If you look at my signature you're going to wonder why on earth I want to know how you learned how to write an essay.

I know that not all high schools are the same, and thus they don't all teach their students to the same standards of essay writing.

So if you were under-prepared coming to Mac, how did you remedy it? Did your first year TAs explain what the components of an essay are? Did you buy one of the essay writing books? Use the internet?

I'm trying to figure out how much I should explain.

Thanks!

Early highschool is the most obvious response I can think of. But I knew how to write in proper essay format wayyy before then because of my parents :/

With my natural intelligence and handsomeness.

In terms of TA's, they only went over essay formats AFTER giving our essays back. Only my English TA, bless her, gave us a rubric with expectations. The result of that was a class average so high, she had to drop us all a letter grade below what we got.

I write essays by asking myself what I am supposed to answer/convince people about in my writing. My outlines usually look like an interview, questions and answers. The essays is built from there.

Grade 12 english summerschool teacher. I learned more about essay structure/format/writing styles in 2 weeks than I did in 4 years of highschool english class.

I think all it takes is a really basic essay and a teacher who can slowly go through it with the class pointing out the way it goes together (i.e. purpose of introductions, writing effective concluding statements). I think it was because of her that I killed the long paper in my anthro elective.

Then again im in Eng, so I doubt they mark our writing in other courses with as much scrutiny as they would in courses that are based on writing.

My high school was not an easy one, but English was marked so subjectively and I had such an easy teacher that I didn't ever have to learn how to write a proper essay.

I'm still pretty bad at it, and no one seems to be able to explain how to write a good one.

I think it's more a skill you learn with practice, though, rather than someone explaining it to you.

I.e., you can explain why an introductory statement is important, but you can never teach someone HOW to write a good one.

Originally Posted by lorend

If you look at my signature you're going to wonder why on earth I want to know how you learned how to write an essay.

I know that not all high schools are the same, and thus they don't all teach their students to the same standards of essay writing.

So if you were under-prepared coming to Mac, how did you remedy it? Did your first year TAs explain what the components of an essay are? Did you buy one of the essay writing books? Use the internet?

I'm trying to figure out how much I should explain.

Thanks!

I originally learned how to write an essay using the "5 paragraph" or "Hamburger" model - I did this for years and as a result my essays were obviously very limited. I always tried to argue 3 main points, which was a bad idea in retrospect.
Then in my final year of Highschool, our teachers told us to drop that method and told us we could develop a thesis with as many arguments as we deemed necessary, and use as many paragraphs as we wanted. The majority of my highschool papers required us to properly reference our materials (typically in Chicago style) so I was well prepared for that when I came to university (apparently, according to my first year TA, not a lot students knew how to properly reference material). We practiced writing different kinds of essays, so I was prepared there too.
My Highschool also required me to mainly use books and scholarly articles for my papers, so I knew how to use and find these sources before I came to university

The TA's I had in my history classes told me to ditch the hamburger model as well, and to essentially not just point out certain facts, but elaborate on them, use the "so what/why care" model after making a point/argument.
If I was unsure of something in my essay, I always talked to my TA. This helped me out a lot in my first year. I also used the advice the Prof's gave out as well.

My essay writing skills developed over a period of time. When I did my first essay in university I got a C- and on my final essay of my first year (also my longest, roughly 6000 words) I received an A+. The reason why my marks improved so much was because I actually took the time to talk to the person marking it, what they expected etc and I applied all the advice from them and other TA's to write my essays.

I don't think I've ever had to write an "essay" in university...but research papers are similar in format (from what I understand). The only way I learned how to write effectively was through practice. Classes where they only have one essay are useless. There is no chance to quickly learn through feed back. I took a research writing course that forced us to write a paper per week and encouraged peer editing. It was fantastic. The lectures themselves were all about what is expected in a specific piece of work and what is not. I feel all faculties should have a writing course early on in each program. It was a fantastic experience!

Another thing that help was to look at examples of papers online and analyze how they were effective and ineffective.

Grade 10, S.E.E.C. format for paragraphs.

Statement
Example
Explanation
Conclusion

Though I've never written an essay in post-secondary so I wouldn't know what the expected level is here, perhaps that method is weak.

