Important tips for students who are weak in essay writing
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well, I wonder how much I can do.
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Gone for a week and I am more than surprised to see such vibrancy in my post
I thank all for your flattering compliments. To all who saluted, allow me to return a salute! :salute:
@pixiedust:
-My opinion of TAS book? It really depends. I have been telling parents not to use that book as a bench mark for composition writing. The essays in that book are mainly contributed by the cream of the crop and do not reflect average writing ability among Primary school students (it is afterall a model essay book). In fact, if the parent is really jumpy about his/her child's performance in essay writing, I would discourage the parent from purchasing it to prevent further fraying of nerves.
Initially, I did not appreciate the pictorial mnemonic strategies that the book had provided. It made no sense to me. Upon teaching dyslexics however, I really understood the need for such strategies and I will be using TAS book to demonstrate to parents the value of such strategies.
The book did not provide much useful emotive vocab to me. However, that is understandable due to the following reasons:
1) I teach essays using emotive vocab as an essential focus. On the other hand, I am of the impression that many creative writing centres/compo guidebooks/etc place greater emphasis on scenario descriptives (drowning, fire etc). In fact, if I recall correctly, in my previous post, there was a parent who was enquiring the type of picture compo scenarios that her child should be ready for. As such, the book is jam packed with beautiful vocab and descriptives catered towards scenario descriptives.
2) Primary school composition standards -technically- do not require a whole chunk of emotive vocab. Just provide a sentence or two to demonstrate how the character was feeling and move on with the story. Since that is the accepted norm, there is little emotive vocab available. HOWEVER, there is a good mix of vocab from all categories. Cat 2 vocab- a rarity among guidebooks - is especially evident. Cat 3 vocab is a little on the low side.
3) Underperforming students have different needs as compared to their counterparts. For students who love writing essays, cat 4 vocab –situational vocab – comes easily. That is why essay guidebooks stuff so much cat 4 vocab. Their target audience are students with average or good essay writing ability.
On the other hand, underperforming students should minimize character interaction with the environment to increase predictability and universality of vocabs across essays. Like I have mentioned in my article, cat 2 vocabs are consistent across essays.
In fact, a typical essay written by a high performing student might have the character interacting with his/her environment most of the time. The student might give vivid descriptions of the character’s actions, peppering his/her story with extensive vocab and difficult words. An essay written by an underperforming student who mastered emotive vocab templates will almost entirely portray to state of the character’s mind. There will be very little interaction between the character and the environment.
Many individuals think that the latter –emotive vocab controlled essay- is much more challenging to write as compared to the former. I can assure you that it is the opposite.
[I know this seems like a lot to take in. I would love to write an in-depth article on this… but time is a luxury now : ) )
-Secondary schools fostering critical thinking? … I had tuition till JC and even then, attempts to think critically were mostly a personal endeavour. Like what James said, there are some teachers who made admirable attempts but effectiveness is not guaranteed. In fact, my P5 Chinese teacher pushed for critical thinking during lessons. However, it also translated to harder examination questions set by him and the usual happened – SA results for the batch (except my class) slumped, complains by parents and students, and my teacher was told to set less challenging questions from them on.
In JC, I was highly fortunate to be taught by a veteran GP teacher (she transferred from another JC) majoring in Political Science and Philosophy, who made us highly critical thinkers – which thankfully provided me the right direction and saved my GP grades. Her teachings however did not conform to the school’s flawed GP lesson plans and there was a massive clash of ideologies and she was probably ostracised (not like she cared).
Ultimately, it boils down to the individual. If the individual is resistant towards venturing beyond his/her worldview, the individual will never, EVER be critical.
“How Secondary and A levels students of today develop the required thinking skills to write a good O level or GP essay then ?”
That’s easy to answer. Majority don’t. Those who manage enter Universities face difficulties in writing good critical essays and probably graduate with stunted thinking. Others just drop out of the rat race at A levels, with GP deemed insurmountable.
On the bright side, uncritical graduates are still able to survive in the working world. But the ignorance that perpetuates is at times unbearable. -
Thanks for your response to my question.
Your article has also been selected for KSP portal publication.
Wish you all the best in your career with DAS ! -
Wow you have given it detailed. I have to write an essay about friendship for the admission process. Many have given many tips to write an essay. And even searched in Internet also, but I could find those tips are more detailed and specific as you.Hope these points will really work in my essay.
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phppsmss:
:salute: Amanda from one of those uncritical graduateGone for a week and I am more than surprised to see such vibrancy in my post
I thank all for your flattering compliments. To all who saluted, allow me to return a salute! :salute:
@pixiedust:
-Yes, I am working at DAS.
On the bright side, uncritical graduates are still able to survive in the working world. But the ignorance that perpetuates is at times unbearable.
GP paper scare the hell out of me ......
now is my DS turn.......another GP nitemare has just begin :lightrod:
hope to heard of more sharing from you :thankyou: -
:lovesite: :lovesite:
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Are you a home tuition teacher ?
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lee aik lan:
Are you a home tuition teacher ?
I was, and probably will still be in the distant future. At present, I am a special needs teacher. -
Hi YellowBelt, do you give tuition in creative writing? If my child can be taught by you, I do not need to loose sleep during her essay writing exams and tests.
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I also want to know how to improve composition writing for my son. His sentence structure is just not there. He reads a lot but somehow can’t write. Very headache now. Any tips?
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