How do you teach somebody to write well?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>I'm in charge of a student who has good ideas, but doesn't know how to put them down on paper in a way that sounds intelligent and eloquent for the SAT essay. It takes him ages to write. I don't know how to help him become a better writer. The only thing I can think of to do is to tell him how I would personally word an idea, but I don't feel like that helps at all. I think I'm a good writer myself, but I don't know how to pass any of that onto somebody else. Instructing math is easy - just explain the steps. Grammar and vocab are the same way. But with writing, I'm at a loss.</p>

<p>If you were being taught the SAT essay, what would you want to be taught to you?</p>

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<p>Well, I woulld teach him how to score better, not just how to write better. Show him examples of your work and sat essays, and tell him to read.</p>

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<p>I think free form writing. Then, just rewriting it until it works. I think being able to just write quickly and intelligently is key to the SAT essay.</p>

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<p>Maybe bring him back to elementary school writing
bullet point his main topic for him
3/4 supporting details
restating his main idea, </p>

<p>How I help my younger brother/sister do it, is this, I ask the lead in prompt, let them mull over it for a few minutes, then transcribe their thoughts, critique as they are spilling it out, like say, does that make sense? Lead the topic with your questions to prompt the thoughts, meaning how you would answer it but do it by asking leading questions. if that makes any sense
If his writing is that poor, maybe eloquence is moot, just formulaic and speed</p>

5

<p>Hey amb3r,</p>

<p>You are a good writer, you’re right.</p>

<p>A few quick things pop into my head:</p>

<p>He will improve as much as he practices; that’s the main thing. Have him do as many essays as you can, and if he doesn’t do them for hmwk, make him do them in class.</p>

<p>As he practices, he will pretty quickly start to use a few examples and a few important-sounding words over and over again. Point them out to him and say, “See, this is working for you. Why don’t you make it a point to use this/these example(s) in as many essays as you can?”</p>

<p>Preach specificity: who, what, when, where, why and how in every paragraph; using one’s five senses whenever writing about personal experience.</p>

<p>Make sure he has some predictable way to organize the essay. Some kids like to do this: Argument 1, Argument 2, Possible Objection, Defense. Some kids like to write three paragraphs. It doesn’t so much matter <em>which</em> pattern he uses; he just needs something that works for him.</p>

<p>The only cure for paralysis is practice. If he puts in the time, he will see the improvement.</p>

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<p>If it’s strictly for the SAT essay, teach him formula writing like you would teach someone math.</p>

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<p>^^ Yeah, I think that’s right.</p>

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<p>Thanks, these are great ideas and I will try them out. I agree that for someone who doesn’t enjoy writing, their best chance of scoring well on the SAT essay is to get familiar with a structured formula that can be reapplied for any essay prompt.</p>

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<p>I think lotf made a particularly good point in that you should always reuse the same specific ideas and points that work well for you. I found that before, I subconsciously veered away from this method because I am used to writing for the same teacher, where recycling ideas would look a little weird, but in the SAT essays I soon realized that it will be graded by a different person each time, so I could reuse things that worked well for me without penalty.</p>

<p>This also saves a lot of time since you will already have what you want to write ingrained in your head. You say he has great ideas, so just figure out a good way to express them and stick to that.</p>

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<p>^^Well, my initial post was a little misleading.. he’s got good analytical thinking ability, his weak spots are (1) coming up with examples and (2) wording things well. (1) I think we can easily address since I’m making him prepare lists of examples he can pull from so he doesn’t blank out when he receives a prompt. I know some people scoff at that method, but I used it myself and I think it’s effective for people who get “stuck” during the test. With (2), he gets frustrated when he finds himself repeating words and phrases because he can’t think of more than 1 way to state an idea.. a skill that’s surprisingly important on the SAT essay. But I think that just comes with practice.</p>

<p>I think that regularity in the structure of the essay (what to put in the intro, what to talk about in the conclusion, stuff like that) is going to be helpful.</p>

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<p>Well, after another week, I’m having more problems with the same kid. For every prompt, his thesis doesn’t go beyond “Yes, I agree with the question” or “No, I disagree.” He’s fine with his body paragraphs because he has some concrete example to discuss in each, but can’t think of anything to write in his intro and conclusion paragraphs (besides the thesis sentence in intro and a sentence restating it in conclusion.) I give him suggestions and he’s like “oh wow, that’s a great idea.. how did you think of that?” which I don’t know how to answer. By himself he just doesn’t have anything much to say in the intro and conclusion. </p>

