How long does it take you to write a page?

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2006-12-15 01:28am

Double-spaced, 12pt, Times New Roman. I have 16 pages of final essay left to write before my semester is over, and for some reason I was wondering what the average time it takes other people to complete one page is. Does it vary based on the type of paper? Do you work on it consistently, or spread over a longer period of time while doing other things?

atg · Post by **atg** » 2006-12-15 01:32am

Seggybop wrote:Double-spaced, 12pt, Times New Roman. I have 16 pages of final essay left to write before my semester is over, and for some reason I was wondering what the average time it takes other people to complete one page is. Does it vary based on the type of paper? Do you work on it consistently, or spread over a longer period of time while doing other things?

Really depends on the situation and what I'm writing about. For example if I'm writing about something I know and studied, say for when I was doing my year 12 English exam, I could punch out a 4 or 5 page essay on the topic at hand in about 45mins. If I'm trying to write a story though, I'll rarely get past the first paragraph.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2006-12-15 01:35am

Yeah, I usually bang out a 4-6 page paper in about an hour, hour and a half.

Tinkerbell · Post by **Tinkerbell** » 2006-12-15 01:36am

A 15-page psychobiography of Ernest Hemingway took me about one solid sleepless night.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-12-15 01:38am

Over the years, I have learned one important thing about the rate of work on an essay or any other kind of project: if you know exactly what you want to do and how you're going to do it, you'll get the job done quickly. People get bogged down when the job seems too big and they're not really sure how to start or what to do next.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2006-12-15 01:43am

Seggybop wrote:Double-spaced, 12pt, Times New Roman. I have 16 pages of final essay left to write before my semester is over, and for some reason I was wondering what the average time it takes other people to complete one page is. Does it vary based on the type of paper? Do you work on it consistently, or spread over a longer period of time while doing other things?

How long is a piece of string?

This sort of thing varies immensely not only between person to person, but situationally as well. As for me, the time it takes depends a lot on how well I know what I'm writing, how close I am to deadline and the most important factor, how much do I actually care about what I'm writing.

I've managed to bang out 20 pages papers for conferences in a few days, because I know the material well and I'm not too terribly concerned with producing the best, most polished piece of writing. On the other hand, it has taken me over a month to write a 4 page paper for physical review letters because I knew it had to be really well written and scientifically tight to stand a chance at publication.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-12-15 04:11am

If I need to check facts on what I'm writing, references etc I could type a 2000 word essay in less than an hour. however, for example if i'm brainstorming and have no need to check facts (like in the occasional fiction) I could get 4-5 pages down in about 45 minutes. Grammar and spelling may not be perfect, but thats remedied with a post typing proof read.

Falkenhayn · Post by **Falkenhayn** » 2006-12-15 04:20am

Well, a well researched and annotated 26.5 page paper that was 100% of my grade for the course took me five days (I recieved an A-).

A similar paper of 12.5 pages that was 60% of my final examination took me two days (I recieved an A-).

An "A" quality, single spaced page takes me about 45 minutes, assuming I have everything researched and outlined beforehand.

Post by **Simplicius** » 2006-12-15 05:10am

If I have some foreknowledge of the theme and subject of the paper, but I have to look up specific references as I go, I can put down a page an hour. If I can just write, and pull information from my head alone, I can roughly triple that.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-12-15 07:33am

In Swedish? Not long, 10minutes or so.

In English, more than an hour and it will still countain many errors.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-12-15 08:46am

If you've planned it, you can do it in no time at all. I've found myself writing papers at a page every five minutes if it's something I've got all sorted in my head. There are times when the total opposite happens, and I'm stuck thinking out a single paragraph for an hour.

General Soontir Fel · Post by **General Soontir Fel** » 2006-12-15 09:26am

If it's an essay, and I'm familiar with the topic, I learned that I can do fine if I give myself 15-20 minutes per page. If it has a lot of formulas, then about 40 minutes, since I can't use the equation editor as fast as simply typing.

If it's a story, it can really vary. With essays, I don't need to worry if the prose is dry, as long as it gets the information across. With a story, I can write out a skeleton quickly, but serving that up would be a disservice to the readers. So I edit... and edit... and edit.... It's almost the same ratio as coding to debugging when writing software.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2006-12-15 10:39am

Darth Wong wrote:Over the years, I have learned one important thing about the rate of work on an essay or any other kind of project: if you know exactly what you want to do and how you're going to do it, you'll get the job done quickly. People get bogged down when the job seems too big and they're not really sure how to start or what to do next.

Spin Echo wrote:As for me, the time it takes depends a lot on how well I know what I'm writing, how close I am to deadline and the most important factor, how much do I actually care about what I'm writing.

These two snippets pretty well sum it up for me. Especially the bolded part.

Honestly, it can easily vary from "Well, how fast can I type?" to an hour or two just stuck staring at my blank document in Word, then going on to something else in disgust.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2006-12-15 10:42am

A good rule of thumb for me, I've found, is that I average 30 minutes per page in English, and double that in German. A nice trick I like to do is type it up single-spaced, then double-space it when I'm finished and see where I stand.

Tranan · Post by **Tranan** » 2006-12-15 12:24pm

In Swedish? Fast! Under 10minutes. But it will sitll be alot of errors. no mather howlong i work with it.

In English, NEVER!

