Volume 2 Month 12 Day 21- Make Essay Writing Painless

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Make Essay Writing Painless

Essays are the creative expressions of mind where the students get the opportunity to flow their ideas about a particular topic. Therefore, it is important to gain skill for better essay writing. Writing essays can be frustrating and exasperating for students, but it doesn’t have to be! If they are guided, shown to do, and understand the steps, writing can be easy and even fun! Essay writing can become easier, quicker and painless by planning, organizing and gathering of researched information. The following tools can help students who find essay writing overwhelming and difficult. It can help teachers to effectively evaluate the essay writing by using essay rubric. Follow the simple steps, use the interactive structure and watch the essay almost write itself! Essay writing tools help students to avoid frustration, negative results, uncertainty, and fear of writing essays.

Essay Writing Schedule

Decide how much time you want to spend on each stage of the work involved, arrange your personal timetable, and stick to it!

Due Date: ___________________________

                        Task                                                     Date of Completion               Done?

Complete the planning stage

By:

Collect resources, do the Research

By:

Scan, read and examine all resources

By:

Write a Tentative Outline

By:

Plan and organize subtopics

By:

Write subtopics in point form based on researched information

By:

List subtopics in order of appearance

By:

Begin Draft Copy

By:

Write Introduction

By:

Write the body of essay using collected point form subtopics information

By:

Write the conclusion

By:

Proofread, Edit, make needed changes

By:

Hand in Final Product for evaluation

By:

 

My Topic is: _________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

My Temporary Thesis: ________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Length _____________________         Due Date: _________________________

Other teacher instructions about the project: _____________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

WHAT I ALREADY KNOW (In point form)

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         ____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

 

MY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TOPIC (What I would like to learn)

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

The REASON for doing this project: ______________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

My AUDIENCE will be? ________________________________________________________

I will use this FORM of writing (essay, report, point of view, persuasive, report of information…)

___________________________________________________________________________

My SOURCES of INFORMATION:

________ books                      _________ magazines                        _________ teacher

________ films, videos           _________ librarian               _________ parents, friends

________ photographs           _________ dictionary             _________ relatives

________ newspapers            _________ atlases                  _________ maps, charts, posters

________ catalogues              _________ Internet                _________an expert

_________ periodicals           _________ thesaurus             _________ records

_________ textbook               _________ encyclopedia       

Other Sources: ______________________________________________________________

Questions, difficulties, unknowns, concerns, ideas and other issues about the topic

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

THE QUICK OUTLINE

TOPIC: _____________________________________________________________________

THESIS: (the main point, tells what the essay is about, be brief, clear, concrete and specific)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ideas for INTRODUCTION (brief, clear comment, grab the readers’ attention, introduce the issue, use a quote, write an interesting question, state an amazing fact).

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

BODY: Quick plan ideas (subtopics, supporting evidence)… will become a single paragraph or more in your essay.

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

Ideas for CONCLUSION (end with a quick wrap-up, memorable sentence, leave the reader with something to think about, ask an interesting question, challenge reader to action, sum up, and tell your feelings about the topic)

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         _____________________________________________________________________

·         ____________________________________________________________________

ORGANZE SUBTOPICS

Before writing any part of the essay, using “The Quick Outline” page (and any gathered information), plan, write, order and organize your subtopics, initial introduction and conclusion ideas.

Introduction      Quick brief thoughts and ideas

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subtopic

Subtopic

Subtopic

                                                                          

 

Main Idea

Subtopic

Subtopic

Subtopic

Subtopic

Subtopic

                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion   Quick brief thoughts and ideas

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

ESSAY WRITING CHECKLIST

Before handling in your paper, ask yourself the following questions.

 

Is my thesis statement brief, clear, concrete, and easy to understand?                  ________

Does the essay answer the question that was set?                                                       ________

Does my introduction hook/grab attention and state the thesis clearly?                 ________

Are my supporting arguments and examples strong, valid and clear?                       ________

Do they also support and prove my thesis?                                                                     ________

Do my sentences vary in length?                                                                                        ________

Are all sentences clear, correct and easy to understand?                                             ________

Have I avoided run-on and incomplete sentences?                                                        ________

Do paragraphs contain proper topic sentences, organized in logical order?            ________

Do my topic sentences clearly prove and support the thesis statement?                  ________

Have I used transitions/connecting words to make ideas flow?                                 ________

Are my quotes accurate and properly cited?                                                                   ________

