how to write the time in an essay

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Best practices for including time references in your essay writing.

Time plays a crucial role in writing, adding depth and context to your ideas. However, properly conveying time in an essay requires attention to detail and consistency. Whether you are discussing historical events, comparing timelines, or simply narrating a sequence of events, the way you handle time can significantly impact the clarity and effectiveness of your writing.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore best practices for writing time in an essay, including how to format dates, express time intervals, and maintain chronological order. By mastering these techniques, you can enhance the precision and coherence of your writing, ensuring that your readers follow your argument with ease and understanding.

Using Consistent Time Format

When writing time in an essay, it is crucial to maintain consistent time format throughout your work. This consistency helps the reader to follow the timeline of events and understand the progression of time in your writing.

One of the key aspects of using consistent time format is to decide on the format you will use for representing time. You can choose between the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock, but make sure to stick to your choice throughout the entire essay.

Additionally, it is important to be consistent in how you punctuate and separate the elements of time. For example, if you choose to include the time of day, make sure to use the appropriate punctuation and separations, such as “7:30 AM” or “14:45.”

By using a consistent time format, you can enhance the readability and coherence of your essay, making it easier for the reader to follow the progression of events and time in your writing.

Avoiding Abbreviations in Time References

When writing about time in an essay, it’s important to avoid using abbreviations for time references. Abbreviations like “a.m.” and “p.m.” can sometimes be confusing to readers, especially those who are not familiar with these terms.

Instead of using abbreviations, it is better to write out the time references in full. For example, instead of writing “3 p.m.,” you can write “three o’clock in the afternoon.” This not only makes your writing clearer but also helps to avoid any confusion for your readers.

Additionally, when writing about specific times, it is best to use the 24-hour clock format to avoid any confusion. For example, instead of writing “6:30 p.m.,” you can write “18:30.”

Differentiating Between Time Zones

When writing about time in an essay, it is crucial to differentiate between different time zones to avoid confusion. Using the appropriate time zone is essential for clear communication and accuracy. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Specify the Time Zone: Always specify the time zone when mentioning a particular time to provide clarity for your readers. For example, if you mention an event happening at 3:00 PM, specify whether it is in Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central Standard Time (CST), Pacific Standard Time (PST), or any other time zone.

2. Convert Time Zones: If you need to convert a time from one time zone to another, make sure to do so accurately. Use reliable sources or online converters to ensure the correct conversion. Double-check your calculations to avoid errors.

3. Be Consistent: When mentioning time zones throughout your essay, be consistent in your usage. Stick to one format and style to maintain coherence and avoid confusion for your readers.

4. Consider Your Audience: Take into account the location of your audience when mentioning time zones. If you have an international audience, consider using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as a reference point to provide a universal frame of reference.

By following these guidelines, you can effectively differentiate between time zones in your essay and ensure clarity and accuracy in your writing.

Integrating Time Markers Naturally

When incorporating time markers in your essay, it is essential to do so seamlessly and naturally. This means that you should avoid simply listing dates or times without any context or relevance to your discussion. Instead, strive to integrate time markers in a way that adds depth and clarity to your writing.

One effective way to integrate time markers naturally is to use them to provide context or establish a timeline for your argument. For example, you might use time markers to show the progression of events or to highlight the significance of a particular moment in history.

Additionally, consider using transitional phrases to smoothly introduce time markers into your writing. Phrases like “In the past,” “Throughout history,” or “In recent years,” can help connect your ideas and make the passage of time feel organic and fluid.

Overall, the key to integrating time markers naturally is to use them strategically and thoughtfully to enhance the coherence and flow of your essay. By carefully weaving time markers into your writing, you can provide readers with a clear sense of the temporal context of your argument and strengthen the overall impact of your work.

Clarifying AM and PM Notations

When writing time in an essay, it is important to clarify whether the time is in the morning (AM) or the afternoon/evening (PM). This distinction is crucial for readers to accurately interpret the time reference.

Here are some best practices for using AM and PM notations:

• Use “AM” to indicate times from midnight to noon.
• Use “PM” to indicate times from noon to midnight.
• Always include a space between the time and the AM or PM notation (e.g., 9:00 AM).
• When indicating noon, use “12:00 PM” to avoid confusion with midnight.
• Avoid using “12:00 AM” to represent midnight; instead, use “12:00 PM”.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure clarity and precision when writing time references in your essays.

Providing Context for Relative Time Expressions

When writing about time in an essay, it is important to provide context for relative time expressions. This helps the reader understand the timeline of events and creates a clear and coherent narrative. One way to provide context is to use transition words and phrases that indicate the order of events, such as “before,” “after,” “during,” and “while.”

Another way to provide context is to use specific dates, years, or time frames to anchor the relative time expressions. For example, instead of saying “recently” or “a long time ago,” specify the time period to give the reader a more concrete understanding of when the events occurred.

By providing context for relative time expressions, you can enhance the clarity and coherence of your writing, making it easier for readers to follow the timeline of events and understand the progression of your ideas.

Checking for Time Accuracy in Quotes

When including quotes in your essay that mention specific times or dates, it is important to ensure that the information is accurate. Misquoting or misrepresenting the time frame can discredit your writing and undermine the credibility of your argument.

Before finalizing a quote that includes time-related details, it is crucial to double-check the accuracy of the information. This can be done by cross-referencing the quote with reliable sources, such as the original text or a reputable publication.

Additionally, it is recommended to verify the context in which the time is mentioned and ensure that it aligns with the overall narrative of your essay. Incorrectly attributing a time frame to a quote can distort the meaning and lead to misinterpretations.

By diligently checking for time accuracy in quotes, you can maintain the integrity of your writing and effectively support your arguments with credible evidence.

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7 Top Tips on Writing the Time

7-minute read

• 25th July 2019

As anyone who has turned up for a midday meeting at midnight will tell you, clarity is vital when writing the time of day. But there are many ways to write the time, and the best approach isn’t always obvious. We have a few tips to help, though.

1. Words or Numerals?

You can write the time of day using either words or numerals. If you are using numerals, you would usually include both hours and minutes, although you can omit the minutes in less formal writing .

For instance, all the following would be acceptable:

She gets up at six in the morning every day.

She gets up at 6:00 in the morning every day.

She gets up at 6 o’clock in the morning every day.

As a rule, though, you would only write out the time as words when:

• It is part of a full sentence, particularly in descriptive or literary writing.
• Using a 12-hour clock (never with a 24-hour clock ).
• You’re referring to an approximate or round time (e.g., saying “ten thirty” is fine, but you would not usually write “twenty-four minutes after eight”).

In most other cases, numerals are the clearer option for writing the time, especially in scientific and technical writing, where precision is vital.

2. AM and PM

The abbreviations AM and PM can be used when writing the time as numerals. Each applies to a different time of day:

• AM is short for ante meridiem , meaning “before noon.”
• PM is short for post meridiem , meaning “after noon.”

