Let me guess. It’s 10 pm on Sunday night and you haven’t written a thing. Don’t worry. We’ve all been there.
Let’s help each other. I’ll help you write a good essay, and you’ll help me feel like I’ve learned something in the course of high school.
Here we go.
Step One: Figure out what you know, and what you don’t. (15 mins)
Start by acknowledging that you may need to do some research in order to write an A-worthy paper. Yuck. I know.
First off, grab a piece of notebook paper or your iPad and write down your topic at the top of the page. Write down ten things that you know about that topic. No need to be very detailed. You know it already, right?
Then, make a new column and write down five things you don’t know about your topic. Anything you aren’t clear on goes here. Definitions you aren’t sure of, details, anything.
Step Two: Pick a stance, any stance. (5 mins)
Really. Just pick one. Anything.
You don’t even have to agree with it! (Wow, look at the options that just popped up, eh?)
Try to pick something that works best with what you already know and avoids all the things you don’t. Normally, research would be a great idea (and you might still need it), but we’re on a time crunch. So try not to go against the grain if you can help it.
Step Three: Look at your lists and figure out if you have all the information you need to backup your position, or if you need to research first. (max: 30 mins)
Don’t be afraid to admit that you need to learn more before you start. It will make the writing portion go faster if you catch it early. So look at your lists. You might be lucky; maybe you picked a position where you already know all your evidence. If you’re not so lucky, give yourself 30 minutes to do some research on Google. Take notes. You’ll thank me later.
Step Four: Make a quick, rough outline of your essay. (20 mins)
Follow this format as much as you need to (or use your own if you prefer, but this might be faster).
- Topic and position (your thesis, for those of us who stayed awake in freshman English class)
- First piece of evidence and explanation of its significance
- Second piece of evidence and explanation of its significance
- Third piece of evidence and explanation of its significance
- Restatement of thesis and Cliff Notes version of your three pieces of evidence
Those are your five paragraphs. Use bullet points for most of them, but it might be helpful to write out your thesis ahead of time to make sure your choice of evidence is as effective as possible.
Make sure you have a good idea of what you are intending to write about before you open Google Docs.
Step Five: Write. (1 hour)
If writing this takes you longer than 60 minutes, you’re overthinking it. Consider your goal just to write something semi-articulate on the page. Don’t overthink it. You can always edit later.
You might find it helpful to just start by writing consistently for thirty minutes, and then going back and refining what you’ve written before moving on. But really, don’t overthink it.
Don’t worry about transitioning between paragraphs yet. We’ll get to that.
Step Six: Add transitions and fluff up the page. (30 mins)
Go through and read your essay out loud twice, editing as you see errors. There is psychological proof that you catch more typos when you read your work out loud, so don’t shortcut it.
As you read, add transitional sentences in between paragraphs. If you aren’t good at that, don’t worry about it too much. I can’t teach you how to write a good transition sentence in less than a paragraph. Work on that skill later. Right now, just focus on fluffing up your paragraphs a little. Add in synonyms (ones that you already know - don’t open up Dictionary.com) and transition words like “however,” “regardless,” “in fact,” etc etc. Here’s a good reference list.
Step Seven: Consult your rubric. (max: 20 mins)
You’ll thank me later. If anything obvious stands out, allow yourself 15 minutes to fix it. Don’t stress; whatever you have written right now in this moment is still better than nothing.
Step Eight: Accept that it won’t be perfect, and move on. (0 seconds if you’re really good. 17 years if you’re me).
Anything is better than an F. Do your best and be satisfied with how effectively you worked under a time crunch. You’re awesome.
