<p>My spelling and grammar is fine but I guess my vocabulary is not too bright. I do not like to read books in my spare time and maybe that is part of the reason I struggle on essays. This year I tried hard in english and made C's on almost of all my essays and I felt my essays were very good however the teacher would not tell me why I made the grade I got. I feel that I must improve on my essays to be more ready for college. How can I improve my essays? Is there some sort of class I can take or some sort of website with help?</p>
<p>When I took AP English Language I learned how to write efficiently and at a very fast speed(Learned how to write a 5 paragraph essay in 15 minutes). It takes a lot of practice to write a well-written paper. During that class we had to write every single day, so if you keep practicing you will start to write better.</p>
<p>Well that was the class I just finished taking and I had no trouble at all writing all of my thoughts in the time limit but it seemed my essays didn’t really improve throughout the year.</p>
<p>It might also be the topics you wrote about. In my class we had a Definition Paper and I wrote about the meaning of Truth and got a 90% on it. My teacher said it was a very interesting topic and I had good points. We also had other topics like the Compare and Contrast essay and I talked about Democrats and Republicans. The essay I got a C on happened to be a very boring essay. I honestly think it has to do with diction (like you said how you don’t have a good vocabulary, maybe increase it a bit) and your tone.</p>
<p>Hey me too! I pretty much got all Cs on my AP Lang essays. I asked my teacher for help and all she did was point out that this section was not good…And she’s a really harsh grader. So i basically did trial and error throughout the year, and finally got an A- on an essay. But this was an AP lang essay so it doesn’t really pertain to your question…</p>
<p>I think maybe you should take a course on Creative Writing at a local CC. And I really think that reading does help you. Maybe the books you were reading did not appeal to you at all. So find books or any reading material that are related to your interests (ex. if you like sports–>sports magazines).</p>
<p>My English teacher really liked my writing. This is my first paragraph from my last essay:
[quote]
Factual British hegemony, through dominion over Ireland’s past and thus its present, in combination with the mythical figure D</p>
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<p>Oh the irony! Anyhow, I like your username. :)</p>
<p>^^ You are trying to be too clever. Also your ideas of sentence structure were destroyed when you took classics. You must learn that simple sentences that illistrate your point clearly are more inpressive than murky convuluted ones.</p>
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[quote]
Factual British hegemony, through dominion over Ireland’s past and thus its present, in combination with the mythical figure D</p>
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That’s what I told my teacher, actually, when I went over it, but she still liked it. She also likes me though, so I’ve always told other people that she’s biased. I don’t write giant sentences when I’m not rushed though. Excepting my UChicago essay, but that’s a list. I don’t think it was the classics, but I do think that my school relies/relied far too much on Latin classes for English grammar instruction. </p>
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“Direct” is “directs” in my final draft (handwritten), but not on here (computer). Whoopsies.</p>
<p>It has mostly to do with the teacher really. I mean, my sister got a 12 on her SAT essay, and prior to her junior year had received mostly A’s on her writing assignments and a fair amount of praise from her English teachers. Then she got into Junior Honors English and got about half B’s and half C’s on writing with an occasional D (with effort, of course).</p>
<p>^^ The classics bit I’m speaking from my experience. Ancient Greek (esp when I read Aristotle) RUINED my ability to write English because I thought I could write 7 subclauses. Which you can not and still have a clear sentence.</p>
<p>^^My plans for SAT writing were to write what I thought would be a bad essay in real life.</p>
<p>Yes, I don’t consider the SAT essay to be a very good indicator of writing skills.</p>