Do you often worry about running out of time to finish your homework assignments, especially when it comes to essays? Well, worry no longer! This article will walk you through a step-by-step process that will help you to both manage your time better and write your essay faster. These tips will work well for both high school and college students.
1. Make a Schedule/To-do List
The first thing you should do when you know an assignment is coming up is to write it down, so you don’t forget about it. Writing down when your assignments are due, whether it be in a planner, on a calendar, to typing it into your phone, is a good way to avoid being surprised by the assignment.
For a short-term solution, make a daily to-do list to stay on top of your assignments. Write down which assignments you want to work on that day. Put your highest priority assignments at the top of the list and put less important tasks near the bottom. Cross off a task once you finish it.
2. Avoid Distractions
Distractions seem to slow down essay writing more than anything else. Therefore, to write an essay quickly with someone’s help, you should keep away from distractions. Don’t watch TV or have other Internet pages open while you are working on a paper. If you need to, listen to music, but don’t listen to songs with words in them, as you may get distracted by singing along.
Also, try to isolate yourself until you finish your essay. Turn off your phone, sit alone in your room or find a quiet spot in the library, and get to writing. The more distractions you cut out, the faster you can get your assignment done.
3. Research and Take Notes
If you need to do any research for your essay, get it out of the way before you even start writing. This will take a little longer up front, but it will save time in the long run. Also, make sure that you are taking notes as you research. This way, you will not need to re-read a whole page if you need to reference something. Instead, you can just use the vital information you have in your notes.
Remember to write down all of the sources you use in your paper so you can properly cite them. Not doing so could get you in trouble for plagiarism when you turn in your essay.
4. Make an Outline
On a separate piece of paper, or in another Word Doc., make an outline of your paper. Write down the main points you want to include in your paper. Doing this before you even start writing can help you avoid writer’s block as you work on your essay.
Begin by writing the thesis, or main point, that your paper focuses on. Next, make an outline of the topics of your body paragraphs and the supporting information you want to include. Usually, essays have about three body paragraphs. Lastly, write what you want to summarize in your conclusion.
5. Write “Body” Paragraphs
Sometimes, writing the introduction to a paper can seem like a daunting task, so you can just skip it for now. This works best when you are typing your essay. Instead, begin by writing your body paragraphs. When you are done with this, you will already have most of your paper done, so it will be easier to write an introduction that goes something like, “In this paper, I will be discussing…” The introduction should include your thesis statement as one of the first lines. To learn more about writing thesis statements, click this link.
Each body paragraph should have a main point in the first sentence, followed by three or more supporting sentences. In most five-paragraph essays, there are about three body paragraphs between the introduction and conclusion. These paragraphs will make up the bulk of your essay.
6. Write the Introduction and Conclusion
Once you are done writing your body paragraphs, write your introduction and conclusion. These should both be simple to do since you will have already completed the body paragraphs. In the introduction, simply state what you are going to write about later on in the essay. In the conclusion, summarize what you have written about in the body paragraphs.
7. Edit
Editing your paper is a tedious, but important, last step in writing your essay. One easy way to do grammatical edits is to run your paper through a grammar and spell checker. For further edits, have a friend look over your paper or read your essay out loud to yourself to catch any awkward phrasing. If you have written your essay carefully this shouldn’t take long at all. Once you’re done, you can turn in your essay and call it a day!
By following all of the tips in this article, making sure to do them in order, you are sure to write your essay quickly. Some of the steps, like researching, taking notes and outlining your paper might take more time in the beginning, but they will help you to save time in the long-run. Try to use these steps the next time you have to write an essay and see if they help you to save time.