How can you write an essay fast and get a top score? In this video I'm going to show you how.
There are six parts to this video and they all work together to make your essay writing
lightning quick. The six high speed essay writing elements are prompt, plan, essay structure,
sentence structures, grammar and proof. Before we look at each of these elements in detail,
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Let's start with the prompt. It doesn't matter which test you're taking; IELTS, PTE,
TOEFL, or what type of essay you're writing; argumentative, persuasive, discursive,
you will always receive some type of essay prompt, and you need to firstly read this prompt not once,
not twice, but at least three times. It may seem like a waste of time to read the prompt again,
again and again. But it will actually save you time. Because what you need to do is
balance efficiency with quality. In IELTS, the number one reason people fail to get
the writing score they want is not because of their grammar, or the vocab or their structure.
It's because they right off topic. That is, they don't read the question prompt carefully enough.
Take a look at this prompt here. It says: Some people prefer to prepare for their English exams
online, while others like to prepare with the teacher in a classroom. Which of the two is the
most efficient way to prepare for an English exam? This question is asking about efficiency. Which of
the two options, online learning or classroom based learning will prepare you most quickly
for an exam? It's not asking about effectiveness. It's not asking about price. It's not asking about
enjoyment. The reason why you stop and read the question prompt several times over is so that
you can understand what it is the examiner or teacher wants you to write about specifically.
So once you've understood the prompt, you then need to plan. Again, planning might seem like a
waste of time. I mean, we've already spent one minute reading the question prompt three times,
but planning, I can assure you, will save you a lot of time. One of the worst things you can do
on test day is start writing without a plan, get halfway through your essay, realise what
you've written is junk and start again. A good plan is like driving to a destination with
Google Maps, you won't get lost. There are good and bad ways to plan your essay. Here's the best
way, you need to ask yourself three questions. The first question is, which side am I on?
Am I for or against the prompt? For this prompt, what do I believe? Well,
for me, I'll argue that preparing online is much faster than preparing at a school.
That's my main argument. And this argument will run like a thread throughout my whole essay.
Now that I know which side I'm taking, I need to think about my two main arguments in support
of it. My first argument is that you can study online whenever you want. Whereas a school is
only open at certain times of the day. I'll write about this in my first body paragraph.
My second argument is that you can study wherever you want, whereas a school has a
specific location that you need to travel to which wastes time. So in under 60 seconds,
I've determined which side I'm taking. In this case, I'm for preparing online. And to support
my viewpoint, I'm going to write one paragraph about the efficiency of studying whenever you
want. And I'll write another paragraph about the efficiency of studying from wherever you want.
Now that I know my plan, I can begin writing and incorporate it into my essay structure. If
you haven't seen this video yet, then I highly recommend you do, it goes through the ultimate
essay structure in detail. It's a very important video. Just to recap the structure briefly, your
essay will have an introduction that has a set structure. Your essay will also have paragraphs.
Each paragraph has a set structure, and your essay will have a conclusion that also has a
set structure. It won't take you long to learn how to write an essay using the E2 essay structure.
All you need to do is write a couple of practice essays and all of a sudden you'll memorise it.
The structure has to be the greatest time saving tool you have. You know that the intro starts with
this sentence followed by this sentence etc. You're then putting your ideas onto a solid
framework so that your ideas flow logically from beginning to and it kind of goes structure, ideas,
language. Essay structure is one thing but sentence structures are the other. So your
essay is made of paragraphs and your paragraphs are made of sentences. There are four different
sentence types in English. There are simple sentences, like; I prefer to study online.
There are compound sentences like; I prefer to study online because it is most efficient. There
are complex sentences; Because of its efficiency, I prefer to study online. And there are compound
complex sentences; Because of its efficiency, I prefer to study online and I do this with E2.
I won't go into the ins and outs of the differences between simple, compound, complex and
compound complex sentences here, but if you want to find out more, then check out E2english.com by
clicking the link in the description below. You can take our free courses on English grammar.
If essays are made of paragraphs and paragraphs of made of sentences,
then what are sentences made of? Grammar and vocabulary, of course.
So the prompt, the plan, the structure, the sentences, these are all fine, but on test day,
you're under pressure to write, maybe you need to write more than 200 words in 20 minutes, or more
than 250 words in 40 minutes. Either way, you need to know how to string your sentences together.
Now understand this. Every sentence has a verb, there's a verb in every sentence in English.
Verbs are the most important part of English grammar. There are 16 different verb types in
English. In essay writing, however, there are only three verbs that are most commonly used.
You don't need to write all the different verb types in English into your essay, you just need
to concentrate on present simple like I use E2 English or past simple I used E2 English or the
present perfect, I have used E2 English. So there are three verb types that you need to use in your
essays. But you also need to understand that verbs can switch from active to passive. So keep that in
mind because sometimes it will be more appropriate to use a passive verb in your essay. For example,
the present simple I use E2 English could become E2 English is used. The past simple I used E2
English could become E2 English was used, or the present perfect I have used E2 English
could become E2 English has been used. So knowing which verbs to concentrate on will help to speed
up your writing. There's certainly no need to include more obscure less common verb types,
unless they're needed of course. The last piece of the puzzle is proofreading. It's highly likely
that you'll make grammar mistakes, bad vocab choices or spelling errors while writing your
essay. So you need to make sure that you proofread your essay before you submit it.
Now you can wait until the very end to proofread. But this is not the best option. You should be
proofing as you write. So whenever you finish a sentence or paragraph, go back and reread it.
There are common errors that you need to be mindful of like plural nouns do you write website
or websites? Articles? Do you write websites or a website or the website or the websites? Be careful
of Subject Verb Agreement, like the website is versus the websites are. And think about
word choice. Is the word you're using precise or are you repeating the word too often. Then
there are the paragraph structures and the central argument which you can learn about in this video
here. You can find it by clicking the link in the description below. So keep those common errors in
mind as you write and of course, as you write, you want to make sure you're writing on topic.
So reread the question prompt every few minutes to make sure you're not deviating. And that's that,
let's quickly recap the time saving measures you need to implement so you can write an essay fast.
So you need to read and reread the prompt. Then you need to plan and you need to ask
yourself those three critical questions. Then you need to use the E2 essay structure. You need
to also think about your sentence structures and try to use a variety of them if you are
able. Then you need to think about grammar and vocab and especially focus on the verb tenses.
Those three most common verb tenses and finally you need to proofread but do this
as you write don't leave it to the end. Hopefully you found that helpful. Remember that if you need
more support, then check out E2english.com and sign up for our online free English courses.