How to Write an Essay in About 30 Minutes

If you’re taking your SATs this year, you may be preparing to write a solid essay within the 30 minute time limit. Or you might be trying to improve your writing speed to complete essay exams faster and more efficiently. Writing a five paragraph essay in under 30 minutes can seem daunting, but with the right planning and time management, it is certainly achievable.

Spend 10 minutes planning the essay. Before you start writing, take no more than 10 minutes to create an outline for your essay. This may seem like a big chunk of valuable time, but it will save you from having to rewrite or restructure your essay once you start writing.

Study the essay question. The essay will likely be directed by a question or a prompt, like a quote, with a question. It’s important that you read the question carefully and understand what it is asking of you. You may use helpful resources like custom writing org as well in order to thoroughly research the issue and improve your skills of professional writing.

• For example, you may get a prompt in the form of quotation: “Time has a doomsday book, on whose pages he is continually recording illustrious names. But as often as a new name is written there, an old one disappears. Only a few stand in illuminated characters never to be effaced.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Brainstorm your thesis statement. A thesis statement will convey to your reader the points or arguments you are going to make in your paper. It acts a road map for your paper and should answer the question, “What is this paper about?” It should take a stand and announce your position towards the topic.

Take 15 minutes to write the essay. Now that you have your thesis statement and your outline, focus on composing content for each part of the essay.

• Try to spend two to three minutes on each body paragraph. Then, take three minutes on your conclusion paragraph and go back to your introduction. Spend the last three minutes revising your introduction so it matches the tone and perspective of the rest of your essay.

Use a hook in your introduction. There are several possible hooks you can use in your essay to draw your reader in. 

•  An interesting or surprising example: This could be a personal experience or a key moment in the life of the historical figure you are discussing in your essay. For example, you may discuss Anthony’s childhood as a Quaker and her later adoption of more casual dress and growing interest in social reform at the age of 26.

Write your three body paragraphs. Focus on fleshing out each paragraph with at least one example of your main point. Sign-post each paragraph by beginning with a strong argumentative point that links to a supporting example of your main point. If you use an essay on Susan B. Anthony as an example:

Summarize your thoughts in your conclusion. Make your conclusion clear and to the point. Avoid introducing new ideas or arguments in your conclusion. Instead, restate your thesis and your main points.

• For example, you may restate your thesis: “Throughout her life, Susan B. Anthony’s sacrificed her time, energy, and personal livelihood to advocate for women’s rights, proving that though many heroes may be forgotten, their actions will live on in history.”

How to Write an Excellent English Essay

While taking English courses in high school and college, you'll likely be assigned to write essays. While writing an essay for an English class may seem overwhelming, it does not have to be. If you give yourself plenty of time to plan out and develop your essay, then you will not have to stress about it.

Set aside time to write. You cannot write a quality essay in 10 minutes. It's best to give yourself ample time to write and revise the essay. Try to factor in some time for breaks between drafts as well. If you're approaching a deadline, however, you may need to make the best use of the time you have.

Sit down and write. While it's important to prepare to write, when it comes down to it, you just have to start putting content on the page. Remember that you can always go back and make improvements later, and that revisions are part of the writing process when you want to get a paper of the highest essay quality.

Draft a tentative thesis. Your thesis is one of the most important elements of your essay. A thesis statement summarizes the main argument or position of your essay in one sentence. It lets readers know what the essay will attempt to show or prove. Everything in your essay should be connected to your thesis in a straightforward way.

Develop your introduction. Once you have a compelling thesis statement, craft the rest of your introduction around it. You can also save this step for after you've drafted the body of your essay if you feel intimidated by the introduction. The best introductions "grab" the reader's attention and make them want to keep reading. Some effective strategies for creating an introduction include:

• Telling a personal anecdote
• Citing a surprising fact or statistic
• Overturning a common misconception
• Challenging the reader to examine her own preconceptions

Include topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. Topic sentences signal to readers what a paragraph will discuss. Start each of your paragraphs with a topic sentence so that your instructor will be able to see that your ideas progress in a clear, direct manner.

• Think of the topic sentence as a way to tell readers what you will talk about in the rest of the paragraph. You don’t need to summarize the whole paragraph in the topic sentence, just provide readers with a taste.
• For example, in a paragraph that describes Okonkwo’s rise and fall in Things Fall Apart, you might begin with something like: “Okonkwo starts out as a poor young man, but then rises to a position of wealth and status.”

Develop your ideas as much as possible. Make sure that you include as many details as possible throughout your essay. Remember that padding (filling in with meaningless text or using extra wordy sentences) is not an effective strategy for writing essays because instructors can see right through it. Your instructor has probably read hundreds of student essays over their career, so they'll know when an essay has been padded. Fill your essays with details that make your essay useful and insightful instead.

Work towards a conclusion. The general structure of an essay usually goes from broad to specific. You could visualize this tendency as an upside-down pyramid or as a funnel. By the time you get to your conclusion, it should feel as though the information in your conclusion is inevitable. It's essentially a recap of everything you've spent your whole essay trying to prove. However, there is also potential to use your conclusion for other purposes. You may find that you want to use your conclusion to:

• Qualify or complicate the information in your essay
• Suggest a need for further research
• Speculate on how the future will change the current situation.