GED Essay

Essay - approximately 45 minutes For the second part of the Language Art Writing Test, you will write an essay about an issue or subject of general interest. You will have approximately 45 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. You will be given scratch paper on which you may jot notes and outline your ideas. The answer booklet has two pages of lined paper for you to write your final essay.

Scoring of the essay (see p.100):   Two trained readers will score your essay on a 4-point scale, and the scores will be averaged to give you a final score. If you earn a final score of less than 2 on the essay, you must retake both parts of the test. Your score will be based on: Well-focused main points Clear organization Specific development of your ideas Control of sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, and word choice

Step 1: Read the instructions and the topic carefully – compare/contrast, agree/disagree, describe

You’ll be given a topic to write on – you must write on that topic There will be two parts to the prompt – topic and instructions – don’t ignore the instructions It is difficult to make changes in one's life. Do you agree with this statement? State your view in an essay. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge. Is watching television good or bad for children? In your essay, tell whether you think watching television is good or bad for children. Give reasons for your opinion. Many people say that they are under more and more stress. In your essay, explain why people feel their amount of stress is increasing. Which is better—a car or a sport-utility vehicle? In your essay, state which kind of vehicle you think is better. State the advantages and disadvantages of each kind of vehicle.

Step 2: Figure out your thesis statement – your “answer” to the question Make sure that you can support your answer. Your answer does not have to be true or interesting or funny or be in agreement with what the grader thinks – it just has to be well supported!

Step 3: Write an essay map This consists of your 3 main ideas that support your thesis statement

Step 4: Brainstorm Write down thoughts on each main idea Cross out anything that doesn’t match the topic at all, revise your main points if you need more to work with or you find yourself coming up with a better strategy.

Step 5: Write your five paragraph essay using your thesis statement and essay map as an outline. For a 5-paragraph essay, we write three kinds of paragraphs: introductions, development paragraphs (also called body paragraphs), and conclusions. Each has different goals and requirements.

Introductory paragraph Lead-in: An introductory paragraph can include background information or a "hook" that get the reader interested in the subject of the essay. The attention-grabber you use is up to you, but if you're not sure if your idea works, it's okay to just leave it out. Example lead-in: Any person could be called a friend, but it takes a special person to be considered a good friend. That special person has qualities other people may not have.  

Introductory Paragraph Thesis Statement: This is the controlling idea of the entire essay. You can think of it as the "answer" to whatever question was asked. It doesn't have to be placed anywhere in particular within your introductory paragraph, but it does have to be there and be identifiable as the main idea of the essay.

Introductory Paragraph Essay Map: An important job of the introductory paragraph is letting the reader know what to expect. An essay map tells, briefly, what each body paragraph will be about. Each of the three supports or reasons that you will write about in your essay should be introduced in your essay map in the same order in which they will be presented. It doesn't matter if your essay map is part of your thesis, only one additional sentence, or several additional sentences - but you must have an essay map of some kind in order to demonstrate that you have an organized plan for your writing.

Example Intro Paragraph (p.91) "A dog is man's best friend." That common saying may contain some truth, but dogs are not the only animal friends whose companionship people enjoy. For many people, a cat is their best friend. Despite what dog lovers may believe, cats make excellent house pets. Cats are good companions, civilized housemates, and undemanding pets.

Body Paragraphs Each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. A topic sentence is much like a thesis statement for a paragraph - it lets the reader know what idea is going to be explained or justified in each paragraph. In writing your topic sentences, use your essay map as a guide. The topic sentence will introduce the single reason/support that is talked about in each body paragraph. You can think of the topic sentence as answering the question: "why is this reason or support important?".

Body Paragraphs Unity means that everything in the paragraph supports a single idea and purpose. To make a paragraph effective, you have to know what point you're trying to make, make your reader see it, and include in your paragraph only material that supports your point. You have to exclude what doesn't support that point, even if what you exclude is your favorite idea or specific of all time. Coherence means that everything fits together smoothly. Coherence arises in part from unity, because if every sentence supports the paragraph's idea, then there must be some connections there. Coherence also arises from the order of the elements. If, for example, the sentences follow time order (chronological order), the reader will see the underlying connections easily.