As such, we use AM and PM to indicate the time of day when we are using a 12-hour clock. We can see how this works more clearly if we write out various times of day in both 12-hour and 24-hour formats:

You can see here that we need AM and PM with the twelve-hour clock for clarity. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between, e.g., midday and midnight. Likewise, though, you do not need to include AM or PM with a 24-hour time because it is already clear.

There are also several ways to write AM and PM, including:

• ALL CAPS, small caps , or lower case (e.g., 12 AM, 12 AM , or 12 am)
• With or without periods between the letters (e.g., 8 PM or 8 P.M.)
• With or without a space after the number (e.g., 1 AM or 1AM)

Consistency is key here, so make sure to apply one style throughout your document. You may also want to check your style guide if you have one, as some organizations will have their own rules for how to write AM and PM.

3. When to Use O’clock

You’ll have noticed we use “o’clock ” in one of the examples above. This term means “of the clock,” so we can use it to show that a number refers to a time.

However, you should only use “o’clock” with exact hours:

It is precisely 5 o’clock . ✔

I’m leaving at seven o’clock . ✔

It arrived at 7:34 o’clock . ✘

The gig starts at half past seven o’clock . ✘

We’ll save a discussion of when wine o’clock is for another blog post.

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4. Past, After, Till, and To

When writing the time as words, use “after,” “past,” and “to” for intervals between hours. You can combine these terms with either numbers or the words “half” and “quarter” depending on the time in question:

• Use after or past for intervals up to half an hour past the hour.
• Use to for any interval after the half hour up to the hour.
• Use half past to indicate 30 minutes past the hour.
• Use quarter past   or  quarter after for 15 minutes after the hour.
• Use quarter to for 15 minutes up to the hour.

For example, we would use the above accordingly in the following times:

7:05 → Five after seven

7:15 → Quarter past seven

7:30 → Half past seven

7:45 → Quarter to eight

7:55 → Five to eight

Keep in mind that using “after” for times is only standard in American English. In other English dialects, “past” is far more common.

5. Punctuating the Time

When writing the time as numerals, you can use either a colon or a period between the hour and the minutes. In some cases, such as in the military , you can even write out a 24-hour time without any punctuation.

For instance, the following are all acceptable ways of punctuating a time:

We need to leave by 6:45 pm at the latest. ✔

We need to leave by 6.45 pm at the latest. ✔

We need to leave by 1845 at the latest. ✔

The colon is the most common option here, but it is a matter of preference. Unless you’re in the military, in which case we suggest sticking to protocol.

6. Time Zones

For the contiguous states in the USA, we have four standard time zones:

• Pacific Time (PT) [UTC-08:00]
• Mountain Time (MT) [UTC-07:00]
• Central Time (CT) [UTC-06:00]
• Eastern Time (ET) [UTC-5:00]

We also have regional time zones for Alaska, Hawaii, and 5 US dependencies, plus daylight saving time in some places during the warmer months of the year. And people in other countries use different time zones entirely!

Basically, we’re saying geography can make time complicated.

This is why we sometimes include a time zone when writing the time. The initials UTC above, for instance, stand for Coordinated Universal Time . We can use this to compare times in different places. So, “UTC-8:00” means Pacific Time is 8 hours behind UTC. And since we know Pacific Time is 8 hours behind UTC and Eastern Time is 5 hours behind UTC, we can work out that ET is 3 hours ahead of PT.

In other words, by including a time zone when we write a time, we can help people in other places “translate” it into their own time zone.

This is important if you are writing for an international audience, since not everyone will be in the same time zone. You thus need to include a set of time zone initials so your reader can calculate the equivalent time where they are. For example, if we were writing a time for an international audience, we might say:

The live broadcast will begin at 9:00 pm UTC .

Someone in Bolivia could then look up the difference between UTC and BOT (Bolivia Time) and know the broadcast begins at 5:00 pm where they are.

7. Avoiding Redundancy when Writing the Time

In writing, redundancy means using a word unnecessarily. We mentioned above, for example, that you do not need to use AM or PM with 24-hour times because we already know whether a time is the morning or afternoon/evening when using a 24-hour clock.

Other cases of temporal redundancy you may want to avoid include:

• Using “in the morning,” “in the afternoon,” etc., alongside AM/PM.
• Combining “in the morning,” “in the afternoon,” etc., with a 24-hour time.
• Using “midday,” “noon,” or “midnight” alongside a time in numbers.

We’ll end this post with a few examples of redundancies so you know what to watch out for. Check out the table below, good luck writing the time, and let us know if you need any help proofreading your work.

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Writing the Time: How to Write Time Correctly (Examples)

If you want to learn how to write time correctly, you've come to the right place. This article will teach you everything you know to use time correctly in your writing.

The time can be written in letters or numerals and follows various conventions. To learn more, read on.

This guide is part of our free online Grammar Book.

How to Write the Time in Numerals

Before you can learn how to write the time in your texts correctly, you need to know about the different ways of measuring time. There are two commonly used ones: the 12- hour and 24-hour formats. Let's review each one by one.

12-Hour System

The 12-hour system uses the numbers 1 to 12 to measure time and the abbreviations' am' and 'pm' to specify whether the time mentioned is in the morning or the afternoon. The hours from 1 to 12 before noon count as the morning, and the hours between 1 and 12 after noon count as... well, afternoon.

There are a few different ways to write the time using the 12-hour system. What they all have in common is that you begin by stating the number. You can then follow the number with the abbreviation 'am' or 'pm;' the phrase 'in the morning,' 'in the afternoon,' or 'at night,' or the word' o'clock.'

Here are some examples:

Let's have lunch at 11am. I need you in the office by 2 in the afternoon. In January it gets dark at 3pm.

In informal writing, it's okay to use just the number to mention the time ("Let's meet at 5.") as long as it's safe to assume the person will know whether you mean morning, afternoon, evening, or night .

• It's worth noting there are several different ways to write the abbreviations' am' and 'pm.' Some like to capitalize them; others keep them lowercase.
• Some use periods between the letters while others don't, and some leave a space after the number while others don't.

Here are some representations of the different ways this can look using the example time of 8 in the morning:

Some spellcheckers will even have you use a period after the first letter but not the second one. All these variations are correct, and which one you should use depends on the style guide you follow.

The main thing is to stay consistent.

24-Hour system

The 24- hour system uses—you guessed it—24 numbers to measure the time. The numbers 1 to 12 refer to the morning hours, while numbers 13 to 24 refer to the afternoon and evening hours. Due to the system's intricacy, you don't need to use phrases such as 'in the morning,' nor must you use 'am' or 'pm.'

They're expected to land at 13:45.  The screening begins at 20:00 but there'll be some trailers before that. I heard the meeting started at 8:00.

Notice I've used a colon between the hours and the minutes in the examples above. You can also use a period .

