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

Thanks passthepotatoes--yes, the immediate need is to improve SAT writing scores--he's actually going to take the ACT writing for the first time next month as well.

Cricket2--yes, he took SATs recently and his essay score was lower than when he was in the talent search 3 yrs ago and didn't even try hard. He has hopes of applying to one or two colleges that are tough to get into, so he'll need to work on improving that score.

Best of luck with the ACT. The questions on the ACT are usually more teen oriented than the SAT. The prompt might be about about dress codes, censorship, school schedules, etc. The College Board has sample essays with critiques that may be helpful. http://www.actstudent.org/writing/sample/index.html

Ah, got it! This thread has a lot of good tips. I'll bookmark it for dd#2 who took the SAT last year in 6th, is doing the ACT this year, and will probably take the SAT again through talent search before she needs it "for real," too. Good luck to your son!

Just to clarify...

My worry here is that kids who don't believe what they're writing often write what they *think* they should say, and that is often surprisingly misguided. Students not schooled in debate tend to have a hard time writing from a perspective that is not their own.

I agree completely that the topic doesn't have to be something he cares *passionately* about for the College Board tests. Quick and easy is key! But in my experience, trying to write from a point of view that a kid really doesn't completely understand is not a good idea.

But maybe I'm being too nitpicky there...

Not trying to be nitpicky right back at you but...

They have 30 minutes to write the SAT essay and it is response to an assigned quote. They don't have time to contemplate their heart and there isn't time to really write a nuanced essay where they take a shades of gray position and try to say something meaningful. This can of course be really tough for a gifted student who likes to consider all the shades of gray and say something meaningful and honest!

We found the best way to cope with this this was to be direct about the terms of the game. The rules are: quickly read the quote, choose a side and plug in prepared examples. There is not time to consider if you believe the ends justify the means or if honest is the best policy. Agree or disagree it doesn't matter just choose something and write. Rather than just declaring this whole exercise pointless because it doesn't really teach anything about writing, we decided instead to treat it as an exercise in understanding how to identify opposing arguments and how to make a fast decision and yes, how to practice writing about topics you don't care about and don't understand!

If you have a kid who can do that, then I agree with you wholeheartedly. It sounds like you are advising him on the art of debate, so your son is well prepared. That was one of my concerns, and--if it matters--I'm persuaded that you're addressing it *well*. No worries there.

Certainly, contemplating all the intricacies of all the facets of the issue is NOT what they should be doing with their limited time! That's not the point of the test. On that we completely agree!

I'm more thinking of the kid who thinks there's some side the test wants the writer to take, and he tries to argue that position even though it ISN'T the easy one for him to write. The point here is that there is no "right" side, and it's often true that a student has thought more about something she herself believes in, and so would have an easier time writing it.

In the end, we agree that easy and quick are key! Whatever that looks like.

Students should understand how the exam is scored and graded. The NYT and LA Times articles I posted should make it clear to the student that the readers don't care about the personal position on the issue and the side they take will have nothing to do with how they score. Understanding the essays are read very, very quickly helps students understand how to write to score well.

This is not quite bad-essay writing but it's always a humorous read so I will pass it along, the Bulwer-Lytton contest for best bad writing. http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2009.htm

Polly

Brave Writer offers an online SAT writing class. (I can't recommend as we have not used the classes).

http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/sat-act/

I've seen a lot of SAT resources for essay writing. I'll search in on Google, and I'll see what comes up!

School ed until 18 (4 UK A levels) & 1 academic BA degree.

Method

read around your topic until you know enough about what you want to say, then:


Write the title

Introduction - your terms of reference, definitions

Write your sub headings - what you're going to cover. Your paragraph definitions

Write your points under each sub - these are the body of your paragraphs

Expand the points

Summarise - what you've said above in 1 paragraph

essay done

An outline would help. First, you need the idea, then develop on it, like things to do to improve it, or new ideas, then support them on your ideas and how they would help.
A new or similar idea in each paragraph.
Things around those lines.
Then you summarize at the end, and make a good conclusion, like "I hope you will ___". DON'T put the end. I got yelled at for that in fifth grade...

Hope this helps!