How high can you get on a writing essay?

How do I get good points while writing an essay under time constraints?

• I am nearly always at a loss of thoughts and ideas when writing an essay . It's not that I am not well versed with general knowledge. I just can't get those points when I am writing an essay. I have an exam 4 days later which features a section on essay writing (GRE) .What should I do in order to overcome this within the next 3 days? I am including "debate" as a topic as I am sure debaters would know a thing or two about getting around this problem.

• Answer:

  Normally I’d try to give a few basic pointers; however most of these have, to a large degree, been covered by the other respondents. Instead, I would say that you need to do a bit of rewiring right now. Why? Your opening sentence indicates that you have 'primed' yourself for problems before you even start: “I am nearly always at a loss of thoughts and ideas when writing an essay.” Given that you believe what you have written,  then you will find it harder to write. Neurobiologists calls these mental feedback loops “priming” I won’t get too technical but here is a typical overview (not written by me thank God), of what 'priming' does (sorry it is written in academic babble): “Recent research has suggested that both behavioral priming and RS can be largely determined by previously learned stimulus–response associations. According to this view, a direct association forms between the stimulus presented and the response made to it. On a subsequent encounter with the stimulus, this association automatically cues the response, bypassing the various processing stages that were required to select that response during its first presentation.”  In other words, if you think before you start you’ll have problems, then you are more likely to have problems. Writing an essay is, as the Greeks put it, a techne, that is, a craft that can be learned. It does not require great artistic skills. What you need to do first: understand you are not wired not to be able to learn a relatively simple craft (I am talking about standard responses not publishable stuff). (And yes, the double negative is sometimes useful.) The best way to learn a craft is practice. I periodically give myself time sensitive tests in writing as I find that time constraints let me just blurt out stuff instead of self-censoring. In my case, this can result in much more imaginative prose because I don’t worry about words being perfect. The point is that if you understand that you need to follow the words the others have written here, practice, and then keep in mind that you are not wired not to be able to write. There is no research I have read that indicates writing anxiety is something innate. You have learned this and now you need to forget it.