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writing in college
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nobodywonder
United States848 Posts
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sob3k
United States7572 Posts
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Advantageous
China1350 Posts
that's how I learned to write/bs. The SAT style of writing is a lot easier to comprehend and very straight forward: 1 thesis 3 tops, 3 sentence intro 5-9 sentence bodies, and a 3-4 sentence conclusion. Follow that design during draft and then expand your ideas. What I learned to do is diversify my subject, I would still have 3 major topics; but instead of generally and vaguely write about them, I would try to squeeze as much details and back-stories into the paragraphs. So my 3 main topics would kind of have a intro, body, conclusion to them (conclusion being the transition). In college all of your topics must relate back into the thesis, one way to include that into your topics would be to reintroduce the part of the thesis that apply to the topic in the beginning of the body paragraphs (because the first body paragraph states your general idea on the topic). Conclusions would probably be your worst enemies; if you find conclusions easy, then more than likely you're doing them wrong. Most writers have issues with conclusions, because to sum-up the massive amount of intellect you have just inscribed onto the essay can be mind boggling. You usually want to be vague about the conclusion and leave some food for thought for the reader to ponder, for them to question your essay (not in a bad way of course). Always include your thesis and remember to sum up the topics as well. I know what I have said above may sound like highschool junior or sophmore english, but thats just the basic fundamental that college english is founded upon. In college, all the essays I have done have only been looked at purely through content, because there were only a few punctuation errors. So the main objective of essays rely on the presentation, organization, and delivery of topics. TL;DR: Presentation + Content + Organization = 80% of your grade. | ||
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Entirety
1423 Posts
On March 29 2013 16:26 Advantageous wrote: Conclusions would probably be your worst enemies; if you find conclusions easy, then more than likely you're doing them wrong. Most writers have issues with conclusions, because to sum-up the massive amount of intellect you have just inscribed onto the essay can be mind boggling. You usually want to be vague about the conclusion and leave some food for thought for the reader to ponder, for them to question your essay (not in a bad way of course). Always include your thesis and remember to sum up the topics as well. Also in your conclusion, include reasons why the reader should consider this topic. Appeal to a broader scope than what is covered in your essay. For example, if you write an essay about the effects of sustenance abuse on the human body, it might be nice to tie things together with a conclusion that emphasizes why this knowledge is important (spreading awareness of the harmful effects of drugs might improve the drug situation, etc.) and in-depth analysis. Remember that your conclusion is not simply summarizing your essay; your conclusion takes your essay to the next level. Additionally, remember your audience. Write to cater to your audience. Clarity is key. Be clear, clear, clear, blunt, clear, clear, and clear. Even if you think something is obvious, it may not get across when you read your paper. I advise you to read over each and every sentence of your essay and identify its purpose. If you talk about how drugs are bad for your health, and you have a sentence about how a sedentary lifestyle also worsens your health, take out that sentence because it has nothing to do with your topic. Steps for organizing your essay: 1) Write an adequate thesis that answers the prompt. If your prompt is to talk about the economic mobility in America and your thesis talks about striving to achieve your dream, you're fucked. It's actually quite easy to get sucked into this: economic mobility = moving up in society or achieving your dream of a better life. The topics are related, but your thesis did not answer the prompt properly. The prompt is your bulls-eye; hit it dead center. 2) Choose topic sentences that adhere to the thesis like an old band-aid! Drug abuse is bad because A, B, and C. Make sure your topic sentences do not stray from your thesis at all. Sometimes, you restrict yourself because of the thesis you chose. For example, let's say the topic is drug abuse. Your thesis: Drug abuse is a leading problem of America because of its adverse health effects. Topic 1: Drug abuse costs America millions of dollars each year. Topic 2: Heroin causes your body to wither away. The problem with Topic 1 is that it does not correlate with your thesis. Topic 1 is talking about economic effects when your thesis claims you will talk about health effects! The problem with Topic 2 is that it does not support your thesis enough. Sure, heroin is bad, but why does that make drug abuse a leading problem in America? Let's try again. Topic 1: Heroin has direct consequences on the body which cause potentially productive citizens to die prematurely. Topic 2: Drug addiction fosters unhealthy lifestyles, resulting in a loss of productivity. Topic 3: Millions of people are addicted to heroin, and thousands die each year. Topic 1 addresses the prompt - heroin causes people to die, this reduces the number of actively working citizens. Topic 2 expands the depth of the essay. Instead of considering the direct effects of heroin, Topic 2 addresses the indirect effects of heroin. Stuff like this gets you higher grades. Topic 3 establishes why it is such a big problem in America. Notice the position of this topic. You place this topic last because you want to talk about effects, overall impacts, etc. later in your essay. 