Is my essay free of contractions such as can’t, won’t, don’t, etc?                             ________

Have I avoided using first person phrases such as “I believe” and “I think”?           ________

Have I made my points clear and interesting?                                                                ________

Is the writing plain and simple, without clumsy and confusing phrases?                  ________

Have I replaced unnecessary or repetitious words?                                                      ________

Is my argument clear and logical? Does the essay flow?                                             ________

Have I followed my prepared outline?                                                                             ________

Have I used a dictionary and thesaurus, and corrected all spellings errors?          ________

Is the conclusion effective and interesting? Does it restate the thesis?                   ________

Are all of my sources properly cited?                                                                               ________

Have I paraphrased sufficiently from my sources?                                                        ________

Does my bibliography follow the correct conventions of layout?                              ________

Have I provided footnotes in the correct format?                                                           ________

Have I proofread and edited the final copy of my work?                                                ________

Have I included a title page, and does it contain all required information?                ________

Have I numbered all pages correctly and used the required time spacing?                 ________

Is my work of the appropriate length?                                                                               ________

Have I asked someone else to read my paper to help locate missed errors?            ________

 

ESSAY RUBRIC

Student: _________________________                    Topic: __________________________

Level

R

1

2

3

4

Letter Grade

R

D-      D      D+

C-      C       C+

B-     B      B+

A-      A         A+

Marks as (%)

Below 50%

50-52 53-56 57-59

60-62 63-66 67-69

70-72 73-76 77-79

80-84 85-89 90-100

Performance Level

VERY LIMITED

POOR

FAIR

GOOD

Value

EXCELLENT

THESIS

Absent, no evidence, or makes little sense

Poorly worded, very broad, difficult

Somewhat unclear, appears unoriginal and needs revision to improve clarity

Is mostly clear and well defined but may require some reworking to improve clarity.

Clearly conveys the main point, concise, creative, well defined and sophisticated.

INTRODUCTION

No evidence of introduction

Not very clear, engaging, effective and interesting.

Somewhat clear, engaging, effective and interesting.

Mostly clear, engaging, effective and interesting.

Very creative, clear, engaging and effective.

ORGANIZATION

Very poor planning, stating, ordering, relevancy and linking of ideas.

Poor planning, stating, ordering, relevancy and linking of ideas.

Fair planning, stating, ordering, relevancy, and linking of ideas.

Good planning, stating, ordering, relevancy and linking of ideas.

Ideas are well planned, stated, ordered, relevant, well linked and very convincing.

CONCLUSION

No evidence of conclusion. Essay is ended without a closing statement.

Conclusion is present but poorly written and lacks the required elements.

Conclusion is recognizable, but without much analytical depth.

Conclusion effectively wraps up and summarizes thesis and key points.

Closing statement is excellent, insightful, and memorable.

LANGUAGE

Many errors, difficult to understand and meaning is lost. Needs much work and remediation.

Spelling, grammar conventions and punctuations are poor. Sentence fluency, voice and word choice are poor.

Spelling, grammar conventions and punctuations are poor. Sentence fluency, voice and word choice are poor.

Spelling, grammar conventions and punctuations are good. Sentence fluency, voice and word choice are good.

Spelling, grammar conventions and punctuations are superior. Sentence fluency, voice and word choice are superior.

CITATION

No evidence of any listed sources.

Few sources are listed, included and in the proper format.

Some sources are listed, included and in the proper format.

Most sources are listed, included and in the proper format.

All sources are listed with accuracy and in the proper format.

COMMENTS:                                                                                                                                Marks:

 

 

 

 

           

Comments

  1. Vishal Jain

    December 27, 2009

    Dear Educator,
    the decision to become a teacher is the most important pronouncement in a persons life. Many a lives will change by the educators hand. I being an educator and presently situated in United states in the city of columbus to be more specific feel that not stone should be left upturn to carve the child to become a responsible citizen competent enough to make a dent on the society as a whole.
    the recent note on essay writing is really a handy tool in the hands of the teachers to help aquaint their students to be aware of the traits of a good essay further the description in all its ramifications will prove for the children directly as they are unknowingly going to use the synectic teaching model as devised by Gordan way back in the past.
    the dream that Dewy, Fishere and similar other philosophers had seen will only be accomplished if we the modern day educators use their techniques garnissing it with latest technological development to bring a rapid amelioration in the educational system in India.
    KEEP ON THE GOOD WORK

    Sheebu Khan

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