writing two essays in a day

How to Write an Essay in 1 Day

H ave you ever written an essay in 25 minutes? You have if you have ever sat for the SAT. While the stakes may be higher for a last-minute academic essay, the point is this: do not panic! Instead, read this six-step guide to writing an essay in a day:

1. Understand your goals

Whether you are writing a personal statement for a college or graduate school application, or an essay for a high school or college class, your assignment will have specific goals. Before you begin to write, review these goals. Clearly understanding your objective is essential when working with a shortened timeline.

2. Choose a topic

Under normal circumstances, you might devote several days to brainstorming a promising topic, and then you might write a detailed outline before writing and revising your essay over a week or two. When you are on a tight schedule, this is not possible.

So—write down the first three or four ideas that occur to you. If you cannot think of an appropriate topic, ask a parent or a friend to review the assignment with you. Do not spend more than 10 or 15 minutes on this part of your essay, as the execution ultimately matters more than the idea itself.

In addition, do not stress yourself about selecting the “perfect” topic. Without a topic, you will have no essay to turn in, and any essay is better than no essay. (It naturally follows that any topic is also better than no topic at all.)

3. Set deadlines

Establishing deadlines for a one-day essay is key. Budget 5-10 minutes for brainstorming, 15-20 minutes for creating an outline, and several hours for writing. You can also set aside an hour for feedback and review, and another hour for any necessary revisions. You should also allow for an hour-long break to recharge your mind. Finally, plan to submit your essay several hours before the deadline. A schedule with some flexibility will allow you to adapt to any unforeseen complications.

4. Arrange for reviewers in advance

Whenever possible, arrange for reviewers (such as your parents or friends) first thing in the morning, and let them know when they can expect a draft. When your deadline is in several days or weeks, you have the luxury of finding reviewers after you have finished your draft. With a shorter deadline, you will not have this ability. Be clear on the short turnaround time to ensure as smooth a review period as possible.

5. Outline your essay

There are many resources that can advise you on how to write a wonderful essay, but the purpose of this article is to shape that advice to the demands of a very short timeline. This includes resisting the urge to abandon the outline. Having an outline is even more important for a one-day essay than for a week-long project with a similar word count. A strong outline will keep your essay focused and organized from the start—which is critical when time constraints will limit your rewrites.

Your outline should not be detailed, and it should take no more than 15 or 20 minutes to complete. Determine your hook (see below for more information), and then jot down the threads that connect this moment to your central argument or idea.

6. Stay organized

When you are under pressure, your tendency may be to start writing and to see where your essay goes. Try instead to use a brief anecdote or emotional impact statement (i.e. the “hook” in your opening paragraph) to set the stakes for your essay. This is essentially your opportunity to state why your argument or idea is worth your reader’s attention.

Finally, remember that “perfect is the enemy of good.” Manage your expectations. Your goal should be to write a good essay, not a perfect one. If you have a compelling hook and a well-organized flow of ideas, check your writing for errors, and then send it in.

Brian Witte is a professional SAT tutor with Varsity Tutors , a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington and holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University

More from Varsity Tutors:

• 7 Last-Minute Exam Tips for Students
• 6 Tips for Surviving Finals Week
• 3 Reasons to Register for SAT Writing Test

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How to Write a Last Minute Essay

←What If I Don’t Have Anything Interesting to Write About in My College Essay?

8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block→

Ooops! You waited until the very last minute to begin the college application process, and it’s probably stressing you out. But never fear – CollegeVine is here to make sure that your procrastination impacts your essay as minimally as possible.

We’ve included a guide for the 30-day essay, the 15-day essay, and the 3-day essay. If you have multiple essays to write in a short time, you can follow the appropriate guide for multiple prompts simultaneously, or offset it by a few days.

The 30-Day Essay

At this point, you want to focus on ideas. You have the freedom to spend a few days figuring out which direction your essay is going to take, so take your time to think about what you want to convey in your essay. Find four to five topics to begin with—you can ask your parents, friends, and teachers about what they find interesting about you in order to speed this process up. Try to choose anecdotes from your life that, in retrospect, you learned from, and these stories will inform your topic. Even the shortest, most insignificant moment can make a great essay if it shaped you in some way. If you are writing a “why this school” essay, make a list of reasons why you are applying. Do appropriate research to find strong reasons that show your genuine interest in the school. 

Now that you have a few potential topics, think about how each one would respond to the prompt. Spend 15 minutes outlining each one, using your prompt to guide the outline. In essays that ask you to tell a story, a good topic should write itself and finding a strong essay idea will nearly always be more productive than forcing a story to respond to the prompt. For “why this school” essays, focus on the structure and connection between your reasons. Giving this step the necessary hours now will pay off later. Narrow your list of potential topics to your top one to three choices.

