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Can I write an essay in 2 hours?
Of course you can. It might be a little rushed at the end, but there’s no excuse for not being able to write an essay in 2 hours. The trick is to write it fast but make sure it’s good quality.
Ask yourself questions like:
- Does it adequately cover the topic?
- Are the ideas all your own?
- Is it structured well, with an introduction and summarised conclusion?
- Is the main body well-researched and logical in it’s format?
- Have you proofread it i.e. no grammatical errors or spelling mistakes
- Are you absolutely sure none of it is plagiarized?
Let’s move ahead with the step-by-step essay-writing process. First of all, make sure you completely understand what is required of you. Read the essay topic very carefully and make sure you know exactly what you have to write.
Understand your given essay topic, or choose a topic
Target your essay precisely at the essay topic. This is a most important step in essay writing.
Think about it for a while, and be sure you understand what you have to write about. Then, make a plan of what you will include in your essay and how your ideas will evolve throughout the course of your essay.
Get everything down on paper so that when it is time for you to write, nothing will escape you.
Maybe you’re allowed to choose your own essay topic. If so, choose an essay topic that is not too complicated and that you know a lot about. Preferably, choose something you enjoy talking about or writing about.
Research the essay topic using reliable resources
Research needn’t be long and drawn out, particularly if you need to write an essay about a brief topic. However, it is still very important that you do as much research as you can before writing your essay, even if it is only a few minutes of research.
You will find that the more sources you have for a particular topic, the better your essay will be. You will also find that researching can be quite fun if you approach it in the right way, if you’re naturally curious, for example.
You’ll need to take a note of where your research information comes from and add citations. You must also reference your sources so that you don’t end up getting accused of plagiarism.
Consider using the internet for some of your research, but remember to use a range of other sources as well. There are many good books and journals out there that can be useful, especially if you check the library or a nearby college campus.
A dictionary or encyclopedia can also provide you with good information. However, make sure you always take note of where your information comes from in case someone asks for references.
Craft a relevant thesis as your major argument
The thesis is the central argument of your essay. This is the big idea you will be elaborating on, and it must be easy enough to understand.
Keep in mind that your thesis will explain clearly how your ideas come together, and it needs to be expressed clearly in a few short sentences. It’s also important that you give a clear summary of your thesis before you write the essay itself.
Do I need an outline for my essay?
If you are not used to writing essays and you feel nervous, a good way to begin is by making an outline. The outline will help you stay on track with your essay, and it will enable you to get all the ideas down in the right order.
You may not end up using all the points you include in your outline, but it’s important that you write them down simply because this will help guide your essay writing process.
You should make an outline before you begin writing your essay. This will give you a good idea of what you need to include in your writing and how it all links together.
Some people find that the act of outlining their ideas helps them to think more clearly, while others find that it takes away their creativity and sense of originality when they are trying to write a new essay.
In most cases, if your essay topic is not too complicated, or you know a lot about it, you can write your essay without an outline. However, if you want to write something original and interesting, an outline is often the best way of doing so.
Think about how you want to present your thesis. Once you’ve decided on your thesis, think about how you can present it.
How write an essay introduction
An essay introduction has to be very clear and concise. It has to grab the reader’s attention, introduce the main point of your essay and make the reader want to read on.
The best way to do this is with a rhetorical question that tells the reader what you are going to be discussing in your paper, or an anecdote that sets the scene for your topic.
An introduction should state the context of the essay and introduce the topic. It is important that you do this because it will help your audience to understand what your topic is, and if it is connected to other essays by providing background information.
The introduction should include at least one sentence about your thesis statement, which can be found later in the introductory paragraph. Then you need to give an overview of what will be covered in each of the paragraphs that follow it.
Using paragraphs in the main essay body
Separating ideas into sections or paragraphs is an easy way of organizing the information you are writing about. It’s a good idea to use paragraphs, as it helps the reader understand your argument and makes your essay easier to follow.
As well as separating ideas into different paragraphs, it is also important that you break up your paragraphs into small, bite-sized pieces using appropriate transitions. This will help the reader to follow the thread of your argument and understand what you are writing about.
