How to Write an Essay Fast: 12 Tips to Speed Up the Writing Process

How Long Does It Take to Write a Paper Fast

Every student wants to know how to write an essay fast and with less effort. It is a complicated task, as it requires a lot of previous preparation and understanding of basic writing and research principles. The amount of time required to complete a paper depends on several factors:

• Length of an essay
• Topic complexity
• Depth of preliminary research
• Writing skills.

Generally, if you have a good topic understanding and have a solid outline, you will be able to write a 5-paragraph essay in a few hours or even less. On the other hand, if you are writing a research paper, it may take several days to complete, even if you are working fast. 

In this blog, we will discuss how to write a paper fast to help you quickly cope with assignments and enjoy your student life.

Tips on How Write an Essay Fast

Let’s start with a clear goal – you need to write an essay quickly and get the highest possible score. Start with appropriate preparation. Ensure you dedicate enough time to planning, understanding the task, creating an outline, and writing your essay. Consider an essential structure for your text that can be easily applied during the test or assignment.

The secret of fast and effective writing is appropriate planning and a clear understanding of assignments. Practice and learn from the best essay examples to write papers faster. In the following sections, we will focus on quick essay writing tips to improve your essays and make the whole writing process much more manageable.

1. Ged Rid of Distractions

To write essays faster, you need to be entirely concentrated on your work. Focusing intensely on something for an hour or more can be complicated, but this is the only way to complete your task quickly. Remember that you don’t have much time. Most likely you will spend 30% of your time on the planning and research part. Turn off all your gadgets, and ensure that messages and calls don’t distract you. Organize your workplace and dedicate time to writing. 

You can write your essay fast but should focus only on this task. It is essential to clarify what can be a distraction and fix it. For example, you may want to check your social media all the time. Then put your gadgets in another room to focus on your assignment.

2. Plan Every Minute of Your Time

Every minute of your writing process should be planned. If you need to learn how to write an essay in an hour, start planning the exact amount of time for creating each section of your paper. You may use our Assignment Calculator to divide your task into smaller pieces and stay on track. 

Let’s look at this 60 minutes example and what your time-planning can look like. You will need 5 minutes to create an outline and 10 minutes for each part of your text. An introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion will take 50 minutes in sum. Allot additional 5 minutes for revision. 

Ensure you are not spending 30 minutes on the hook intro to your essay. Be precise with the timing.

3. Set a Timer to Achieve Your Writing Goal

For fast essay writing, you need to have a lot of experience. As we have mentioned before, being proficient in time management is essential. But how to feel time and see the difference between 10 and 20 minutes? Practice is the answer. Set up a timer for 60 minutes and try to finalize your essay. Ultimately, you will see how much more time you need to improve your text. 

You may be a talented college essay writer and find that you can create a masterpiece in 60 minutes without any specific preparations. Who knows! But try working with a timer first! Write your essay fast and check how many essential points you are missing.

4. Carefully Read the Task

Start with careful assignment reading to learn how to write a good essay fast. No doubt that this is 50% of your success. 

When it comes to writing assignments, you may be given a prompt that includes questions or 3 different positions to choose from. Alternatively, you may be presented with a quote and tasked with elaborating on its meaning and explaining your understanding. It is essential to understand what each specific task is about. In this case, you won’t spend 20 minutes writing the answer to a wrong question. 

If you find that you don't fully understand the writing task at first glance, don't worry. Get acquainted with instructions again, and if necessary, read them one more time. And only after that move to the next step to avoid unnecessary confusion.

5. Do Quick Research

If you need to write an essay in 30 minutes, it may sound problematic to conduct research before commencing. However, if you have an hour or 2 for your text, it is possible to run a quick research that will improve your text significantly. 

To finish an essay fast, you must learn to conduct research quickly. If you have the Internet access, look at the statistics on your topic, as numbers often strengthen your statements. Search for the latest data, new discoveries, or approaches in analysis in your area. Maybe, you’ll find interesting facts or evidence supporting your point of view. Do not forget to save all relevant links.

6. Identify the Main Idea and Stick to It

Before jumpstarting the writing process, you must define the statements you will argue in your essay. Be clear with your main idea to do an essay fast. Otherwise, you will spend all your time discussing what viewpoint is the best to stand on. 

Here’s what you should consider in choosing the right statement for your essay:

1. You don’t need the right answer – opt for the one you can find argumentation on. Choose the main idea that can be easily elaborated and developed.
2. Find a unique angle. If you have 3 prompt perspectives and need to select only one, be original and try to stand on an issue not presented in a prompt.
3. To finish essays quickly, do not choose the most complicated but the most perspective point of view. It’s better to have a lot of various arguments for your statements.
4. If possible, choose a position that can be supported by personal experience. Giving personal examples or sharing your feelings on the topic is vital and will make your text outspoken.
5. Do not change your statements while developing the topic. If you want to get an essay done fast, be consistent with your chosen position.