Now it’s time to put pen to paper. If you’re having a hard time, try writing in different environments—coffee shops, your room, or a library, for example—and alternate between topics, and remember that at least at this stage, more words is better than fewer; there will be a step to polish your writing later. 

By day 14, you should have written one rough essay for every “top choice” topic you decided on during day 5. This means that you should now have anywhere between one to three potential essays for a single prompt.

If you do have more than one essay written, it is now time to choose a single essay. Out of the two or three essays you have written in the past couple days, there is probably one that speaks to you more than the rest. If you’re having a hard time, think about which of the topics you’d like to spend another two weeks with, and try to figure out which one says the most about you. Essays with twice the number of words allowed or more should be ruled out; the anecdote is probably too long, or the topic requires too much detail to be effective.

Break days! Distance is important when writing. Take a break from your essays so that you can continue to edit with a fresh mind. These are great days to give your essay to other people to edit—school faculty members who know you well, a coach/music teacher, your parents, and one or two friends. If you are over the word limit, ask specifically for these editors to help you cut down the essay.

Reading your essay with a fresh mind should help you catch big, structural edits. Your first round of edits should involve content edits; you’re looking for what the essay really says about you as a person, and whether that was what you were trying to get across. How does the sentence flow? Does the essay move itself?

Break day! Get some more distance from your writing.

At this point, you might have received some edits back from the people you handed your essay to. Go through each of the edits and decide which suggestions you plan to take, and which seem to alter your personal voice or which don’t match the essay stylistically. Try to stay objective as you review these edits—some of them will be detrimental. If you can’t see why the change was made, it’s probably best to ignore it. If multiple people give you the same feedback, however, you may want to give it some thought.

Implement the edits that you liked. Then read through the essay again and make sure that there are no structural edits or content edits that still need to happen.

These days are the middle stage of your editing process. You’re looking for words that don’t fit the style of the essay, or which could be improved, as well as sentence flow problems. Are all your sentences the same length? Is one paragraph not as well written as the rest of the essay? This should also be the time that you cut words. If you are still more than 70 words over, try to cut full sentences. Otherwise, start by cutting unnecessary phrases and words.

Start doing smaller grammatical edits. A great way to catch edits is to record yourself reading your essay aloud and then listening to the recording. As you go through this process, highlight, mark, and comment on your essay. Afterwards, go through and use your notes to fix word flow, word choice, and grammatical mistakes.

Break day! It’s close to the deadline, we know. Take a break anyway – you need and deserve it.

Last minute edits! Spend some quality time with your essay by just reading it every few hours. Try to catch any small mistakes or random sentence flow problems. (If you suddenly realize that you hate your essay, reference the 3-Day Essay below. Be sure that you aren’t being hyper-critical, though—you may just hate the essay because you’ve spent so much time on it).

Congratulations! Your essay is done! It’s time for you to catch a break. 

The 15-Day Essay

Spend a few hours working on a list of ideas that could become potential essays. Choose one and make an outline.

Write your essay!

Ask a few people who you think would give constructive comments to read your essay— teachers, parents, and  friends. Spend some time doing content and structure edits. Figure out what you want the essay to convey about your personality, and determine whether your essay actually gets this across.

Do some structural editing. Pay attention to sentence flow, the length of paragraphs, overall organization. If your essay is too long, try to cut down on unnecessary information. Pay close attention to the way that you have structured paragraphs and make sure each one makes sense.

Take a break!

Synthesize the comments you received on your essay. Decide which suggestions you want to use and which ones you don’t. If you can’t figure out why a particular suggestion was made, ask the person who gave it. After you’ve gone through all the feedback, edit your essay accordingly.

Cut your essay down to the word limit – ask yourself which anecdotes, details, and adjectives are truly necessary. If you’re having trouble, reference the editors that you spoke to previously.

Work on grammatical and other small edits. Look for minor things that need to be corrected, such as punctuation and word choice. This process requires a few dedicated hours. Aim to really spend some time polishing your language. Reading your essay aloud can be a productive way to accomplish this.

Take a break from your essay!

Spend the whole day with your essay. Every few hours, do a reread and see if you can catch any small last minute edits. Don’t try to change anything major—you don’t have time!

Submit the essay and take a good nap. You’ve finished! 

The 3-Day Essay

Don’t panic. This is doable, but it’ll be a busy few days. Spend the morning coming up with ideas for your essay. Choose one, and use the afternoon to write it. Email this draft to teachers, and show it to your parents. Then, take a few hours off, and later at night, read it through to edit for content. Does the essay say what you intended it to?

Check your email throughout the day. When you get edits back, start incorporating those into the essay. Be picky about which ones you choose to include because you don’t want to take your own voice out of the essay. Spend the day doing structural edits. Every hour, take a thirty minute break from editing. By the end of the day, you should have an essay that fits within the word limit and also has a strong flow. The organization should be good, and you should be able to see how the essay builds upon itself.

