Principals Diary

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December 2009
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  1. Volume 2 Month 12 Day 21- Make Essay Writing Painless

    by

    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:

     

     

     

     

               

    1

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