Writing essays is like serving in tennis.
Most people when they start out make it way more complicated than it needs to be, and produce something that looks pretty spazy.
The pros do it smoothly and easily. It’s uncomplicated and easy to follow.
You know what I mean?
Well if that doesn’t make any sense, what I’m saying is that good essays are simple.
Everything about their structure is simple – the structure as a whole and also paragraph and sentence structure.
Examiners hate seeing long convoluted sentences and they hate reading essays that have no flow.
The way to avoid falling into these traps is simplicity – one main point per paragraph, and one minor point per sentence.
Think about what sort of books you enjoy reading. Is it enjoyable when you have to re-read sentences because you didn’t really get what you just read? Errrr, no.
You enjoy reading books that flow effortlessly. They don’t feel like a chore to read.
Examiners feel the same way about reading your teen’s essays! They really don’t like having to stop after every couple of sentences to try and figure out what the writer is trying to say.
How can you help?
You can help your teen make their writing simpler and more like a straight-A student’s by helping them plan their essays.
It is absolutely impossible to write a top grade essay without having planned it out first.
Your teen might feel like planning their essays is an annoying addition to their workload, but in fact if they get in the habit of making essay plans, they’ll save a huge amount of time (and stress) overall. I can’t stress this enough!
Send me your stuff!
It’s a bit difficult for me to get more specific when just writing about essays generally.
So if your teen is struggling with a particular essay at the moment – send it my way!
I’d be more than happy to give it a read and offer my thoughts if I see something your teen could work on.
Email me at [email protected] and I’ll read it and send my edit back to you.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Image Credit: y.caradec on Flickr
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