Top Tip! The military system also uses the 24-hour system but without the colon/period, followed by the word "hours." For example: Take off at 300 hours.

How to Write the Time in Letters

There are times you might want to write the time in letters. Like when? Well, like with all things, it's primarily up to you. Just make sure to remain consistent, whatever you choose to do.

Nonetheless, here are some guidelines you might decide to follow:

• Write the time in letters only when it won't burden the page. For instance, '7:25' is better than 'twenty-five past seven.' 'Eight' and '8:00' are equivalent.
• Never write 24-hour format time in letters.
• Use the words' noon' and 'midnight' over the numerals' 12 pm,' '12am,' '12:00,' or '24:00.' It's just more straightforward.
• With o'clock, you can use either numerals or words.
• When the time you're writing isn't on the hour, remember to use words such as 'past,' 'after,' 'til,' and 'to.'

Here are some examples to illustrate some of these guidelines:

My son's so lazy; he never gets up before noon. What do you think of meeting at five o'clock for cocktails? It's already half past one!

Concluding Thoughts

That concludes this article on how to write time correctly. I hope you found it helpful.

Let's summarize what we've learned:

• The time can be written in a 12-hour or 24-hour format.
• When writing the time in numerals, use words like 'am,' 'pm,' and the phrases 'in the morning,' 'in the afternoon,' or 'at night.' 
• 'O'clock' can be used with numerals or letters.
• You can choose to write the time in numerals or letters; just stay consistent.

If you found this article helpful, check out our Grammar Book . It's an online database of articles that break down complex grammar topics into easy-to-understand guides. You'll love it!

Learn More:

• How to Write Height Correctly - Writing Feet and Inches
• How to Write a List Correctly: Colons, Commas, and Semicolons
• Apostrophes: When to Use Apostrophes in Writing (Examples)
• Ellipses: When to Use Ellipses in Writing (Examples)
• Italics and Underlining: When to Use Italics and Underlining in Writing (Examples)
• ‘Restaurateur’ or ‘Restauranteur’: How to Spell It Correctly 
• ‘Goodmorning’ or ‘Good Morning’: How to Spell ‘Good Morning’ Correctly
• ‘Holliday’ or ‘Holiday’: How to Spell ‘Holiday’ Correctly
• ‘Colum’ or ‘Column’: How to Spell ‘Column’ Correctly
• ‘Absence’ or ‘Absense’: How to Spell ‘Absence’ Correctly
• ‘Eachother’ or ‘Each Other’: How to Spell ‘Each Other’ Correctly
• ‘Ninty’ or ‘Ninety’: How to Spell the Number ‘90’ Correctly
• ‘Nieve’ or ‘Naive’: How to Spell It Correctly
• ‘Wheelbarrel’ or ‘Wheelbarrow’: How to Spell It Correctly
• ‘Aswell’ or ‘As Well’: How to Spell it Correctly

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How to Write the Date in an Essay

• 3-minute read
• 4th February 2016

You probably see the date written down (or displayed on a screen) dozens of times every day. You might even have to write it out yourself if you’re booking an appointment or organising your schedule.

Despite this, most of us give very little thought to how we write the date. In academic writing and other formal contexts , however, it’s important to use a clear and consistent format.

Different Formats

The most important thing to remember when writing the date is that, in the UK and throughout most of the world, we favour a day-month-year format (otherwise known as the little-endian sequence ). This can be presented in numerous ways, including:

• Day + Month (e.g. 21 April)
• Day + Month + Year (e.g., 21 April 2016)
• Numbers Only (e.g. 21/04/2016)

There are also variations to how these can be presented, such as using an ordinal suffix after the day.  These are the letters we’d use if we were writing the number out in full and are often written with a superscript font:

We last spoke on the 21st of April.

The meetings will be held on the 2 nd of February and the 13 th June.

Sometimes, the month in the date can be shortened to save space:

14 January 2012 → 14 Jan. 2012

9 October → 9 Oct.

However, generally in formal writing it’s better to use the longer format for clarity. Likewise, when including a date in an essay you should usually write it out (e.g. 21 April 2016) rather than use the numbers-only style.

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Check Your Style Guide and Be Consistent

Since there are various ways of writing the date, you should always check your university’s style guide to see if a preferred format is specified. If it doesn’t offer any particular advice, simply pick a clear format that suits you and make sure to use it consistently for all dates in your essay.

UK vs. American Dates

The other thing to keep in mind when writing (and reading) dates is how the US date format differs from ours. In America, dates use a month-day-year format, which can lead to problems when they are written out in numbers only as days and months get confused.

The US date format also places a comma between the day and year when both are numbers, as well as omitting superscript letters. The only time you would use superscript letters after the day in the US date format is when writing it out in full as, e.g., the 10 th of September.

You can see a few examples of UK and US dates below:

As you can see, the date ‘07/04/2016’ represents the 7th of April 2016 in the UK, but the same numbers indicate the 4th of July in America! Take care about which format you use when writing for international audiences.

The International Date Format

Finally, if you’re sharing information across the world, you may want to use the  international date format (ISO 8601) . This is a standardized format that works across borders, so it is commonly used by government organizations and global businesses. And it always uses the format YYYY-MM-DD, which removes any chance of confusion:

We sent the invoice on 2020-07-10 .

The date above, for example, denotes the 10th of July 2020.

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9 Tips to Ace That Timed Essay

Exams are almost upon us, and a familiar sense of foreboding has settled over the campus. One exam element that can be particularly intimidating for some students is the timed essay: an exam question which demands a full essay on a topic that is typically revealed for the first time during the test. While these kinds of questions may seem scary, there are plenty of ways to make them easy for yourself. Read on for tips about how to prepare in advance of the exam and how to approach timed essays before, during, and after the writing process.

