In-Class Essays
You can't write an in-class essay in the same way that you would write a take-home essay. The time limit means you can't waste any time or words and so you really have to quickly get down the essential content and ideas. Here are some tips:
Read the prompt carefully. Use the structure of the prompt to make a rough outline of the essay on scratch paper. Make sure you address every element of the prompt.
In-class writing is more a test of your understanding of the course content than of your writing ability. Don't waste time writing a clever intro paragraph. Use the wording of the prompt to write a short intro that restates the question and presents your thesis.
What have you studied in the course that is relevant/essential to understanding the topic you are writing about? Try to include as much of it as time allows. Are some facts more important than others? Prioritize and make sure you include the information that is most relevant to a complete understanding of the topic.
Of course, it's not enough to list facts and figures, like a take-home essay, there also has to be analysis. Have made the significance of each piece of evidence clear?
Don't waste time adding information you know from outside of the course or to make tangential philosophical extrapolations. Use the essay to show your instructor what you are learning in the course. I don't want to know how smart you are, but what you are learning in my class.
Sometimes an in-class exam will include a longer essay, like those discussed above, and a few (usually four) short identification essays. In the IDs, you are asked to identify and explain the significance of an important term or concept from the readings. The two types of essay are mirror images of each other. One uses specific factual evidence to support a broad generalization; the other takes a specific fact and shows how it might be used to support a broad generalization. In studying the ID terms, try to put items together that relate to the same broad question.