The idea or information in one paragraph should naturally lead into the next one. This means that there should be a logical connection between the ideas discussed in each paragraph.
This is how you build the overall argument or premise for your essay. If you want to write a well-structured argumentative essay, then you need to include sub-points and transitions at the end of each paragraph.
This will allow your reader to identify your main points and help them see how they relate to each other. It also gives your reader an idea of the structure of your essay, so they can follow it and be certain that they are understanding the ideas as you intended.
Write an essay conclusion that summarizes all the essay points
Writing the conclusion isn’t always the easiest part of writing an essay, but it’s important because it gives your essay a sense of completion.
In your conclusion, you can mention any points that you find important or make predictions about things that you discussed in the body of your essay.
You can also sum up what you’ve written, re-explain some points relating to your thesis or simply tell your reader exactly what message your essay conveys. You must end with a strong and powerful final statement.
Review the essay structure and re-organize
Are the ideas in the right order? Have you used connecting words to make it easy to follow? Is the essay easy to understand from beginning to end? You may need to re-organize the essay to make it easier for the reader.
Does every sentence and idea follow logically from what you’ve just written?
If your sentences don’t seem to flow, go back through your essay and re-write using some linking words that help with transitions. First, try using words like ‘therefore‘ and ‘in consequence’.
You might find that a paragraph is in the wrong place and should come earlier or later.
Does the structure make sense?
This will depend on your topic and the way you’ve organized your essay. If your conclusion does not follow logically from the ideas in your essay, then re-arrange it so that it does.
Do you need to add any additional supporting ideas?
Remember the person reading is looking for a complete and logical structure. If you are not sure, there is no harm in repeating your points in different ways to see which one they support the best.
Editing and proofreading
Editing your writing is very important, as it will check that your argument flows, there are no spelling or grammar errors and it will make sure that the essay is as clear and concise as possible.
Self-editing can be difficult because you are so close to the work, but the fact that you do it can be very effective. You need to be strict with yourself and look at the essay writing with a critical view.
Is there any plagiarism in your essay?
Are you absolutely sure that none of your work has been copied from other sources? Always be careful to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.
Look through everything carefully, and make sure you don’t have any overlap between sections of your essay. Also, check the citation details to make sure that you’ve given proper references and if you’re using quotes properly.
If you’re not sure how to do this, ask a librarian or someone close to you for help.
How can I write an essay on my computer?
The best word processors like Word are expensive but there are plenty of free ones on the internet. Google docs is one of these and a very good option for essay writing. It’s amazing because you can write, edit and share your work with other people in real time.
How do I write an essay on my iPad/iPhone?
The Apple AppStore has some great apps you can use for free like Google Docs which are like Word Processors. There are also some great apps for writing essays that support voice recognition like Quire (free) or Dragon Dictate ($30) which will save you a lot of time.
Writing and editing tools
Grammarly is one of the most popular grammar checkers available. It is compatible with Word, Google Docs, Gmail and Facebook and it is completely free to use.
Many students find this tool invaluable because it points out common grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and even suggests alternatives to commonly misused words.
Grammarly’s proofreading services are great for final editing because you don’t have to spend time looking for errors that you might have missed, and then try to edit them yourself.
All of this is done automatically when you use Grammarly, and your essay will be much better if you use it for all of your essay writing.
The Hemingway App is another tool that can help you to edit your essay. It’s similar to the readability tests offered by some word processing programs but it provides detailed feedback and tips on how to improve the readability of your writing.
You can even login with Google Docs or Dropbox to upload quickly check your text.
Have you checked your grammar and spelling? You might feel that you are able to write well but do your essays contain any of these common mistakes?
The Spell Checker is a simple resource that can check for grammar, capitalization, spacing and spelling errors in just seconds.
It doesn’t take long to use and it will help you to avoid some embarrassing moments when you have a full essay or research paper marked with lots of red ink.
It’s a great idea to check you work with more than one editing or plagiarism tool, as one might pick up on something that another misses.
Turnitin is a very popular tool for checking your work and it can detect similarities to other online content or published sources. It can also check for plagiarized or copied work if you upload your essay to their website.
