Writing a college essay presents challenging times for most students. Anxiety and burnout creeps in because you want to make the best impression through your college essay. One of the perplexing tasks is a selection of an ideal topic.
Even so, it has to be one that is not only specific but also has a personal touch about your life. It is important to create a good essay that is creative and original.
Remember, this essay needs to give more information about you. There is usually a hidden personality beyond your grades, academic scores, and your extracurricular activities.
The work of a college essay is to reveal you beyond these grades. This is the reason why the essays should revolve around your personal life and experience.
How Long to Write College Essays
Writing college essays does not have standard time. Several factors will determine the duration you are going to take when writing. The timelines differ depending on the type of essay given. The ability of the student to research and typing speed will also factor in.
It takes between 2 and 5 hours to write a good college essay that is decent enough to achieve admission. However, some college essays can take more than that if research is needed. Despite that, a college essay should not take more than 1 or 2 days to research, write and submit.
Al in all, some people may even take between 1-3 weeks should be enough for you to breakthrough and come up with the first draft of your college essay.
After coming up with different drafts, another 4 weeks will enable you to revise all of them.
A student will take this long because there are important breaks to take in between writing and editing. Nevertheless, all these are subject to the deadline you have.
Tips How to Write a College Essay Fast
When you find yourself with a short time to the deadline, college essay writing can seem difficult to complete. If you have a week or few days left to the submission time, the following tips will help you write faster:
1. Planning
Planning will help you to focus more on the essay at hand bearing in mind the amount of time at hand. To achieve this, allocate each part of the essay writing the specific time that you will need to accomplish.
Sections of brainstorming, outlining, writing, and revising should have an estimated amount of time you will take. Possibly, postpone all the other tasks you have so that you dedicate all the time to writing.
2. Outline
An outline of your essay is paramount. Basically, the outline will be about choosing the right structure to follow.
For instance, a single story about your personal life will fit in a narrative structure. On the other hand, having one theme that revolves around different stories will need a montage structure of essay writing.
Have a list of topics that you intend to cover appearing from the start to finish. Essentially, visit your sources then get materials for supporting your topic.
Also, put down the ideas of your essay and write all the arguments you intend to discuss in the writing. This plan will ensure you do not leave out any idea.
3. Remove all Distractions
As usual, you cannot write faster in the presence of distractions. Digital distractions such as phones, radio, televisions and tablets should be kept away. Block all the unnecessary computer programs that will distract you. If you are in an environment that is noisy, moving to a quite place such as the library will do you good.
4. Research Widely
After understanding the topic you have, research is the next step. Many students waste a lot of writing time by going back to research again.
Therefore, take time and do extensive research so that you have all the sources before you start writing. A good research session will give you enough material for writing your essay. Your library and the internet are good sources.
5. Read Instructions
Reading instructions and understanding them is perhaps the most important part. This will ensure you research and write on what you understand. If there is any unclear part, ask your professor before you start.
6. Assemble Everything you Need
Get all supplies together before you start writing. A pen, paper, and a functioning computer are some of the things you need.
If you start writing and realize you have forgotten one of the resources, it will take time to gather it.
Factors Affecting Time to write College Essays
Irrespective of the topic given, it is important to complete your essay within the given time. There are students who are fast but others may take a long time to complete their essays. Even as you write, familiarize yourself with college admission writing tips to know what universities check.
Here is what can affect your time of completing assignments:
1. The Deadline
A student will dedicate all the time and effort to complete an essay depending on the deadline. If there are many days left to the deadline, most students will take their time and write slowly. However, a tight deadline will compel the student to write an essay within a short time.
2. Typing Speed
If you are slow in typing, it can take you days to complete an essay. Even after researching and getting resources ready, a slow typing speed will affect your delivery.
Writers who are fast in typing can take few hours to finish their essays as long as they have made the necessary preparation.
3. Your Expertise
Knowledge on the subject matter is important. Understand the professor’s question, analyze all the instructions and know what you are required to do.
With this, you can write your essay within a very short time because you have an understanding of the topic.
4. Essay Length
Essays do differ in terms of length. If it is a short essay, you will obviously take short time to complete. Lengthy essays that have complex topics will take you longer to finish.
5. Your Level of Planning
Essay writing is a very crucial academic engagement. For this reason, it needs a good plan before you can start writing. Planning how to write your essay will make it easier and also faster to accomplish.
After all the striving to write your essay, revision is an aspect you cannot ignore. It is time-wasting to conduct thorough research, write your essay only to submit it with grammar mistakes.
Your efforts will go down the drain because most readers will award your essay a lower grade.
Needless to say, always check your content after writing to correct all grammar, sentence structure and spelling mistakes. Even more importantly, check the style of writing, tone and clarity of the text.
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Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.