Whether you are taking a timed test with an essay portion or you've waited until the last minute to do your assignment, sometimes you have to write an essay quickly. The key to being quick is knowing the requirements for the essay and the steps you need to take to fulfill them. If you concentrate on accomplishing the steps, and don't stop to second-guess yourself, you should be able to finish in time.
Instructions
1. Glance through the rubric and highlight the main requirements. Be sure to note the length of the essay, the topics it can focus on, and how many and what sort of sources are required.
2. Brainstorm possible topics. Come up with as many as you can think of, then choose the one that seems like it will be easiest to write.
3. Get your sources. If you need to do research, the earlier you have your sources the better. Be sure to note which sources are admissible and which aren't - a research essay will probably require a trip to the library.
4. Create a rough outline. Standard formal essays usually require an introduction, a thesis (the staement your essay intends to prove), three support paragraphs, each with a couple of pieces of evidence, and a conclusion. Standardized test essays are similar, except that you can usually omit the intro and conclusion.
5. Write the thesis and the body paragraphs. Unless you are writing a test essay, just sketch it out as quickly as possible without stopping to think about proper wording and the transitions that lead from one paragraph to the next. If you are writing a timed test essay, try to get the wording right the first time, since you probably won't have time for a full rewrite.
6. Write an introduction. The introduction should start out broad and end narrow. So, for example, if you were talking about a particular poem by William Blake, your introduction should begin by discussing romanticism, then discuss Blake's place in it and finally lead into your thesis statement. If you are writing an essay on a timed test, you can probably skip this step as well as step 7.
7. Write a conclusion. The conclusion is the opposite of the intro - it starts out narrow and ends broad. Begin by summarizing the essay, then relate it to a larger context. To return to the Blake example above, you could discuss the points you made about the poem and then talk about how that poem is still relevent today.
8. Rewrite the essay. Eliminate idioms (figures of speech) and informal language, and make sure that all your arguments make sense. Add in quotes from some of your sources, and check that any sources have proper citations. Your rubric should tell you how the teacher wants you to cite sources. If you are writing a timed essay, you will probably only have time to rewrite one or two small sections.
9. Do a final rewrite for grammar, punctuation and other mechanical issues. Make sure that your essay is the correct length and is correctly formatted.
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