it to translate text into different languages, write it in a more engaging or fluid style, and so on.

If you want to go exploring, ask ChatGPT to create a text-based choose-your-own adventure game. You can specify the theme and the setting of the adventure, as well as any other ground rules to put in place. When we tried this out, we found ourselves wandering through a spooky castle, with something sinister apparently hiding in the shadows.

Screenshot of ChatGPT

ChatGPT is able to create text-based games for you to play.

Another way to improve the responses you get from ChatGPT is to give it some data to work with before you ask your question. For instance, you could give it a list of book summaries together with their genre, then ask it to apply the correct genre label to a new summary. Another option would be to tell ChatGPT about activities you enjoy and then get a new suggestion.

There's no magic combination of words you have to use here. Just use natural language as always, and ChatGPT will understand what you're getting at. Specify that you're providing examples at the start of your prompt, then tell the bot that you want a response with those examples in mind.

You can ask ChatGPT for feedback on any of your own writing, from the emails you're sending to friends, to the short story you're submitting to a competition, to the prompts you're typing into the AI bot. Ask for pointers on spelling, grammar, tone, readability, or anything else you want to scrutinize.

ChatGPT cleared the above paragraph as being clear and effective, but said it could use a call to action at the end. Try this prompt today!

Screenshot of ChatGPT

Get ChatGPT to give you feedback on your own writing.

In the same way that ChatGPT can mimic the style of certain authors that it knows about, it can also play a role: a frustrated salesman, an excitable teenager (you'll most likely get a lot of emoji and abbreviations back), or the iconic western film star John Wayne.

There are countless roles you can play around with. These prompts might not score highly in terms of practical applications, but they're definitely a useful insight into the potential of these AI chatbots.

You can type queries into ChatGPT that you might otherwise type into Google, looking for answers: Think "how much should I budget for a day of sightseeing in London?" or "what are the best ways to prepare for a job interview?" for example. Almost anything will get a response of some sort—though as always, don't take AI responses as being 100 percent accurate 100 percent of the time.

If you're using the paid ChatGPT Plus tool, it will actually search the web (with Bing) and provide link references for the answers it gives. If you're using the free version of ChatGPT, it'll mine the data its been trained on for answers, so they might be a little out of date or less reliable.

Your answers can be seriously improved if you give ChatGPT some ingredients to work with before asking for a response. They could be literal ingredients—suggest a dish from what's left in the fridge—or they could be anything else.

So don't just ask for a murder mystery scenario. Also list out the characters who are going to appear. Don't just ask for ideas of where to go in a city; specify the city you're going to, the types of places you want to see, and the people you'll have with you.

Your prompts don't always have to get ChatGPT to generate something from scratch: You can start it off with something, and then let the AI finish it off. The model will take clues from what you've already written and build on it.

This can come in handy for everything from coding a website to composing a poem—and you can then get ChatGPT to go back and refine its answer as well.

You've no doubt noticed how online arguments have tended toward the binary in recent years, so get ChatGPT to help add some gray between the black and the white. It's able to argue both sides of an argument if you ask it to, including both pros and cons.

From politics and philosophy to sports and the arts, ChatGPT is able to sit on the fence quite impressively—not in a vague way, but in a way that can help you understand tricky issues from multiple perspectives.

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A Dark, Clever Novel Asks, What Happens When Women Ignore Their Appetites?

“Piglet,” by Lottie Hazell, is a tantalizing layer cake of horror, romance (sort of) and timely questions about the power of appetite.

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By Jennifer Weiner

Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel is “The Breakaway.”

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PIGLET, by Lottie Hazell

Pity the bookseller who’s got to figure out where to shelve Lottie Hazell’s debut novel, “Piglet.” Its plot — woman learns devastating truth about her fiancé and starts binge-eating as she decides whether to marry him — carries the whiff of a rom-com, the faint pink tinge of “women’s fiction,” the kind of book that gets dismissed as frivolous and small, even though it deals with the topics that loom largest in real life. So is “Piglet” a frothy, fun, forgettable confection, or is it heftier, meatier, the kind of “serious” book that might win prizes, or even male readers?