3) Now, here is where the clarity comes in. Make sure your supporting examples do your topic sentence justice! Basically, make sure your entire paragraph is an entire coherent thought. People who use heroin are usually involved in gang fighting. Thus, America suffers. The problem here is that your thought jumped suddenly and abruptly without proper explanation. People who use heroin are usually involved in gang fighting. Gang fighting, which takes the lives of hundreds of Americans each year, as well as putting hundreds more in hospitals, ultimately leads to higher mortality rates and higher hospital fees burdening the federal government. Thus, America suffers. If you connect your thoughts, the paragraph flows smoother. This is clarity. Also, notice that I could have written about how gang fighting causes the public to be scared. However, this has nothing to do with the health effects mentioned in the thesis! Stay on-topic or revise your thesis to include other points. | ||
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Butterednuts
United States859 Posts
On March 29 2013 15:06 nobodywonder wrote: I always procrastinate and the essays that come out are garbage. On March 29 2013 15:06 nobodywonder wrote: What can I do to improve my writing? You already answered that question yourself. Just once try to do a writing assignment over the course of a few days. I know it will suck and you won't want to do it. I know you'd rather play video games or masturbate, but just once try it. Do it, read it over, make revisions, and then submit it. | ||
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Bunn
Estonia934 Posts
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Japhybaby
Canada301 Posts
People who can write good papers without effort are not actually as lucky as you might believe they are. Someone who makes more mistakes and corrects them with more precision is arguably developing more.. so ya.. jus take responsibility for when you do your work and think about it as if it is do or die. | ||
micronesia
United States24452 Posts
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docvoc
United States5491 Posts
On March 30 2013 01:14 micronesia wrote: It takes on average 19,000 posts on teamliquid for your writing skills to become good. However, if more than 25% of the posts are less than one full line of text your writing is permanently bad. Micronesia, you are so quotable lol. Does this mean that Zona's writing skills are top notch  . | ||
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TheTenthDoc
United States9561 Posts
50% of writing is knowing what you want to say. The other half is saying it the way the audience wants to hear it.Reading is the best way to master the latter. | ||
Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21242 Posts
On March 30 2013 01:36 docvoc wrote: Micronesia, you are so quotable lol. Does this mean that Zona's writing skills are top notch .However, if more than 25% of the posts are less than one full line of text your writing is permanently bad. | ||
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CecilSunkure
United States2829 Posts
On March 30 2013 01:36 docvoc wrote: Micronesia, you are so quotable lol. Does this mean that Zona's writing skills are top notch .Yeah, he is. And man we got a long way to go. | ||
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vanskater
United States146 Posts
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AiurZ
United States429 Posts
going to the writing center is another good idea too. paying attention to the feedback that you get when you are writing is important too, it helps you understand where you are going wrong and the "general" things that you can do to improve, i remember one of my professors saying in my papers that i had good ideas throughout but tended to obfuscate everything with the structure of my sentences and my language etc., so i started to take a more active effort to do that less, you know that sort of thing. also dont procrastinate, getting an extra draft or two in would probably help a lot, especially if you are actively searching out feedback via what i described above and just going over it yourself. | ||
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Holdenintherye
Canada1441 Posts
Break down your time spent on writing like this: 70% planning, 10% actually writing, 20% editing. Don't just pick up a pencil and start writing, ALWAYS analyze and internalize all the information and PLAN ahead. It's always worked for me. | ||
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