<p>Overall, he just gets “stuck” so often and has so very little to say. Plus, I don’t feel like he’s making any progress because I’m not telling him the right things. What do I say?</p>

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<p>Quick response: </p>

<p>He needs a formula for the intro and the conclusion.</p>

<p>Rocket Review talks about the three types of introductory paragraphs in Critical Reading passages. 1) Intros might start with the main idea, then add supporting details. 2) Intros might start with a popular opinion, then contradict it. (The statement containing the contradiction gives the author’s main idea: “They say a. However, I say b.”) 3) Intros might begin by giving lots of background information about the topic, then end with a statement of the main idea.</p>

<p>In my opinion, these are not only patterns in the CR; they are also good templates for the W. The second one above is often a great way to add length. Make your student experiment with all of them and see what feels comfortable. If he doesn’t know how to give background information, teach him to use the five w’s and an h of journalism. Include some who, what, when, why, where, or how in the intro. The easiest one, I find, though, is 2) : “they say…but I say…” Even 7th graders love that.</p>

<p>Here’s my formula for the conclusion. I’ve taught it to kids as little as nine, with significant simplications, of course, but it works for much longer, more sophisticated essays.</p>

<p>1) Recap. Restate your main idea, taking into account how you’ve developed it over the course of the essay (if you have).
2) Amplify. Apply your main idea to a broader area of focus. If you’ve been developing an idea about the twentieth century, generalize it and apply it to modern history. If you’ve been developing an idea about Romeo, generalize and apply to all the major characters in R&J. Whatever.
3) Appeal. Finish your essay by making a strong statement about the importance or value of your idea. It can be as clunky as saying “It’s important to…” or “It’s important that…” or it can have a lot more finesse; whatever you like.</p>

<p>Maybe these templates don’t work for you or him; the point is not to use these particular templates, but to use some template. </p>

<p>Okay. It’s 11:00 p.m. on Sat night and I’m still at work. I need to go find something fun to do. Hope it helped a little. Keep it up!</p>

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<p>P.S. The thesis should contain an inference, often stated in the form of a cause-and-effect relationship. Make sure he has two clauses, and if you must, teach him to use the word “because” every single time. “I disagree because…”</p>

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<p>Thanks sooo much lotf.. I needed your experience :slight_smile: I’d already thought about the idea of providing “gimmicks” to help him consistently lengthen the intro/conclusion. Three I came up with for him are - </p>

<p>1) Anecdotal lead-in.. current-day event that ties into topic, but not full fledged example.
2) Counterargument, discussing the other viewpoint during the conclusion, which uses up 2-3 sentences and provides another perspective
3) Incorporate famous quotes</p>

<p>I don’t have/use Rocket Review but I think I might tell my students to buy it so they can all read the sections you’re talking about. I’ll try giving a concrete set of things to cover in the intro/conclusion. I never realized just how formulaic/coachable SAT essays can be… It strikes me that a good enough tutor can probably teach a poor writer to write a 10+ level essay by providing that level of structure (Recap-Amplify -Appeal and so on)</p>

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<p>amb3R</p>

<p>This idea may be heretical, but here it is: Don’t help your friend write well enough for the test. Just help him write well. </p>

<p>You may have a limited amount of time before an approaching test, but consider this: almost all good young writers read lots of really good writing.</p>

<p>Have the student you are working with read as much of it as possible and he will SEE how strong writers lay out ideas, develop them, and structure articles, which will aid in structuring his own pieces. Start with any well-writen magazine: Time, Economist, BusinessWeek, Sports Illustrated are just a few that come to mind, but there are many others. Then talking about how those articles work may make it easier for him to develop his own work. (Frankly, most schools fail miserably when it comes to assigning essays. They almost inevitably pick something trite or boring. I suspect that’s because any really good short non-fiction is bound to offend someone, and God know we couldn’t have that. But I digress. ) </p>

<p>Exposed to enough good writing, essays, and journalism, the structure will become far more self-evident and can be mastered with less prompting and teaching of “the formula,” though some of that will inevitably still be needed. Moreover, by reading the good stuff your friend will pick up the important idea that good writing is not BORING–something almost all HS teachers, unlike almost everybody else in the whole firiggin world, fail to appreciate. Doing the five graf thing well, by this mode of thought, is good enough even if it puts readers to sleep. Don’t go there. </p>

