<p>First of all, this thread is not about college essays. However, any help I can get now will benefit me when I eventually start writing college essays in a couple of months. </p>
<p>Now what's my problem? I need writing help.</p>
<p>Currently, I'm taking an advanced English 3 course at my high school that has managed to kill my straight-A streak of five years last semester; thus, I need to find a way to get back on top this semester--and the only way to succeed is if I can improve my essay-writing skills. My main problem with writing essays is that I often cannot express my ideas in a clear, concise way. Part of the reason is that I am only allowed an hour in class to write a complete essay; therefore,what I put on paper is often half-formed as I race to get my essay done before the bell rings. </p>
<p>Can anyone help me or provide any suggestions for ways in which I can improve my essay-writing? I've already tried Googling online writing tutors with no satisfying result. Also, it would be WONDERFUL if I could find someone willing to help me edit my work (to clarify, any editing/improving would have to be done AFTER i get back my final essay score). Mind you, this sort of essay is totally different from the SAT essay.</p>
<p>Well it seems that you have time management problems, which is okay because getting only an hour to write a class essay is hard! I have trouble writing quick essays in class too, so my grades for papers are usually much better than those that are done in-class.</p>
<p>What you should start doing is trying to figure out a good pre-writing method. Do you outline your ideas before you write? Because you should, it will help you. Whether it’s paragraph 1,2,3 and assigning them specific points or you try to use the Toulmin model (please Google this!) your ideas will, hopefully, be not only arranged coherently in your brain but also in your paper. </p>
<p>As for college essays, you will have plenty of time to pre-write and write so no worries about that! Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Hey, I’m an English major and I love helping my friends edit their essays. I’d like to help you too perfect your prose. You can reach me at <a href="mailto:cahzriel@gmail.com">cahzriel@gmail.com</a>.</p>
<p>In all honesty though, you shouldn’t be expected to create a magnum opus in an hour of frenzied writing. It takes awhile to produce clear thought, and communicating that thought takes even longer.</p>
<p>Still, it’s very simple to improve your prosaic communication. Like I said, shoot me an e-mail and we can talk about it more in-depth.</p>
<p>Thanks tigertiger! Yes, I do outline my ideas (I usually spend about 15-20 minutes to brainstorm and figure out my main points and thesis), but I will definitely check out that Toulmin model. Thanks again for your suggestion. :]</p>
<p>Augustus1, I’d love your help! I’ll probably send you an email sometime soon!
Also, I doubt my teacher expects me to create a “magnum opus” either–so I think we’re good there.</p>
<p>ADad: It’s different from an SAT essay in that the SAT essay’s standards are easier to follow. For example, in order to get a 5 or 6 (without doubling the score) on the SAT essay, a person generally needs to write a full two pages, write coherently, be able to show critical thinking, and stick in relatively larger words here and there. The quality of the content in the SAT essay also doesn’t matter as much as whether or not the writer can prove his or her point.
On the other hand, in my class, both the quality of the content and the quality of the writing has to be very high in order to get an A; not only do we have to be able to prove our brilliant, well thought-out theses with lots of good evidence and show TONS of insight, but we also have to do so in clear, filler-word-free language. Thus, big words and length don’t matter as much as good evidence and concise writing. In the SAT essay, people can leave out transitions between sentences and fill up their essays with as much intellectual-sounding prepositional phrases as they want and yet still get 6 scores. Also, the essays we write in class are literary analysis papers in which we have to discuss complex themes from classic novels; on the other hand, SAT essays have relatively more straightforwards topics.</p>
<p>To answer your last question, although the in-class essays may prepare us for the SAT essays, they are better intended to help us improve our writing skills in general, not our SAT-essay skills.</p>