DO NOT OPEN EDITS. If any of your readers have replied to your email, don’t open them at all. At this point, the extra edits will just freak you out, and you don’t have time to do major fixes. The name of the game today is small edits; look for grammar, word changes, and minor sentence structure changes. When you’re finally done, take a breath; you can finally relax. 

The 1-Day Essay 

Of course, writing a college essay the day before it’s due is far from ideal, but we know there are probably some of you out there who will find yourself in this situation. Don’t worry, it is not hopeless. Instead of trying to fit a step-by-step plan into a tight timespan, we’ve compiled some general tips to help you churn out that essay in one day. 

Choose your prompts strategically.

If you already know what you’re going to write about, great! Move on to the next tip. If not, see if you might have already written an essay to any of the available prompts. Especially if the prompts are open-ended, you may have already addressed a potential topic in previous school papers. Look through your files to see if you have any essays that you might be able to recycle. The key here is recycle : it goes without saying that you shouldn’t use a previously-written essay word for word for your college submission. You should still take time to tailor it to the prompt and make sure that it conveys your message clearly, whether it’s illustrating your strengths or expressing why you wish to attend that particular college. 

Make an outline. 

Yes, you may feel that you don’t have time for extensive planning, and that you should just jump in and get everything on paper. Try to rein in this urge and take one hour to make a brief outline, spelling out your “thesis” and all the points you want to address. This will help keep your thoughts in order as you write, especially in such a time-constricted context. 

Get that distance, re-read, and edit. 

It’s always tempting to just click submit once you’re done with a project you worked long and hard on, to feel that relief when you know it’s done. However, especially given the rushed nature of a last-minute essay like this, the revision and editing process is crucial, even if it’ll be minimal. Blatant errors will reflect poorly in your application! 

So when you’re done writing, set it aside for a few hours. Then, reread it, and make any necessary corrections—grammar mistakes, typos, sentence flow. When you’re sure it sounds they way you want it to, then you can submit. 

Wrapping it Up

Procrastinating on your college essays isn’t the best way to go, but it can be saved. If you haven’t started applying yet, start your college essays as early as possible! Longer breaks between editing sessions will allow you to get the distance necessary to be objective, and to produce the best quality essay you can.

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

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How to write an essay in a week (or less)

Katie October 17, 2022 goal setting , time management , writing tips

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed.

Let me be clear: Although this blog post teaches you how to write an essay in a week, I am not suggesting that you ever rush your writing. Good writing takes time, planning, deep thinking, and revision. While one week is enough time to write most high school and college essays, some advanced research papers require more time. Knowing the difference is important.

How to write an essay in a week or less

Below, I list the general steps for writing an essay in one week, from start to finish. Depending on your grade level, essay topic, and teacher’s requirements, you might need to adjust things here and there – but following the sequence below will get you to the finish line. 

If you’re in a pickle (I see you, procrastinators), then you can adjust the framework timeline to complete an essay in four days.

Day one: Plan and Outline

For this step, it’s important to gather all the materials you think you’ll need for the writing process. Get your articles, textbook, novel, or whatever you’ll need for researching and referencing as you write. 

1. Write and clarify your thesis.

Every essay has a thesis. A thesis is what you’re arguing. Here are three possible thesis scenarios:

• Your teacher gives you a thesis
• Your teacher gives you a prompt that can be turned (reworded) into a thesis 
• You have to create your own thesis

Scenario 3 (you have to write your own thesis) requires more work because you have to come up with your own argument. Here are my best tips for writing a thesis statement .

Remember, a good thesis will have two parts. What you’re arguing, and then how or why.

2. Outline the essay.

I suggest you outline the essay on day one, right after coming up with your thesis. In some cases, you will create the second half of your thesis statement (the how or why) as you work through your outline and think more about the topic.

How to outline an essay:

• In a Google Document, write your thesis at the top of the page. Leave this thesis statement here for the entire time you’re writing the essay. It’s your North Star. When you lose focus, come back to the thesis statement.
• Determine the structure of your essay. (You may need to follow your teacher’s requirements.) Do you need to write five paragraphs? Four pages? Is it a compare and contrast essay? See the graphic below for various suggestions for structuring different types of essays.)
• Outline each paragraph of your essay according to the structure you chose in step 2 above. The main bullet headings should be the topic sentence, and supporting details with evidence should be bullet points below that.

Day Two: Write

You’ll spend Day 2 writing your essay. Do not edit at this point! Editing is done on a separate day. You may start with your introduction paragraph, or you could start with one of your body paragraphs. I suggest you build momentum by starting at the point you feel most confident writing about. Again, that could be the middle of your essay. If you’re including quotations in your essay, you will need to thoroughly analyze them. Here’s my step-by-step on how to analyze quotes in an essay .

It’s important to take breaks when you write. A good work-to-rest ratio is 45 minutes to work, and 15 mins to take a break. If you build momentum and don’t want to break after 45 minutes, then keep going, but cap it off at 90 minutes. 