EDIT: Also how we are to go general --> specific --> thesis in the first paragraph

I had the same english teacher for grades 11 and 12 and he was amazing. It wasn't just intro, argument, argument, argument, conclusion crap. He taught us about having unifying themes, proper flow, captivating the reader (in not cheesy ways) etc. I owe him.

I got lucky. All my high school english teachers before that were crap.

Originally Posted by Deegs14

I originally learned how to write an essay using the "5 paragraph" or "Hamburger" model - I did this for years and as a result my essays were obviously very limited. I always tried to argue 3 main points, which was a bad idea in retrospect.
Then in my final year of Highschool, our teachers told us to drop that method and told us we could develop a thesis with as many arguments as we deemed necessary, and use as many paragraphs as we wanted. The majority of my highschool papers required us to properly reference our materials (typically in Chicago style) so I was well prepared for that when I came to university (apparently, according to my first year TA, not a lot students knew how to properly reference material). We practiced writing different kinds of essays, so I was prepared there too.
My Highschool also required me to mainly use books and scholarly articles for my papers, so I knew how to use and find these sources before I came to university

The TA's I had in my history classes told me to ditch the hamburger model as well, and to essentially not just point out certain facts, but elaborate on them, use the "so what/why care" model after making a point/argument.
If I was unsure of something in my essay, I always talked to my TA. This helped me out a lot in my first year. I also used the advice the Prof's gave out as well.

My essay writing skills developed over a period of time. When I did my first essay in university I got a C- and on my final essay of my first year (also my longest, roughly 6000 words) I received an A+. The reason why my marks improved so much was because I actually took the time to talk to the person marking it, what they expected etc and I applied all the advice from them and other TA's to write my essays.

Exactly that! I also learned the 5-paragraph model in grade 10 and perfected it by grade 11. But then in grade 12, expectations were a bit higher because of the teacher. And referencing was more strict and such, so there was some adjustment during that period. Into university, there was also a lot of change. But as others have mentioned, it only comes with practice. Put all your effort into writing your paper and when you get it back, always go over the entire thing with your TA. Ask for recommendations, way to improve it even further, regardless of the mark. And put all these points into your next paper. That's why I think it's important to have a course with a lot of writing at one point, as taylojl mentioned.

Guess in highschool. Once I knew the structure I was good. I love writing though.

grade 9-11... teacher told u have an intro paragrah with filler thesis statement etc... middle paragraphs=proofs last para conclusion... the called it the hamburger method


got to grade 12 and teacher told us to forget everything they taught us cuz it was retarded and we used a more creative method... where everyone didnt necessarilry have to use the same format.. i got better marks in grade 12

Originally Posted by Deegs14

I originally learned how to write an essay using the "5 paragraph" or "Hamburger" model - I did this for years and as a result my essays were obviously very limited. I always tried to argue 3 main points, which was a bad idea in retrospect.
Then in my final year of Highschool, our teachers told us to drop that method and told us we could develop a thesis with as many arguments as we deemed necessary, and use as many paragraphs as we wanted. The majority of my highschool papers required us to properly reference our materials (typically in Chicago style) so I was well prepared for that when I came to university (apparently, according to my first year TA, not a lot students knew how to properly reference material). We practiced writing different kinds of essays, so I was prepared there too.
My Highschool also required me to mainly use books and scholarly articles for my papers, so I knew how to use and find these sources before I came to university

The TA's I had in my history classes told me to ditch the hamburger model as well, and to essentially not just point out certain facts, but elaborate on them, use the "so what/why care" model after making a point/argument.
If I was unsure of something in my essay, I always talked to my TA. This helped me out a lot in my first year. I also used the advice the Prof's gave out as well.

My essay writing skills developed over a period of time. When I did my first essay in university I got a C- and on my final essay of my first year (also my longest, roughly 6000 words) I received an A+. The reason why my marks improved so much was because I actually took the time to talk to the person marking it, what they expected etc and I applied all the advice from them and other TA's to write my essays.

lol i didnt see this when i typed my response...but basically i went through the same thing

Arguing on forums.

On the internet, all you have is your words to credit or discredit your points.