Crazedwraith · Post by **Crazedwraith** » 2006-12-15 12:36pm

Double spacing is pants. I always type single spaced, then double it up if required.

And is your assigment actually defined by number of pages? rather than number of words. That seems a little odd.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-12-15 12:41pm

Length limits mean shit if you're going to start padding your work to reach them. It's better to be a couple hundred words under with a concise, well laid out essay, than to go over the limit by even a bit and show up waffle. Trust me, you're not doing your tutor any favours in meeting the limit for the sake of, unless reading your work is like good poetry.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2006-12-15 12:42pm

Depends. Back in my wild days as a student, I routinely roused myself at 4 AM to write, proofread, and print out multi-page essays before I had to catch the bus at 6:30 AM. In college, a couple hours locked away in the lab were often enough. It broke down to something like under half an hour per page. When I do fictional writing, I can breeze through a rich scene in fifteen minutes or less, if I'm really in the groove.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2006-12-15 02:05pm

Seggybop wrote:Double-spaced, 12pt, Times New Roman. I have 16 pages of final essay left to write before my semester is over, and for some reason I was wondering what the average time it takes other people to complete one page is. Does it vary based on the type of paper? Do you work on it consistently, or spread over a longer period of time while doing other things?

15-20 minutes. My personal best is writing a paper the day before it was due. . . that was 15 pages long, needed to review half a dozen historical novels, none of which Ive read.

I got an A on the paper.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2006-12-15 02:49pm

When I write up topics that I know, I can type up a single page in 5-10 minutes worth of time easily. If its a topic I don't know a whole lot about I first try and study the topic, get a feel for what is going on. My first attempt at writing the paper will largely be a free flowing of ideas. My second go at the paper will be using my knowledge and the ideas thought up to design the paper properly. This will involve either a total rewrite, or modification of whats already written.

I've found that in pieces I type up for the internet I largely have my thoughts already planned out and so I can type those up very quickly. In a large discussion I am already deep into the topic and know the subject material well and you just design your language around it.

As others have already pointed out, knowledge of the subject material is absolutely key. The better you understand it and the more natural it feels to think about, the easier it will be to write the paper. Some people make this very easy. Others do not.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-12-15 03:27pm

You do have to keep in mind that first post first pass doesn't work for everyone. Heinlein was wrong when he said don't rewrite, most people's writing is awful first time or at least gets better the second time. Most of the people commenting here are exceptionally intelligent, and if you have to write an essay and you're an arts major you can't compare to engineers or science majors. Average students, like me, take a lot longer to write an essay, especially an A paper, which usually involves going in to talk with the TA or Professor to guarantee you write what they want. And the safe way to make sure your essay has a lot of "meat" isn't to write to the page limit, but budget yourself over, maybe two times. So write thirty pages. Then cut it down to the fifteen best pages, and rip out all the useless or weak writing. And rewrite, at least once. Some tips here. Yes you can bullshit your way through all of university writing essays the day before they're due, but that's not for everyone.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-12-15 03:34pm

For my master's thesis, it was about a page an hour. Serious research papers usually come out at that pace. Assuming I really know the topic. I've spent three hours on a single page when I'm totally fucking lost. Those are the ones where I seriously consider dropping out and going to truck driver school.

Essays that don't have to be cited I can usually do at twice that speed. Fiction I average about ten minutes per page, though most of the time when I sit down to write fiction, the scene is already in my head and I'm just transcribing it. I've hit three minutes per page for some dialog-heavy scenes, but that's pretty rare.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2006-12-15 05:35pm

RedImperator wrote:For my master's thesis, it was about a page an hour. Serious research papers usually come out at that pace. Assuming I really know the topic. I've spent three hours on a single page when I'm totally fucking lost. Those are the ones where I seriously consider dropping out and going to truck driver school.

Essays that don't have to be cited I can usually do at twice that speed. Fiction I average about ten minutes per page, though most of the time when I sit down to write fiction, the scene is already in my head and I'm just transcribing it. I've hit three minutes per page for some dialog-heavy scenes, but that's pretty rare.

I will concede that my papers are still at the sophemore yr of college level - that does change the dynamic some.

I like to write, so Ive gained the ability to write an essay with very little review necessary, but a lot of people I know need the proofreading.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2006-12-15 09:06pm

My faculties are ridiculously tempramental. When I'm inspired I can write a page's worth in 10 minutes easily. When I'm writing just on a flow like I do on here, I can take ages rethinking my position and second guessing where the response is going to go. When I get inspired, I think of it all visually. I think in film scenes, essentially; I know what's going to happen and what details I want the mental camera to focus on, I will think of ways to word it that will give the impact I desire, then attempt to remember them after I come up with a plan on how to present it.

Most of my creative ideas when I write them have been floating around in my head for months, if not years. I can be painstaking when it comes to getting it true to my mental vision, and this is why I don't draw as much as I feel I should. I don't have a clear image most of the time, so it won't be as representative of the sexiness I have in mind.

I can churn out decent educational stuff fairly quickly if I know what I'm talking about and know the criteria it has to fulfill, then I can come up with a mental map to writing it, then it's almost automated aside from personal touches.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2006-12-15 09:50pm

I've gotten through (single spaced) pages in as quickly as eight or nine minutes before if I know exactly what I'm writing, but it usually takes considerably longer.

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