<p>I am having trouble thinking up 2 or 3 historical/literary examples quickly on my SAT practice essays. I know we can use personal experiences, but I'm still having trouble. I have a modest understanding of US history.</p>
<p>Any advice on how to pick good examples?</p>
<p>read more books. history is tough because if you don't know enough about an event, you'll slip into generalizations and write a crappy essay.</p>
<p>the same incidents/stories/books can be used for a multitude of questions, as has been said on this forum before. get to know a couple of examples well and you can adapt them to different questions.</p>
<p>Only pick 2 examples. Make one of them personal and one from literature.</p>
<p>Or (not for this Saturday, but for the future test sittings) as my fave 'cookie" just said, read more books.</p>
<p>I'm here to say you can learn a lot of history wihtout your textbook.</p>
<p>An untapped secret: my S watches a lot of The History Channel, Biography channel for history (not entertainment celebs). In one hour he can learn a lot about an individual leader in history, so he has details aplenty. He's used this to write about: Henry Ford and the Model T, which demonstrated his thesis about how "one individual can change the lives of many." In one hour, he learned how Ford invented the assemblyh line system, gave workers mobility with their families on their day off, provided affordable vehicles accessible to them on their wages. Instead of just thinking of Ford as an elitist capitalist, just in it for the profits, he learned that FOrd had another side to him. All the DETAILS, about how he changed the assemlby line, etc. add up to that image of him also caring about the domestic bliss of his workers. </p>
<p>If you don't have those TV channels, you can find hisotry movies. Right now there's "The Queen" (academy award winner, best actress). In 2 hours, you'll find out a whole hisotry episode about Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair, and how they got through the crisis when Princess Diana was killed in the automobile running from the photographers.
After the movie, take the characters' nameand research them for biographic details on the Web, just enough to know when they lived, how old they were when it happened, etc. (put it into context). It's fun in a geeky way, and even Wikipedia will do for this kind of quick fill-in of details.
Now, you know enough about Queen Eliz or Tony Blair to use them to illustrate a point. </p>
<p>Another way to learn about history is see if any of your own relatives fought in any military effort overseas and take them out to coffee, ask them questions until you have their stories down. </p>
<p>Then go sit down, pick 5 examples that you think will be your menu, and know details about those 5. (Another poster came up with this and I think it's a GREAT idea-- do it even today for Saturday!) </p>
<p>AND i ADD THIS:
Now, do a BRAINSTORM. Come up with 5 possible themes they "might" illustrate, so your mind is nice and ready, flexible to use them as examples for all kinds of life's lessons. jOT IT DOWN.</p>
<p>For example, your list might be:</p>
<ol>
<li>My cousin Pat -
Facts: served in Desert Storm, under President <em>, which division (Army? Marines?), what was the problem (Saddam invaded Kuwait),
Pat's rank, said his most difficult experience was _</em>, most rewarding was _<em>,
if he could do it again he'd _</em>.<br></li>
</ol>
<pre><code> - BRAINSTORM: Pat proved: courage, working under
pressure, making individual decisions while in a group, the
"power of one"
</code></pre>
<ol>
<li><p>Queen Elizabeth (learn all this from the movie The Queen)
facts: became queen very young (age __), had son Prince Charles whom she doesn't let become King and he's already 50+ years old, didn't like her daughter-in-law Princess Diana, worked with Tony Blair to understand her people's sorrow when Diana died, very formal style, doesn't change with the times, devoted to serving her country since age 14, got them through World War II. </p>
<p>Brainstorm: She proves: sacrifice, performing one's duty-over-personal-desire, the value of preserving traditions, skepticism towards change for the sake of change, resistance to modernity.</p></li>
<li><p>Juliet from "Romeo and Juliet"
Character facts: age, family circumstance, loved a family rival's son,
passionate, made decisions by emotion, didn't always ask others' advice before acting...</p>
<p>Brainstorm: she proves: emotionalism; rebellion against family restricitons; nonconformity to social norms; choosing one's future based upon emotion not reason; feelings, not thoughts, drive people to action; </p></li>
<li><p>Myself
Major interesting stories to tell: a)moved across country, had to adapt to a new school; b) broke leg and needed months of rehab; C) go to my aunt's house every month to help her organize her house (she's in a wheelchair), we barter & she reads my SAT essays.. d) took my dog to obedience classes b/c nobody else would.</p>
<pre><code>BRAINSTORM: my stories prove a) flexibility, courage, tenacity
</code></pre>
<p>b) short term pain for long-term gain c) feel better to help others d) alternative ways to solve money problems, solve problems creatively, all skills have value e) the importance of practice and repetition. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>ANyway, USE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW at this point, but take the time to jot down these brainstorms. It'll keep your mind FLEXIBLE and READY to write when the opening bell rings on those 25 minutes.</p>
<p>jumpman,
just reread your post. You asked "how to pick a GOOD example."</p>
<p>When you write your thesis (first paragraph, which is the key) you actually craft your position in the thesis by whether you have good examples to prove it. Otherwise, reshape the thesis, so it'll all "match" throughout the essay.</p>
<p>For instance, if I saw a prompt like this, "Change in society does not always benefit every individual, " I'd be thinking, "which of my menu of favorite examples is best for writing about CHANGE?"
