8 Ways to Write Longer Essays in Less Time
You need to write faster, not longer. After all, you’re already short on time and don’t have the luxury of spending an entire day researching and writing your essay as long as it meets the guidelines set by your teacher or professor.
That said, it’s still important to develop the proper writing habits and work smart to ensure that you’re able to write longer essays in less time, giving you more free time to do other things that are more enjoyable and relaxing.
Here are eight ways to help you write longer essays in less time with little effort from yourself.
Strategy 1: Cut Down the Topic
When writing an essay on a huge topic, you’ll be tempted to cover as much ground as possible. Resist that urge! Pick two or three key points and focus on those. You’ll make a better argument and hit your word count target.
For example, instead of writing about why millennials are moving back home after college (which could fill up half of a 10-page paper), write about how they are coping with rising rents by returning home and their financial struggles while doing so.
That could fit into one paragraph in a five-page paper. If you don’t have enough information for even one good paragraph, then your topic is too broad — choose something else.
Strategy 2: Take A Short Break:
Don’t start writing until you know exactly what you want to say and how it fits into your thesis statement (if it does).
Forcing yourself to sit down for hours at a time can lead to sloppy work — your brain gets tired just like any other muscle would if worked too hard without rest.
Strategy 2: Brainstorm Briefly
This strategy is one I use all of the time. It may be obvious, but brainstorming helps me think through my essay and narrow down my ideas.
Once I’ve narrowed down a topic, it’s easier for me to write a thesis statement and outline since I have more direction on where my essay is going. Writing an essay without knowing where you’re going can be scary (especially if you’ve never written an essay before). By brainstorming first, you can focus your writing on something readable.
A few simple strategies will help kickstart your creative thinking process! First, try asking yourself some basic questions: Why? How? What if? Who?
Second, think about what you know and what interests you. If there’s a topic that realists you or that you have personal experience with, use it as a starting point for your writing.
Finally, look at other essays on similar topics to get ideas of how they structure their argument and organize ideas.
When I was writing my long-essay proposal for my English class last year, I used all three of these techniques to help me come up with a topic and thesis statement that worked well for me.
Strategy 3: Plan Your Outline and Paragraphs
The first and most important step to writing a longer essay is having an outline. Most students don’t have time to write out their full essays before they start writing so if you want to get it done fast, create an outline of your ideas before you start writing.
Having an outline lets you know two where you’re going with your paper and helps with transitions between paragraphs.
Planning will save you time and keep your essay coherent! Write for 10 minutes on each topic below: (Select one idea per paragraph)
Title: How I Write a Long-Essay Proposal: (Hint: it involves many metaphors.)
1. My favorite ways to plan out my essays are…
2. Other ways I use include…
3. Writing a long essay proposal is like….
…writing a long essay proposal isn’t like…
5. If you’re looking for some help writing your own-essay proposals, here’s how I do it:
6. I follow these steps when writing my long-essay proposals:
7. And here’s what happens when that doesn’t work well for me:
8. Here’s what happens when things go ring my writing process:
9. When things aren’t going well during my writing process, these are some strategies that help me stay focused and productive:
10. To conclude, here’s how I write long-essay proposals:
11. This is why writing a long essay proposal works best for me:
12. So now that you’ve learned all about writing long-essay proposals from me, here are three tips to remember next time you’re writing a paper:
13. Writing a longer essay takes more planning than writing shorter papers because…
14. One way to make sure your essay flows smoothly from point A to point B is by using transition words such as therefore or because.
15. Another way to make sure your points flow together nicely is by using examples or details from real life to toove tssolversr false.
16. Finally, another way to ensure your essay has no bumps along its path is by making sure every sentence has a purpose.
17. Writing a long essay can be difficult at times but knowing what to expect beforehand can help you avoid surprises later on in your writing process.
18. Write down five questions that could come up while writing your longer essays:
19. Write down five possible solutions for those problems:
20. Now write down how you would answer those questions or solve those problems:
21. Finally, write down two sources of inspiration that helped you write better long-essay proposals:
22. In conclusion, writing long-essay proposals isn’t always easy but following these steps can make it easier!
Strategy 4: Set Achievable Goals For Each Paper
When you write an essay, it’s easy to get caught up in all of your research and start writing as soon as possible.
