writing essays 1

WRITING A GREAT ESSAY

1. Map the SAT Essay Assignment

2. Analyze the Assignment Closely

3. Brainstorm Your Alternatives Creatively

4. Connect to Your Knowledge with “Source Summaries”

5. Write a Strong and Creative Thesis

6. Organize Your Thoughts

7. Write Logically

8. Write Clearly

9. Write Concisely

10. Write Forcefully

11. Write Masterfully

12. Finish with a Bang

CHAPTER 12

437

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438 McGRAW-HILL’S SAT

Lesson 1: Map the SAT Essay Assignment

Consider carefully the issue discussed in the followingpassage, and then write an essay that answers thequestion posed in the assignment.

Our leaders love to tell us that only victory willdo, as if they are imparting great wisdom. Theyseek to defeat the enemy, to achieve the goal.Yet many times a loss, particularly one that ishard fought, is more valuable than victory. Wecannot live a life full of only victories, norshould we. The quality of our lives depends asmuch on how we manage our losses as on howwe achieve our victories.

Quality is much more important than quantity,but it’s hard to get a great score with fewer thanfour paragraphs. This is so because the readersare looking for structure and development, whichrequire good use of paragraphs. Think of yourparagraphs as “stepping-stones” on a journey.Only two or three stepping-stones don’t make formuch of a journey. Plan to write four well-definedparagraphs—five if you have enough time.

The essay assignment asks you to formulate apoint of view regarding a particular aspect ofhuman values or behavior. It does not requireyou to recall any specific knowledge from yourstudies, although you should try to connectyour thesis with your studies. There is never a“right” or “wrong” answer to the question; thatis, your actual position does not affect yourscore. More important (contrary to what a lotof SAT-prep folks claim), the graders are notlooking for essays that fit a particular formula.You can use narration, exposition, persuasion,or argument as long as it is focused on devel-oping an interesting point of view that answersthe question.

Assignment: Can a loss ever be more valuablethan a victory? Write an essay in which you answerthis question and discuss your point of view on thisissue. Support your position logically with examplesfrom literature, the arts, history, politics, scienceand technology, current events, or your experienceor observation.

Know What They’re Looking For

Two English teachers who have been trained by theEducational Testing Service (ETS) will read andscore your essay from 1 (poor) to 6 (outstanding).They are trained to look for five things:

Interesting, relevant, and consistent point ofview. Do you take a thoughtful and interestingposition on the issue? Do you answer the ques-tion as it is presented? Do you maintain a con-sistent point of view?

Good reasoning. Do you define any necessaryterms to make your reasoning clear? Do youexplain the reasons for and implications ofyour thesis? Do you acknowledge and addresspossible objections to your thesis without sac-rificing its integrity?

Solid support. Do you give relevant and specificexamples to support your thesis? Do you explainhow these examples support your thesis?

Logical organization. Does every paragraph re-late clearly to your thesis? Do you provide logi-cal transitions between paragraphs? Do youhave a clear introduction and conclusion? Doesthe conclusion provide thoughtful commentaryrather than mere repetition of the thesis?

Effective use of language. Do you use effectiveand appropriate vocabulary? Do you vary sen-tence length and structure effectively? Do youavoid needless repetition? Do you use paral-lelism, metaphor, personification, or otherrhetorical devices to good effect? Do you usestrong verbs? Do you avoid needlessly abstractlanguage? Do you avoid cliché?

The readers will not mark you down forminor spelling or grammar mistakes, and theywon’t mark you up just for using big words. Focuson good reasoning. If you can take an interestingposition, explore its implications, discuss relevantexamples that support it, and maintain yourfocus, you will get a very good score.

How Long Should It Be?

The Assignment

Your essay assignment will look something like this:

CHAPTER 12 / WRITING A GREAT ESSAY 439

Practice 1: Map the SAT Essay Assignment

SAT Essay Grading Review

1. What does it mean for an essay to have good substance?

2. What does it mean for an essay to have strong organization?

3. What does it mean for an essay to be clear?

4. What does it mean for an essay to have an effective and interesting style?

5. How long should your SAT essay be?

Check your answers with the answer key at the end of the chapter.