While Preparing for the Exam: Become familiar with the course content. If the professor hasn’t told you in advance what a timed essay prompt will be, it can be intimidating to think that you will have to write about a subject you’ve never seen before. However, this thinking process does not reflect the reality of the situation. In fact, even if your teacher hasn’t given you any hints about the essay question, you do know what it will be about: the concepts and ideas you’ve discussed in the course. Therefore, if you take the time to review your notes and ensure you understand everything that was discussed, it should be difficult for the essay question to catch you off guard. As soon as you read the question, relevant course concepts will start popping into your head, and you’ll just have to organize them into a coherent essay. Start planning if you can. Although the situation described above sometimes occurs, it’s also very common for professors to give their students a fairly detailed idea of what an essay question will involve in advance of the test day. (After all, professors want to mark high-quality essays written by well-prepared students!) This heads-up gives you a great chance to prepare for the exam. If you have the time, consider mapping out a possible essay in point form before the day of the exam arrives. Consider practicing writing under time pressure. You’ve probably written dozens of essays before--the only thing that sets a timed essay apart is that it’s timed. Students often struggle to complete the full essay within the time constraints, particularly if they have to write longhand when they’re accustomed to working on the computer. For this reason, it can be helpful to simulate the conditions of a timed exam before the actual day: pick a practice question, find some lined paper, set a stopwatch, and see how you do! Before You Start Writing: Read the question carefully. The most critical part of the essay-writing process actually happens before you write your first word. When you flip to the essay question, make sure you read it as carefully as you can, noting the difference between words such as ‘contrast’ and ‘analyze’ and highlighting any details which the professor specifically instructs you to include. It’s not uncommon for excellent essays to receive low marks because the student answered a question other than the one that was asked. Make a clear and specific plan. Some students react to the time pressure of essay exams by scribbling down their introduction as soon as they’ve read the question and figuring out their points as they go. While it might seem counter-intuitive, taking five or ten minutes before you start writing in order to draw up a plan will be an enormous time saver. Decide on your thesis, the topic of each paragraph, and the arguments which you intend to cover, then jot down some quick point-form notes. This process won’t take long, and, once you complete it, all that’s left will be to expand those notes into a well-organized essay. Without a clear plan, you run the risk of realizing partway through that you’ve drifted off topic or written yourself into a corner, and fixing these mistakes will consume a ton of extra time. Schedule a set time for each paragraph. On the topic of planning, it’s important to sketch out an idea of how long you want to spend on each section of your essay. (If you know the number of paragraphs you’ll need to write ahead of time, you can do this before the exam even starts!) Take note of the amount of time allotted for the exam and split it into reasonably-sized segments, leaving some time at the end for revision if possible. Without a schedule to follow, it’s easy to become too focused on a single paragraph and run out of time to finish the essay. While You’re Writing: Write clearly and double-space. This tip may seem basic, but it’s easy to forget and it can make a big difference. Both these measures won’t just make it easier for the marker to read your paper; they'll also help you write it. If you have time left at the end of the exam for review, having the ability to skim quickly through your work and write revisions in blank spaces will be incredibly helpful.

Keep yourself on schedule.  Remember the paragraph-based schedule we discussed above? It’ll be useless if you don’t do regular check-ins during the exam. Keep an eye on the clock to ensure you’re always on track. If you realize that you’re falling dangerously behind schedule, it might be necessary to cut some arguments or examples you planned to include. Although making these omissions can be painful, it’s better to leave out a few points from one section than to leave out an entire paragraph because you ran out of time. Don’t worry too much about editing and revision before you finish. When composing essays, many students stop and read over each paragraph once they finish it, making sure that it’s well-written and free of errors before advancing to the next one. This approach is entirely logical when there’s no time pressure involved, but it can actually work against you during an exam. Perfecting paragraphs is a time-consuming process, and, if you spend too much time editing before the essay is finished, you might have to rush through the last few sections or leave them out entirely. For this reason, it’s best to focus on producing a complete first draft before you worry about edits and revisions.

After You’ve Finished Writing: Re-read the question and ensure you’ve addressed all parts. The most important part of writing an essay exam is ensuring that you’re answering the question was posed. Even if you made sure you were interpreting everything correctly before you began, you may have forgotten to address a subquestion or integrate an example as you were writing. Before you submit, read the prompt again and make sure your completed essay matches up! Edit if you have time. If you have enough time left over, read your essay again and make corrections. When you’re working under time pressure, it’s easy to make grammar mistakes or produce hard-to-follow sentences; the final few minutes are your chance to clean up those errors. Unless if you finished way ahead of schedule, don’t worry about major revisions like reorganizing the structure of the essay--it’s better to hand in an essay with an imperfect structure than a paper that’s impossible to follow because you had to stop halfway through the revision process.

Remember to have the right perspective. Once you hand your exam to the professor, relax! It’s easy to work yourself up after an essay exam when you didn’t get the chance to read your work over or you feel like your arguments were weak. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your professor understands the circumstances under which the essay was written. They’re fully aware of the time pressure you were dealing with, and they will judge your work far differently than they would judge a typical essay with a deadline set weeks after the assignment date. If you did your best to write a complete, clear, and insightful essay within the time allotted, you should have nothing to worry about. Best of luck during the upcoming exam season!

Source: Quick Meme  

• outlining ,
• preparation ,
• writing process

• If you are writing in a new discipline, you should always make sure to ask about conventions and expectations for introductions, just as you would for any other aspect of the essay. For example, while it may be acceptable to write a two-paragraph (or longer) introduction for your papers in some courses, instructors in other disciplines, such as those in some Government courses, may expect a shorter introduction that includes a preview of the argument that will follow.  
• In some disciplines (Government, Economics, and others), it’s common to offer an overview in the introduction of what points you will make in your essay. In other disciplines, you will not be expected to provide this overview in your introduction.  
• Avoid writing a very general opening sentence. While it may be true that “Since the dawn of time, people have been telling love stories,” it won’t help you explain what’s interesting about your topic.  
• Avoid writing a “funnel” introduction in which you begin with a very broad statement about a topic and move to a narrow statement about that topic. Broad generalizations about a topic will not add to your readers’ understanding of your specific essay topic.  
• Avoid beginning with a dictionary definition of a term or concept you will be writing about. If the concept is complicated or unfamiliar to your readers, you will need to define it in detail later in your essay. If it’s not complicated, you can assume your readers already know the definition.  
• Avoid offering too much detail in your introduction that a reader could better understand later in the paper.
• picture_as_pdf Introductions

Writing Under Pressure: Strategies for Excelling in Timed Essay Exams

• Posted on October 24, 2024

Writing under time constraints often brings out the best—or the most challenging—aspects of academic performance. In environments where essays and exams dictate success, mastering the skill of timed writing is crucial.

Whether you’re a seasoned essayist or a newcomer to this type of test, you’ll need valuable tips on preparation, time management, and effective writing techniques to handle the timed essays. The goal of this guide is to empower you to deliver your best work within strict time limits.

Understanding Timed Essay Exams

Timed essay exams require candidates to draft essays within a specified, limited time frame, typically seen in educational assessments and some professional tests.

These exams test not only your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter but also your ability to organize thoughts, argue effectively, and write succinctly under pressure. However, strict time limits can induce significant stress, impacting clarity of thought and writing quality. 

Managing to formulate coherent arguments and structuring essays efficiently within the given time is another common issue.

Additionally, the inability to revise thoroughly due to time constraints often leads to mistakes that could have been easily corrected under normal circumstances. Thus, addressing these challenges is key to improving performance in timed writing tasks.

Preparation Strategies for Essay Exams

Understanding the format of your essay exams is the first step toward success. Different exams require unique approaches. Some might ask for persuasive essays, others for analytical responses. 

Knowing the format helps you anticipate the kind of questions you might face and the best strategies to answer them.

Master the Material: Effective Study Techniques

Effective study habits are crucial for excelling in essay exams. Begin by organizing your study materials based on topics likely to be covered. 

