<p>I am currently preparing for the SAT essay, and I have read 'How to write an essay in 10 days thread'. I have also read the thread on the essay prompt archetypes and the '100' good examples to use.
BUT!
Where do I find the information on the examples provided e.g. where would I find info on the book 'the scarlet letter'? Wikipedia? I have heard this isnt the best resource</p>
<p>Just make up something. Seriously, it works wonders, and the readers don’t even care. Even if you make up history, that’s no problem, it just needs to be ambiguous and remote, for example you can’t state that John Bob is the first president of the United States.</p>
<p>If you feel unsafe making up examples on the SAT, let this clear you fears: if the readers checked the validity of your examples, then they would have to check them for each and every other essay they read, because all students are to be treated equally. Not only this, but they also have a somewhat average of one to two minutes to be given for each essay, so they probably won’t even focus on your example as much as how much you deliver it persuasively and concisely.</p>
<p>Wait, one last thing. How do I relate the info from wikipedia to the archetypes e.g. following authority. Say I was researching steve jobs how would I relate the wiki info to ‘following authority’?
thanks</p>
<p>I guess you need to study through the example to find something in his life that relates to “following authority.” Or you can search to find that particular information. But what I do is to find examples that demonstrate “following authority” instead of fitting only one or two examples into every archetype. Of course there are some universal examples, such as good novels(Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations etc.)or historical periods. But usually one person’s biography can’t include everything that you need for SAT essay. For example, Steve Jobs shows creativity, ingenuity and courage, while Martin Luther can be used in Loyalty, Group vs Individuality and Authority essays.</p>
<p>PS. I totally agree with Fat_Nerd. I always make up one example and use a literary or historical fact for another.</p>
<p>Thanks Rosaline. What websites do you use for your research? Wikipedia? Google?
Some people are saying they use sparknotes but I dont know exactly were on sparknotes I can find the info! But anyway where do you get most of your research from? Wiki? </p>
<p>essay readers don’t care what examples you use as long as they support your thesis. You can even introduce false information in your examples without any punishments (of couse, it’s not going to be good if you say Hitler was French or anything as absurd). </p>
<p>In that meaning, wikipedia will be totally fine. You only need to know about your examples enough to use them easily in any essay prompt.</p>
<p>So should I be doing research based on the archtypes or the questions under the archtypes. I find that my examples are not able to answer all archtypes e.g. following authority?</p>
<p>From my quite limited knowledge on grammar (as an ESL), I don’t think I’m fully qualified to answer your question, strategicfiasco. But I would presume that there are some proper nouns that have plural forms (eg. Russians, Thais, Americans, Indians, Kennedys) - if those are valid proper nouns. Otherwise, most proper nouns are singular.</p>