<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>So I am aware of the Archetypes posted here and the 'how to write a 12 essay in 10 days thread' however I have a question regarding research. </p>
<p>How do you relate your research to a specific archetype and then how do you then relate your research to a particular question/prompt? I can relate research to a specific archetype and find something from somewhere but then can't seem to relate what I have researched to a particular question relating to e.g. following authority. Can someone provide an example as well to maybe explain things? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure if I understand your question, so I’ll just give you some research advice and an example. I’m sorry if I don’t answer your question, though.
When you’re researching for essay prompts, make a list of books, historical events, and recent events/current issues. The topics on these lists have to be broad enough that they cover a wide spectrum of themes. For instance, the novel A Separate Peace deals with adolescence, jealousy/envy, resentment, working with and against others, authority, loyalty, etc. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire relates to authority, preventability, taking account for one’s self, loyalty to others, etc.
Sometimes, you’re going to have to stretch your topics until the connections only vaguely make sense if you really understand the topic. Remember, a lot of times the grader isn’t familiar with the book, current issue, or historical event that you’re referencing. As long as your CONNECTION is good, you’re fine. </p>
<p>So if your topic is following authority and whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, you could use:</p>
<p>for bad thing:
glass castle- jeanette’s parents were “authority” but not of the good kind
triangle shirtwaist factory- authority screwed them over since the doors were locked for the factory
and then i’m not great with current events, but you could just pick some leader of a country and why perhaps he/she isn’t making the best decisions despite his/her “authority” title</p>
<p>if you want to talk about how it’s good:
separate peace- the should have listened to authority
george washington was a great leader (although you may want to not use something so common)
and use the current issues thing from above but spin it so it’s good/there’s a good leader</p>
<p>I don’t know if I actually answered your question or if I just danced around it, but I hope this helps!</p>
<p>Thanks caughtintraffic for the help; it does clear a few things up. What is this ‘connection’ you speak of. Is this the ‘making up something part’ or fabricating on the spot about the book, film person etc that enables you to link the research to the prompt?</p>
<p>i am not really good at improvising a good essay under 25 mins, so the way i do is that i usually have all my examples in reserve. not some crazy 30 examples that cover a broad range of topics, instead, i limit mine to 5-8 examples. i focus specifically on one specific person or example that covers a lot of topics because i do research and write a mini-story. The next thing i do is to set up a template, for i can fill 2 pages of essay perfectly. there is really no need to throw out 3 examples in an attempt to get a 12. A really good example can grant you a really good score as well. the key is to know what you writing. I personally set up my own template in word2010 first and then i would write each example i have to fit the template that is already being set up. and later i can edit and enhance those examples by adding more sat words and correcting grammar errors. By the time i take the SAT, i really don’t have to worry about brainstorming an example(because it’s already written in my head.)
Because we don’t know what topic is gona be on the test, sometimes we just have to tweak our examples a little bit to stay on topic.</p>
<p>Right, so I gather from what you have said is that you have an actual pre-memorised answer before going into the exam which you then reproduce in the actual exam? So then how do you tweak it to the actual prompt? An example might help to illustrate things, and I may do what you have done. Has your technique worked before though? Do you know others who have used the same approach and worked- on this forum? </p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Right, so I gather from what you have said is that you have an actual pre-memorised answer before going into the exam which you then reproduce in the actual exam? So then how do you tweak it to the actual prompt? An example might help to illustrate things, and I may do what you have done. Has your technique worked before though? Do you know others who have used the same approach and worked- on this forum? </p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>I can second Yangfizz’s strategy. If you do decide to go for the one-shot example essay, then you have to do some serious research on at least 5 different people/events/groups that you quickly decide on and write about when you get the prompt. Like Yangfizz, I don’t have prewritten essays persay, but have bullet points of big ideas, stories, statistics, and themes surrounding each of my 5 researched examples. then on the day of the test, I pick the example that best fits the prompt, pick 2-3 aspects/stories of the example and use those as paragraphs.</p>
<p>popular “templated” examples include the civil rights movement and 1984. I would highly recommend you do some individual research though and find some less-popular, yet still interesting examples that you could write an essay on. I’ve certainly got some good ones that I’m almost certain no one else will use ;)</p>
<p>again, it doesn’t guarantee 100% since we don’t know what the essay prompt they gona throw at us. it could be a topic on school or techonogy that really baffles you if you have no previously prepared for this kind of topic.
for example:
Do newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, the Internet, and other media determine what is important to most people?
from my own experience, a essay on topic like this i can barely write a paragraph on without aid of internet. in this case, i would go plan B: my personal experience. i would write about how i disagrees with this argument because i see so many violence from newspaper and television whereas the most important thing to people is becoming educated and pursuit of happiness…</p>
<p>cheers(imma start doing this)</p>
<p>The question becomes then, how do you relate your bullet points or research to the actual prompt? The way I see it, is that you have got all this research down on word but then still how do you actually apply the research to any given scenario; that’s the part I don’t understand. I have done research and stuff and have a lot written down in word but I can’t apply the research to the prompt at all. How do I overcome this? </p>
<p>What do you guys use for research by the way? Multiple sites? which ones? </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice and help</p>
<p>okay, an example:
rachel corson, her love of nature and aversion against synthetic chemical pesticides, wrote ‘silent sprint’ to challenge use of noxious pesticides and other forms of pollution . The book sparked the environmental movement and gained more supporters, But it also brought a great deal of criticism from chemical industry and government.
this is just an brief summary of rachel corson and her legacy. from you here you can branch out and go into more details and cover tons of topics. including misuse of technology, bravery, persistence of achieving certain goal, success, popular belief of use of DDT is wrong and many more.</p>
<p>So then as an example how would you create the link from your research above to for example the prompt below (I won’t steal your research so dont worry) : </p>
<p>is it best for people to accept who they are and what they have, or should people always strive to better themselves?</p>
<p>And also, I was thinking maybe researching about a favorite film of mine, which is a Disney movie; however, I’m not sure if the film is too babyish.</p>
<p>okay, an example, i already sent it as private message. she was, however, not a part of my sources( she is now, since i did the research.), so i wrote this essay as a first draft. Also i can throw in another example because what i wrote isn’t enough to fill 2 pages</p>
<p>Thanks for sending the essay; I’ll read it later though when I have more time. </p>
<p>Does it matter what example we use, as I said in an earlier post I am thinking about doing a disney film for my example as I think it would be an unorthodox thing to do, but I’m not sure if this is taking it too far or if it is not mature enough. There are some important themes in the movie but still</p>
<p>I would say yes, it does matter, although if you do use it I don’t think it’s too much of a big deal. The reason is the same as why you would use lesser known examples over better known ones. Despite this being a writing assessment, what I’ve heard is that the SAT people also want to know that you know a lot. So more ‘intellectual’ examples might be more beneficial - stuff from classic literature and history.</p>
<p>And I’m also having the same troubles that you’ve been having. For some of the prompts, even if you have good examples, it’s really hard to link the examples with the prompt.</p>
<p>Take this one for example:</p>
<p>It often seems as though we truly respect only people whom we do not know, such as leaders and other public figures. It is much more difficult for us to respect people who are familiar to us and are part of our everyday lives. The fact is that if we were to develop close personal relationships with these strangers that we look up to, we would see that they are only ordinary people, just as flawed as we are.</p>
<p>Does familiarity prevent people from developing or maintaining respect for others?</p>
<p>This prompt has provided one of the biggest challenges to me because it requires you to have “close personal relationships with these strangers” and I simply can’t think of an example that would fit.</p>