If I owned a bookstore, I’d hand-sell “Piglet” to everyone. And I’d make a case for shelving it with the horror stories, especially for the scene that unfolds when Piglet’s mom, dad, sister and, eventually, her sister’s boyfriend are enlisted to cram her into her wedding dress, the one wedding expense her working-class father has covered. “‘What’s happened here, Pig?’ her father said, lifting his head in the mirror, not meeting her eyes.” Hazell goes on:

Piglet felt her father’s hand push against her flank, his knuckles hard and swollen with effort. “You couldn’t have waited, could you?” he said, closing his eyes. “You couldn’t just control yourself, for once?” He shook his head. “You — this dress — greed,” he said, his words failing him in his displeasure. “What is it about you and more, more, more?”

There’s a lot Hazell doesn’t tell us about Piglet. We don’t know her age or her size, her eye color or hair color, or how long she’s been a cookbook editor. We don’t learn her real name until the book’s final pages, and we aren’t told the precise nature of her fiancé’s betrayal at all, which gives the book the feel of an allegory or a fable: Once upon a time, there lived an orphan. A princess. A bride. Or, as Piglet describes herself, “a tall woman with broad shoulders wearing a dress that was designed to make her look smaller than she was.”

Hazell’s prose is as tart and icy as lemon sorbet; her sentences are whipcord taut, drum tight. The only time she indulges in description is when Piglet’s cooking or eating. Then, the writing becomes lush and lavish, with mouthwatering descriptions of “new potatoes, boiled and dotted with a bright salsa verde. Bread and two types of butter: confit garlic and Parmesan and black pepper.” There are also “katoris filled with daal, as thick and silky as rice pudding but yellowed with turmeric, finished with cream” and “prawns, pink and black and glistening, scattered with coriander, sitting spikily in their dish.”

It’s impossible to read “Piglet” outside the current moment, and the new, uber-popular class of weight-loss drugs. Scientists don’t know how the drugs work , but do know what they do: Quiet the so-called food noise. Turn down the volume on dieters’ appetites. What goes without saying — it seems that it hardly needs to be said — is that hunger is the enemy, and a woman’s job is to repel it, control it, fight it off, push it down.

But what happens when women ignore their appetites? What happens when women stop being hungry, when they don’t want “more, more, more” — or anything at all?

Ira Levin offered one answer in “ The Stepford Wives, ” and Hazell offers another, in a book where the “will she or won’t she” isn’t just about the man and the wedding. It’s about whether Piglet ends up embracing a big life, full of richness and variety and good things to eat, or if she lets herself be crammed into that too-small dress: constricted, reduced, turned into a pretty morsel, a thing to be consumed. Eat the world, or let it eat you?

No spoilers here. Except I’ll tell you that I devoured this book, and finished it hungry.

PIGLET | By Lottie Hazell | Holt | 320 pp. | $27.99

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Opinion: We know how voters feel about Trump and Biden. But how do the experts rank their presidencies?

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Presidents Day occurs at a crucial moment this year, with the presidency on the cusp of crisis as we inexorably shuffle toward a rematch between the incumbent and his predecessor. It’s the sort of contest we haven’t seen since the 19th century, and judging by public opinion of President Biden and former President Trump, most Americans would have preferred to keep it that way.

But the third installment of our Presidential Greatness Project , a poll of presidential experts released this weekend, shows that scholars don’t share American voters’ roughly equal distaste for both candidates.

Biden, in fact, makes his debut in our rankings at No. 14, putting him in the top third of American presidents. Trump, meanwhile, maintains the position he held six years ago: dead last, trailing such historically calamitous chief executives as James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson. In that and other respects, Trump’s radical departure from political, institutional and legal norms has affected knowledgeable assessments not just of him but also of Biden and several other presidents.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets supporters as he arrives at a campaign stop in Londonderry, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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The overall survey results reveal stability as well as change in the way scholars assess our nation’s most important and controversial political office. Great presidents have traditionally been viewed as those who presided over moments of national transformation, led the country through major crises and expanded the institution of the presidency. Military victories, economic growth, assassinations and scandals also affect expert assessments of presidential performance.