This is a bad idea; it’s hard enough to write an essay, but if you don’t do some planning, you could easily find yourself staring at a blank screen — and with no idea where or how to start.
To avoid wasting time, set achievable goals for each paper: How many words will I write? Will I read through everything before writing?
What kind of outline will I create? Writing without a plan is like getting on a plane without knowing your destination; things might work out just fine, but there’s really no reason why they should. . . .
Don’t worry about being perfect or having a perfectly structured outline when you write an essay. Start by deciding how many pages each paper should be, and set goals for word count as well. If your goal is 1500 words, but you only write 1000, aim for 2000 next time. The more consistent you are with setting goals, thougasier it will be to keep writing over time. You’ll learn what works best for your writing process — and then you can figure out how to make those goals work with any paper.
Strategy 5: Give Yourself Enough Time
If you don’t have enough time to write your essay, then you need to give yourself more time.
This is easier said than done, but setting a deadline (and sticking with it) can be one of the best ways for students to find time for extra writing practice.
Whether you set your deadlines or rely on your teacher’s assignments, planning can help make sure that long writing projects will get done on time and under budget!
You could even try delegating some of your long writing work (like research or planning) to other people so you can focus on those writing tasks that only you can do.
Be sure to set deadlines and delegate carefully, though. Delegating tasks incorrectly can lead to major miscommunication and an incomplete assignment.
When you do delegate, give a detailed explanation of exactly what you need complete be completed hen. For example, if your long essay is due on October 15th, then your assignment should be: Prepare a 5-page essay on President Roosevelt’s reasons for declaring war against Japan.
Strategy 6: Use The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a simple but effective way to organize your time. The basic idea behind it is that you will work for 25 minutes straight without interruption, followed by a 5-minute break.
Try it out when you next write an essay — see if you can write for 20–25 minutes without a break before taking a quick pause.
This might seem counterintuitive at first, but once you get into your writing groove, trying to cut yourself off might be more frustrating than letting yourself keep going!
Be sure to check out these other time management strategies while you’re at it as well — they’ll all help ensure that you’re getting through your writing tasks efficiently and on schedule.
You don’t have to use all of these methods, but it can be helpful to mix and match so you can focus on what works best for you. Start with one strategy at a time and gauge how effective it is. There are tons of tips out there on how best to manage your time — take some time (ha!) and try out as many as you can until you find one that helps you write essays faster. Good luck!
Strategy 7: Use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) Goals
Just like a business, good academic goals have a few key components. They should be specific — what exactly do you want to achieve?
They should be measurable — how will you know when you’ve achieved it? A good goal is also realistic and attainable.
Relevant goals make sense for your career/academic path and are time-bound, meaning they have a deadline attached.
For example, if your goal is I want to write an essay on Newtonian mechanics by next week, make sure you work towards writing that essay for a specified amount of time every day until you’re done.
One way to remember SMART: Start with Write Right Now!
You may have heard of SMART goals, which is a popular acronym for goal-setting that was developed by George T. Doran back in 1973.
These types of goals are still really relevant today and some companies like Apple even use them for their employees! SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
The idea behind these goals is that they help you set up a plan to achieve your objectives based on specific periods so that you can improve your performance over time.
Strategy 8: Keep An Outline Handy
Keep an outline handy, whether it’s a detailed step-by-step outline of your paper or a simple list of what you want to write about.
If you have trouble getting started, open up your document and start writing whatever comes to mind.
You can always come back and cut out anything that doesn’t fit later! It may take some extra time at first, but it will help you keep from becoming overwhelmed.
If you don’t like outlines or find them too restrictive, try a mind map. Mind maps are visual representations of your paper with different ideas connected by lines (like branches on a tree).
They give you more freedom than an outline because they aren’t as rigidly structured. But they also help organize your thoughts better than just free-writing them would — and they make it easier for other people to follow along as well!
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