After 90 minutes, take a longer break. It’s also okay to split your writing sessions over the course of the day: plan one writing session in the morning or afternoon, and another one in the evening.

Day Three: Write

Day 3 looks similar to Day 2. Continue writing. As before, avoid editing your work while you are writing it. The more well-built your outline is (Day 1), the quicker the writing process will be.

Writing tip: If you’re incorporating quotations into your essay, be sure to integrate and analyze them well.

• Properly integrated quotations don’t stand alone as sentences; rather, they are part of a larger sentence. 
• Your analysis of quotations should be around three to seven sentences long. Dig deep and explain a) what the quote means, and b) why it matters to the point you’re making.

Days Four – Five: Write or Edit

How you spend Days 4 and 5 depends on how complex your essay is, and how tight your deadline is.

If you’re planning to write your essay in a week, then you can use Day 4 to continue writing, and Day 5 to edit (more on that below). If you’re planning to write your essay in less than a week, then you should spend most of Day 4 editing. 

Day Five-Six: Finish Writing; Edit

Depending on your deadline and essay complexity, you will begin the editing process on Day 4, 5 or 6. 

• Here is my full tutorial with step-by-step instructions for editing your essays .
• Here is my free Essay Editing Checklist (free pdf download) to help you know what to edit for.

Remember, editing your essay should be done on a different day than writing your essay. You need to break the two processes apart with time in between so that your brain has time to “flush the cache” and come back to your writing with fresh eyes. 

Day Six: Edit and Submit

Your essay is due on Day 7. It should be completed the day before, on Day 6. At this point, you’re simply ensuring you’ve used the proper format ( MLA, APA, etc .), your works cited page is adequate, and you’ve checked your rubric thoroughly. 

If your teacher allows, you can submit your essay on Day 6, before it’s due. 

Day Seven: Done

Submit the essay. Make sure your submission is complete (pdf uploaded, essay printed and handed, etc) before you consider yourself “done.”

Final notes about planning and writing essays

The tips in this article teach you how to write an essay in a week or less. But, it’s important to create your timeline by working backward from the day you’re assigned the essay. If your teacher assigns an essay on Monday, and it’s due on Friday, reverse engineer your days so that you complete the essay on Thursday night. Reverse engineering your time allows you to see exactly which days you need to complete which steps. In some cases, you might need to create your thesis, write your outline, and begin the writing process all on Day 1.

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Tips To Write A Good Quality Essay In A Day

28 Nov 2022

Have you left your university essay until the last minute? Don’t worry, it is possible to write a good quality piece of work within a day.

It might not be an enjoyable experience but with the right tips and tricks, it can be done.

With our help you’ll have your essay submitted on time!

Although, we wouldn’t recommend getting into the habit of doing this too often.

Carry on reading to find out our top tips to writing an essay within a day…

1. Maintain A Positive Outlook

Possibly the most important thing to do before trying to complete an essay to a tight deadline is to get yourself in the right mindset.

It’s hard to keep the positive vibes flowing when you’re stressed out about completing your university essay.

However, if you can, try your best to remain calm and have a can-do approach.

Telling yourself it’s not possible or you haven’t got enough time isn’t going to help.

Instead, hype yourself up and take some deep breaths.

Whilst is isn’t an ideal situation to be in, it’s possible for you to complete your essay in a day – believe in yourself, you can do it!

After all, you will have completed exams within a set time frame, so this is something you have experience in doing.

You should also remember that stress can be a great motivator when it comes to completing uni work.

Although, a little stress is great, a lot of stress can be a recipe for disaster.

2. Choose Your Working Environment

Our next tip for getting an essay done in a day is to think about your working environment.

Such as, are you going to work on your essay at home or the library?

It’s best to think about where you work best, and which space will have the least distractions.

The last thing you want to do is get distracted by your flatmates partying so find a quiet place you can focus in!

Plus, if you’ve only got a few hours until the submission time, you don’t want to waste time getting to the campus library, or vice versa, heading to your student accommodation from uni.

You should also think about which place has the strongest Wi-Fi connection.

There’s nothing worse than trying to complete uni work and your internet keeps cutting out – it will just stress you out even more!

Once you’ve chosen your study session base, get everything you need ready whether it’s your laptop, books, pen, paper or bottle of water.

If you work well with music on, get your study playlist ready too.

This way you’ll be nice and organised so you can focus on the task at hand with minimal distractions.

If you’re short on time, don’t waste time procrastinating getting everything ready!

3. Fuel Your Body & Mind

You may be running on short time to write your essay in a day but you still need to ensure you fuel your body and mind.

So, make sure that you’ve eaten a healthy breakfast and you’ve drank enough, this way you’ll have the energy you need to get your essay done.

We’re not saying you should spend an hour in the kitchen cheffing up a full English if your essay deadline is fast approaching, just make sure you eat at least something and keep yourself hydrated.

