How to Write High Quality Essays Fast In University

WARNING ‼️Reading this article will result in you getting better grades❗️

Learning how to write essays well can feel like a whole other discipline- and oddly enough, it doesn’t get talked about as much as it should be. Today, I will teach you how to write high-quality essays fast, especially for university-level humanities courses. It includes:

• How to research, write, and edit your essay
• How to write an essay fast without sacrificing the quality
• Simple and effective essay organization tools and tips
• How to not lose your sanity, minimize breakdowns, and maybe even enjoy the essay writing process

TDLR: There’s no magic trick to this. It really all boils down to plain organization, being proactive, and looking for ways to maximize your time.

How Do I Know This Will Work for You?

I graduated from UBC doing a double major in English and Music. These are the exact steps I followed that led me to consistently receiving 80s, 85s, and 90s on my papers. I also worked as an editor for my school’s literary journal and won a scholarship.

Two essay results from my 400-level seminar courses!

Today I write thousands of words a week- (and yes, by choice) on my blog. This post alone was close to 4 thousand words in the rough draft!

These essay strategies will help you do your work quickly so that you have time for other important things in life 🙂

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Research

Writing

Editing

RESEARCH

The research stage should not make you feel messy or directionless. It should make you feel excited to get started writing. Always prioritize good research practices BEFORE making final decisions on what the essay will be about. The more time you spend researching good sources, the higher the quality of your paper will be!

How to Choose the Best Topic for Your Essay

It needs to be something you’re interested in. Take note of the topics you’ve been the most curious and engaged with throughout the course. You can put on a little happy face or jot down a few thoughts in the margin of your syllabus. Remember- you’ll be stuck with this topic for a few weeks, even months- so make sure it’s something you’re ok with getting sick with!

Talk to your professor (more than once). Your professor will tell you if your essay topic is viable enough if you have to do an abstract or proposal. But the best thing to do is to continue asking your professor questions as they come up.

They are the experts, and you want to touch base occasionally because they can give you the best judgment if you are heading in the right direction with your paper.

“But Katie, I’m too scared to ask my prof for help!”

So was I. Be afraid to ask for help and do it anyway. Would you rather be embarrassed asking for a second opinion, or not ask and end up with a butt grade?

Start an email thread like “final essay” or “research paper” so you can keep in touch with them. I always ask for a recommended list of journal articles and books about my topic.

I also schedule my emails to send at times I will focus less on getting a response, like when I’m sleeping or out with friends. Or you can request to briefly speak to them after class if having a scheduled meeting is not your thing.

Also, try to ask questions ASAP, but know it always helps, even if you think it’s late to ask them.

The One Thing You Must Not Do When Starting Your Essay

Do not write the essay introduction first. The same goes for the conclusion.

It can be a weird chicken and egg situation where oftentimes, you won’t know what you’re really writing about until you are well into writing your essay.

Prematurely writing your introduction will also make you work twice as hard. This is because the meat of your essay will likely change shape as you write, which means you’d have to rewrite the introduction.

Don’t worry about the specifics of your introduction just yet. Treat it as an ongoing process, keeping them in bullet points, and only flesh out the finer details once you’ve finalized the meat of your paper.

How to Find the Most Relevant Information for Your Essay

Use keywords. According to Oxford Dictionary, a keyword is “a word or concept of great significance”. In essays, these words (or phrases) relate to your main topic. Using them correctly will help you find specific, accurate sources for your essay.

Determine early if a source is useful for your topic. Don’t add sources willy-nilly just because you need a certain amount or because the title has that keyword. You need to check and read further to see if the content is going to help support your claims. To do this, check if that source has a high volume of keywords with the following methods:

For physical material: Find a cluster of keywords in the source’s Index

For digital material: hit control+f, or the “find” function, to search your keyword for online sources.

Read the source’s abstract, intro, and conclusion. Does it sound relevant to your topic? If it feels less than 70-ish % useful, chuck it out and find another source.

Also, don’t sleep on physical books! While it can be a bother to have to sift through physical copies, even finding one right book can account for a rich amount of essay content.

Read from the edges and work your way in. When researching, skip and jump around what you are reading. Read the headers. Read only specific chapters of a book, or certain sections of a journal article. Read the beginning and conclusion.

Once you’ve determined the source is worth your full attention, then you can read it left to right like a normal person.

Take notes on what is essential, and chuck out the rest. Don’t take down notes just because it makes you feel productive. Your time is money.

Try to limit the number of notes you take by writing by hand or limiting it to one page. If your hand gets tired, or you run out of space, you’re writing too much.

Don’t Procrastinate on Building Your Works Cited List

Professors get really impressed if you have a beautiful Works Cited list. Start building your Works Cited list right away. Here are some methods to make it easy to trace where your source is from:

• Highlight the quote in the pdf (or if its a physical source, put a sticky note on it.)
• Paste the quote into a new Word document separate from your essay draft.
• Put the quote in the correct in-text citation format right away, ex (quote, 42).
• Have a folder just for sources on your desktop, and label each individual source file with the author’s last name:

Here’s an example of how I would organize my files.

