Chapter III 8 Steps for Writing a Good Essay
想拿高分,要先做到一點──不要離題。換言之,一定要準確、清晰地表達自己的立場或者觀點。比如「失敗與成功哪個更有價值?」你的觀點或者是「失敗更有價值」,或者是「成功的價值更高」。但是,如果你只是說「失敗也很重要」,那麼你的角度已經發生了偏差──你根本沒有回答這個問題。如果題目是「失敗也很有價值嗎」,那麼你闡述「失敗也很重要」則是正確的。事實上,很多考生急於下筆寫文,最終因審題失誤而顆粒無收。所以,一定要看清題目,準確、直接地回答問題。此外,想要奪取高分,還需要在邏輯思維與文章架構及語言能力上做出最佳表現。
You want to get a high score of essay. But knowing what exactly the graders are lookingfor from your essay would help you to achieve the goal. Here is the four perspectivesgraders base on when judging your essays.
1. Positioning: The strength and clarity of your stance on the given topic.
2. Examples: The relevance and development of the examples you use to support yourargument.
3. Organization: The organization of each of your paragraphs and of your essay overall.
4. Language: Sentence construction, grammar, and word choice.
The question is how you can demonstrate your ability of the four perspectives whenwriting your essay. In what comes, there are eight steps for writing an essay.
Step one: Decide your position-read the prompt carefully
Time: 3 minutes
First, the assignment should be read in its entirety. Each essay question on the SATtestis accompanied by a paragraph that discusses the issue in question. This paragraphcontains important information about the issue, and this information should be takeninto account in answering the question.
Here is a sample prompt.
Directions: Consider carefully the following statement and the assignment belowit. Then plan and write an essay that explains your ideas as persuasively aspossible. Keep in mind that the support you provide-both reasons and examples-will help make your view convincing to the reader.
In his poem, “To a Mouse,” the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) wrotethese immortal lines: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” Toparaphrase Burns’s archaic dialect in modern English: No matter how carefully weplan our projects, something can still go wrong with them.
Assignment: Are even our best plans always at the mercy of unexpected, chanceevents? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on thisidea. Support your position with reasoning and examples from your reading,studies, experience, or observations.
Read the prompt several times until you fully comprehend what the topic is about. Thismay sound like something ridiculously obvious and easy to do, but once you beginanswering the question it’s surprisingly easy to get off topic.
The second thing you need to do is to decide whether you are pro or con: you mustrespond to the assigned topic; you must choose YES or NO.
However, one of the biggest problems test takers face is prompts often deal withabstract conflicts that are hard to get worked up about. But keep in mind that you’rebeing graded on your ability to state an argument and to support it. You have to take astand. Train yourself to do that. An option is to re-state the prompt question in a waythat makes it easier to respond to.
Also remember though your instinct might be to support the side that you agree with,this should not be the determining factor. Instead, choose the side that you could moreeasily support with both argument and examples.
You may think three minutes for reading and deciding your side are too long, butspending some minutes in organizing your thoughts and outlining your answer willallow you to write much faster. Once you get started, you won’t have to stop mid-essayto think what to say next because you’ll already know. Students who start writingwithout planning quickly find that their writing has run out of steam. By then it’s toolate for them to get a fresh start on their essays.
Analyzing prompts practice
Read the writing prompts and answer the following questions.
Directions: Consider carefully the following statement and the assignment belowit. Then plan and write an essay that explains your ideas as persuasively as possible.Keep in mind that the support you provide-both reasons and examples-will helpmake your view convincing to the reader.
Aside from the disastrous effects of emails and chatting on the spelling, grammarand punctuation of the English language, these modern conveniences alsoconsiderably affect our personal lives.
Assignment: What is your view of the opinion that the temporary, impersonalnature of modern tools like electronic mail and instant messaging programs aregradually rendering our lives equally temporary and impersonal? Plan and write anessay in which you develop your point of view on this idea. Support your positionwith reasoning and examples from your reading, studies, experience, orobservations.
What is the issue of the excerpt as stated?
What are you supposed to write about the issue?
If you are asked to write an essay to respond to the question, what would youropinion be? Write your position in one sentence.
What examples would you use to support your position? Write down three of them.
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Write the source of the idea-for example, a magazine you read or a TV show youwatched.
Source of Example 1:
Source of Example 2:
Source of Example 3:
Answers and Explanations
1. The issue is stated in the question: “the temporary, impersonal nature of moderntools like electronic mail and instant messaging programs are gradually rendering ourlives equally temporary and impersonal.”
2. What you are supposed to write is stated in the questions also: “your opinion of theidea that the temporary, impersonal nature of modern tools like electronic mail andinstant messaging programs are gradually rendering our lives equally temporary andimpersonal.”
3. Your sentence should state whether you agree or disagree with the issue as stated inthe question. That is: “the temporary, impersonal nature of modern tools like electronicmail and instant messaging programs are gradually rendering our lives equallytemporary and impersonal,” or “the temporary, impersonal nature of modern tools likeelectronic mail and instant messaging programs are not gradually rendering our livesequally temporary and impersonal.”
4. Analyze the three examples you write to see if they are closely related to the positionyou pick and if they support your opinion powerfully.
5. Do you have a variety of examples to support your position? Are they all from TVshows or books you read? Remember variety of sources is important. You should try tofind different sources: evidence from the same source (for example, your personalexperience) may not impress the readers.