Use active learning techniques such as summarizing information , teaching the material to someone else, and using flashcards.

Regular review sessions increase retention and understanding, ensuring you’re prepared to apply your knowledge under exam conditions. Prioritize understanding over memorization to adapt your knowledge to any question in the exam.

Developing a Writing Strategy

An effective outline is your roadmap during a timed essay. Start with a clear thesis statement that defines the direction of your essay. List the main points that support your thesis, ensuring they are logical and compelling.

Under each point, jot down a few subpoints or evidence that bolster your argument. This method not only organizes your thoughts but also speeds up your writing process, as you have a clear framework to follow during the exam.

Practice Essays

Practicing under conditions that simulate the actual exam is one of the best ways to prepare for essay exams. Set a timer and write essays within the allotted time. This practice helps you gauge how well you can organize and express your thoughts under pressure.

After each session, review your essay to identify areas for improvement. Adjust your strategy accordingly to manage your time better and enhance the quality of your writing. This repetitive practice builds confidence and skills, greatly improving your performance when it counts.

Time Management During the Exam

Effective time management is essential during timed essay exams. It helps you allocate enough time for planning, writing, and revising your essay.

Allocating Time: Breaking Down the Exam

Begin by reading all the questions carefully and noting how much time you can allocate to each based on their point value. Spend the first few minutes planning your answers.

For example, if you have one hour, allocate 5-10 minutes to outline your essays, 40-45 minutes to write, and the remaining time to review and make necessary edits. This strategy ensures you can cover all required sections without rushing through any part.

Techniques to Accelerate Your Writing

By applying these techniques, you can improve your efficiency and ensure that you use your exam time optimally, allowing for better-structured and more compelling essays.

• Outline First: Quickly jot down a basic outline for each essay. This guide keeps you on track and prevents you from veering off-topic.
• Write Clear, Concise Sentences: Avoid complex sentence structures that could slow down your writing speed. Keep sentences short and to the point.
• Focus on Main Ideas: Spend less time on elaborate details. Concentrate on developing strong main points to support your thesis.
• Use Keywords: Integrate keywords from the question into your essay to ensure it remains relevant and focused.
• Skip Difficult Sections: If you’re stuck, move on to other sections of your essay. Return to difficult parts later if time permits.

Writing Techniques for Essay Exams

Proper structuring of essays enhances both clarity and persuasive power, particularly under time constraints. It is important to know the essential strategies for crafting impactful introductions, developing coherent paragraphs, and concluding essays memorably.

Starting Strong

The introduction of your essay sets the tone and establishes the scope of your argument. Begin with a strong thesis statement that clearly outlines your main point. This statement should be concise and assertive, directly addressing the essay prompt.

To engage the reader, introduce your key points briefly, providing a roadmap of your essay’s structure. 

Consider opening with a compelling hook, such as a surprising statistic, a relevant quote, or a provocative question, to grab the reader’s attention. This approach ensures that your introduction is not only informative but also interesting.

Maintaining Focus

Coherence in paragraphs is crucial for maintaining the flow of your argument. Start each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that ties directly back to your thesis. This sentence should introduce the main idea of the paragraph.

Follow this with supporting sentences that include evidence, examples, or explanations that validate your point. Use logical connectors and transitional phrases to link your ideas smoothly from one to the next, ensuring that your argument builds logically throughout the essay.

Keep your writing concise and focused, avoiding digressions or extraneous information that could distract from the main topic.

Concluding Effectively

Your conclusion should serve as a powerful closure for your essay, synthesizing your main points and reinforcing your thesis. Begin by summarizing the key arguments discussed, highlighting how they collectively support your central claim.

Then, restate your thesis, reflecting on the evidence and showing a deeper understanding or a broader implication of your argument. Consider ending with a call to action or a forward-looking statement that challenges the reader to think beyond the essay.

Reviewing and Revising Under Time Constraints

Writing essays under time constraints often feels daunting. Efficient review and revision within such limits can dramatically improve the quality of your work. By adopting a strategic approach, you can refine your essays effectively, even during timed exams.

Quick Review Techniques

Before diving into revisions, a quick review of your essay ensures that it aligns with the prompt and flows logically. Here are several techniques to implement:

• Skim your introduction and conclusion first: Confirm that both sections mirror each other in terms of the thesis and main points. This alignment sets a coherent framework for your essay.
• Read the first sentences of each paragraph: This helps you gauge whether each paragraph’s topic is clear and contributes directly to your thesis. Adjust as necessary to maintain focus.
• Check for common errors: Quickly scan for grammatical mistakes that are often repeated, such as subject-verb agreement or incorrect pronoun usage. Correcting these can significantly clean up your text.
• Use shorthand comments: While reviewing, jot down quick notes or symbols in the margins to indicate areas needing refinement, such as unclear statements or examples that don’t quite fit.
• Time your review sessions: Allocate a specific amount of time for review, usually a third of the total time given for the essay. This ensures you leave enough time for actual revisions without feeling rushed.

Prioritizing Revisions: What to Focus On

Once you’ve reviewed your essay, deciding what to revise is the next step. Prioritize clarity and coherence. Start by strengthening your thesis statement if it feels vague; this acts as the foundation of your essay.

Next, ensure that each paragraph’s main idea supports your thesis. If any paragraph strays from the topic, refocus it or remove it. Additionally, improving transitions between paragraphs can help your essay flow more smoothly.

Lastly, cut redundant words or phrases to tighten your arguments. These revisions make your essay more persuasive and easier to read under the scrutiny of exam conditions.

Coping with Exam Stress and Anxiety

Handling stress and anxiety effectively is crucial when writing essays during exams. Mastering relaxation and focus techniques can significantly enhance your performance and well-being.

Pre-Exam Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation techniques can dramatically reduce stress before exams, setting a positive tone for your performance. With these key relaxation strategies, you will be better prepared to write your exam or essay.

• Deep breathing exercises: Spend a few minutes taking deep, controlled breaths to slow your heart rate and promote calmness.
• Progressive muscle relaxation: Tense and then relax each muscle group, starting from your toes and working up to your shoulders and neck.
• Visualization: Close your eyes and imagine a place where you feel at peace. Visualize yourself succeeding and writing confidently during the exam.
• Mindful meditation: Focus on being present in the moment. Concentrate on your breathing or a single object to clear your mind of anxieties.
• Brief physical activity: Engage in a short walk or do some light stretching. Physical activity can reduce stress hormones and increase endorphins.

Staying Calm and Focused During the Exam

Once the exam begins, maintaining calm and focus is essential for writing effectively. Start by organizing your thoughts and sketching a brief outline of your essay. This outline should clearly state your thesis and the main points you plan to discuss.

Refer to this outline throughout the exam to keep your essay on track and ensure that every paragraph serves a purpose in your argument. If you feel panic setting in, pause for a moment, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths to reset.