I wouldn't pick Cousin Pat, above (Desert Storm) because not much about his story is about "change." He's better for writing about "courage" themes, or coping with disappointments, but not much he did caused any "change."</p>
<p>I might pick Queen Elizabeth, because one of her big themes is always whether to go with traditions or modernity, and she resisted change all the time in her life and for her people...so she's a good one.</p>
<p>Personal story: definnitely pick aboutg moving across country and into a new school; that was ALL about "change." I wouldn't pick about my aunt because that story is the same every month....</p>
<p>Do you get the approach? I hope this can help some of you.</p>
<p>It's all inside of you, as they say in the Wizard of Oz. It was there the whole time...you just have to understand how to pull it out and USE it in the esssay.</p>
<p>finally, jumpman, if you have 'a modest understanding of US history" you could pick what you find are the 5 most interesting stories (choose from specific battles, specific individual biographies)/
So, don't just say "Civil War" b/c that won't get you anywhere here.
If you can zoom in like a camera lens, focus on a key decision point in that war: do you know what kinds of choices Lincoln had to weigh, politically, in his mind before he finally decided to finally oppose slavery in public and write The Emancipation Proclamation"... then you've got some material and it could be an example. Look it up now on Wikipedia or read those paragraphs in your textbook so you have some details. WOuld the states secede? Would the nation fall apart and be retaken by the British? Would the economy suffer? etc. all these factors he had to weigh as President..regardless of what he thought personally about the institution of slavery.
But if all you can really say is, "With the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln freed the slaves.." well, that's not impressive so don't use "emancipation proclamation" as an example when you could choose any other example. All it is there to do is PROVE A POINT (your thesis).
It has been noted by others, however, that history examples are often impressive to the scorers.
So if you were being modest aabove and your "modest" US history knowledge can be focussed onto around 5 key battles or individuals or critical decision-points, then try to list (now) some details about each. If you think you have enough therre, then it could be a good example
Some things aren't examples with a lot of scope. For example, "The Hoover Dam" is just a lot of concrete.
But if you know about the WPA program after World War II, when Pres Franklin Roosevelt created Public Works projects all over the country to get people working again...then you have lots of projects to mention as details.
Some things are a bit TOO broad. If you want to use someone great like
Martin Luther King, well, learn about all the phases and chapters in his work within the Civil Rights movement. You'd better know more than "he marched to integrate the South..." to rock my socks if I'm scoring your essay!
If you look up his bio on WIki, however, you can divide his short lifetime of work into around 8 major chapters-- early life (growing up in Jim Crow segregated south); off to college (studied Ghandi); married and moved as a young miniser to Birmingham so got "stuck"by the older clergy into hosting with the city's earliest civil rights meetings at HIS church!; met Rosa Parks and had the historic meeting at his church deciding to boycott the bus system to support her; led marches locally; was arrested and put into the Birmingham jail and wrote letters of despair but asked for national help from clergy around the nation...and all that happened BEFORE he even went up north to Chicago where he encountered racism more vicious than any in the South..; then the whole thing with the March on Washington; went into disfavor with the FBI director when he opposed the Vietnam War; anti-war marches; anti-poverty/union marches...and finally, of course, tjhe assasination the day he should have spoken to the sanitation workers' union in Memphis, Tennessee.
With all those different phases, all before he was 39 years old, you have a lot of change, a lot of material to make points about.
Do NOT write lamely just that "MLK marched for freedom so that means he changed the nation" unless you can back it up with some clear examples like those above.
Can you use those episodes to PROVE thesis points? Like, the Letters from the Birmingham Jail showed that he reached the depth of despair and asked for help. Proves we can't go it alone to lead a social struggle. Even leaders call upon others to help. etc.
The whole thing about MLK moving from a civil rights protestor to INCLUDE protest against the Vietnam War. Can you think of some theses that this era of MLK's life might prove? such as...some leaders are propelled by their conscience and morality, not popularity; one cause can lead to the next; life isn't planned but is lived in response to one's times...</p>
<p>Holy cow thanks P3T thats a lot of good advice</p>
<p>I love writing and I want to see the next generation become excellent writers. </p>
<p>I don't agree with the way the SAT people test writing under timed circumstances, but I know you have to do their system. </p>
<p>Hopefully others are reading each others' posts this week. I want to see everybody do well.</p>
<p>Yeah I have no problem with writing. It's just the time limit makes you rush and might not let you show your true potential.</p>
<p>Check my last post.</p>
<p>Yes, it was DEARSIRYES who first said on CC to get ready with a list of 5 favorite examples. I just couldn't remember WHO it was when I wrote above in post #3, paragraph 7, above. I called him "another poster..." who came up with the "great idea." (I only added the Brainstorm part.)</p>
<p>The time limit tests your ability to write something logical and clear in a short time frame, or what they call in the world of work, "a quick turn-around basis."
That's ONE kind of writing, but not the only kind!</p>
<p>When you're in college, if you want or need to, you can take hours or days to write an essay in your dorm room! Or taking an "open-book" test at home, you are expected to look up sources and spend all the time you want to write the best possible essay, even if it's just 3 paragraphs, the time is your OWN.</p>
<p>This format for the SAT's WILL show who can write an in-class exam, or who might have time later in the evening while others are still crafting their essays. But again, you have time to manage on your OWN. That's what's nicer about college than high school.</p>
<p>I'm sensitive to this issue b/c I know kids who write beautifully and logically, if necessary, when there's no clock running, but have trouble under timed situations. </p>
<p>Not to mention that there are OTHER kinds of writing...poetry or creative fiction. Let's hope the poets among you can still turn a lovely phrase here and there and show your stuff with good choice of words, even in this left-brained construct called SAT Writing Test.</p>
<p>Good luck to all.</p>
<p>I have a portfolio of a list of 300 articles that I read over a summer. I know these articles, and I fully remember them, and these are EXTREMELY helpful.
Most are history, current events, with some literature, science, and some very interesting essays that are similar to the SAT CR sections.</p>
<p>That is very, very cool 8parks11. It'll help you on many papers and reports in college, too. Save that folder! Pack it on top (someday)</p>