Try to be careful with caffeinated drinks too, you may think the only way you’ll get your essay done is by chugging back tons of energy drinks or cups of coffee.

However, you’ll end up crashing after a few hours and feel super fatigued if you knock back too many red bulls.

Instead, just go for the one or two energy drinks or cuppas and you’ll have enough energy to get your work done!

4. Create An Essay Plan

Next within our guide to tips to write an essay in a day is to create a plan to follow and refer back to throughout the process.

As you know, for any piece of academic writing, you should always spend time beforehand planning.

Whilst you may be short on time in this instance, it’s still important to research and understand what your essay topic is about.

Even if you just spend half an hour researching and planning what you’re going to discuss within your essay, this is better than no planning at all.

If you dive straight into writing, you won’t have gathered enough material and information to write your essay to a high standard – we don’t want that!

One tip we have for you is to create your plan within the document you’ve created for your essay.

This way you’ll have bullet points and notes to follow for your key ideas so you won’t suffer from writer’s block.

Plus, it will save you a little more time and that’s exactly what you need, ay?

5. Set A Schedule

When it comes to writing an essay quickly, you should try to set a schedule to follow for the day.

You may struggle with time management, but try your best to plan your time for the day and set a schedule to follow.

If you give yourself a certain amount of time to get different sections of your essay written up you’ll ensure that you hit the word limit and get each section complete in the time required.

You don’t want to submit a half finished essay because you spent too long on the introduction and didn’t have time for a conclusion which contains all the information you need for a good mark!

For example, if you’ve got a essay which has a word count of 2000 words, spread it out throughout the day so that the task is more manageable and more like mini-tasks per hour, rather than one massive essay.

We would recommend being realistic about your essay writing though, as it may not be possible for you to hit the word count within a certain time frame – quality over quantity!

Remember to also also ensure you fit in breaks within your daily schedule, you’re not a robot, everyone needs some time to re-charge even if your deadline is just hours away.

This way, you’ll stop yourself from feeling completely drained and you’ll boost your productivity levels!

6. Switch Off From Technology

This next one might seem obvious, but if you’re working against the clock you need to limit as many distractions as possible.

Switch off your phone, your TV or anything else which may distract you before starting to write your essay.

The last thing you want to do is spend an hour scrolling through TikTok rather than writing your essay.

If you feel like you’ll be tempted to keep checking your messages or checking your socials, give your phone to your flatmate or keep it out of sight.

If you like having your phone nearby to you, put it on do not disturb or airplane mode to limit any notifications coming through.

Your time is precious, so try your best not to check social media and procrastinate!

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with taking a break from your work and then checking your phone, just don’t do it too much otherwise your essay won’t get done.

7. Reach Out For Help If You Need It

If you’re reading this guide, chances are you’ve left your essay to the last minute as you don’t have a clue what to write about, or you’ve been too busy to get it done.

Whatever the reason is, don’t be afraid to reach out for help from your lecturers if you are struggling.

Whilst you may think they’re going to judge you for your lack of time management, we’re sure they’d rather you ask for support if you need it.

Your tutors are there to help you, drop them an email or arrange a video call to ask any questions you have if they’re available.

Bear in mind if it is the day of the deadline, they may not be free and could have tons of other people asking them things too, but it’s worth asking!

You could also speak to your course mates and see if they can help you with anything you’re unsure about.

8. Save Time Referencing

No matter what type of essay you’re writing or the subject, you’ll need to include at least some academic sources.

We know, it’s the most dreaded part of any essay even if you have all the time in the world.

It’s something we all hate doing but it’s an important aspect of all good quality articles.

Our first tip is to not leave your referencing until the last minute.

Try to cite your sources as you go through your essay to ensure you don’t leave yourself too much work to do.

Otherwise you’ll have to go back and find the quotes and sources which can be a NIGHTMARE.

If you’re writing your essay using Microsoft Word, make use of their referencing tool to save yourself time spent creating your bibliography.

You can also use helpful referencing building tools like Cite This For Me .

9. Make Sure To Proofread

Our last tip to write an essay in a day is to make sure you proofread.

As you know, writing an essay is a process with many different stages, with the final stage being proof reading and editing.

Chances are, you probably won’t have much time at all to proofread your essay once you’ve finished writing.

However, if you can, spend the last few hours before the deadline to just go through your essay and check for mistakes.

Take a re-read of your essay and check for grammar or spelling errors, as well as sections you may need to re write.

The editing stage is essential and is just as important as the writing part itself.

So, spend at least some time checking over and making amendments before you hit that submit button!

If you’re able to, ask someone else to quickly go over your essay to check for any errors you may have missed.

Don’t spend too long checking your essay if your deadline is quickly approaching as you don’t want to lose marks for submitting it late.

Remember, uploading your essay online can sometimes take a while, so bare this in mind!