Body Paragraphs Adequate development means that the paragraph provides sufficient evidence or support to make its central idea clear and/or convincing. Abstract and general terms offer less effective support than concrete and specific terms. The best way to provide adequate development in your GED Essay body paragraphs is to use specific examples.

Example Body Paragraph (p.91) In the first place, people enjoy the companionship of cats. Many cats are affectionate. They will snuggle up and ask to be petted, or scratched under the chin. Who can resist a purring cat? If they're not feeling affectionate, cats are generally quite playful. They love to chase balls and feathers, or just about anything dangling from a string. They especially enjoy playing when their owners are participating in the game. Contrary to popular opinion, cats can be trained. Using rewards and punishments, just like with a dog, a cat can be trained to avoid unwanted behavior or perform tricks. Cats will even fetch!

Concluding Paragraph Use your conclusion to drive home the points you have made in the body of your essay. In addition, your conclusion should give a sense of finality, which may be achieved in one of several ways.   1.) The easiest way to conclude your paper is to review its major ideas. Your essay map will be a good guide to use for this method. In a conclusion for a paper in which the writer explains why he belongs to a book club, this type of conclusion might include something like: "Convenience, variety, and economy-these were my reasons for joining a book club. I have not been disappointed." 2.) Another easy way to conclude your essay is with a restatement of the thesis, although in different words to avoid monotony. Forms of conclusions, like forms of introductions, vary. All conclusions, however, should be related to what has gone before. When writing your conclusion, be sure you don't present new or irrelevant material - material that has not been presented in the body of the paper.

Example Conclusion (p.91) Cats are low-maintenance, civilized companions. People who have small living quarters or less time for pet care should appreciate these characteristics of cats. However, many people who have plenty of space and time still opt to have a cat because they love the cat personality. In many ways, cats are the ideal housepet.

GED Essay Format Intro paragraph 3 Body Paragraphs Conclusion Lead-in (optional) Thesis Statement Essay Map 3 Body Paragraphs Topic Sentence Details and Examples Conclusion Restate main ideas and thesis in different words Provide a sense of finality to let the reader know you’re done.

Step 6: Edit Your Essay: Save ten minutes of your allotted time to revise and edit your GED essay once you've finished writing. Read carefully through your essay. Watch for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Correct them.  Review the organization of your essay. Read it AGAIN, making sure your key points stay in the same order from the introduction through the conclusion. Take a deep breath and hand it in. You've done your best, now go home to recuperate.

Scoring of the GED Writing Test: The score you achieve on Part 1 (editing) will be combined with the score you receive on Part 2 (esaay). The combined score will be reported to you. You cannot pass the GED Writing Test if you get a score lower than a 2 on the essay. The Essay is read and scored by two different evaluators. Each evaluator will give you a score of 1 to 4. The two scores will be averaged, and the average will be combined with your score from Part 1. When you are notified, you will receive one combined score for the GED Writing Test. The essay will be graded holistically, which means that the two readers will each read the essay once, quickly but thoroughly, and give you a score based on an overall impression of effectiveness. Your essay score represents about 40% of your total score with the remaining 60% coming from Part 1.

Read the essays on pages 101 and 102 What scores do you think these essays received?

The first essay – positive change – received a 3 The second essay – friends – received a 4 The GED essay does not have to be fine art. The most important things are to answer the question carefully, stay on topic, and be organized!

Pages 90 - 106 in your book are about the GED essay. Do the coffee talk outlining activity on pages 95 – 99. Download the document from the link, type in your answers and submit it to me for feedback. Getting a good outline of your answer and three main points, and getting it done fairly quickly, is half the battle!

After you’ve received feedback about your coffee talk assignment, move ahead to the full length practice essay. When you’ve submitted that and gotten a chance to receive and ask questions about your grade, use the links on BB to do both parts of the Writing Predictor Test. Don’t forget to send me your score for the first part and a copy of your essay for the second part!