A great teacher taught me a technique to use when I felt ‘blocked’ trying to write an essay. I have used and refined this technique for years when I am doing professional writing, particularly as I write/submit abstracts to conference as a potential speaker. People often tell me ‘you write so fast!’. Since I am now teaching my daughter this technique as she is writing a number of essays for college applications, I thought I’d share it here.
A side benefit of doing this is that when you learn to ‘submit faster’ then you become more inclined to apply more frequently. This applies, of course, not only to college applications for high school seniors, but for many types of written submissions throughout your life.
Because I’ve learned to make the cost of writing lower (by using this time-saving process), I tend to write more in general and also to submit to more technical conferences as a potential speaker. More submissions result in more acceptances (more rejections too) but that’s a topic for another blog post.
I hope you find this process useful!
#happyWriting
Speed Essay / Abstract Writing
Take a one hour block of time and…
- Set a timer for 10 minutes
- Write out the first question
- Write the first bullet point
- Write a sentence using the bullet point
- Read the sentence out loud
- List the next bullet point
- Write a sentence using the next bullet point
- Continue until time runs out or done
NOTE: Take a break after every 10 minutes for 5 minutes – get up and move around
When done writing out all bullets into sentences
- Put the sentences in a logical order
- Write words (or new sentences) to connect the existing sentences
- Read each new paragraph out loud, update as needed
- Write a concluding sentence for your essay
- Read the entire essay out loud
- Check the word count (for limits)
Sleep on it
- Read the entire essay out loud
- Update as needed
- Input the essay into the application
- Submit it, verify that your submission was accepted
Lynn Langit 