I always thought that blogs should be done patiently with as much time needed. I still somewhat think that, but I decided to try and put a time limit on myself when writing one of these. As I type this, I realize how writing with a time limit is great practice for SAT writing and formulating and organizing your ideas quicker and more efficiently. When writing without a time limit, I have noticed that I am not prepared as well as I would be if I had a time limit. Here is a quote by a teacher called Mr. Maven to his studen struggling on timed writings. "Because my boy, that five minutes you take preparing an outline will save you 10 times the minutes in writing. The outline allows you to create your essay in your mind before it's created on your paper. That's another trait of the great ones. They always see the creation before it's been created." With a time limit, now that I have confidence in my ideas since they are organized and straightforward, I can concentrate on actually formulating my paragraphs. I noticed I could create stronger sentences, just concentrating on the structure of a paragraph and the sentences. With a time limit, I could pace myself. Writing knowing that I have a specific time to be finished, I feel a bit more pressured in writing. With all this pressure upon me, I feel that I am more concentrated on this certain topic, clear distractions, and open my mind.
When I work within the comforts of my own home with all the distractions such as videogames and tv without a time limit, I would deduce that it would take me much longer to finish this blog. With a time limit, I feel compelled to stay away from these distractions and focus on this blog. Pressured by time, I will not fiddle with silly sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. With this time limit, we can ensure that our work would be much higher in quality than the same blog and topic without a time limit. And by high quality, I dont mean a long essay. Im sure readers do not want to read a really long essay with gramatical errors and that strays away from the main topic. Im confident that readers want to read an essay that is formulated well and is clear, even if it is short.
Even practicing timed writing is helpful as a technique when writing in an unstructured, unplanned way for a short amount of time. This practice is basically training to become more productive. Here are 11 Keys to Double your Productivity. Im sure reading that article and connecting it to our writing, we can be more efficient in our writing. Timed writing will deny any perfectionist thinking, and at the same time overcome procrastination.
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I think that timed writing, at least within the context of the SAT, is not an accurate representation of the student's true writing potential. The timed writes of the SAT forces the test taker to write down as much as possible in the least amount of time. I understand that the SAT essay graders do not expect a finely polished masterpiece, but the time constraint also limits the student's writing ability.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm a slow test- taker, I don't think pressure causes me to write stronger structured essays or helps me to prevent grammar mistakes, especially on the SAT. With a 25 minute limit, students don't have enough time to write the same sophisticated and insightful paragraphs that they would be able to write if they were given more time. I think that the ETS (Educational Testing Service), or the people that control the SAT, should increase the time limit to about 40 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI don't think being pressured to work in a short amount of time helps you. You might be more on task, but your work will most likely not be better than it would have been without a time limit. When I'm pressured into a short time limit, I often leave out ideas that i come up with as soon as I run out of time. A time limit just eliminates distractions.
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When you're forced to do something, you are more likely inclined to do it than if you are given free time. At least, that's what I think.
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