Writing, writing, writing. In high school, learning how to write takes on a whole new meaning, necessity and importance. Students learn all about the writing process throughout their early years, but now in high school students are writing for higher-stakes purposes.
What any teacher will tell you is that the most important thing – the one thing that sets an essay apart from an excellent essay – is whether it has been properly revised. This may frustrate some students, but a paper is not finished upon finishing the first draft. A first draft is a first draft, there is always something to add, clarify or fix.
The writing process is, of course, specific to each writer. However, here are some tips on the steps to take to make sure that the written representation of what you want to say is said well.
– First, if the paper is written in a word processing software that uses spell check and grammar check, review and fix the issues. However, be warned – you will also need to read your essay to make sure things are ‘write’ because it has been known to happen that all – of a sudden – the United States has become the Untied States.
– So, you must print your paper or reread the hand-written version. Why? Because it changes the way you are interacting with the work and so you will see it differently and recognize your mistakes or assumptions through this new lens.
– Look for the little things – the/they/them, and/an, if/it/in – these make a difference in the meaning of a sentence and students will get marked down if there are consistent mistakes.
– Affect/effect. Are there any such homonyms that you might want to review to make sure you are getting ‘write’?
– Are there any words you use frequently? This may be because of the topic you are writing about, but this is the time to go to the thesaurus and finding synonyms for the word. This is excellent vocabulary development too. And, once you use a word, it’s yours to keep. You’ll be able to use it whenever you need.
– Now, this is important. Reread the essay to see if you are expecting your reader to understand something you haven’t fully explained. Are you assuming the reader will know or agree with something you are saying? If so, this is where you have to make your point so strongly that it cannot be counter-argued. Work your point until you know that you have made it well. Intuition will kick in when you have, and then you will know you are done.
This is the step that makes papers solid. The difference between saying something and saying something convincingly and with effort shows. It is a pleasure to read. Teachers have to read a lot of essays; they know when the voice of student emerges and it at this point. This point can only be reached, however, by actually going ahead and really rereading and revising what you want to say.
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