So remember back in school when you have to write these things?
I wondering if anyone found it to be a useful learning experience or a bunch of nonsense that lowered your grade as well as pissed you off, and anything in-between. For those who actually wrote them,
was it all off the top of your head,
or very structured, planned word for word, graphic organizer to outline to finished product.
Imo, I haven't found essay writing useful, it's probably going to bite me in the butt in college, but no matter how structured I made my prewriting I ended up with the jest of the topic in about 1-2 pages, when I'm expected to write 5 or so and get marked down for that crap...
Oh well, let's hear you guys. I'm interested in hearing your opinions.
Essays and You
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Clay_Pigeon
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Clay_Pigeon
- Posts: 3211
- Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:00 am
- Location: my pod
Alternately, take your paper to your teacher/professor/etc and explain that you're at a loss as to what else to say. Chances are that the topic is deeper than you're thinking, and the teacher/prof/etc can make suggestions.
"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." -2 Cor 12:9
"Never know how long I've waited, anticipated your smile pressed against mine." -Running
Essays are the bane of my existence. I also hate the questions without a wrong answer as I tend to get them wrong (Bloody RE)
In my experience though I find that most essay questions just tend to be just name specific points to get marks without just listing them off and ~10% will be on the mood of the marker, the main problem being that it's not clear what points you are supposed to write about, which is also why the people who write pages more tend to get the better marks as they just write about everything.
In my experience though I find that most essay questions just tend to be just name specific points to get marks without just listing them off and ~10% will be on the mood of the marker, the main problem being that it's not clear what points you are supposed to write about, which is also why the people who write pages more tend to get the better marks as they just write about everything.
Don't waffle, make sure every paragraph you are writing is in some way helping to answer the question.
If you're struggling to reach the word/time limit, you're doing it wrong. I generally find that word limits are far too short to accommodate everything (which is where Clay's point about becoming concise comes in). If you're having problems then seeing your teacher is a must, that's what those guys were there for! There's no shame in it.
Depends what kinda question it is to be honest, but I'm guessing that there should usually be come critical analysis involved. Descriptive and narrative writing is usually always a don't.
Never use colloquialisms/slang unless you're asked to convince a certain type of person or write some sort of speech. Even then try and stay away from it tbh.
Good structure is always a must, standard intro, main paras and conclusion is the way to go.
Intro should pretty much be laying out your answer in brief - i.e. the teacher should be able to just read your intro and already know what your answer is and how your are going to answer it. I find it pretty hard to write these but once you nail it the rest of your essay pretty much falls into place.
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That's all the stuff I got off the top of my head atm. Hope some of it helped
If you're struggling to reach the word/time limit, you're doing it wrong. I generally find that word limits are far too short to accommodate everything (which is where Clay's point about becoming concise comes in). If you're having problems then seeing your teacher is a must, that's what those guys were there for! There's no shame in it.
Depends what kinda question it is to be honest, but I'm guessing that there should usually be come critical analysis involved. Descriptive and narrative writing is usually always a don't.
Never use colloquialisms/slang unless you're asked to convince a certain type of person or write some sort of speech. Even then try and stay away from it tbh.
Good structure is always a must, standard intro, main paras and conclusion is the way to go.
Intro should pretty much be laying out your answer in brief - i.e. the teacher should be able to just read your intro and already know what your answer is and how your are going to answer it. I find it pretty hard to write these but once you nail it the rest of your essay pretty much falls into place.
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That's all the stuff I got off the top of my head atm. Hope some of it helped
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Carl Sagan ("The Lives of the Stars" ep. 9 Cosmos)
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I also remember an annoying essay question from Business Studies where it was writing an essay question on pricing where people have to waffle on about the advantages and disadvantages of each and the marking scheme pretty much gave marks just if people listed the advantages and disadvantages, compared to computer science question which is list advantages and disadvantages of various transmission methods, both questions practically the same but the essay one just makes you waffle more.
Also I like how Caddi's first words are Don't Waffle and then says don't use colloquialisms/slang.
Also I like how Caddi's first words are Don't Waffle and then says don't use colloquialisms/slang.
Being able to write is a valuable skill to have. Not only can you generate a huge wall of text in internet forums, you can also use it to make actual money in the real world. I would estimate that my ability to make basic documentation where some of my colleagues fall flat gets me about 10k extra a year in pay grade.
I always take the self building paper approach:
5 page paper? Come up with 5 main topics. For each topic, come up with 3 points you would like to make about the topic. At the beginning of each topic, make an opening statement about the topic. Use the three points to back it up, then sum up your opening statement at the bottom. Last page of your paper, sum up the 5 topics, present your conclusion. Ship it!
Outline for: Essay Papers, are they any good?
Topic: History of the written word
* When did writing writing first appear and why?
* How did writing change society?
* How will writing change my life?
Topic: What types of essay papers are there?
* Documentation
* Positional
* Fictional
Topic: How do you make an essay?
* Structure
* Creating a great essay every time.
* Inspiration and sources
Topic: Who needs Essays?
* When an essay is appropriate
* Writing for a crowd.
* Writing for an individual.
Topic: Essays are for everyone!
* How are essays different from other writing forms.
* Using essays to get ahead in life.
* How to handle a weak topic like this one.
Conclusion.
You could probably get 10 pages out of this outline. Just keep hitting that internet for more topics and ideas, and keep citing those sources. The paper will write itself.
It's worth it!!!
I always take the self building paper approach:
5 page paper? Come up with 5 main topics. For each topic, come up with 3 points you would like to make about the topic. At the beginning of each topic, make an opening statement about the topic. Use the three points to back it up, then sum up your opening statement at the bottom. Last page of your paper, sum up the 5 topics, present your conclusion. Ship it!
Outline for: Essay Papers, are they any good?
Topic: History of the written word
* When did writing writing first appear and why?
* How did writing change society?
* How will writing change my life?
Topic: What types of essay papers are there?
* Documentation
* Positional
* Fictional
Topic: How do you make an essay?
* Structure
* Creating a great essay every time.
* Inspiration and sources
Topic: Who needs Essays?
* When an essay is appropriate
* Writing for a crowd.
* Writing for an individual.
Topic: Essays are for everyone!
* How are essays different from other writing forms.
* Using essays to get ahead in life.
* How to handle a weak topic like this one.
Conclusion.
You could probably get 10 pages out of this outline. Just keep hitting that internet for more topics and ideas, and keep citing those sources. The paper will write itself.
It's worth it!!!
As I get closer to finishing my bachelors I have learned one important lesson. You get out of a paper what you put into it. Ignore grade completely, if you are a competent writer, you will get a good grade, the question of "is the paper GOOD" is completely different. I recently went through an English class where my papers were good enough for the teacher, but I was really expanding my writing style in different ways because my quality standards were higher. I had a history professor who really challenged the way we wrote, and although they were relatively short, took a long time to complete. This year I had to write a couple papers in group settings, and I ended up editing everyones sections because while they were good, they were not as good as they could be.
TL;DR, pick something that is interesting to you, learn about it, write about it, do work that YOU are proud of, not just enough to get the grade. Also, save everything you do, you never know when you might want to use it as a good start point for a future paper.
TL;DR, pick something that is interesting to you, learn about it, write about it, do work that YOU are proud of, not just enough to get the grade. Also, save everything you do, you never know when you might want to use it as a good start point for a future paper.