Keep your focus on the question at hand and avoid worrying about the ticking clock. Concentrate solely on one section at a time, which helps manage overwhelming feelings and sharpens your concentration. 

By staying methodical and calm, you can improve your performance under pressure and produce a well-structured essay.

Leveraging Feedback and Learning from Mistakes

Utilizing feedback and learning from past mistakes is pivotal in improving your essay writing skills for exams. This approach not only boosts your performance but also builds your confidence.

Analyzing Feedback from Past Exams

Reviewing feedback from previous exams provides crucial insights into your writing strengths and weaknesses. Start by reading comments carefully and noting recurring themes or criticisms.

If instructors consistently point out issues with your thesis clarity or argument structure, prioritize these areas in your next preparations. Also, look for positive feedback to understand what aspects of your writing resonate well. 

It’s beneficial to discuss this feedback with your instructors or peers to gain further clarity and advice on how to address the criticisms effectively.

Strategies for Continuous Improvement in Essay Writing

Improving essay writing, especially under exam conditions, requires a systematic approach. By implementing these strategies, you can continuously enhance your essay-writing skills. 

• Practice regularly: Write essays frequently to hone your skills. Timed practice sessions simulate exam conditions and help you write more efficiently.
• Expand your vocabulary: A richer vocabulary allows for more precise and impactful writing. Learn new words daily and practice incorporating them into your essays.
• Seek feedback actively: Regularly ask teachers, tutors, or peers for feedback on your essays. Constructive criticism is invaluable for improvement.
• Analyze top-scoring essays: Study essays that scored highly to identify effective strategies and techniques. Emulate these in your writing.
• Focus on essay structure: Ensure every essay has a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. A strong structure helps convey your arguments more effectively.
• Refine your editing skills: Develop your ability to spot and correct errors during the revision phase. This skill is crucial for producing polished and concise essays under time constraints.

Mastering Timed Essays: Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts

Mastering timed essay exams hinges on preparation, effective time management, and strong writing skills. By familiarizing yourself with the exam format, mastering the material, and practicing under timed conditions, you can significantly improve your performance. 

Writing succinctly and coherently within set time limits not only boosts your exam scores but also enhances your overall academic and professional communication skills. Now, take these strategies, apply them in your study routine, and witness the improvement in your next timed essay exam. Start practicing today and transform your approach to essay exams!

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Time management

Contributed by: Kaitie Christensen and Nathan Lachner

Working backwards to reach your goal

An essay should express continued thought and/or research on a particular subject. It is harder to collect and research information when it is all done at the last minute. Time management is integral to academic writing, especially with longer essays. Utilize these tips to make the writing process as smooth as possible.

Assess the work that needs to be done

• The page or word count
• Expectations such as audience and research
• Think about all of the stages of writing: research, drafting, writing, and revision.
• Think about how much time you would need to comfortably complete each step. How long will it take you to research? How long will it take you to draft? How long will it take you to write and revise?

Plan your execution

• Determine a steady pace for your execution of the essay
• Time until the deadline

Consider time for revision

• Don’t plan to finish on the day of the deadline. It is ideal to finish the writing at least one day in advance to read over the essay and check for mistakes or possible revisions.
• If you plan your essay accordingly, the process will be less painful. You will be able to submit your essay on time.

Once you familiarize yourself with the assignment, you can work backwards from your due date to create a plan. This may feel overwhelming at first, but taking it a step at a time can help you feel confident and in control.

Backplanning

Backplanning emphasizes working backwards from the day the assignment is due to the first day you begin in order to work through all the steps of the writing assignment. Know your own preferences and set a schedule for yourself so that the writing process can be as smooth and productive as possible.  The stages below may give you an idea for how to begin breaking up the steps of the assignment.

• Explore ideas
• Brainstorm using an objective such as a research question as guidance
• Write down all the thoughts
• Cluster ideas and thoughts by similarities and how they relate to each other
• Easier to write a thesis statement once you have a solid idea of the topics your paper will discuss!
• It’s okay to leave blank spaces where you intend to come back and revise
• Helps to finalize the organization, structure, and flow of ideas, and to identify places that needs more analysis or research

You can do this step by yourself, with a friend, or with a consultant at the Writing & Speaking Center!

• Take time to fill in any blanks or remaining questions
• Read the paper over for purpose and comparing it to the prompt
• Check the strength of the thesis, organization, and evidence
• Smooth out anything that sounds awkward or rough
• Fix small mistakes like citations and formatting

You may choose to have a break between editing and re-reading in order to clear your mind after you have walked away.

• Give your assignment one last read before submitting.

You may choose to complete one step of the writing process per day, break your paper up into pieces or allot time for feedback (such as the Writing & Speaking Center). Whatever you choose to do, pace yourself and remember to schedule breaks such as weekends to give yourself a chance to walk away from the assignment and to relax!

• Essay Editor

How Long Is An Essay

If you are a student, you undoubtedly face the question of how long your essays should be. The short answer to this question is that it depends. However, there are certain constructs that you should keep in mind regardless of the length of time your professor requires. Academic writing is a fine art, after all.

In this article, we will provide an overview of typical essay lengths and the components that they should include. 

One thing that you should keep in mind is that essays are different from research papers and theses. They are significantly shorter, but nonetheless, there is a specific structure to them that you should familiarize yourself with if you are in school.

Are there specific word requirements for essay length?

There may very well be specific requirements for word count for any given essay. This, of course, depends on your professor and the nature of what you are writing about. So, how many words should you include? 

This depends on a number of factors, as we will illustrate below. First, we should provide a breakdown of the components of the standard essay.

Breakdown of essay components

One important thing to keep in mind when constructing your essay is the relative length of your paragraphs. Keep in mind that paragraphs should be roughly equal in length, except for the introduction and conclusion, which can be shorter. 

This does not mean that you have to count every word in each paragraph to make sure they are identical, but you should be able to eyeball the main body of your essay and have the paragraphs be more or less the same length.

By the time you get to high school, your essays should be more substantial in length. You will be required to write essays that are several pages long. Nonetheless, they should continue to follow the same standard format.

Basic essay components

How many words are in an essay? Essential essay components that every essay should contain include the following:

• An introduction, a body, and a conclusion. These are absolute requirements regardless of the instructor or subject
• There are generally five paragraphs to any given essay, with three of them comprising the main body.
• There is a specific breakdown of sentences within any given paragraph. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that introduces what the paragraph will be about and have a conclusion.

Introductions

Note that introductions should be one paragraph in length for high school-level essays. Your introduction should pique the reader’s interest in what you are going to write. For college admissions essays, the word count should be about 100 words. 

It should open up with a strong statement that leads smoothly into the rest of your essay. The last sentence of an introductory paragraph should be your thesis statement. 

Your thesis statement will describe what your essay is going to be about. For longer essays that you write in college or graduate school, introductions are generally longer.

