500-word essays are more common than you think. You’ll find it being assigned in high school the most. Colleges and universities usually increase the essay length to at least 1000-2000. But you never know! You might be surprised by a 500-word essay while pursuing higher studies as well. So, how long can you expect to spend on such a paper?
Ideally, you shouldn’t be spending more than 30-45 minutes writing a 500-word essay. However, that’s not always the case. So, if you want to submit your paper really fast, an essay service is your best bet. But this is only for emergencies. 500-word essays aren’t very complex. You can easily complete it on time, even if you start a few hours before the deadline. Sounds impossible? Then let’s understand what factors you should consider while writing the essay.
Factors Responsible for Time Spent on Writing Your Essay
You might think it’ll take you 20 minutes to write a 500-word essay. So you procrastinate until the last minute. But surprise! You end up spending a lot of time on the paper and don’t get to submit it within the deadline. Don’t underestimate a 500-word essay. Just because some might complete such tasks within 30 minutes doesn’t mean you can as well. That’s why you should consider the following factors –
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Typing speed
The speed at which you type or write is the most important factor. Think about it logically. Suppose it takes a person more than 30 minutes to write a 500-word paper. You will consider them a fast writer, won’t you? But someone else might take 1.5 hours to finish the same task. A person with a typing speed of 5wpm can take 100 minutes to complete the task. But someone with a typing speed of 60wpm can complete it within 10 minutes.
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Research required
You can’t start writing your paper as soon as you receive the topic. Research is a must. Go through works previously published on the same topic. You’ll figure out which issues have been covered already. This step can take 10-15 minutes or even an hour. It depends on the complexity of the topic. So, don’t forget to take the research time into consideration when writing your paper.
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Organizing and editing
You might think your work is done once you’ve written the essay. But it’s not. You still need to read through your paper and organize it. Rearranging points to make them flow more logically takes time. You can set aside another 10-12 minutes for this task.
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Proofreading the content
Finally, you can’t forget to proofread your paper. It’s natural to make a few mistakes when writing your paper in a hurry. You might not even notice the spelling and grammatical errors the first time you read through the essay. So, you should read every sentence carefully once again. This might take you 5-10 minutes.
Let’s not ignore the time you might spend distracted on your mobile phone whenever you get distracted. Just kidding! Let’s consider all the factors mentioned above. You might spend at least 20-45 minutes on research, paper organization, and proofreading. That’s already a lot of time. Then, you’ll be writing the paper for another 10-20 minutes. So, you can expect to spend approximately 30-65 minutes on a 500-word essay.
How Can You Write Your 500-word Essay Quickly? – Tips & Suggestions
What happens when you don’t have even an hour to write your 500-word essay? You can hire a professional writer to lend you a helping hand. But that’s not a long-term solution. You need to improve your speed. But that’s just the start. You can employ more techniques to write quickly. Check out a few ways you can achieve this goal –
- Remove all distractions from around you.
- Practice typing at least 1000 words daily.
- Maintain a proper posture while typing.
- Research your paper beforehand.
- Create an outline before writing the essay.
- Do NOT proofread or edit while writing.
- Listen to music that can help you concentrate.
Try following these tips diligently. You’re bound to notice an improvement in your speed. Composing a paper by hand is more time-consuming. Write in a journal daily if you want to improve your writing speed. It’ll help you stay in practice.
Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a 500-word Essay
Writing a 500-word essay seems like a piece of cake. But, in reality, it is not so. Even if the task seems small, the chances of making mistakes are many. Now, you know that prevention is better than cure. So, let’s scroll down to see the common mistakes you might make while writing this type of essay.
- Leaving the paper till the last minute.
- Rushing through the paper.
- Skipping proper research before writing.
- Not ensuring a logical flow of arguments.
- Leaving out proofreading to save time.
- Exceeding 500 words while writing.
- Failing to meet the 500-word count.
- Copying another essay from online sources.
- Not following the provided referencing guidelines.
You should be careful of all these issues. Go through the guidelines properly. Don’t miss any step. As long as you follow the suggestions in this blog and keep an eye out for the mistakes, you’re good to go! Just start writing, and you’ll find your flow soon. Good luck!