Make sure you are citing things in the correct format. Use a citation site, or ask your prof when in doubt.

I’ve heard some tales of people making up fake sources 💀 Please don’t do that.

You are smart. If you can focus on building a works cited list continuously and be careful about not misplacing sources, the end stage of your essay essays will always be smooth sailing.

WRITING

In this section, I will teach you how to write an essay outline that will prepare you for writing.

The Best Tool for Outlining an Essay: Headers

Headers are larger, bolder texts that signal different sections of a document (just like you see above). Using these to plan the structure and hierarchy of your writing will help you navigate yourself.

Where can I find headers?

Google Docs’ headers creates a nice table of contents in the left sidebar. To use, hold down Option + cmd + 1, 2, 3 etc. to get H1, H2, etc.

Notion’s headers can come with toggle function, which will hide your writing as needed.

To use, write /toggle heading 1,2,3 etc.

This is how I suggest you organize your essay (you can copy and paste it into a new document):

Essay Outline

Info

To Do

Keywords

Title

Intro

Intro w/ thesis/research q,

Notes on approach

Context (ex historical, especially assuming your reader doesn’t know)

Essay Meat

point 1

point 2

point 3

Conclusion

Works cited

Extra (for your bits and bobs that you don’t want to throw away yet and could use for later)

Turn your point form notes into sentences. Take whatever points from your sources (these should be well organized if you followed my earlier tips) and start making paragraphs out of them.

How to Write above the Word Count

Write as much as you can for the first rough draft. Any idea is a good idea. The more research you’ve done, the easier this part should be.

Strategize. Check the assignment’s required word count. A good rule of thumb is that an introduction and conclusion should each make up about 10% of your paper. Once you know how much you have left, you can take the remaining words left to write and divide them among your main points:

Ex 4 thousand words minimum

400 words for intro

3200 words for essay meat (800 words for each of your 4 main points)

400 words for conclusion

Always write more than you think. Even if your calculations say you need 800 words, try writing a couple hundred more words.

What to Do if You are Below the Word Count

Look for arguments/points with too much writing. Maybe there’s a section sitting at 800-1k words while everything else is at 600 words. Can you split it into two ideas and then research and expand on each point?

Look for argument/point has too little writing. Figure out what information you are missing. Or it could indicate that you need to go back to the drawing board and develop a stronger idea/argument that is more exciting to write about.

Don’t worry. (づ*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)づ*.ﾟ✿ Try not to get too hung up or focused on the word count. Writing is a constant act of refining, and it’s easy for the numbers to fluctuate after every edit.

If you’ve finished your paper and see that the final draft is below the word count, it’s not the end of the world. It won’t hurt to go a bit over or under the word limit (within reason, usually 50-100 words.) You can also ask your professor what is permissible.

I’ve had essays under the minimum word count and still be A’s. I’ve also had essays within the minimum word count or above that have been average.

Always Be Aware of What You Are Working On

Have a bird’s eye view of what needs your attention. In the To-Do List header, write at least one thing you need to accomplish that day so you can stay on track to finishing.

• Ex “spend 2 hrs editing, finish editing my 2nd argument, start on my intro.”

It’s a good idea to keep in mind the goal of each individual points in your essay. For each point, write something like, “this point needs to talk about this key term/idea, show evidence for xyz argument.” It’s a little repetitive, but it can help you stay focused (very handy when you’re four hours deep into editing and all the words start to not look like actual words.)

A good test to see if you’re on the right track with your essay is to try explaining what that section is about. If you sound vague, that section needs to be edited more.

Track How Long It Takes You To Write Essays

I knew I needed about 20 hours over to feel like I did my best work on a 12 page paper. It might be less or more for you, depending on how type A you are. But once you get an idea of how much time you need, planning (and getting a good grade) becomes way easier.

EDITING

You’ve reached the final stretch! Here are some of my final writing tips.

Leave your work in a good spot. Try to finish a study session in a place where your draft looks somewhat neat and inviting to edit the next time you sit down to work.

Write hot, edit cold. Write as much as you can without correction, and then cut words as quickly and as ruthlessly as possible later. If you feel indecisive for a long time about whether or not you should keep it something, put it in the “Extra” header. You might want to use them in other parts of your essay, like the conclusion, or introduction.

Use some cool visual organization tricks to track your progress

• Highlight or bold words that urgently needs to be worked on
• choose a small font size and single space to indicate a paragraph you’ve written is still a draft.
• choose the standard pt.12, and double space to indicate a good copy.
• Edit your rough draft in one program (ex Google Docs) and save your good copy in another (like Microsoft Word).

How to write an amazing essay introduction

I’m gonna assume you know the basics of an essay introduction (hook, thesis statement, historical context yada yada.) If you want to know how to take your introduction from good to great, pay attention to how other essay introductions are written. See what gives them that oomph factor. You can check out the UBC literary journal, the Garden Statuary, for some inspiration on really good essay introductions written by students. Or take a look at your sources.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Now you know how to research, outline, write, and edit an essay. Try out what works for you and chuck out the rest. Go get that A! ✿