How to Write an Essay for Standardized Tests

The students I've taught hate essay writing - hate it. They say it's messy, complicated and confusing. They especially hate writing essays for standardized tests because of the short time limit. It doesn't have to be that way.

The Basics of Essay Writing

There are five steps to writing the kind of basic essay that you are expected to write for standardized tests in high school and college, as well as projects in writing classes. The first thing you need to realize is that this type of essay is actually quite standardized, that what teachers look for is more clear-cut than they might tell you. An essay consists of an introduction, body and conclusion. A standard essay of 500-800 words involves a main idea, a thesis statement and three main points or arguments. That's it.

So, how do you go about writing an essay when you're sitting in an airless room with a bunch of other nail-chewing students, and you've got 30 minutes in which to do half a thousand words? You get organized.

1. Find out what kind of essay you're writing. Is it descriptive, argumentative or persuasive, comparative or contrasting, literary, a synopsis, a review or what? These things affect your topic and thesis. For example, in a literary essay--analysis, review or synopsis--you'll want to introduce the author, title, type (story or book), genre, basic plot and main characters of the story you're discussing as part of introducing the main idea. An argumentative essay in answer to a general question about life will probably involve fewer moving parts.

Tip: Essays in standardized tests tend to fall into two categories: literary (analyzing something you must read in the test) or persuasive (answering a general question yes or no).

2. Find out the length of the essay that you're writing. This will affect the essay's complexity--specifically, the number of paragraphs. The most basic three-paragraph essay runs about 300-500 words. This is what standardized tests call a "short" essay. A "long" essay for standardized tests is five paragraphs long and runs 500-800 words long. That's about as much as the testers will expect for 30-60 minutes. Longer take-home and research essays may run longer, but rarely exceed 2000 words.

Tip: Paragraphs should be no less than three sentences and not more than half a page or so. Less and you don't have enough space to discuss the topic. More and the paragraph topic becomes to complex to handle.

3. Write out your main idea, thesis and three main points or arguments. Your main idea is simply what the essay is about. Your thesis is what you want to say about the main idea. Your main arguments are statements that support your thesis. Each of these elements should be at least one sentence long, though a thesis statement (the thesis written as a full statement) for an essay this short should probably be only one sentence long. Write these out in order in one paragraph. You've just written your introduction.

Tip: You can often use the essay prompt or question as your main idea sentence. When the prompt is a question, your thesis is usually the answer to the question.

4. Outline the rest of your essay. Once you've completed step three, this should be easy. In essays under three thousand words or so, your introduction and conclusion should each be only one paragraph long. The body makes up the rest of the essay. In a five-paragraph essay, this means that the body is three paragraphs long, where each argument takes up one paragraph (in a three-paragraph essay, you get one paragraph to discuss three points, which can make short essays harder to write). When you write up the outline, write a sentence for each body paragraph that sums it up. These are called "topic sentences" and are the first sentences of their respective paragraphs. Then write your arguments (why the topic sentence is true) and your evidence (a quote or example to support your argument). Once you write a topic sentence, argument and evidence, you've got a body paragraph.

Tip: The beauty of introducing your main arguments in your first paragraph is that you don't need to write in transitions for the body. Just arrange your arguments in the body in the same order as you present them in the introduction. By doing so, and keeping each argument confined to one paragraph, you've already cued the reader when to expect your next argument.

5. Write your conclusion. Conclusions are often the hardest part of the essay. They should include a restatement of the thesis in light of the body, a statement explaining how the points support the thesis, and a final statement that definitively sums up your main idea.

Tip: The clearer and more specific your thesis, the easier your conclusion will be to write. If you're having trouble writing the conclusion to your essay, your thesis is probably either vague or unstated. Try rewriting your introduction, then have another look at the conclusion.

Final Thoughts

When writing an essay, either for a test or otherwise, always try to get through the rough draft as quickly as possible. Revision can win you highly valuable extra points, but it always takes longer than students expect. So they neglect it. If you write the rough draft quickly then at worst, you will end up with a complete product that could be better. Still, complete essays always win more points than incomplete ones, however much the latter are nicely done. Give the test reader a beginning, middle and end.