Students Writing example essay topic

I read and respond to about 1800 student essays per calendar year. Most of the them are papers based upon assigned reading. Autopsies of students' writing usually yield one conclusive result -- writing can fail at two levels, the strategy -- planning level, or the presentation level. Unfortunately, writing teachers, and self-help books often focus on the presentation level. This is understandable because it is the most observable level, but by tackling problems at the presentation level, we are generally treating the symptoms rather than the problems. Presentation problems are easily identified and treated with feedback, practice, and coaching.

Often just mentioning a distracting habit, such as grammar, punctuation, or sentence structure will motivate student writers to monitor and eliminate those tendencies. The Strategy -- Planning Level The key to better writing lies in the strategy -- planning stage. In fact, many presentation level problems, such as unclear ideas, inadequate development, or faulty mechanics are the result of faulty planning. Better style, emphasis, and diction, however, can never salvage a paper that is constructed around faulty interpretation or an illogical thesis. Strategy or planning problems are harder to detect and eliminate, and often go unnoticed by inexperienced observers, especially students "revising to clean up" the paper.

While planning problems are more difficult to spot, that does not mean they are not real. They are what lie behind many ineffective attempts at writing and are often the reason why some students do "everything right" (at the presentation level) and still write ineffectively. Many students stare long and hard at assigned reading; they can remember and quote statistics and facts, but can never seem to put all of the pieces together. Three specific manifestations of this syndrome are prevalent. First, is the inability to deal with a written text in terms of the kind of writing it is (genre).

Many students would have difficulty stating the differences between a narrative, a poem, and an essay. Writing about a narrative, (fictional or fact), without knowing that story writers often use metaphors, similes, and other conventions of narrative is a premature step. Moreover, understanding that magazine or journal articles are usually explanatory in nature is to risk missing the point. Writers use different strategies for writing stories than those writing informational or persuasive articles, and we must use different strategies when approaching them. Expository writing appeals to our rational intellect, and aims to give us a grasp of the facts. Accordingly, it consists mostly of propositional statements.

It expresses "truth" directly and requires a minimum of interpretation. Such writing is said to be referential; it exists to point beyond itself to a body of information. When an article or text is expository in form, we should look primarily for a structure of ideas, and most importantly, we must think in "paragraphs" when reading exposition. It is not so much the individual sentence that conveys meaning, but the entire paragraph. Secondly, a text written to explain or impart information is often occasion-specific. It is usually prompted by specific occasions.

Most of the articles in magazines and journals today are addressed to specific audiences about specific problems or circumstances, and the writers ideas must not be pressed into contexts for which they were not intended. Because many articles speak of a specific time or situation in an author's life, it may be necessary to reconstruct the historical context. Once we have faced the text's historical moment, we are better prepared to apply its ideas to those being discussed today. Equally symptomatic of an inability to come to grips with a written text is the failure to grasp the big idea -- the idea that controls the discussion, and around which everything thing else is constructed. Ineffective writing tends to focus on isolated facts and present readers with a series of unrelated facts. We start the search for the "big idea" with the title and highlighted sections.

After that look for what is repeated -- words and ideas, and also for space allocation. These are tips to what the author is trying to get across. The third symptom is easily identifiable as the tendency to escape the text and deal with extraneous material outside the text itself. The culture, the author, and "background material" become the primary focus. Writers who do not talk about the main idea talk about other things, but fail to deal with the text itself, which leads to another issue -- excessive confidence in published materials.

Excessive Confidence in Published Materials Writers can never write effectively beyond their grasp of a subject. They may be able to write about their personal experiences, bu they cannot discuss what they do not understand. Merely echoing another writer is not writing, but just that being an echo -- rather than a voice. Personal ownership of what one writes is an essential component of effective writing. Attempting Too Much in a Writing Project Many beginning expository writers try to accomplish too much in a single project. They would accomplish more if they established modest and realistic goals.

The educational rule of "simplicity" asserts that doing less is often more. Papers with a broad scope are all to often built around general information, and don't explain much. There simply isn't enough time or space available. Ineffectiveness in Bridging the Gap Bridging the gap is a term used by some researchers / writers to refer to the process by which we make a text relevant to our audience and everyday life. Good exposition of a written text asks and answers two questions: What did the text mean to the original audience? and What does the text mean to us?

Bridging the gap requires us to perform both tasks. Too often this is what is missing in student writing -- what does the text mean today? How do the ideas of the writers fit into contemporary discussions on a given topic. Bridging the gap is achieved by identifying recognizable human experience that is relevant to today's readers, and translating it into the language of readers. Such experience exists at multiple levels, physical, emotional, psychological, social, and moral. Writing based upon assigned reading has been compared to a picket fence -- our world and the world of the author joined at many points.

In conclusion, when writers learn to master a text in terms of the kind of writing it is, interpret its meaning, and show its relevance to every day living, they will write effectively.