Hopefully our tips to write an essay in a day have been helpful for you – we believe in you.

The power is now in your hands to get your essay done, stop procrastinating and go and get it done!

One final thing to takeaway is to remember that you can ask for a deadline extension if there are genuine reasons why you couldn’t submit your essay or any piece of work on time!

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How to Write a Two Page Essay Quickly

Last Updated: March 28, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD . Megan Morgan is a Graduate Program Academic Advisor in the School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Georgia in 2015. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 97,959 times.

Writing a two page essay can be a daunting task. After all, writing takes specific skills and a lot of practice. If you are well-organized and have a specific plan, it can be done both successfully and quickly. College students, high school students, and people in most professions have to write from time to time (or every day). For many people, writing can be stressful. It helps to have a system in place to help make the process as efficient (and painless) as possible.

Getting Organized

• If your instructor has given you a clear prompt, decide now how you will approach the question. For example, if the given assignment is "Write an essay on the women's movement. Was it successful?", you will need to decide which side you are going to take. Once you narrow your focus, your essay will be much easier to organize.
• If you have a much broader assignment, it will be up to you to focus your topic. For example, if your assignment is "Write about something that interests you", you will not want to make the topic of your essay "Sports," especially for a short two-page essay. Choose a very specific topic, such as "Tailgating in the American South."

• It's unlikely that you will need further research for a two-page paper, but if you aren't sure about the requirements, ask your teacher.

Drafting Your Essay

• For example, if you're supposed to write a two-page essay about something that interests you, think about who your audience is (and how much explaining you'll have to do), what is the most relevant information, and why your topic is interesting to you.
• Branching is another technique you can use while creating your thesis. Try to imagine your topic as a tree. Write your basic idea in the middle of your paper, and then "branch" out from there, adding ideas and thoughts to your central topic.
• Another approach to try is brainstorming. To do this, write down anything and everything you know or need to know about your topic. Don't edit yourself, just get some thoughts down on paper. Once you can see your ideas, they will start to take shape. It's often helpful to do this before you try to write a formal outline, as you'll have a better idea of what you want to cover.

• For example, if you were writing an essay about college sports, a poor thesis would be, "College sports are very controversial in many ways." This is too vague, and it does not clearly take a position to argue. It will leave your reader wondering what argument you are making in your essay.
• An example of a strong thesis for the same topic might be, "College athletes should be paid a salary for playing their sport." This is more successful because it indicates the topic you will address. It's also limited enough that you can adequately discuss it in a two-page paper.

• You don't necessarily need to do a formal outline to start with. Brainstorming or making a list-type outline, where you list out ideas that are related to your topic without putting them in a specific order, can help you know what you want to write about.
• Once you have listed the ideas that support your thesis, you'll have a better sense of how to organize them.

• Note that not all teachers prefer or even accept this type of thesis, which is often referred to as a "multi-prong" or "three-prong" thesis. However, this type of thesis is often appropriate for very short writing assignments such as a two-page essay. If you're not sure what your teacher's preferences are, ask before you begin writing.
• It's helpful to list specific examples in your outline, so that you know what evidence you have for each point. This can also be helpful to show you whether you have gaps or imbalances in your approach. For example, do you have just one example for one point, but three for another point? It would be better to use roughly the same number of examples per point, or even see if the less-supported point could be incorporated elsewhere.

• One type of citation is known as parenthetical documentation. For this method, you provide information about the source within the text of your essay. An example of this would be, "Brown argues that Einstein's theory of relativity is the most important scholarly achievement of the twentieth century (292)." The name Brown refers to the author of the book in this example, and 292 is the page number where this information is found. There are different ways to cite various sources, so make sure you know how to properly credit all of the sources you plan to use. [1] X Research source
• Sometimes you may be asked to use footnotes or endnotes. While less common in brief essays, some teachers and bosses prefer them. Footnotes and endnotes include more thorough information about the source used. Often, when they replace parenthetical documentation, a Works Cited page is not required. [2] X Research source

Writing Your Essay

• Make sure that each body paragraph has a topic sentence . This sentence makes it clear to your reader what each paragraph is about. For example, if you were writing an essay about the labor force during World War II, you might say, "Women were an important part of the workforce in World War II because they learned new jobs that were previously reserved only for men."
• Include specific supporting examples in each body paragraph. For instance, if you were writing an essay about the labor force during World War II, you might say, "Many women became welders during World War II, which illustrates that gender roles in the workplace were changing."

• Start off with a broad contextual statement, but don't make it so broad as to have no relevance. Statements that begin like "Throughout history" or "In modern society" are "fluff" statements and don't provide any real context for your argument.
• A good way to think of your introduction is as an inverted pyramid. Start with the broad statement that sets the scene, and then narrow down until you reach your thesis.
• Include your thesis statement at the end of the conclusion.
• Spend some time on your first sentence. It should be interesting and grab the attention of your reader. Try starting with a fascinating example or an exciting quotation.
• Use your conclusion to tie together the strands of your argument. In some cases, such as persuasive essays , it's appropriate to include a call to action. You can also return to an anecdote or theme you brought up in the introduction to give your paper great symmetry.

