Essay writing is truly an art. Whether you’ve been working on the essay all semester or your paper is literally due tomorrow and you’re desperately looking for someone to tell you how to write it overnight, I got you. I can’t even remember the last time I got lower than an A on a paper, so here are my 7 tips to write a great essay quickly!
Step 1: Choose a Topic
The easiest essays to write are the ones that interest you!
Find a topic that you’re really excited to write about. Maybe you’re interested in the history and importance of community water fluoridation or how pop-tarts are definitely sandwiches. Whatever topic you choose, make sure that you like it.
Also, if your professor gives you a very rigid prompt, like “write about Hamlet’s development throughout the play,” find an unusual angle to answer the question. I usually choose something to play devil’s advocate with or choose a fun and spicy angle like “Hamlet as a queer icon.”
Step 2: Create Your Essay’s Purpose
Don’t just write to write. Your paper should have a point to make.
Why is this important? Why are you writing this paper? Even if you’re just writing because you have to, find a purpose for your essay.
Maybe it’s an important message that people should learn from the book, or why everyone should learn to do a headstand. Just make sure that your paper is leading to SOMETHING.
If it helps you, make an outline for your paper. Personally, I hate outlines because my brain just doesn’t think that way. But, if an outline will help you, go for it!
Also, each point should give you about two pages of writing. So if you’re writing an 8-page essay, you should have 4 supporting arguments leading to 1 overarching point.
Step 3: Make an Annotated Bibliography
This will practically make your essay write itself. An annotated bibliography is basically a list of all your sources and a description of each one.
Set up a document with the title, full citation, and notes for each source. In the notes section, include all relevant quotes to your topic (with page numbers!), pictures, and paraphrasing of ideas.
After you do this, all the quotes and information for your essay is in one place and your bibliography is done, so all your research is super easy to find.
Step 4: Just Write!
Put on your Mario Kart Spotify Playlist and give yourself permission to write the worst essay anyone’s ever seen. It’s okay if it’s not perfect! That’s what revising is for! This is really helpful if you struggle with writer’s block. Just get all your ideas on the page, and you can make it sound good later.
Step 5: Revise Your Essay
Okay, the hardest parts are behind you! Now, you’ll want to go through your essay and make it into a masterpiece.
Make sure you consistently write in the same verb tense, have a diverse word choice, and have transitions between ideas.
Never use “it” and “this.” There are almost always more specific words that you can use. The only exception is if you’ve been building an idea through the whole paragraph (or maybe the whole essay) and you want to refer to the major idea that you created. Otherwise, avoid those words altogether.
Also, don’t try to sound smart. If your essay’s points are good, you’ll seem like Einstein. But, using words like “whomsoever” will just make you sound like a 🤡
Finally, make sure your paragraphs aren’t too long. Each paragraph should be less than a page long. If they aren’t, turn them to separate smaller paragraphs, if your ideas are transitioned well, then it should be pretty easy to break them up without interrupting the flow of your essay.
Step 6: Ask for an Outside Opinion
Take your essay to the writing lab if your school offers it, or have a friend read over it. Sometimes after we’ve spent so long looking at our own work, it becomes really hard to judge it objectively.
But, make sure you have the right person read it! Friends who don’t write well or people who don’t give constructive criticism won’t be super helpful.
Also, if you want a major power move, you can send your essay to your professor for feedback. Obviously, don’t do this the night before it’s due, but if you’re done with a draft several days or a week early, professors usually won’t mind telling you’re if you’re on the right track.
Step 7: The Finishing Touches
Once you’ve incorporated all the feedback, it’s time for the finishing touches to really make sure you get that A+ that you deserve.
First, read over the rubric and make sure that you feel like your essay should get top marks in each category. Also, double-check to make sure that your essay is formatted the way that your professor expects.
Second, use the text-to-speech feature to read over your essay. This is an accessibility feature that reads selected text out loud. This will really help you quickly find any parts that sound weird, are spelled wrong, or are missing words that you would normally have skimmed over.
Finally, print that beauty out and give it a kiss because that’s gonna get you that A+!
Conclusion
Although a lot of people really struggle with essays, they can be tackled in steps! Just make sure that you give yourself enough time to do a good job.
For me, I’ll usually do all the research in one day and write the essay on another day, but that’s just because I feel like I lose my train of thought if I spread it out over a week or more. But I know a lot of people who take at least a week to write a good essay.
No matter how fast you work, know your style so that you can give yourself the time that you need.
I hope these steps were helpful, and if you want a quick reference sheet for this process, you can download the PDF of the steps below!
Happy writing! Let me know in the comments how you like to write your essays! 📝
