How long does it take you to write an essay?

I have noticed as I have progressed in uni I have mastered the art of quickly typing out essays and quickly researching. In my first year it would take me hours to sift through case law and journal articles and then a day or so (6-8 hours a day) to actually type the essay. It would take me a few days to do a 3,000 word essay.

Yesterday I did a 4,500 word essay in just under 7 hours including the research. But I am in third year of uni and so mastering this. I just wrote an essay for my sister in 40 minutes for a school assignment which was 1,000 words and was shocked how quickly I got through it. And it's pretty good quality too. Keeping in mind I already knew everything there is to know about the topic: family law.


How long does it take you to write an essay including research?
How long would they typically be?

It's not so much taking time to do the essay, it's more building myself up to write it. Normally about a week or two of poring over notes and reading as much as I can (often too much) on the subject of the essay. My most recent essay was 2.5k and I had read a bunch of books and reports relating to it but have been very distracted irl recently so didn't get a real chance to take my time on it, managed to bash it out in about 5 hours after running on no sleep and a few annadin. I find normally that the more references I have the easier links are to make and the quicker an essay will flow. This is my least fave module though so normally would spend about 10+ hrs writing and rewriting on top of research for that sort of length if I didn't have a proper plan beforehand.

I love essays, I just detest the amount of unnecessary time I find myself putting into properly researching and structuring them. Hopefully can perfect my technique and become an efficient essayist like everybody else seems to be in the years to come!

research - around 20 hrs
planning - around 5 hrs
writing - 3-10 hrs

god im so slow and inefficient please help

I write 4 page essays in 1 hour lessons woo. But that's at school :)

I tend to do the entire thing the day before it's due in because I need the pressure but that's no problem it always get done

Na loads of people I know could just write theres with literally no research done and like two books in front of them.. I wouldn't know where to begin!! I need to have at least a few days to read as much as possible, but can write in a day if i have all the notes at hand.

My most recent essay was 2000 words but I ended up writing 2500. The writing itself took about 6 hours but there was much procrastinating going on during i that time. I bashed out the final 800 words in about 45 minutes. I spent a good few hours doing my initial research and watched a 50 minute program on the subject which was fascinating. All in all probably took me about 12-14 hours over about 3 days.

im usually doing 2-3 essays at the same time so it can take a while. i put my essays into headings for the key points I need to include. i read at least one book so i can get the general gist then find other sources to back it up. this can take a week if ive nothing else to do for uni. once i have my research I'll write an introduction for them all in one day, then the body for one the next, body for another the next and the last one the day after. then ill do a conclusion for each on another day. then ill put all the references together, check them over and change anything that's needed.

so i really need 2-3 weeks to do mine. tbh people in my uni are freaking out if they haven't started within 3 weeks lol it's not something that can be done in a day so i have no idea how most of you can do it. we need around 15+ sources and we're often doing 2 essays at a time whilst revising for another 2 exams :/ so I have to multitask and do a few hours a day on each rather than spend 2 days doing an essay

but im basically like @Kyle; and @Red;, the longest part is researching, i can write the whole thing in a few hours because ive learnt so much that i know what's to be written. ive tried writing my essay whilst reading and i just get all over the place. really need a quicker more efficient style of writing though

i was usually writing my 1-2 page essays in the matter of about 20-30 minutes last year for my music AS level, but that was obviously rushing them for homework, and in the actual exam i took the recommended amount of time which i honestly can't remember off the top of my head anymore >.>

luckily no more essays this year in a2s for me, and very few if any once i get to uni for now due to doing maths as well.

used to take me forever to write essays but it's more because I like to have a quality small amount

like there's people who literally write a 50 page novel and still get the same grade as my page and a half

but probably takes me anywhere between like 2-5 hours to write up but I don't do it in one sitting and I come back to it with a fresh mind and usually reword or tidy a lot of it up

do my reading first and make notes which takes a few hours to get everything i need from a book or w/e it is im reading

then i organise it into headings like jen said and then i'll leave it a a week or 2 cos im lazy and dont get it finished unless im under pressure like fj said. then i'll actually write it and it wont take that long once i get into it and get the ball rolling but i easily get distracted by habbo and such -.-

I was one of those people who would research more, an invest more into my quality of material than the actual writing part of my essay. If I had to put it in numbers;
Classic 5 page paper;
In highschool:
Research: 8-12hrs
Rough draft: 1-3hr
Final paper: 1-3hr

In college:
Research: 20-30hrs
Rough draft: 5-8hrs
Final draft: 4-6hrs

I wrote a 5000 word essay all in one day the day before it was due (including research... research is more having an opinion and looking around for someone academic who shares it lol so I don't think it's that difficult) and vowed never to do it again... yeah that didn't quite work out :(

If I just decided to write an essay right now on a topic which I know about and/or am interested about then I'd say I could write a few thousand words within an hour or two. But with my coursework for uni the times varied a lot; just finding sources/references to use and plan the structure before writing took a lot longer than actually writing it. But yeah, depends on many factors so I can't just say yeah I can write 1200 words in 63 minutes :P.

Well it depends what the essay is about

It depends what headspace I'm in. Sometimes it just flows, and then other times I'm totally blank. Luckily I haven't written many essays, and won't need to for the rest of college. :P


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Well considering I don't need to brainstorm, I can literally look at the topic given and write something. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how long it needs to be. I haven't been given a strenuous essay lately though, so it might take me longer

i have 4,000 words to do today
one whole essay and one section of a report
that's if they bother to open up cry
going to be doing an all nighter just to scrape a C sigh

I start a week before deadline and write half a page then when its due in the next 2 days I rush. Its rly bad but ita not like im failing so owel

My 4500 word pre-u history personal investigation took me around 30 hours altogether, because of all of the books I had to sift through etc.

A standard 1000 word essay like I'd write in an exam I can do in no time.

I used to get really anal when I was writing my dissertations and essays, so it'd take me hours upon hours at a time, leading to days. With feedback and such I received, it took weeks.

i have to write 2500 words 2moz got my books from the library 2day and might look thru some 2night

Quote:

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Originally Posted by subo

i have to write 2500 words 2moz got my books from the library 2day and might look thru some 2night

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iv written 3500 words today so u can do it!! 500 to go. it is a really bad essay clutching at any point i can but tbh so over uni. much prefer exams

How long does it take you to write an essay including research?
It used to take at most around 11/12 hours, but I'm rather OCD and would end up re-reading them over and over again, which would probably consume about 3/4 hours of that time. I also did Psychology as well while at uni, and my course was quite heavy on the correct format for referencing (I ended up losing a full point (from 14 to 13/15) in a third year essay because one reference had the page number in the wrong place).

How long would they typically be?
2500-3500 words, although I did my 7000 word dissertation in around the same time.

The research used to take the most amount of time.. that and coding assignments.

It all depends on how distracted I get I suppose. When I know what I'm talking about can help me too. I remember my dissertation took months to complete.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inseriousity.

research is more having an opinion and looking around for someone academic who shares it lol

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lmao so true, so much easier to pick a conclusion then look for stuff that works for it than go everywhere and be impartial. Not very academically sound but for degree level it's more than ok haha

It takes me ages ugh I just don't enjoy sitting at my laptop writing essays -_- the initial research part just bores me; I like to make a mind map and then just write, finding quotes as I go. obv dissertation was different urgh i'm so glad I don't have anymore essays

I dont really like writing essays but meh, I think a simple one will take like a few hours.


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