<p>Also, even if you have only the twenty minutes (or whatever) on the test, take as much time as you can to go back, check, sharpen up, etc.
Hard to do under pressure, but doing that automatically is a must for the writing he/she will encounter in college and at work, where bad, formualic writing has real consequences–as opposed to the SAT. (Many colleges don’t care about the writing SAT thing anyway, right?) </p>

<p>Realize that there are essentially two ways to write short pieces. The first is to know what you want to say and fit that in into the formula. It may get you through the test but it won’t be all that great either. The other way is write in order to find out what you need to say about the topic at hand–which you can only do in a test situation IF you have had the practice. It is hard, because the student must TRUST what he or she has to say. That is difficult for most kids, I know. But learn to do that and any student will end up a stronger, more confident writer. </p>

<p>Save the “formulas” for chemistry.</p>

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<p>I disagree, the way they designed the SAT essay rewards formulaic writing and discourages creative, risky writing. If you can get it down to a science, then it is better than wasting time trying to come up with something new each time.</p>

<p>Which is why the SAT essay is a load of crap and should be removed, but you study to beat the test. Whether or not the kid knows how to write well for college isn’t the OP’s problem =P</p>

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<p>Checkout grammatix, gives excellent info on the scoring of SAT essay. Key to increasing score. If this is just for that purpose (I’m getting that it is), then you can find openers that can be applied to a multitude of topics, etc. Knowing how the essay is scored is where its at. SAT may score a fine essay quite low if not able to check off score points on their list. Sort of write at your own risk. Of course, formulas are no substitute for inspired writing instruction, but with limited time, and goal of increasing scores, this may be a good option. Worked for S.</p>

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<p>My feeling is that teaching someone to write a great SAT essay, a 12 level SAT essay, is NOT teaching somebody to be a good writer, period. I’ve gotten 12s on all the official sat essays I’ve written, but they haven’t been stellar examples of my writing. The truth is that I’m staying with this tutoring job for about half a year. I want to produce results, and some of my kids hate writing, but want to score well on the SAT. It would be ideal if I could really foster a love for literature in them, but to be realistic, I don’t know if it will happen. Basically, I was hired to produce results for the SAT, and the SAT essay is formulaic. I think lotf’s approach is going to generate the most success for my purpose. Plus, some of the “tactics” we are talking about are good writing strategies in general, and work for other types of essays, too. Also, I don’t think I have the skills to totally revamp anybody’s attitude towards writing, and if that approach isn’t successful… we’ll be back at stage 1 with the same dislike of writing, and the same inability to produce a good SAT essay.</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestion of Grammatix, it sounds like what I’m looking for. I’ll search for that along with RocketReview.</p>

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<p>I assume you say this tounge-in-cheek, but I am dead serious. Most schools do not count the SAT writing test anyway, so it is a much better use of time to learn how to write well, than to write well for the test. It’s what I tell my own kids. </p>

<p>And I’m not talking about “risky” or “creative” either, as you can see by the types of writing I suggested that OP’s student use. Nobody in my lifetime has ever accused Time magazine of being on the cutting-edge. </p>

<p>I am saying this: reading strong mainstream essays of the type that are relatively hard to find in school (as class assignments) , will help generate a deeper understanding of what good writing is, and that writers need the skill and experience (practice) to trust what they have to say. To believe that what you have to say is important and is no small thing. Students especially tend to say what they think sounds good about a subject instead of what they they think and feel about it. One can do that and, I submit, also not bore people to death. </p>

<p>I read the examples that my own high schooler comes in with from his teacher as he is, in theory at least, being taught how to write. Good thing he reads a lot on his own and has been a strong writer since elelmentary school or he’d be screwed. The examples he is given are awful, and I know its not a whole lot different at many other schools. He wrote a wonderful essay once and felt awful about it because it did not follow the stupid five graf pattern. I had to work to convince him the thing was really good. Which it was–I don’t sugar-coat my comments to my kids about their schoolwork.</p>

<p>So I stand by what I said. If you are having a hard time writing, work on writing well and it will do you a lot more good than learning how to write five grafs on a test that basically doesn’t matter. Its a waste of your time.</p>

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<p>I agree ( for what it’s worth). My S with a 7 in IB higher level English and considered ( by his teacher) to be an excellent writer, did not score very well on the SAT essay. Learning to write well, is more important than learning to write for the SAT, which is graded in something like 2 minutes from what i’ve heard.</p>