How to Write Essays Quickly on a Deadline

Essays are supposed to give enough information and featured facts. They're supposed to tell the truth with coherence without deleting a logical and unique form.

If you are commissioned to write an essay and/or article or a story for a publication, you have to be serious at this matter. Editors wouldn't like writers who cannot submit on a deadline. They abhor irresponsible writers who are just for a show and making promises, but not submitting on time.

In the Philippines, I have worked with respectable editors like Melba Bartolome of Women's, Dinah Ventura of Tribune, Nancy Reyes - Lumen of Cook, Reynaldo Duque of Liwayway, Danilo Meneses of Dandelion, Mona Gonzalez, Ricky Lo of Philippine Star, Eugene Asis of Peoples, Leoncio Castillo of Buy and Sell, Dave Frias of Wealthline International, and June Ranera of Rogate Ergo, among others; and I thank them all (forever and ever), for teaching me the guidelines of good writing.

It was not easy. It required a lot of patience to write something the editor will publish conforming to the needs of the paper, magazine, or book.

How to Write the Essays Quickly

The writer needs facts. Primary and secondary data can be used for more details. If necessary, a first-hand interview and witnessing of an event would help. The more details one gets, the better. Moreover, the writer has to be sharp to identify what details to include and what to omit. It is not just getting something to write. There must be some insight and/or added knowledge from the new work.

Write clear sentences. Remember the KISS theory of composition (Keep it simple, stupid.)

Organize data as to theme of the paper or magazine, or audience.

You've got to put your soul and heart into your work.

Be ready to rewrite.

A Stock of Subject Matter

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The essay/article writer needs a stock of subject matter. In short, he/she has to be well-read. His/Her senses must be keen and free about the facts of life. Francis Bacon once said, that he took mankind as his field of study; Montaigne and Whitman made use of their lives as the subject of their work. Authenticity and freshness are markers of a good essay.

Theodore Cheney said that an effective essay/article writer needs the skill of the storyteller and the research ability of the reporter.