Before you begin writing, think about what your essay will say and then organize those thoughts. First, develop a thesis, a one-sentence statement that summarizes your position or argument. Second, jot down a few concepts or examples that support your thesis and then arrange these ideas in a logical order. When writing the essay, follow this outline so that you won't waste any time pondering what you should say next or whether your essay flows well and makes sense as a whole.
Write your thesis in the first paragraph of the essay, and spend the rest of the paper developing that main idea. Each paragraph should focus on one point that supports your thesis. Further, every part of your essay should work on answering the essay prompt, warns the Purdue Online Writing Lab. If you think of a profound idea or brilliant example that would sound smart but that doesn't directly relate to your thesis, ignore it.
You must support your ideas with relevant examples that illustrate or prove your points. Although you can use examples from literature or history, you can also use examples from your personal experience, observations and thoughts. Personal experience provides a much simpler source of illustrations, recommends Spark Notes. After all, you remember your life easily, so you don't need to spend time recalling the exact details of Catcher in the Rye's plot. Choose examples that clearly relate to your points and that you can explain quickly; this impresses the graders more than examples that originate from impressive sources, demonstrate your education or are provably true.
A few thorough examples compose a better paper than many brief examples, advises the College Board, which publishes the SAT. Explain exactly why and how the example illustrates your point, rather than forming a quick metaphor and then moving on to other ideas.
Your essay doesn't need to propose a profound theory, demonstrate your depth of knowledge or sound like a scholarly journal article. Just explain what you really think about the issue, recommends the College Board. Go ahead and use first-person voice---for example, "I think" or "It seems to me that"---because that method helps develop your personal perspective. A finished essay that presents a simple but believable thesis will earn a better score than a half-completed essay that tries to reach brilliant perfection.
Using proper grammar significantly improves your score, so pay attention to the fundamentals, like writing in full sentences, matching subject and verb number, and ending each sentence with proper punctuation. But don't worry about going beyond basic grammar to write with great style or advanced grammatical techniques; the essay tests your ability to develop an idea more than it evaluates your ability to write eloquently. Trying to write well takes a lot of time and focus that you should instead devote to expressing your ideas clearly and thoroughly.