Did You Write The Essay The Way I Told You To?
I frequently get to read student’s essay assignments.
I’m an English major, that kind of thing is right up my alley. Sure, I can correct grammatical errors, format and punctuation, but that’s just little ticky-tack stuff. What it will inevitably come down to with Mr. Teacher is: did you write the essay the way I told you to?
It’s only too often that little Suzie and little Jimmy come in and say “my teacher told me to write an essay about the themes in “Lord of The Flies.” So far they’ve got a rough draft which is written on their general idea of what the essay is supposed to be. But when we ask “did your teacher give you instructions” they look around anxiously.
Study Hut tutors will help with three things. The first thing we will tell you to do would be to answer the prompt directly. Whether your South Bay tutor is helping you with the SAT test or an in class essay, answering the question is paramount.
The thesis should take care of this– it is your opinion stated as a fact. Work on this first, then let us check up on you…
Date posted: Thursday, January 10th, 2008 4:05 PM | Under category: General
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what are the other two things?
There are more than three things that you can do to make a great essay, the following are just a few helpful tips that The Study Hut helps students with:
1. Forming a strong thesis. The thesis is the most significant part of a solid essay because each body paragraph should relate back to the thesis sentence. Strong writers may have two sentences making up the thesis, but until you reach the college level and beyond, stick with one sentence.
2. Creating an outline that guides your thoughts as you write an essay can be the single most beneficial step to the essay writing process. The outline should take anywhere from 10 minutes to a 1 hour and should not contain specifics, rather paragraph layout and ordering, listing of thoughts and ideas. It is typically a good idea to include your thesis and topic sentences in the outline to verify correct flow. Writing an outline seems like extra work, but in reality, an outline saves you time!
3. The article above talks about following a writing style of your teacher/professor. This means simply listen in class, and write down any specific instructions that you may receive, and make sure to address all of the teacher’s concerns. For example, if your teacher is sexist and doesn’t like boys (which I have had before), don’t right an article about sports or “macho” topics that will only raise your teacher’s emotions (in a bad way). Remember, EVERYONE has a bias.
4. Come to The Study Hut to work on these and all of the rest. We offer SAT writing courses as well. The SAT classes can be taken in groups, or you can schedule a one-on-one session with a tutor that specializes in outline, essay writing or whatever topic you seek improvement in.
-Jon (admin)