• Watch out for the passive voice. Beginning writers often use the passive voice because it's wordier, which may be mistaken for "fancier." Here's an example of the passive voice: "It is believed by many that today's growing social violence is being caused by video games." Be verbs are often signs of passive voice. Reword it actively this way: "Many people blame video games for today's growing social violence." This is a clear grammatical order: People (subject) blame (verb) video games (direct object).
• Avoid wordy constructions such as "It is believed that" or "This is suggestive of that." You can communicate these ideas more clearly and concisely: "People believe that" or "This suggests that."

• Some short essays may be more appropriate in the first-person, using "I." If you've been assigned to write a personal or persuasive essay, the first-person voice is often more personal and effective than using third-person.
• Aim for parallel structure in sentences. Often, sentences end up sounding clunky if you ignore parallel structure. For example: "Paying college athletes is more important than to give them scholarships." Convert the infinitive "to give" to the gerund form "giving" for parallelism: "Paying college athletes is more important than giving them scholarships."

• Here are some examples of transition words: similarly, in comparison, as a result, otherwise. During the editing process, you can try using several variations to see which best fits your style of writing. [8] X Research source

Editing Your Essay

• Be aware that the "grammar check" in word processors is often incorrect about issues, and may even suggest changes that make your writing incorrect. Don't rely only on technology.

• There are several methods for creating a title. One idea is to begin your title with a question, such as "How..." or "Why...". Another method is to choose a specific example that occurs within your paper and use that as a starting point for your title. [10] X Research source

Community Q&A

• Take a break if you need to. Writing takes a lot of practice! Ask for help if you need it, and just keep practicing and editing. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/parenthetical-versus-narrative
• ↑ https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/documentation-guide/chicago-style/footnotes-and-endnotes
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/body-paragraphs
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/introductions/
• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines
• ↑ https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/2021-05/accs_elements-and-structure-of-an-essay_rev2016.pdf
• ↑ https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/list-transition-words.html
• ↑ https://researchguides.uic.edu/c.php?g=252299&p=1683205
• ↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf

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How to write a whole research paper in a week

Writing up a full research article in a single week? Maybe you think that’s impossible. Yet I have done it repeatedly, and so have students in my courses. This is an exceptionally joyful (even if demanding) experience: being so productive just feels great! You are not wasting any time, and a paper produced in one go is typically coherent and nice to read. Even if you are a slow writer, you can write a whole paper in a single week — if you follow my strategy. Read below about what you need to prepare and how to approach this project.

I wrote my first scientific research article in 7 days. It started as a desperate effort to stop my procrastination and “just do it”. But I was surprised what a positive experience it was: focused and efficient, I was making daily progress, feeling motivated and content. Finally, the fruits of my hard work were gaining shape — and they did it so quickly!

I realized it was highly effective to write up a paper like this: writing for the whole day, every day until the first draft was finished. My writing project was firmly present in my mind — I didn’t lose time catching up with what I have written in the last session. Since I was not doing anything else, my wandering mind settled in very fast, and I was getting into a routine. The daily progress was clearly visible and motivated me to continue. And the result was a coherent paper that was easy to revise.

Meanwhile, this paper-a-week approach is my favorite. That’s how I write my papers, and that’s what I teach to students. In on-site courses young scientists draft a whole paper in 5 days, writing one major section per day. At the beginning of the week, many participants have doubts. But at the end of the week, they are all excited to see how much they managed to write in just a single week.

If you would also like to try out this approach, then read on about the necessary preparations, the optimal setting, and a productive writing strategy.

If you would like to get support during the preparation, drafting and revising of your research article, check out my online course Write Up Your Paper .

Prepare well

• First, think about your audience and pick a suitable journal . This is an important step because the audience and journal determine the content & style of your paper. As a reference, pick two recent papers on a similar topic published in your target journal.
• Create a storyline for your paper. What is the main message you want to convey, and how are you going to present your results?
• Put together all the results that you need to present your story convincingly: collect the necessary data, finish analyses, and create figures and tables.
• Select and read the relevant background literature as well as studies you want to compare your work with. As you read, note down any point that comes to your mind as something to be mentioned in the Introduction or Discussion section.
• Draft a preliminary Abstract : it will help you keep the direction and not get distracted by secondary ideas as you write the individual sections.

Depending on how complete your results already are, you might need 2-4 weeks to finish all these preparations. To help you keep an overview, I created a checklist with detailed steps that you need to take before you attempt to write up your paper in a week. Subscribe to our Newsletter and get your copy of the checklist.

