Planning an article when 22 minutes only buys about 200 words
Writing Part 2: write an article for your college magazine titled 'Study alone or study together?' in 150–180 words. You must give your opinion and include one example from your own experience. You have 22 minutes and produce usable text at roughly 10 words per minute once thinking time is included. Your plan is a list: 'alone - quiet, own speed, boring; group - motivation, ideas, slow, chatting'. In your last essay you wrote 235 words, ran out of time to check, used 'Moreover' four times, and lost marks for task achievement because you described both sides but never answered the question the title implies. You tend to start writing immediately and plan as you go, and you have never put a title on an article before.
1. Spend 4 of the 22 minutes planning. Produce the plan and justify its shape against the word limit.
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Plan, on paper, 4 minutes: Title: Study alone or study together?
- Answer first, about 30 words: together works better for understanding, alone for the last week before an exam.
- One reason plus my example, about 45 words: second-year statistics, a group of four, we explained past papers to each other, my mark moved from 55 to 68.
- One-sentence concession, about 30 words: groups fail when nobody prepares - I have sat in a 'session' that turned into a chat.
- Close that answers the title, about 25 words: use the group to understand, the empty room to memorise. That is roughly 130–150 words of content, leaving room to reach 150–180 without padding. The shape is driven by the limit: one example properly developed scores better than four undeveloped pros and cons, and an article needs a position, not a survey. Four paragraphs, four functions - that is also your organisation mark.
2. Write the opening 45 words. It must state the opinion, address the title's question and stay economical.
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'Revise in company, or shut the door and work alone? Most students I know argue about this in the week before exams, and I have done both. My answer is that a group is better for understanding a topic and a silent room is better for memorising it - and knowing which one you need on a given day matters more than picking a side.' Why it works: the title's question is restated in the first line (task achievement), the opinion arrives in sentence three rather than the last paragraph, so a marker always finds it; the concession is built in ('I have done both'), so the position is not simplistic; the vocabulary is plain but precise. Note what it avoids: 'Nowadays, studying is very important' costs eight words and earns nothing, and at 10 words a minute you cannot afford sentences that do no work.
3. Six minutes remain and you have written 130 words. What do you do, in order?
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Order:
- 30 seconds: count what you have and decide the final paragraph's job. Do not re-read from the start.
- 3 minutes: write the closing 40–50 words, keeping the opinion and the example intact. Finishing an article that answers the question beats polishing the opening.
- 1.5 minutes: check the four things that cost most per second - title present, opinion visible in one sentence, example specific (statistics group, not 'my friends'), and repeated linkers swapped for 'but', 'so', 'in practice'.
- 1 minute: count words; if you are over 180, delete one supporting sentence, not the conclusion. Do not open a new argument now: an unfinished point reads worse than a short one, and the marker cannot award what you did not finish.