Body paragraphs

It is in your body paragraphs that you provide the substance of your essay. They should contain a logical writing series of examples that support your main thesis statement. How many paragraphs? It depends.

As you write and review an essay, you should think about the placement of your examples and whether or not they are relevant to the paragraphs you put them in, in the right order, etc. You might want to adjust them as you go along for clarity. Correct paragraph wording and paragraph writing are critical to success. There should be a word limit to any given paragraph if it is too out of proportion with the others.

Your conclusion is where you summarize the points made in the body of your essay and reiterate your main point. 

The conclusion is a short but important part of the essay as it is the last thing that people will read, and it will stay in their minds. So, you should think carefully about the way you word your conclusion and be prepared to revise it as you revise other parts of the essay.

Writing a college essay

By the time you get to college essays, word count requirements will be different. For undergraduate essays, you will be constructing pieces that are at least three pages long. For topics of greater significance or ones that are more broad, essays might be 4 or 5 pages long. 

Be mindful of the fact that an extended essay that exceeds 5 pages in length might be considered a research paper rather than an essay, and this entails an entirely different set of requirements. In other words, you should remain within the page limits of your subject and not be too long or too short. There are often word limits that you need to observe.

Rambling in a college essay will be perceived as empty for the sake of filling up space and will be frowned upon by professors. So, how long is an essay? It depends on the requirements and quality.

Requirements for different levels of education

As mentioned above, there are different requirements for essay length for different levels of education. In the sections below, we will provide general guidelines for every academic level.

University level

By the time you get to college, you should know how to write a decent essay of significant essay length.  An undergraduate college essay should start at a word count of approximately 1500 words or 5 pages and might have a word limit. 

There are many factors involved in how long undergraduate essays should be, including the subject, the college a student is in, and the department. There is also a range of course levels that dictate different lengths of essays. Word count is critical at every stage.

College courses are divided into different course levels: 100-level courses (101, 102, etc.), 200-level courses, and so on, with each level designating a different year that students might be in. 100-level courses are for freshmen, 200-level for sophomores, etc. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that many colleges require freshman-level writing courses for all new students. Some students might enter engineering programs without strong skills, for example. 

Or there may be foreign students who come in with excellent credentials in certain subject areas but are not yet strong writers. For whatever reason, students can have vastly different skills when they first start college, and this is why schools almost universally require freshman courses.

Graduate school

When students get to the point of entering master’s programs, they are expected to have mastered the art of basic writing. Master’s-level analytical essays are similar in structure to undergraduate ones but more substantial in length, although they too usually have a word limit and specific limitations on content. 

And again, the subject has a large bearing on the word requirement. Graduate essays involve data collection and can have a word count of 2000-6000 words, but sometimes shorter. Sometimes, if students have to write on a scientific topic, the length can be much shorter, but the content requirements are significantly more detailed.

Word count for research papers

Truly, academic style really starts to take shape when you get to a PhD program. Serious research papers are much more substantial. By the time you get to doing serious research - whether it be for a master’s thesis, a PhD dissertation, or a postgraduate extensive research study, they can have a word count as long as 10,000 words or even longer.

Research papers generally involve a study of a very particular subject. The goal of writing a research paper is to explore a topic that has not been explored by other authors before. While this is not always possible, you are expected to illustrate your own data analysis skills and try to analyze a subject in your own unique way. This should help you figure out how long an essay is.

Things to keep in mind

As mentioned above, essay length is important, and the length of an essay is an essential part of what professors are looking for, but it is not the only criterion for grading. There are also many specific requirements with regard to how essays are written, the kind of language used, and overall construction.

Major points to keep in mind include:

• You shouldn’t use excessively wordy expressions or run-on sentences. Unless the class you are in is poetry, you should stick to the standard constructs of the subject you are working on.
• Do not leave out any major components required by the essay instructions. When you receive any given assignment, make a note of the major requirements of the topic and devise a plan for constructing your essay. We will discuss the outline further below.

When to use your own style

The idea of expressing your personality should seem like a welcome thing in writing. After all, you want your teachers and professors to hear your own personal voice. Anyone can regurgitate something they read in a textbook, but many writers would rather show their professors what they are all about.

This is fine if you do it right. But you don’t want to simply start expressing ideas in an emotional or unconstructed manner without following the rules. Be sure that you are firmly grounded both in the mechanics and structure of essay writing before you start adding variations. Having a thorough grasp of the finer points of English grammar is an essential part of this. 

Construction and outlining

In order to keep within the expected word count for any given essay, it is a good idea to learn proper essay construction. Essay outlines generally look something like this:

• Introduction
• Example 2, etc

The ability to create a solid outline will do you well in your future academic career. Lower-level outlines are fairly simple, but by the time you get to graduate school, they will become much more complex. 

And you will need them to help you keep sight of your work. It is very easy to get entrenched in the details of writing, particularly at the graduate level. Outlines help us stay organized and keep an eye on the whole product of what we are doing. 

Figuring out how long an essay should be and the right word count is critical to achieving success in writing. There are different requirements for essay length at different levels of education: the high school essay, college essay, etc, are all different. How long your essays are depends on several factors: what level of education you are currently studying, the type of degree course you are in, individual essay requirements, etc.

The important thing is that you familiarize yourself with the process and get in the habit of writing early. By the time you write your college application essay, you should have already written hundreds of essays and know the basic formula. And don’t be afraid to ask people for help or for opinions about your writing; it will only help you grow.

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• College Application Essay Writing 101: The Writing Process College Application Essay Writing 101: The Writing Process

Updated: Tuesday, November 05, 2024

College application essay writing 101: the writing process.

By Robin , IvyWise College Admissions Counselor

For students that have already selected an essay topic , starting on the actual writing process can be just as intimidating. “Process” is the key word here. Writing takes time, and you must set aside at least several weeks to work on the personal essay. So how do you dive into the “process?” And where do you start? Well, I’m here to help you get started!

First, understand that this process is not short. It will take a lot of time and mental stamina, so starting the essay the summer before your senior year is ideal because, trust me, once senior year kicks off you will be happy you got the bulk of that writing out of the way. Now, here are some tips related to the writing process itself to help you get started and have your personal statement done by the end of this summer.

Your First Draft Will Be Rough

Yes, that’s right. Author Anne Lamott has a wonderful essay entitled “Sh*tty First Drafts” and she offers wonderful advice: “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it pour all out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.” There is value in your first draft no matter how rough it may be. A single sentence in that draft might emerge as particularly intriguing or powerful, and that sentence may help you identify what it is that you really want to write about. Had you not allowed yourself to simply write that crappy first draft, that single brilliant sentence would not have appeared in the first place.

Off With Its Head!