Focus on the Key Terms in the Question

Answer the Question

Below are some examples of SAT essay questions and approaches that students could take that are off themark (that is, they don’t answer the question) and others that are on the mark. Read these carefully and thinkabout why the second set of responses is better than the first set.

Assignment OFF the mark ON the mark

Lesson 2: Analyze the Assignment Closely

Who is your hero and why?

Has technology mostly benefitedhumankind or harmed it?

Vince Lombardi said, “Winningisn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”Do you agree or disagree?

“Every cloud has a silver lining.”Agree or disagree?

Discuss your belief that pro athletes shouldn’t be heroes andthat we don’t value true heroismanymore.

Discuss how internet companieshave made so much money onIPOs, and explain why technologystocks are a good investment.

Describe how important the artsand music are to a good educa-tion, and argue that they are moreimportant than sports.

Explain how “clouds” representdifficult times. Show how somepeople, for instance the poor, havemore “clouds” than do other people, and this isn’t fair.

Pick a person you admire; definewhat a hero is to you and showhow he or she exemplifies heroicqualities.

Discuss the cost vs. benefits oftechnology through many eraswith three examples.

Describe an experience with anout-of-control father at a soccermatch to show how focusing onwinning alone harms kids.

Describe a difficult situation inyour life that made you strongerfor having endured it.

Always take a minute to read the assignment question very carefully. Focus on the question first, not thequotation. Usually this question asks you to consider the relationship between two concepts. For instance,the assignment in Lesson 1 asks you to consider the “value” of “losing.” Circle these words in the ques-tion, and begin by defining them: What is losing, really, and what does it mean for an experience to havevalue? This focus helps you to establish your point of view. Does losing only apply to contests? Can youwin a game but lose in a bigger sense? Is the thrill of victory the only value in winning, or are there moreimportant values associated with competition?

One of the most common mistakes that students make on the SAT essay is simply not focusing on thequestion. Rather than taking a stance that answers the question, they talk about how silly or difficult tak-ing a stance is. Don’t do it! Your job is to take a stance. If you’re asked, “Can a loss ever be more valuablethan a victory?” don’t spend all your time talking about how hard it is sometimes to achieve victory. Thatwould miss the point. Your job is to discuss loss and whether or not it can be valuable.


Practice 2: Analyze the Assignment CloselyDefining Terms Practice

Below are some examples of common terms that may show up on an SAT writing assignment and that you shoulddefine if you use them in an essay. Avoid a simplistic “dictionary” definition. Think carefully about each one, andthen write a simple but useful definition of each term in your own words. Include a well-chosen example if it helpsto illustrate your definition.

1. Democracy

2. Courage

3. Adventure

4. Liberty

5. Political power

6. Discipline


Take 6 to 8

Good writers always brainstorm creatively beforewriting, even when they have strict time limits. If youbrainstorm and organize well, the rest of the essay willflow smoothly and easily. If you don’t take the time tobrainstorm and organize, your essay will flounder.

Lesson 3:Brainstorm Your Alternatives Creatively

• Always set aside 6 to 8 minutes to analyze thequestion, brainstorm possible examples,write a thesis, and write a quick outline.Don’t worry—you won’t waste time. Doingthese right will save you lots of time in writ-ing the essay. The writing will flow easilyonce you’ve laid the groundwork.

• When brainstorming, turn off your internal“critic.” Don’t dismiss ideas right away.Think about them for a bit, and you may findthat the ideas you were going to throw awayare the best ones after all!

• Brainstorm on paper, not just in your head.The SAT will give you room to scribble notes.Use it. Write down thoughts, connect them,cross them out, underline them—do what-ever your creative brain tells you to do.

Be Unique

Don’t take the first thesis that pops into yourhead. Chances are that the first thesis youthink of will be the same thing that pops intothousands of other heads. Instead, focus onfinding a unique perspective. You can honeyour perspective by first thinking of the mostinteresting examples.

Think of Examples Before You MakeYour Thesis

Don’t write your thesis until you’ve brainstormed sev-eral interesting examples. Since your thesis rests onyour discussion of your examples, think about inter-esting examples first.

After you have analyzed the assignment anddefined your terms, ask, “What is the mostinteresting example I can think of that helpsto answer this question?” Show off what youknow and how creative a thinker you are.Think of examples from your reading, yourstudies, and your life. Think of examples thatother students won’t think of, but make surethat they are on the mark and that you candiscuss them with authority.

