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During the talent search years, I never was concerned with the writing portion of the SAT (and never opted for the writing with the ACT). Now my oldest DS has to take the tests "for real" and is not prepared for the essay writing. His English classes at school have not prepared him to evaluate a topic and argue his position. Any recommendations of how he can improve (without the added stress of an online, graded course)?

Putting aside the unhelpful question about what his English classes *have* been doing then - has he tried reading one of the many How to Write Essays books? I just searched on Amazon for how to write essays and there are zillions of them. The sort of rather formulaic thing expected at this level seems eminently teachable, and I'd think that reading some explicit guidelines might be all it takes?

I taught argumentative writing at the college level. If I were to boil it down to a few basics, here's what I'd say.

1) Be clear, in every sense of the word. Have a clear idea of what your point is, have a clear sense of why your position is better than the others you've considered, and present your position in writing that is as clear as you can make it. Clear ideas, clear structure at the paragraph level, and clear grammar. Poor grammar and/or spelling make you lose authority with the reader, thus weakening your ability to persuade.

2) Say what you mean and mean what you say. Be sure that you are making the points you intend to make and you are not accidentally saying something else. (Clarity, revisited...) Also, make points that matter to you; you'll generally argue better if you care about what you're saying.

3) Don't get hung up on the 5-paragraph theme model. It is a decent starting point, in that it asks for an introductory paragraph, some evidence in the form of supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. But there's nothing magic about 5 paragraphs. If you have two or four very strong reasons for your position, use that number. You'd be amazed how many really bad third reasons I've read precisely because people didn't really *have* third reasons, but invented lame things to fit the model. Awful!

4) Shouting down or insulting your opposition doesn't constitute winning the argument. Truly persuasive argumentation takes into account where the audience is coming from, addresses those views respectfully, and offers evidence to show why this other position is better. It is best to assume that the opposition is not evil, stupid, or part of some grand conspiracy. The sayings "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" and "Don't preach to the choir" are good thoughts here.

5) Reasons need to support the thesis statement and evidence needs to support the reasons. Don't throw something in because it sounds good. If it's irrelevant, leave it out. An argumentative essay is like a building: the evidence is the foundation, and if the evidence doesn't support the thesis, the building won't stand up.

6) Edit at the structural level before you proofread. If you don't have a thesis statement, it won't matter if you missed a comma somewhere.

7) Introductions are your chance to set your argument up in a positive light. The funnel structure is a good one for an intro: offer useful background on the issue you'll be discussing, then move toward the thesis statement at the end of the intro. The basic movement is from general to specific. There are other formats, but it's probably the simplest one to master. Just don't get too general--avoid "Since the beginning of time..." openings. Very few things have been happening since the beginning of time, and even if your issue is one of those things, is that actually relevant? Probably not!

8) Conclusions are your chance to make your point "stick." Simply restating your argument in summary form is better than nothing, but if you can go a step further and give a "so what?" for the reader, a reason why this should matter or how it can be applied in real life, that's even better.

HTH!

Hi Colinsmum,

I will look at essay books on Amazon and have already looked at internet resources for DS. He has limited time now to work on this--wish I had know how serious his deficiency was before now. All other subjects test great and grades are great--I wonder how much weight the writing scores count.

Thanks Kriston!

I'm cutting & pasting your pointers in an email to DS and hopefully he'll heed them. Wish you around the corner to get him up to speed. Oh well.

For a long time I have thought his writing was poor, but he always gets A's in school, so I figured I was too harsh a judge and maybe that's how typically high schoolers write. Not so evidently. We'll work on remediation.

Thank you for your help!

I am helping a good friend with her homeschooling efforts -- particularly with teaching writing. Since you all seem to have such good essay writing tips, I was wondering if any of you know of any websites where I could find examples of poorly written essays? One of the things that we are trying is taking poorly written reports and essays and editing them to make them better. Thus far, we've simply worked together with her dc on editing her own writing. I thought that it might be good to take a look at something she hadn't written herself and see if she can spot the mistakes and areas where it could be improved, though.

She's a late elementary-early middle school aged child, so not as old as the op's child, though.

OP, incidentally what leads you to believe that your ds has a significant deficiency in writing? Did he already take the SAT and have a much lower score on the written part?

Cym, feel free to PM me if I can do more. If he has questions I can answer or if he would like me to look at a short sample essay to give him some pointers, I'd be glad to help.

I don't know of any samples of bad writing beyond what you might find in grammar books. Often they have a "wrong" example before they show the correct version of the same sentence.

You might search editing or proofreading. They might give you something to work with. Maybe?

If main pressing goal right now is to prepare for the SAT essay section I would not waste time with general writing books or courses. The SAT and ACT essays are really a different kind of writing than what he needs to do for other purposes. The essay is absolutely something that he can improve his score on by knowing the strategies. So, I'd focus specifically on resources designed for this purpose and treat this as the game it is.

Start with the College Board site for an explanation of the essay portion and strategies http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/prep_one/essay/pracStart.html Look at a New York Times article about how essays are graded. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/education/04education.html he might enjoy this too http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-sat3apr03,1,3742834.story

Either buy an SAT prep book or get one from the library. You'll find plenty with sample essays he can look at. I wouldn't worry about practicing editing right now as that is the opposite of what he needs for these tests. For the essay he needs to practice writing fast and not worrying about polishing. Scroll down here to see some sample prompts for the SAT http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/sat-test-prep.html I suggest he try to write a few timed essays.

The main thing I would share with your son is that these essays are graded very quickly. He wants to write a longer essay and use some good SAT type vocabulary especially in the first paragraph. Start with putting the prompt into his own words. Take a very clear position and don't worry if it isn't what he believes in his heart. Support his position with examples (he can prepare general examples ahead of time that will fit for a variety of prompts - a couple of famous people who have shown courage, a couple of important events that illustrate historical lessons, a couple of scientists, a couple of classic novels, etc.)For the SAT it doesn't matter if his examples are even true, it is all about getting something down on paper that sounds good - again this is very different than the kind of writing he wants to do for other purposes.

Oh and you asked how much it counts. The essay portion on the SAT is worth 1/3 of the total writing score. Many schools care a lot less about the writing score than they do about the math and verbal sections. Because some prep may really improve his scores I wouldn't ignore it but I would keep it in perspective.

Cricket - she might enjoy the Editor in Chief books http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?id=09707&code=p