Reserve a whole week for writing

Now, writing a paper in a single week is a serious business. You can’t do it if you don’t focus solely on the writing and create good writing conditions. Therefore, I recommend the following settings:

• Find a place where you can write without distractions. I have written my first paper over the Easter holidays when there was nobody in the office. You might choose to write at home or in a library. Though if possible, the best is to go for a retreat: removing yourself from your everyday settings immensely helps focus on the writing.
• Cancel (all) social obligations for the week. While it’s crucial to relax in the evening, you want to avoid disturbances associated with social events. Anything that makes your thoughts drift away from your work because it requires planning, exchanging of messages with others, or simply because it’s too exciting is better left for some other week. On the other hand, a quiet meeting with a good friend over a glass of wine or beer might be just the perfect way to unwind and rest after a productive, yet exhausting day of writing.
• Get support from the partner, family or friends — if possible. It’s best when you don’t need to run errands, cook and clean during this week. If you live alone, you can probably easily arrange yourself for undisturbed work. If you live with other people, ask them for consideration and support.

What I described above are the *ideal* conditions for undisturbed writing. But don’t give up if you can’t create such conditions for yourself. Work with what is possible — maybe it will take you 7-8 instead of 5-6 days but that’s still a great result, right?

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin?

Get your Revision Checklist

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts.

Maybe you think that you can never ever draft a research article in a single week. Because you write so slowly, producing only few paragraphs per day. Well — I agree that if you don’t optimize your writing strategy, it would be hard to impossible to write up a whole paper in a week.

• Separate the processes of writing and revising. That’s the most important principle. Resist the urge to revise as you write the first draft. Moreover, don’t interrupt your writing to look up missing information. Work with placeholders instead. This allows you to get into the state of flow and proceed much faster than you can imagine.
• Start your writing day with 10 minutes of freewriting . Write without stopping about anything that comes to your mind. This helps you to warm up for writing, clear your head of any unrelated thoughts, and get into the mood of writing without editing.
• Take regular power breaks. I recommend to follow the Pomodoro technique : write for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After 3-4 such sessions take a longer break of 0.5-1 hour. During the breaks get up, walk a bit, stretch, look around, and breathe deeply. These breaks help you sustain high focus and productivity throughout the whole day.
• Eat and sleep well. What you are doing is similar to a professional athlete. So take care of your brain and body, and they will serve you well.
• Reward yourself. Every day celebrate the progress you have made. You have full right to be proud of you!

Write the individual sections in a reasonable order

If you have written a research paper before, you have probably realized that starting with the Introduction and finishing with the Discussion is not the ideal order in which to tackle the individual sections. Instead, I recommend the following procedure:

• Start with the Methods section. This is the easiest section to write, so it’s great as a warm-up, to get into writing without the need to think (and procrastinate ;)) too much. Look at your figures and tables: what methods did you use to create them? Then describe your methods, one after another.
• Results section: Writing the Methods section refreshes your memory about the research you have done. So writing the Results section next should not be too hard: Take one display object (figure or table) after another, and describe the results they contain. While you do so, you will come across points that need to be discussed in the Discussion section. Note them down so you don’t forget them.
• Introduction : When your results are fresh in your mind, you are in a great position to write the Introduction — because the Introduction should contain selected information that gives the reader context for your research project and allows them to understand your results and their implications.
• Discussion : When you have taken notes while writing the Results section, the Discussion section should be quite easy to draft. Don’t worry too early about the order in which you want to discuss the individual points. Write one paragraph for each point , and then see how you can logically arrange them.
• Abstract and title : On the last day, revise the preliminary Abstract or write a new one. You could also take a break of a few days before tackling the Abstract, to gain clarity and distance. Generate multiple titles (I recommend 6-10), so that you and your co-authors can choose the most appropriate one.

Just do it!

Once you have written the whole draft, let it sit for a week or two, and then revise it. Follow my tips for efficient revising and get your revision checklist that will guide you step-by-step through the whole process.

Now I am curious about your experience: Have you ever written up an academic article quickly? How did you do it? Please, share with us your tips & strategies!

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin? Is your text a mess and you don't know how to improve it?

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts. You will be guided through each step with concrete tips for execution.

7 thoughts on “ How to write a whole research paper in a week ”

Thank for your guide and suggestion. It gives to me very precious ways how to write a article. Now I am writing a article related to Buddhist studies. Thank you so much.

You are welcome!

excellent! it helped me a lot! wish you all best

Hi Parham, I’m happy to hear that!

I have never written any paper before. As I am from very old school.

But my writing skill is actually very good. Your help is definitely going to help me as this has inspired me alot. Will let you know, once done. I really like the outline that you have given. Basically you have made it so easy for me .

Hope fully will be in touch with you soon.

Thanks and ki d Regards, Shehla

Dear Shehla, that sounds great! I’m looking forward to hearing about your paper!

Comments are closed.

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