Writing an Essay in a Hurry: 5 Essential Techniques

We all occasionally get into a situation when we have to write an essay within the shortest possible time. It does not really matter how you get into such a predicament – perhaps you put off writing it one day too many, or did not know you were supposed to write it until it was too late, or maybe something happened that prevented you from working on it.

Writing an Essay in a Hurry

What is important is that you have a paper to work on and very little time to complete it, which means that you have to use every minute at your disposal with maximum efficiency. In this article, you will find everything you need to speed up your writing and produce essays quickly without sacrificing their quality.

1. Make Sure You Understand the Assignment

You may learn how to shave a few extra minutes off your writing time, but it will be a quantitative, not a qualitative change. The worst way you can waste time when you write a paper is by failing to understand the assignment properly. You do not just spend extra time writing, you spend it writing what you are not supposed to be writing. As a result, you will both waste time and get a poor grade for your trouble. If your teacher/professor is extra nice, he/she may let you rewrite the essay; but you will not get your time and effort back.

So, if you want to avoid such an eventuality, make sure you understand the task. Read it carefully. If anything seems ambiguous, do not hesitate to clarify the point with your teacher/professor. Not only will it provide you with the necessary information, but it can also serve as a good opportunity to demonstrate your proactivity and initiative.

2. Prepare an Outline

But not just any outline. In school, you were most likely taught to write a hierarchical outline – i.e., one with bullet points and several types of lists and sub-lists arranged in a complex structure. Do not try to use it. Preparing such an outline is very time-consuming, and 9 times out of 10, you will have to abandon it once you start writing anyway.

Instead, use what is called a “flat outline”. In it, you simply list the topics you want to deal with in the order in which you intend to introduce them, then add relevant quotes and reminders under each topic to know where to put them. That is all – after that, you simply start writing.

You may be tempted to forgo the outline altogether, but do not do it – even if they manage to save a few minutes this way, students who neglect writing outlines for their essays typically spend more time working on them as a result.

3. Separate Writing from Editing

Most students (especially those with a perfectionistic streak) find following this tip to be extremely difficult, but if you manage to implement it, you will dramatically speed up your writing. Ready to hear it? Here it is:

First, write your essay, then edit it.

“Wait, isn’t it what I do anyway? How can I edit my essay if I do not write it first?” This is what you probably think right now. However, consider this: what do you do if you notice a mistake (be it a typo, a poorly structured sentence, or a wrong word) a couple of sentences back? Most people feel the need to go back and correct it. It does not take more than a couple of seconds, a minute tops, right?

Well, yes, but these little things add up, and it is very easy to get carried away and go on a correcting spree across the entire essay. What is even more important, you break up your cognitive process and get distracted from your current task, i.e., writing. So force yourself to first write your entire essay, and only then get back to it and edit it.

4. Eliminate Distractions

What you have to understand when you battle procrastination is that you cannot and should not do it with your willpower alone, for you will most likely fail. To prevent yourself from getting distracted, you should focus not on overcoming temptations, but on removing them.

You do the things we’ve listed above not because you want to do them, but because they are distracting and extremely easy to do. So make doing them a little harder. Turn off your smartphone and put it in another room. Do your research first and go completely offline as you start writing. Use one of many apps and web browser extensions like Leechblock or RescueTime to block distracting websites and apps.

5. Look for Help

When everything else fails, and there is no chance you can complete your essay on time, do not shy away from looking for qualified help. Ask a friend to help you edit your paper. Talk to a librarian and request a list of sources you can use for your research. Visit a writing service and say, “Do my essay online”, if you are truly desperate. In other words, do not try to deal with your predicament alone. You can find many people ready to help you – and it is particularly easy in our hyper-connected age.

As you can see, you can speed up your writing process in a variety of ways, and none of them deals with actually learning how to type faster. By organizing your work smartly, you will be able to overcome any odds, even if initially the job seems to be insurmountable. Follow these tips, and you will start producing a top-notch essay in no time!