7. Create an Outline

When you need to write a long essay fast, don’t spend much time on devising a detailed essay outline. However, you need to build a basic structure for your text, as it will definitely save time in the long run. 

What can be included in your outline?

• Intro: Write a few catchy sentences to introduce your topic.
• Thesis statement: Outline your position on this topic.
• 1st Body paragraph: Present the first argument followed by analysis and examples.
• 2nd Body paragraph: Mention the second argument.
• 3rd Body paragraph: Elaborate on the third argument.
• Conclusion: Summarize your argumentation and provide a call to action.

Even if you don’t go deep with each point in your outline, clarify the critical thoughts for each part of your paper.

8. Follow a Basic Structure

The fastest way to write an essay is to be strict with the basic structure you decide to use. Usually, it will be an introduction, 2 or 3 body paragraphs and a conclusion section. If you already have an outline, you know the crucial points for each section. In this stage, the best way to save time is to stick to this essay structure without trying to add a few new paragraphs. 

For a solid paper, you should be logical and consistent in argumentation. If you are working on 5 paragraph essay, do not try to change its organization in the middle of the writing process.

9. Choose Quality Over Quantity

Writing an essay really fast does not mean you need to write a lot and put into the paper everything you have in your head. Submitting longer text than required doesn’t mean you will have a better score. Paradoxically, students tend to make more mistakes in lengthy pieces.

For example, if the task is to write a 1000-word essay, and students are trying to expand it to 1500 words, there is a risk that such paper will contain many errors. In this case, you will have less time for planning, research, and outlining and probably no time for proofreading. Don’t compromise on the quality of your text, since it’s more critical for advanced scoring! 

>> Read more: How to Write a 1000 Word Essay

10. Write an Introduction and Conclusion Last

If you want your paper done fast, start with the main body and argumentation paragraphs first. It can sound strange, as we got used to beginning with the essay introduction. But how will you hook your reader if you are unsure about your arguments yet? The solution is simple. Create 3 paragraphs with argumentation, then move to an introduction section. It will be way easier to identify what can entice your reader and become a benefit for the intro paragraph. 

Also, you will write your conclusion section only after you finish everything. By doing so, you will be able to paraphrase your thesis statement and wrap up only essential aspects.

>> Learn more: How to Conclude an Essay

11. Separate Drafting and Revision

Drafting your essay and carrying out a final essay revision are two separate processes, and you need to plan time for each one accordingly. For writing papers faster, draft your text right after creating an outline. It does not mean you should go into details. But add one introductory sentence to each text part and then move to more profound idea development. 

Revision of your ideas and argumentation is also a separate process. Plan at least 5 minutes to go through drafted ideas and critically analyze them. 

Quite often, students do drafting and revision at once. But we recommend separating this process to make your writing more efficient.

12. Proofread Your Essay

Writing a paper in less than an hour does not mean you can submit it with grammar or spelling mistakes. You should have at least 5-7 minutes for proofreading. Even if you are working on a 20-minute essay, allocate enough time for further improvements. Deep and valuable thoughts and arguments won’t help if your paper has many mistakes. Check the most common spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors that may occur in your text. Pay attention to the general structure and ensure you are not missing any logical connections. 

Proofreading is as important as building a solid statement for your essay. This is the ground for excellent grading.

Mistakes to Avoid While Writing an Essay Quickly

You may feel pressure to write your essay in under 30 minutes, but it does not mean you can’t create great work. How to succeed with this task? Be focused on your paper and try to avoid the most common mistakes. 

Here is the list of typical flaws:

• Repeating introduction sentences in the conclusion. You need to summarize your thoughts at the end, not paraphrase your intro.
• Not planning enough time for research and revision. You may think you won’t forget to proofread your essay before submission, but you will often run out of time.
• Including too much information into a 200-word essay. Use only facts and information that will benefit your text, not everything you know on a topic.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Fast Essay Writing

Submitting a last-minute essay can be quite a challenge for anyone. However, after some practice, you may feel it is more effective than spending days on a paper. It is evident that fast writing has pros and cons, and here we will cover them.

The advantages of a fast-written essay are:

• Ability to submit your work on time
• Honing effective time management skills and increasing productivity
• Nurturing concentration on important facts and only necessary information
• Gaining confidence and approaching future tasks with ease.

At the same time, there are a lot of disadvantages of working with time-limited writing assignments. Here are some of them:

• Deadline pressure can make writers less creative.
• You may not plan enough time for proofreading, and it will affect even a well-written essay.
• You may have no time for research, and it will make your essay less valuable and robust.
• Focusing on each essay part separately may cause logic gaps in a text.

Bottom Line on How to Write Essays Quickly

In your study life, you will definitely face situations when you need to write an essay fast – in 20 or 60 minutes. It may look tricky, as last minute paper submission is always stressful. But in this blog, we provided you with the most effective tips on writing your essay fast and easy. 

It can be a piece of cake for you – just plan your time, pay attention to details, and do not forget about the proofreading part. We did our best to share actionable suggestions on how to write faster. Follow our advice on content writing and be confident in your academic writing success!