Avoid a run-of-the-mill point of view. If you’reasked, “Can a loss ever be more valuable than avictory?” try to avoid clichés such as “losing thechampionship game” or “getting a D on a test”unless you can analyze them with unique in-sights. Instead, go off the beaten path, and try tothink of more interesting examples of loss, suchas the Green Party’s loss in the 2000 presidentialelection, or America’s loss in the race to put ahuman being into space, or Captain Ahab’s fail-ure to capture Moby Dick. Make the readers no-tice your unique and well-informed mind.

Go Off the Beaten Path

Going off the beaten path will keep you on yourtoes and force you to write a better essay. If you takean “easy” position, you will fall into lazy writinghabits such as cliché, redundancy, and vagueness.


Practice 3:Brainstorm Your Alternatives Creatively

Brainstorming Practice

Give yourself 6 minutes for each exercise below. Use the space below each question to practice brainstorming.Write down all the words, ideas, associations, people, events, books, etc. that pertain to the issue implied by thequestion. Don’t censor or criticize any idea; just get it down on the paper. Then, in the last few minutes, try to or-ganize your thoughts into ideas for individual paragraphs. Try to find one idea for each of four paragraphs.(Don’t write the paragraphs, though.)

1. Should safety always be first?

2. Is the pen always mightier than the sword?

Show this work to your teacher or tutor. Discuss ways of efficiently releasing your creativity and connecting toyour academic knowledge.


Lesson 4: Connect to Your Knowledge with“Source Summaries”

Prepare by Writing Out “Source Summaries”

Women are more constrained by society thanmen are.

In 19th-century England, one’s status in society had to do with breeding rather thanability.Love is blind and often irrational.

Independence can open one to new experi-ences, but can also lead to tragic isolationand inability to connect emotionally withothers.

Intelligent planning pays off.

Great achievements require great losses.

To accomplish great things, we must conquer our fears.

Feminism

Social status

Love

Independence

Strategicplanning

Loss

Bravery

Jane complains about what society expectsof her, and that men aren’t held to such highmoral standards.Jane is disgusted by how she is treated byRochester’s houseguests.

Rochester marries Jane while literally blind.Jane overlooks Rochester’s previous marriage.Orphaned as a child, Jane learns that shemust fend for herself, and that others don’tnecessarily have her best interests in mind.She doubts Rochester’s love for her at first,and takes an assumed name to avoid reveal-ing herself to Reverend St. John Rivers.

Operation Overlord was a monumentalachievement. Thousands of soldiers had tokeep it secret. Not since 1688 had an invadingarmy crossed the English Channel. Over 800 planes brought paratroopers, and another 300 dropped 13,000 bombs. Withinweeks, 20,000 tons of supplies per day werebeing brought ashore.By nightfall, 100,000 soldiers had landed,but over 9,000 were dead or wounded.Many went ashore knowing that they woulddie. From D-Day until Christmas 1944, Allied soldiers captured German prisoners at the rate of 1,000 per day.

Book, Person, or Event D-Day or Operation Overlord June 6, 1944, Normandy, France

Themes Theses Details

Good writers support their claims with good examples. Well-chosen and well-analyzed examples oftenmean the difference between a mediocre essay and a great one. If you ever have trouble thinking of goodexamples, spend some time in the months before the SAT writing out “source summaries” such as thosebelow. These help you to connect to good examples from your studies and experience—novels, historicalevents, people, cultural movements, and so on.

A source summary is simply a summary of the key ideas about a topic: themes, theses, and details, that youcan use in your essay. Look carefully at the two examples below. Notice that each focuses only on the informa-tion that you would use in an essay on the given theme. It includes the important details you need to mentionin order to sound like you know what you’re talking about.

Sample Source Summaries

Book, Person, or Event Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte



Practice 4:Connect to Your Knowledge with“Source Summaries”

Source Summaries Make copies of this sheet and summarize the major books, people, and events youhave recently studied. Try to make a source summary for at least ten different topics of study.

Book, person, or event






Discuss these examples with your teacher or tutor to see if your analyses are “on the mark.”

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