Generating Ideas for Timed Writing

Timed writing is a big challenge for many students, most of whom have difficulty in generating ideas, especially when they are nervous. Here are tips about generating ideas for timed writing exams.

Before Timed Writing Exam day

·        Get Familiar with Timed Writing Topics.

Getting yourself familiar with general topics by reading, listening, and discussing is very helpful. Read magazines articles, books, and classmates’ essays. Also, listen to news and podcasts and discuss general topics with friends. All these methods help building new vocabulary and getting relative ideas.

·        Create your own idea banks.

An idea bank is a collection of vocabulary, synonyms, questions, examples, and sample essays about a one general topic. Creating an idea bank and being prepared for timed writings at home is useful because it saves time, reduce stress, and keep focus on writing instead of thinking during the exam.

This video shows how to create an idea bank.

During Timed Writing Exam

·        Read the prompt carefully and look for keywords.

Use the keywords in the prompt or their synonyms.

·        Think about your past experience.

All of us have experiences. Think about your experiences and how it could be related to the topic. Others’ experiences could be helpful too.

·        Mind Map

Write the topic in the middle of the paper, then brainstorm subtopics and connected ideas. Do not spend a lot of time in drawing a perfect map, the content is more important.

·        Think about your opinion

Image yourself discussing the topic with your friends or family members and write your opinion as if you are discussing, then get related ideas from your opinion and write about it.

·        Ask yourself the five question.

Ask who, what, why, where, and how and write down your answers and use them to create main points.

Which tactic do you use in timed writing?