Prewriting
Upon beginning an essay exam, it is important to read the
question very carefully. You should determine what the writing
task is. To illustrate the importance of this, consider the
following situation:
Your mother/spouse tells you to remove a food stain from
the carpet. She instructs you to use a special chemical
called "Stain Be Gone." You go into the laundry
room and instead of getting "Stain Be Gone", you
get a chemical called "Clorox," a type of bleach.
You begin to clean the carpet with the chemical and what
happens? The brown carpet begins to turn an awful shade of
yellow! Even though you had good intentions and you worked
very hard to clean the carpet, you did not get the results
you or your mother/spouse expected because you used the
wrong chemical; consequently, you bleached out the carpet.
The same applies to an essay exam. If you do not follow the
instructions the prompt gives you, no matter how hard you work
the end result will not be what the reader expected. As a
result, you will not receive the score you deserve. Consider the
following three kinds of prompts:
1. Some people say that it is best to be loyal and to
work for one company during one’s life. Others take the
opposite view and say it is better to change jobs frequently
in one’s life. Discuss these positions, using specific
examples of both. Then tell which one you agree with and
explain why.
2. In addition to their specialized classes in their
major, students should also be required to take general
education classes in a university. Do you agree or disagree
with this statement? Give reasons to support your opinion.
3. The automobile and the airplane are important
inventions. Both of these
inventions have had an important effect on our lives. Choose
another invention that you think is important. Give specific
reasons for your choice.
Do these three prompts look the same to you? Do they have the
same requirements? If you answered no, you are already on your
way to being able to write a successful essay.
The first prompt can be broken into four tasks: The essay
asks you to discuss both positions, which means (1) you must
write about why some people say that it is best to be loyal to
work for one company during one’s life; (2) you must write
about why others say it is better to change jobs frequently in
one’s life; (3) you must tell which of the positions you agree
with; and (4) you should explain why (i.e., give reasons).
Remaining neutral until near the end, you do not state your
position first in this type of essay.
The second prompt can be broken into two argumentative tasks–
(1) that of choosing whether you agree or disagree with the
statement: "In addition to their specialized classes in
their major, students should also be required to take general
education classes in a university." (2) You should also
give reasons to support your opinion. Stating your argument in
the introduction in this type of essay, you assert which view
you support. Then in the remainder of the essay, you defend why
you support that view.
In the third writing prompt, yet another type of
argumentative essay, the task is simple– (1)that of choosing
another invention that you think is important. (2) You should
give specific reasons for your choice. The word
"another" means other than the automobile or the
airplane. Consequently, if you write about the airplane or the
automobile, you have not followed the instructions for this
writing prompt.
The concept is simple: think before you write. Make sure you
understand what the writing task is.
Thesis
It has been said that if you have no purpose you cannot
arrive at your destination. For example, if you go on a driving
trip in your country, and you are unfamiliar with the different
roads, you will most likely use a map. Or at least you will ask
someone for directions if you get lost. If you do not do either
of these, it will be difficult for you to find your way. Thus,
it would be wise for you to plan your trip beforehand, so you
can make the best use of your time.
Like planning a trip, a thesis is a plan for writing. It lets
you and the reader know where you are going. It helps the reader
know what to expect in the essay, so he does not get lost. A
thesis gives purpose to your writing; and at the same time, it
allows you to make the most efficient use of your time during
the time that you have to write an essay exam. As a result, in
addition to understanding the prompt, it is equally
important to write a clear and effective thesis which is
organized around the question, so that you can announce the
different parts of your essay.
There are three main steps in developing a good thesis: 1).
Read and decode the question 2). Create a short shopping list
based on the key points in the question. 3). Restate the
question in the form of a thesis while including in the thesis
the main points from your shopping list.
Shopping list
Some people bring a shopping list when they buy groceries.
This type of person goes into the kitchen and takes inventory of
what is in the refrigerator, the pantry, and the cupboards. He
writes down what is missing (i.e., sugar, bread, flour, cereal,
peanut butter, rice, and so on). Then he brings the list of
needed items to the grocery store and buys those products. In
the long run, he has saved time since he can focus on searching
for the items and not on trying to remember whether or not he
has a particular item already at the house. He has also saved
money since he does not buy any unnecessary items that are
already at the house.
A shopping list for writing helps you limit your focus so
that you have enough time to adequately develop a topic. It will
prevent you from saying unnecessary or irrelevant things in your
essay. The shopping list will help you to support your general
statements with detail statements. In addition, a shopping list
will give your writing a clear pattern of organization.
But how much should you write in an essay? How many details
should you include? A good rule to remember is that you should
write at three levels: main idea, support idea, and sub-support
ideas. It is generally wise to give at least two details
(sub-support ideas) to support your support ideas. Consider the
following three kinds of prompts and their accompanying shopping
lists.
Some people say that it is best to be loyal and to work
for one company during one’s life. Others take the
opposite view and say it is better to change jobs frequently
in one’s life. Discuss these positions, using specific
examples of both. Then tell which one you agree with and
explain why.
There are three basic parts to this question. (1) You must
write about why some people say that it is best to be loyal to
work for one company during one’s life; (2) you must write
about why others say it is better to change jobs frequently in
one’s life; (3) you must tell which one of the positions you
agree with. Briefly, you should write them down. Then you should
list least two sub-support points under each heading.
In this example, the writer has an organizational pattern
which clearly organizes around the prompt. It was easy to create
this shopping list since the essay question had a very specific
organizational pattern. And it only took the writer about a
minute to do this part of the prewriting!
After you begin with a general statement that sets the
context for your thesis, you should restate the question in the
form of a thesis. For example, if you saw the following
prompt
you would begin with a general statement; then you would
restate the question as your main idea while including three
support ideas. It would be something like this:
General statement about the question + main idea + three
support points
