Senior English
advancedWRITING ESSAYS ON NOVELS, PLAYS, SHORT STORIES ,FILM & NOVEL REVIEWS ETC.
GENERAL HINTS FOR STUDENTS AS TO HOW TO START AN ESSAY
As a teacher, I have found that writing has never been an easy task for students. Even if English is your mother tongue you will still have some difficulties & a loss of words.Writing should be taken into account on the basis of your vocabulary & sentences with grammatical errors.
Read a few articles from English newspaper/magazine/ internet and write a similar column.
Ask some one like your teacher to read it & check it.
Then try again and see if you can improve yourself.
Always keep a dictionary with you or if you use a computer to type, use synonym tools and spell check. Have a notepad beside you when you look at people's questions and answers to jot down vocab.
Then write another article a few days later and give to a friend/teacher after you think you have improved.
The following website is excellent for: grammar, punctuation,using hyphens,semicolons, colons, parentheses, dashes, quotation marks, and italics
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/
In order to start your essay, you must brainstorm your topic first or create a MINDMAP OR PLAN.
Of course the essay should contain an introduction, main body and conclusion.
Overall, proof reading & editing are most important.
Also don't forget to use the spell check/synonyms functions on your computer.
Make sure that your paragraphs flow easily by using linking words eg furthermore, however, similarly, comparatively, on the other hand etc. In your concluding paragraph NEVER write, 'in conclusion' as that is stating the obvious.
Include a bibliography on the last page if you consulted any sources.
Hints for writing persuasive/argumentative Essays
(refer to: Writing essays, the basics) Start as close as possible to your reading/research.
www.studygs.net/wrtstr4.htm or go to: http://writefix.com/argument/
TEXT RESPONSES
For English teachers this book & website are very useful for teaching the social purpose & genres of texts set for study
' A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing' -by Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis - 1993
www.books.google.com.au/books?isbn=0750702265...
FREE ESSAYS ONLINE BUT DON"T COPY THEM! YOUR TEACHERS KNOW THESE WEBSITES TOO!! THAT IS PLAGIARISM!!!
CHEATINGhttp://onlineessays.com/ or http://www.freeessays.cc
SOME COMMON ESSAY TOPICS USED BY TEACHERS
Remember to teach your students: F.L.A.P. + C
Language,Audience,Purpose,Context1. Using Shakespeare's play Macbeth, students can be given 3 periods in class time to write the following essay based on the theme of Greed in Macbeth. Allow them to have a dictionary on hand.
Write a 700-1000 word essay, speech or persuasive essay on the following topic: ' To be powerful is to be greedy'. How true is this of the characters in Macbeth? Use examples and quotes from the play to support your answer.
Instead of direct quotes from Macbeth or other texts, students can use indirect speech as evidence of their knowledge of a text. A helpful website
http://esl.about.com/od/grammarintermediate/a/reported_speech.htm
Hints for writing persuasive/argumentative Essays
(refer to: Writing essays, the basics) Start as close as possible to your reading/research.
www.studygs.net/wrtstr4.htm
Essay topics about current issues for Senior English Students.
Teachers can ask students to write 300-500 words in the form of an essay, speech or newspaper editorial on the following topics.
- If you could change the ending of your favourite novel, what would you write?
- What do you think is the best thing that was ever invented and why?
- How does your country treat people who are physically or mentally disabled?
- What did you learn from your grandparents?
- What type of souvenirs do you buy to remind you of the places you've visited?
- ' Important personal,social and civic skills should be taught to teenagers if they are to succeed in the work place?' Do you agree?
FORMATTER ERROR (":" and "&" not supported in Page Names)- Is youth violence becoming more of a problem in society?
- What did you learn from your grandparents?
Grandparents play an important role in the lives of their grandchildren. Recent studies have shown that a child's physical and mental development is accelerated if they are in contact often with their grandparents.- Do you think that pets have personalities?
Some researchers believe that pets, just like humans, have personalities because they act in consistent ways in various situations. If you have a pet
eg cat, dog, horse, donkey etc how would you describe your pet's personality?
Students need to use a lot of adjectives such as sociable, aggressive, sensitive, warm etc as well as examples of pet behaviour
EASY WRITING TASK.
Write a 100 word story using: catastrophe as a noun,throw as a verb,patiently as an adverb, and yellow as an adjective. Show the students the sample below and ask them to write their own.
100 WORD CHALLENGE SAMPLE STORY
Yellow demons mocked him as they danced in front of his eyes, challenging him to throw down the gauntlet. Yet he resisted, despite bending over to retch again into the dismal bowels of his wretched existence.
He’d been promised swashbuckling adventures.
Patiently he’d saved part of his meagre wage each week denying himself the basic comforts of life.
He’d feverishly planned his triumphant return to his neighbourhood. Now doom gnawed at the back of his fevered brain. Bile was destroying his throat.
‘Water!’ he shouted.
Catastrophe had struck as soon as the cruise ship had sailed out of the harbour.
FILM REVIEWS- usually contain a short summary of the plot, actors, director and how highly the film is recommended .
Film Review of 'Atonement' starring Keira Knightley
.
On a sultry summer day in 1935, an upper-class British family prepares for a dinner party at their country estate. The players: Briony Tallis (newcomer Saoirse Ronan), a precocious preteen writer; her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley), Cambridge graduate and femme fatale; Robbie... On a sultry summer day in 1935, an upper-class British family prepares for a dinner party at their country estate. The players: Briony Tallis (newcomer Saoirse Ronan), a precocious preteen writer; her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley), Cambridge graduate and femme fatale; Robbie Turner (James McEvoy), the housekeeper's mensch-y son, who carries a torch for Cecilia; and various visitors and family members. A series of misperceptions, fueled by the summer heat and Briony's childish hurts and fevered imagination, lead to a dramatic false accusation that lands Robbie in jail. We meet all three characters five years later in the thick of World War II, as foot soldier Robbie prepares for the Dunkirk evacuation and the two estranged sisters train as nurses in London. Director Joe Wright (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) deserves high praise for translating Ian McEwan's highly internalized, multilayered tale of guilt, redemption, and the power and limits of the artistic imagination, into a sumptuous visual feast that not only conveys the intricate plot points of the novel, but dives headfirst into the emotional subtleties that make the story so wrenching. Whether any of the characters' actions are ultimately atoned for by the end of the film is a matter of perception, but Wright's sympathetic eye ensures that every player gets a fair trial. The young director favors long, lingering close-ups that trace every flicker of feeling. Highly recommended.
BOOK REVIEWS.
Follow a similar pattern to a Film review.
The difference is that author is acknowledged rather than the film director.
' Belonging' the autobiography of Sameen Ali, focuses on the plight of Pakistani teenage brides in the UK. Placed in an orphanage then taken back & physically abused by her mother & siblings, Sameen was forced at 13 to marry a stranger in Pakistan. Now a councillor for Manchester, Sameen campaigns against forced marriages in the UK. The publisher , John Murray promises to give you your money back if you didn't like the autobiography. What other publisher makes this sort of promise?
SHORT STORIES.
FOR some examples of humorous short stories for your students visit the website below:
www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/humourindex.html - 41k
MORE WEBSITES TO HELP YOU WRITE ESSAYS
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/apply/essay-skills/index.html
http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/
http://dagda.shef.ac.uk/study/essay.html