WRITE BETTER ESSAYS

[Pages:208]WRITE BETTER ESSAYS

IN JUST 20 MINUTES A DAY

WRITE BETTER ESSAYS

IN JUST 20 MINUTES A DAY

2nd Edition

?

NEW YORK

Copyright ? 2006 LearningExpress, LLC.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Write better essays in just 20 minutes a day--2nd ed.

p. cm. Rev. ed. of: Write better essays in just 20 minutes a day / Elizabeth Chesla. 1st ed. ? 2000. ISBN 1-57685-546-5 1. English language--Rhetoric--Problems, exercises, etc. 2. Essays--Authorship-- Problems, exercises, etc. 3. Report writing--Problems, exercises, etc. I. Chesla, Elizabeth L. Write better essays in just 20 minutes a day. II. LearningExpress (Organization) III. Title: Write better essays in just twenty minutes a day. PE1471.C47 2006 808.4--dc22

2006000438 Printed in the United States of America

987654321

Second Edition

For information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at: 55 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10006

Or visit us at:

Contents

INTRODUCTION

1

PRETEST

7

SECTION 1

Planning the Essay

17

LESSON 1

Thinking about Audience and Purpose

19

LESSON 2

Understanding the Assigned Topic

25

LESSON 3

Brainstorming Techniques: Freewriting and Listing

31

LESSON 4

More Brainstorming Techniques: The 5 W's and Mapping

37

LESSON 5

Choosing a Topic and Developing a Thesis

43

LESSON 6

Outlining and Organizational Strategies

49

LESSON 7

More Organizational Strategies

57

SECTION 2

Drafting the Essay

63

LESSON 8

Thesis Statements and the Drafting Process

65

LESSON 9

Paragraphs and Topic Sentences

71

LESSON 10

Providing Support

77

LESSON 11

Strategies for Convincing

85

v

?CONTENTS?

LESSON 12

Introductions

93

LESSON 13

Conclusions

99

SECTION 3

Revising, Editing, and Proofreading the Essay

105

LESSON 14

Revising: The Big Picture

107

LESSON 15

Revising Paragraphs

113

LESSON 16

Editing

121

LESSON 17

Proofreading

131

SECTION 4

Taking an Essay Exam

141

LESSON 18

Preparing for an Essay Exam

143

LESSON 19

Drafting, Editing, and Proofreading

151

LESSON 20

Sample Essay Exam Questions and Answers

157

POSTTEST

163

ANSWER KEY

173

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

193

vi

Introduction

You probably can't even count how many essays you've written for your high school classes. There are essays assigned in English and composition classes, history and civics classes, and language classes. Many electives even require essays. If you're a junior or senior, you know that the stakes for essay writing keep getting higher. You'll probably have to write one in class as part of an exam, and/or have a large part of your grade based on an essay. But they're not just worth grades--essays are also a part of high-stakes tests like the ACT, Regents', and SAT; and they're required on college applications.

How can you improve your essay-writing skills, not only to get better grades, but also to score higher on tests and boost your chance for admission to the college you'd like to attend? This book offers a step-by-step plan that can be completed in just a few weeks.

How to Use This Book

There are 20 lessons in this book, each of which should take you about 20 minutes to complete. If you read five chapters a week and complete the practice exercises carefully, you should become a more powerful and effective essay writer in one month.

Although each lesson is designed to be an effective skill builder on its own, it is important that you proceed through the book in order, from Lesson 1 through Lesson 20. The material in Section 2 references and builds on what you'll learn in Section 1, as Sections 3 and 4 reference and build on Sections 1 and 2. Writing is a process-- a series of skills, strategies, and approaches that writers use to create effective essays. In reality, this process isn't as linear this book presents. You might prefer to brainstorm first, and then write a thesis statement--and that's fine. However, once you understand the writing process, you can adapt it to your unique working style and to each specific writing situation you encounter.

1

?INTRODUCTION?

The first section of the book, Planning the Essay, covers the basic prewriting steps that are essential to effective writing. Drafting the Essay, Section 2, shows you how to take your ideas and formulate a solid working draft. In the third section, Revising, Editing, and Proofreading the Essay, you'll learn how to shape your draft into a clear, effective essay. Taking an Essay Exam, the fourth section, provides strategies for writing under the pressure of a ticking clock, whether for an in-class exam or a test such as the ACT or SAT.

Each lesson includes several practice exercises that allow you to work on the skills presented in that lesson. The exercises aren't simply matching or multiple-choice questions. Instead, you'll practice what you've learned by doing your own writing. These practice exercises are central to your success with this book. No matter now many examples you see, you really won't benefit fully from the lessons unless you complete the exercises. Remember to keep your practice answers as you work through the book--some lessons will ask you to further develop ideas generated in earlier practice exercises.

To help you stay on track, use the sample answers and explanations for the practice exercises at the back of the book. Check them at the end of each lesson, reading the explanations carefully as you review your response to the exercise. Keep in mind that there is no single correct answer to most exercises. What you'll find instead are suggested answers that contain all the elements called for in the exercise.

You'll also find practical skill-building ideas at the end of each lesson--simple thinking or writing tasks you can do to sharpen the skills you learned in that lesson. Some of these exercises ask you to read an essay and examine it for a specific element or detail. You can find essays in many places, such as an English or composition class textbook, or on the Internet. If you have trouble finding appropriate writing, check the list of suggested reading in the Additional Resources section at the end of the book.

To gauge your progress, we'll begin with a writing pretest. You should take the test before you start Lesson 1. Then, after you've finished Lesson 20, take the posttest. The tests are different but comparable, so you'll be able to see just how much your understanding of the writing process and your writing skills have improved.

Different Types of Essays

What makes writing both interesting and challenging is that every writing task is unique. Writing is communication: You are expressing ideas about a subject to an audience for a purpose. Each time you sit down to write, one or more of these three elements will be different, creating a unique writing situation.

Essays are one of many different forms, or genres, of writing. While there are many different kinds of essays, general skills and strategies apply to all of them. This book will teach you those skills and strategies and help you practice them. Specifically, we'll help you apply those skills and strategies to three essay types:

The college application essay Essays for high school and college classes (timed and untimed) The standardized, timed essay exam (such as ACT, GED, Regents', SAT)

Section 4 of this book (Lessons 18, 19, and 20) extensively covers the standardized, timed essay exams. Here is more information about how to approach and successfully complete application and class assignment essays.

2

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download