Oftentimes the opening paragraph of a draft may not be as strong as the subsequent paragraphs. As you write, your ideas continue to evolve and develop, and you gain a clearer sense of what it is that you want to say. Once you have a first draft of your essay (remember, it’s a rough draft), revisit the first paragraph and read your essay from start to finish without the first paragraph. You may be surprised to find that you have a more interesting essay when you lose that opening paragraph. Many times, especially in a first draft, the first paragraph is not essential; in fact, it may not even really relate to the heart of your main topic or it may simply be filling space. “Beheading” your essay is often an effective way to make your essay more engaging from the start.

Hook Them Early and Remember the Details

The opening lines of your essay are important. You want to give your reader a reason to keep on reading, so hooking them from the get-go is essential. Try putting the reader in medias res, or right in the action. Hook the reader from the first line — beheading your essay is one technique to use to allow you to get the reader’s attention more quickly. To hold the reader’s attention, you need to be descriptive and detailed. Remember “show, don’t tell” from English class? Help the reader see what you saw and feel what you felt; descriptive details infuse your story with life.

Revise, Revise, and Revise Again

This applies to any piece of writing you do — it’s not a one and done process. You must set aside time to come back and review your writing to make those fine-tuning adjustments. Enlist a trusted friend or family member, someone whom you can rely on to give you warm AND cool feedback, not someone who will simply smile and say “This is great!” There is always room for improvement in writing, and it’s more helpful in the long run if you have a trusted set of critical eyes that will provide you with feedback meant to make the essay even better.

Less Is More

While it may be tempting to let numerous people to review your essay, do so with caution. There’s an old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen spoiling the broth — this applies to your personal essay. The more sets of eyes that read your essay, the more likely you are to get wide-ranging opinions and inconsistencies in the feedback. The quality of your essay may suffer if you try to implement too much feedback, resulting in your own voice being diminished. When in doubt, consult with your college counselor and just ask yourself, “Does this sound like me?” Ultimately, you need to feel confident about your personal essay and if that means ignoring Aunt Susie’s advice, then so be it.

While the task of writing the essay may seem intimidating, embrace it as an opportunity to share part of your story. The way in which you tell your story is how you reveal your personality. Most personal essay prompts are general enough in nature to allow students to pursue a wide range of possible topics that will allow your personality to emerge. Remember, admissions officers are eager to learn about you and hear from you; make the most of this opportunity to share your voice with them!

At IvyWise we work with students on all aspects of the college application process, including brainstorming and editing essay drafts. For more information on our college counseling services for rising high school seniors, or to schedule an Initial Consultation, contact us today .

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I Quit Teaching Because of ChatGPT

T his fall is the first in nearly 20 years that I am not returning to the classroom. For most of my career, I taught writing, literature, and language, primarily to university students. I quit, in large part, because of  large language models  (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

Virtually all experienced scholars know that writing, as historian Lynn Hunt has argued, is “not the transcription of thoughts already consciously present in [the writer’s] mind.” Rather, writing is a process closely tied to thinking. In graduate school, I spent months trying to fit pieces of my dissertation together in my mind and eventually found I could solve the puzzle only through writing. Writing is hard work. It is sometimes frightening. With the easy temptation of AI, many—possibly most—of my students were no longer willing to push through discomfort.

In my most recent job, I taught academic writing to doctoral students at a technical college. My graduate students, many of whom were computer scientists, understood the mechanisms of generative AI better than I do. They recognized LLMs as unreliable research tools that hallucinate and invent citations. They acknowledged the environmental impact and ethical problems of the technology. They knew that models are trained on existing data and therefore cannot produce novel research. However, that knowledge did not stop my students from relying heavily on generative AI. Several students admitted to drafting their research in note form and asking ChatGPT to write their articles.

Read More: Regulating AI Is Easier Than You Think

As an experienced teacher, I am familiar with pedagogical best practices. I scaffolded assignments. I researched ways to incorporate generative AI in my lesson plans, and I designed activities to draw attention to its limitations. I reminded students that ChatGPT may alter the meaning of a text when prompted to revise, that it can yield biased and inaccurate information, that it does not generate stylistically strong writing and, for those grade-oriented students, that it does not result in A-level work. It did not matter. The students still used it.

In one activity, my students drafted a paragraph in class, fed their work to ChatGPT with a revision prompt, and then compared the output with their original writing. However, these types of comparative analyses failed because most of my students were not developed enough as writers to analyze the subtleties of meaning or evaluate style. “It makes my writing look fancy,” one PhD student protested when I pointed to weaknesses in AI-revised text.

My students also relied heavily on AI-powered paraphrasing tools such as Quillbot . Paraphrasing well, like drafting original research, is a process of deepening understanding. Recent high-profile examples of “ duplicative language ” are a reminder that paraphrasing is hard work. It is not surprising, then, that many students are tempted by AI-powered paraphrasing tools. These technologies, however, often result in inconsistent writing style, do not always help students avoid plagiarism, and allow the writer to gloss over understanding. Online paraphrasing tools are useful only when students have already developed a deep knowledge of the craft of writing.

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Students who outsource their writing to AI lose an opportunity to think more deeply about their research. In a recent  article  on art and generative AI, author Ted Chiang put it this way: “Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way.” Chiang also notes that the hundreds of small choices we make as writers are just as important as the initial conception. Chiang is a writer of fiction, but the logic applies equally to scholarly writing. Decisions regarding syntax, vocabulary, and other elements of style imbue a text with meaning nearly as much as the underlying research.

Generative AI is, in some ways, a  democratizing  tool. Many of my students were non-native speakers of English. Their writing frequently contained grammatical errors. Generative AI is effective at correcting grammar. However, the technology often changes vocabulary and alters meaning even when the only prompt is “fix the grammar.” My students lacked the skills to identify and correct subtle shifts in meaning. I could not convince them of the need for stylistic consistency or the need to develop voices as research writers.

The problem was not recognizing AI-generated or AI-revised text. At the start of every semester, I had students write in class. With that baseline sample as a point of comparison, it was easy for me to distinguish between my students’ writing and text generated by ChatGPT. I am also familiar with AI detectors, which purport to indicate whether something has been generated by AI. These detectors, however, are faulty . AI-assisted writing is easy to identify but hard to prove.

As a result, I found myself spending many hours grading writing that I knew was generated by AI. I noted where arguments were unsound. I pointed to weaknesses such as stylistic quirks that I knew to be common to ChatGPT (I noticed a sudden surge of phrases such as “delves into”).  That is, I found myself spending more time giving feedback to AI than to my students.

The best educators will adapt to AI. In some ways, the changes will be positive. Teachers must move away from mechanical activities or assigning simple summaries. They will find ways to encourage students to think critically and learn that writing is a way of generating ideas, revealing contradictions, and clarifying methodologies.

However, those lessons require that students be willing to sit with the temporary discomfort of not knowing. Students must learn to move forward with faith in their own cognitive abilities as they write and revise their way into clarity. With few exceptions, my students were not willing to enter those uncomfortable spaces or remain there long enough to discover the revelatory power of writing.

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