How to Write Better Essays in 20 Minutes

Create an outline to plan your argument.

Writing a good essay is all about practice. The more you write, the better your essays will be, and the quicker you will be able to complete them. Writing quickly involves carefully planning your essay and researching the subject matter you are writing about. The more you understand your argument, the quicker you will be able to make it. All of this work is preparation leading up to writing an essay during a timed exam or any other time you may be forced to write a great essay in a small amount of time.

Instructions

1. Prepare to write your essay. If you are writing an essay during an exam, you will not have much time to research the essay. For many exams, you will be required to read a piece of material and write an essay about it. Or, you may be forced to use your memory to provide sources and material for your essay. Spend the first five minutes of your allotted time writing down key words, essential topic sentences for your paragraphs and other information you want to include in the essay. Remember that every essay must have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

2. Write your thesis statement. This should take an additional five minutes or less. The University of North Carolina defines a thesis statement as, "A single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation." The thesis statement is the soul of your essay. Once you have established it, the rest of the essay will come quickly.

3. Write the essay in the next 10 to 15 minutes. Emphasize the ideas you organized in your outline. Introduce each quote, explain your argument and give supporting evidence. Remember to use the key words and ideas you jotted down while preparing for the essay. If you prepared an outline, the writing should come easily. Do not worry about typos, spelling or grammatical mistakes. Going back to delete them takes time. Just write.

4. Use the last few minutes to quickly read through your essay and fix any spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have time to research the article before actually writing it, take the opportunity to note important key words and phrases to use in your article. One method you can use is to create three columns with the headers, "Intro," "Body," and "Conclusion." Fill these columns with any key words, quotes or ideas that you can include in each section of the essay.

References

• Englishbiz: Write a Better Essay
• University of North Carolina: Thesis Statements