Introduction
Essay writing has become a part and parcel of almost everyone’s life. We have to write essays at schools and colleges because this plays a key role in one’s personal development. Writing an essay requires you to communicate with your readers in such a way that you present your thoughts in a clear, structured and detailed form. This helps the evaluators assess how well you can communicate in written format. It also depicts how well you can think and put your thoughts into words.
Why Writing Fast Matters
Writing an essay would be a piece of cake for anyone if only it were not accompanied with a time constraint. In school and college exams, students have to write significantly lengthy essays within a limited time frame. The dilemma goes like this: if they spend too much time on the essay, they are probably going to run out of time for answering other questions. On the other hand, skipping an essay question would lead to the loss of a large chunk of their marks because such questions generally have more weightage in exams.
Apart from this, a lot of people may also have to write essays for various purposes like competitions, publications, newsletter of their organisations, etc. Usually, essay writing falls apart from the main livelihood of people. In other words, it can be seen as an extra activity. If a lot of time gets consumed in writing an essay, then a person will have less time to dedicate to their work. This could lead to reduced quality of work and ultimately, dissatisfaction with the essay writing activity.
As a person who loves writing essays, I would like to advocate that this is a beautiful art. And if you ever have to write articles, do not dread it. Writing a quality essay swiftly is possible, provided you follow a clear-cut procedure for doing it.
Breaking it to the Basics
A lot of people miss out on the fact that essays are not just about how you write it. They are actually a reflection of how well you can think. Hence, people usually just jump into writing the essay without thinking about their topics thoroughly. This invariably leads them to encountering the writer’s block, which wastes their time.
In order to write quickly, one needs to follow certain steps. These are described as follows:
Research/Gathering inputs
Generally, we are assigned such essay topics with which we are familiar. Hence, we are comfortable in determining what all points we need to cover in our essay.
But even so, it is always better to jot your ideas down somewhere so that you don’t miss out on any important point. A lot of ideas actually spring up in your head when you are doing this process.
On the other hand, if you are assigned a topic which you have no idea about, you need to research it first. Gather inputs and ensure that you understand your matter of interest, so clearly, that you can explain it to your friend or colleague, because that is what you are required to do in your essay!
Structuring and sequencing your thoughts/ideas
Before you start writing, you need to be clear on how you are going to present your ideas in the essays. This is the step where your logical thinking is required. Your ideas should be put forward in such a way that they complement each other’s position.
The structure of your essay mainly depends upon your topic. If the essay is about a problem that people face at large, like global warming, start by giving the basic idea behind the problem at first. The causes, consequences and coping/controlling measures should follow next, in that order. And a small paragraph giving a brief summary to end the essay.
You do not need to read thousands of essays to do this task. Try to visualise your topic like a story, sequencing the information as you progress through your essay. Place your points in such a way that they all fit in their places naturally.
Putting the ideas into words
Having pictured how you want your essay to look, it is time to put your thoughts into words. If you have done the previous two steps properly, you will find that words will start flowing out of your mind flawlessly. You will not waste time thinking what to write next, because you will already have all the checkpoints laid out before you in your mind.
You might still encounter some instances where you find difficulty in bridging the relationship between two ideas. This is because sometimes, while designing the overview of the essay, we miss out on the micro-relationships that connect two ideas. But if your logical thinking is solid, these gaps will fill if you just use the right words to describe them.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to drink the dictionary to be expressive. Just be as clear as possible while you describe the elements.
Review
This may seem like a counter-intuitive step, hence, I advise to go ahead with this only if you have a few minutes to spare. This step is to ensure that your output is, if not exactly, then at least as close to your original blueprint as possible.
It so happens that we start and end an essay with different mindsets. This step helps to detect and neutralise such differences. It also helps to remove spelling and grammatical errors. Lastly, it helps you appreciate how well you performed your writing task.
Points to Remember
So we looked at the procedure of writing an essay. This will help you to write essays with desired level of quality in limited time. Following are some additional tips for writing quick:
1. Try to be as simple in explaining your points as possible. Longer words may look fancy but can lead to loss of understanding on the part of the reader as well as the writer. So, your entire essay could suffer. Plus, you lose valuable time coming up with large words and trying to fit them into your sentences. Hence, it is advisable to avoid bulky words.
2. Know exactly what you want to say. Focus on the important points and present them in a crisp manner. Do not waste time on expanding non-relevant points. Also, do not over-explain yourself. State your point, very clearly, in one go. Do not beat around the bush.
3. Corresponding to the previous point, do not try to fill your essay with unnecessary words, just to make it longer. Realise that essay-writing is a way of expressing yourself, not a competition of forming a pile of gibberish.
4. Spend some time in preparing the outline of your essay during the structuring phase. Do not rush this step, otherwise you might end up scrapping your content if you find it irrelevant later on.
5. Be strong with your basics. Strengthen your grammar and vocabulary. Practise writing if you have to deal with it on a regular basis. These finer aspects act like a lubricant that help to smoothen the flow of your words on paper. They increase your expressiveness and your essay’s impactfulness.
Conclusion
Speed comes with repetition. The more you perform a certain action, the better you get at it. In the words of management literature, repetition of an action leads to specialisation. Hence, by dividing essay writing into definite steps and focusing on performing each step, one at a time, it is possible to complete the entire activity at a faster pace. It does not require any special skill, just a good grip over the basics.
Hence, I urge my readers to embrace the art of essay writing with open arms and not look at it as a tormenting demon. Because if it were truly that bad, I would not have been able to share so many insights with you in so little time!
I really hope you enjoyed reading and learnt something useful about essay writing. Thank you for your time.
By: Pranav Alok Garg
Write and Win: Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
Essay Title of the Month
- How to write an essay fast
- what is Essay Bot
- How to write good Review Essay
- How to write a 5 page essay
- How to write an interpretive essay
- How to write dialogue in an essay
- When revising an informative essay it is important to consider……….(what to be considered)
- Women empowerment essay
- How to get essay editing jobs and how lucrative it is?
- Essay vs Research paper
- The best way to grading an essay
- How to plan an essay writing/contest
- How to write marketing essay/ graphic essay/ technical essay/Opinion essay/informal essay/interpretive essay/photography essay/character essay (one paragraph each for these type of essay)
- Participants should write the essay in easy to understand language with deep research on a selected topic. The essay should be written in the participant’s own language with interesting facts.
- How to focus on writing an essay
- How to write creative writing essays
- What is essay proofreading service
- How to write a cover page for an essay
- What are the best font for essays
- How to start an essay agency and providing essay editing jobs