The presidents at the top of our rankings, and others like ours, reflect this. Hallowed leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George Washington consistently lead the list.

Our latest rankings also show that the experts’ assessments are driven not only by traditional notions of greatness but also by the evolving values of our time.

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Op-Ed: Worst. President. Ever.

President Trump’s final grade will be in the hands of scholars. It doesn’t look good.

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One example is the continuing decline in esteem for two important presidents, Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson. Their reputations have consistently suffered in recent years as modern politics lead scholars to assess their early 19th and 20th century presidencies ever more harshly, especially their unacceptable treatment of marginalized people.

More acutely, this survey has seen a pronounced partisan dynamic emerge, arguably in response to the Trump presidency and the Trumpification of presidential politics.

Proponents of the Biden presidency have strong arguments in their arsenal, but his high placement within the top 15 suggests a powerful anti-Trump factor at work. So far, Biden’s record does not include the military victories or institutional expansion that have typically driven higher rankings, and a family scandal such as the one involving his son Hunter normally diminishes a president’s ranking.

Biden’s most important achievements may be that he rescued the presidency from Trump, resumed a more traditional style of presidential leadership and is gearing up to keep the office out of his predecessor’s hands this fall.

Trump’s position at the bottom of our rankings, meanwhile, puts him behind not only Buchanan and Johnson but also such lowlights as Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding and William Henry Harrison, who died a mere 31 days after taking office.

Trump’s impact goes well beyond his own ranking and Biden’s. Every contemporary Democratic president has moved up in the ranks — Barack Obama (No. 7), Bill Clinton (No. 12) and even Jimmy Carter (No. 22).

Yes, these presidents had great accomplishments such as expanding healthcare access and working to end conflict in the Middle East, and they have two Nobel Prizes among them. But given their shortcomings and failures, their rise seems to be less about reassessments of their administrations than it is a bonus for being neither Trump nor a member of his party.

Indeed, every modern Republican president has dropped in the survey, including the transformational Ronald Reagan (No. 16) and George H.W. Bush (No. 19), who led the nation’s last decisive military victory.

Academics do lean left, but that hasn’t changed since our previous surveys. What these results suggest is not just an added emphasis on a president’s political affiliation, but also the emergence of a president’s fealty to political and institutional norms as a criterion for what makes a president “great” to the scholars who study them.

As for the Americans casting a ballot for the next president, they are in the historically rare position of knowing how both candidates have performed in the job. Whether they will consider each president’s commitment to the norms of presidential leadership, and come to rate them as differently as our experts, remains to be seen.

Justin Vaughn is an associate professor of political science at Coastal Carolina University. Brandon Rottinghaus is a professor of political science at the University of Houston.

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  1. The Writing Process and How to Use it to Write Timed Essays

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  2. How to Write a Timed Essay: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

    how to write timed essays faster

  3. How to Write Faster: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

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  4. How to Write a Timed Essay: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

    how to write timed essays faster

  5. How to Write a Timed Essay: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

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  6. How to Write a Timed Essay: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

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  4. How to Write a Timed Essay: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

    How to Write a Timed Essay parts 1 Divide Up Your Time 2 During the Essay 3 Proofreading the Essay + Show 1 more... Other Sections Tips and Warnings Related Articles References Co-authored by Arash Fayz Last Updated: August 10, 2021 Whether it be in a class or for a standardized test, students are often required to write a timed essay.

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    understand why it's worth writing that essay. A strong thesis will be arguable rather than descriptive, and it will be the right scope for the essay you are writing. If your thesis is descriptive, then you will not need to convince your readers of anything—you will be naming or summarizing something your readers can already see for themselves.

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    Finally, if you have more time to study for essay exams, you may practice: outlining and brainstorming, creating strong arguments from potential essay topics, and timed writing from those topics. Timed Essay Examples (Topics) 1. Discuss the impact of social media on interpersonal communication. 2. Analyze the causes and consequences of climate ...

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