On-demand writing seems to be a common practice in English classes and pushes students’ creativity. This is great practice for SAT essays and is more beneficial than essay outlines. Outlines provide structure which is very much required for SAT essays, but on-demand writing portrays a lot more of the student’s creativity and creates strategies that students can use during testing.
It is not required to brainstorm for the SAT essay such as most essays in school would. The given time for the SAT is only 25 minutes. According to the Princeton Review, SAT readers want a basic essay structure [introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion], big words, examples, tidy handwriting and quantity over quality. Not the typical saying “quality over quantity” but simply to write as much as possible within the 25 minutes while still making sense. MIT’s Writing Across the Curriculum program Les Perelman says it is better to make up ideas and events rather than trying to remember dates and events.
According to Springfield College’s tips for on demand writing students are expected to plan their time, plan their answer to the prompt, stick to the question, state all their points clearly while supporting them and most importantly make time to revise and proofread. The more on demand writing activities done in class will help tremendously with students and SAT writing.
These SAT essay readers and graders do not spend a whole lot of time trying to tear essays apart. Perelman states that SAT essay readers are expected to read 20 essays an hour and get a bonus if they read 30 essays an hour. If they take more than 3 minutes to read an essay they are immediately fired from their job of scoring SAT essays.
Supposedly the in class essay final exams also help students with SAT essays, but it actually does not help us as much as English class on-demand writing activities do. When the essay exams come around, students are given outlines and instructions prior to the exam to prepare us. These outlines are mainly just providing us with structure and do not give us the full practice of being timed while writing. The thing is most students started learning how to write essays in the third grade, so most students have their structure perfected by now and outlines are not necessarily needed.
The biggest struggle with on-demand writing is making enough time to do all the requirements. Time tends to put students under pressure, and no one likes being rushed. Usually when you are rushed your work is not as great and then you leave with a hesitant feeling.
The world would not be so bad with a little more creativity and on-demand really pushes this skill. English classes should do more on-demand writing not just provide more practice for the SATs but encourage students to take the SATs. Essay outlines get really tiring and repetitive. Although on-demand writing may get stressful to some students because of the time limit it is a great exercise for the brain.
