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How to Write a Timed Essay

Show up ahead of time, rested, and alert. Bring a large Blue Book, a pen (and Whiteout) or a dark lead pencil with a new eraser.

At the end of your essay, you will want to put a summary sentence, such as “In conclusion, by her strong work ethic, her generous support of neighbors and community, and her devotion to our family, my mother has inspired me to become a more useful person.” Fine, but write that sentence in your first five minutes of planning the essay. By the way, notice how restrained that thesis is compared to this one: “My mother is the greatest mom a person can have.” You might believe this, but write only about what you are able to prove to others.

Pick one of the two broad topics and narrow your focus to a conclusion you can easily organize and support with specific information in 50 minutes. Consider the topic “A way that technology has impacted society.” You should narrow both ends of the topic.

1. Narrow “technology” down to one specific device, such as “the cell phone.”
2. Narrow “impacted” down to one specific effect “has simplified our lives” or “has brought its share of problems.”

Find a thesis that will work and then make it work. You will not have time to change your mind. Don’t waste time trying to find a more important or more interesting or more impressive thesis. You have only 50 minutes. Don’t make your job any harder than it has to be.

Five minutes of planning can help assure 45 minutes of productive writing. use the back pages of your Blue Book to plan your ideas and information. Remember that your thesis must do more than name the topic; it must also state the point of the paper.

Without writing sentences, list facts and other specific details that will support your thesis. If you write it down, you won’t have to remember it later.
Find three reasons or categories to group your supporting details.
End your notes by writing the last paragraph of your paper. It will be one or two sentences long and will state your conclusion. That conclusion will also be your thesis.
You will not pass the exam if you do not present a clear thesis that responds to one of the two topics.

For example, consider this topic: “A form of entertainment that has helped you grow as a person.” After five or six minutes of planning, your goal is to come up with a summary sentence like this: “Thus, by providing experience in analyzing clues, managing resources, and solving problems, the Halo 2 video game has helped me become more logical.” There are your ending and three middle paragraphs in a nutshell. Get rid of the “thus” and you have the thesis to put at the end of your opening. You will be far ahead of those many students who will merely repeat the question and offer this unimaginative and unhelpful thesis: “Video games are a form of entertainment that have helped me grow as a person.” Those students probably won’t even mention Halo 2 until the second paragraph, and “logical” probably won’t appear until the closing paragraph, if at all.

Do not worry if you cannot think of a way to start. Leave a few blank lines for your opening remarks and write your thesis as the last sentence of the opening paragraph. Then start paragraph two by writing a short topic sentence. (Do not waste words by overstating the connection to your thesis: “One way that video games has helped me grow is that Halo 2 forces me to notice clues and figure out their significance.” Simply state the sub-point; readers get the connection. Then fill up the paragraph not with explanations or with repetitions or even with reasons but with two or three specific examples or details. If you happen to think of some useful introductory remarks, add them to your opening paragraph.

Do the same for the next two middle paragraphs. Write for a school setting. No text messaging shortcuts. No fragments, like this one. No crude expressions that sound like crap. You want to show that you understand and can apply the basic writing skills. If you think your middle paragraphs will be too skimpy, then put all three sub-points in one long middle paragraph, but be sure to begin that paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces all three sub-points. You may want to leave room and write that topic sentence last.

If you think you will not finish within the time limit, stop, copy your summary sentence from your notes, put a couple of introductory remarks in your opening, and spend the last five minutes proofreading. Because your pattern and your ending are clear, the reader will not penalize you much for not finishing the middle.

However, if you spend that last five minutes rushing to finish, two things will happen, both of them bad: 1) You will not find and correct careless errors, and 2) You will make many more errors in the rushed passages. Those mistakes will hurt your grade much more than not finishing the middle.

Do not waste time copying your essay to make it neater. Erase or scratch out to make changes. As long as your paper is readable, the grader will not take off for messiness or crossed out words or even for arrows pointing from one place to another. You may want to write on every other line to give yourself plenty of room for changes. Again, you might want to bring Whiteout.

Proofread carefully:

Assume things are wrong and you must find them.
Read what is there, not what is supposed to be there.
Proofread repeatedly, each time checking for a new type of error.
Proofread first for the error with the stiffest penalty, mistakes involving missing or unnecessary periods: comma splices, run-ons, and fragments.
Proofread again for your most serious error pattern.

Do not leave early. Too much is riding on your performance. Make sure your performance is the best that you can do.

Last updated 11/13/2007