CHAPTER 8 Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Based on your personal observations, experience, and knowledge Requires you to explain something, such as your opinion about a common issue Does not require special knowledge about a particular topic CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay GED essay A GED essay is a group of related paragraphs about one topic:

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Sample GED essay topic: (Continued) TOPIC What is one important goal you would like to achieve in the next few years? In your essay, identify that goal. Explain how you plan to achieve it. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay. Reprinted with permission of the GED Testing Service.

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. The highest score possible on the essay is a 4. The lowest score possible is a 1. A passing score is a 2 or higher. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Your essay score is 35% of your total score on the Language Arts, Writing Test: (Continued)

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Does it have well-focused main points? Does it have clear organization? Are its main ideas developed with specific details? Are the sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, word choice, and spelling correct? CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay holistically Two readers will score your paper holistically in terms of content and overall effectiveness: (Continued)

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Here is a copy of the official GED Essay Scoring Guide: (Continued)

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay A 4 essay contains A main idea that clearly refers to the essay topic Ideas that are organized and easy to follow Body paragraphs with a topic sentence and specific details and examples Sentences and paragraphs that are written correctly with hardly any grammar or spelling errors A wide range of vocabulary that is used correctly

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay A 3 essay contains A main idea that could be written more clearly Ideas that could be organized in a better way Body paragraphs with a topic sentence but unequal amounts of details and examples Sentences and paragraphs that are written correctly with a few grammar or spelling errors Vocabulary that is used correctly but could be more complex (Continued)

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay A 2 essay contains A main idea that includes ideas not discussed in the essay topic Some ideas that are hard to follow Body paragraphs with a topic sentence and details and examples that could be stronger Some sentences and paragraphs that are written incorrectly with noticeable errors in grammar and spelling A limited range of vocabulary with some incorrect words (Continued)

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay A 1 essay contains A main idea that does not respond to the topic Ideas that are mixed up in order and hard to follow Body paragraphs with irrelevant or missing details and examples Sentences and paragraphs that are written incorrectly with many errors in grammar and spelling A limited range of vocabulary that is often used incorrectly (Continued)

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay writing process The writing process will help you write a good GED essay in 45 minutes: 1.Gather ideas: Examine the assigned topic and think of specific things you want to say about it. Use your own experiences to help you think of ideas. Jot your ideas down on paper.

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Check over the ideas you have gathered and put them in a logical order. Make sure you have enough good ideas. Cross off any ideas that arent about the topic. Group the ideas in the order in which you will use them. 2.Organize your ideas: (Continued) writing process The writing process will help you write a good GED essay in 45 minutes:

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay (Continued) writing process The writing process will help you write a good GED essay in 45 minutes: 3.Write your essay: Put the ideas you have gathered and organized into sentence and paragraph form. Focus on content at this point; dont worry about errors in grammar or spelling.

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay (Continued) writing process The writing process will help you write a good GED essay in 45 minutes: 4.Revise your essay: Read over your essay and make sure its structured clearly and it answers the essay question. Make sure your sentences are complete and there are no mistakes in grammar, punctuation, or spelling.

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay introductory paragraphThe introductory paragraph states the topic you are going to address and your main idea. body paragraphsThe three body paragraphs express ideas that support and extend the main idea. concluding paragraphThe concluding paragraph summarizes the essay and gives a final idea about the topic. five-paragraph format The five-paragraph format is a good way to structure an essay on any topic:

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Look again at the sample essay topic: (Continued) TOPIC What is one important goal you would like to achieve in the next few years? In your essay, identify that goal. Explain how you plan to achieve it. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay. Reprinted with permission of the GED Testing Service.

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Now read the sample five-paragraph essay: (Continued) INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH BODY PARAGRAPH 1 BODY PARAGRAPH 2 BODY PARAGRAPH 3 CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH Reprinted with permission of the GED Testing Service.

Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay This essay received a score of 4. It contains (Continued) (to obtain a college degree)A main idea that clearly refers to the essay topic (to obtain a college degree) (three body paragraphs that develop the main idea)Ideas that are organized and easy to follow (three body paragraphs that develop the main idea) (about paying for college, studying effectively, and training for football)Body paragraphs with a topic sentence and specific details and examples (about paying for college, studying effectively, and training for football) Sentences and paragraphs that are written correctly without grammar or spelling errors A wide range of vocabulary that is used correctly

THE END Chapter Review QuizGED Practice Quiz Practice the skills you learned in this chapter by taking the Chapter Review Quiz or the GED Practice Quiz. CHAPTER 8: Preparing for the GED Essay Copyright © 2002 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.