Difficulties in essay writing

S.A.

Not that hard to write.

As an erstwhile writer I’m wondering what sorts of essays and, Sam, are you the student or his teacher

Picking a topic and deciding on a way to approach it. Of course, it helps to know something about the subject.

Once a topic is chosen and some research is done to ensure the writer might actually have:
1) something to say and 2) isn't going to be spewing random thoughts and unverified statements of facts,
the next hurdle is conceive a beginning, a middle and an end.

Joe (also known as outlining.)Nation

Scaffolding.

Miss L Toad: Are you saying they've changed the name of "outlining". ?

Scaffolding; another example of getting rid of a perfectly good word to replace it with an inadequate one.

Did anyone notice that scaffolds are built from the bottom floor up?
Is that how you write a "scaffold"? You start with the conclusion at the bottom of the page and work upwards to the lead paragraph?

meh.

Tell me, while I was sleeping, did artists decide not to do sketches? Do they now make 'try-outs"? When they outline, excuse me, scaffold their work, have they also re-named the oval and the square?

Meanwhile, back at the paragraph factory, we are trying to nail down a strong, clear, opening sentence from which we will hang five hundred fluttering, singing words.

Joe(....After a long sleepless summer night,,,,,)Nation

This, of course, runs the gamut. My students seem to have the most trouble just getting started and coming up with a thesis. I find today's college students (in California) are not being taught how to think critically.

Remarkably, first and second year college students do not even know how to write an outline. On the other hand, I am amazed at how well some of my Asian students write in English, having only been in the US for a few years. And I was even more amazed at the progress some of my tutees made in just five weeks this summer.


Before the outline, one of the techniques we suggest is brainstorming, just writing down everything that comes into your head.

I started a Facebook group for online tutoring that never got off the ground. Still, there are some helpful links there.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CCSFtutor/

Yes!
The brainstorming portion of writing packs the biggest rush.

We used to get four people with pads and pens and one person standing in the center who did the ideas.

(Ideas come too fast for all of them to get written down completely.)

The idea person would point to one note-taker and spew out an idea until they reached the words OR or AND or BUT..... .

Then the next note-taker would start writing the next new idea down while the first note-taker finished writing out the rest of the first idea.

Sometimes the ideas came so fast that the idea person would be back at the first note-taker while the first idea was still being written down.
and...
~ and sometimes the idea person would stand frozen.....nothing coming in.

It can take a few sessions for a group to come together and really click.
Then the fun begins.
~~

You can do the same thing with an iPhone and its recorder. Stand up and just spew out ideas for five minutes. (that's a long time to spew)

Then go back and transcribe what you said. I guarantee you will have forgotten what you said at 2:17 and it's the best idea of the bunch.

~~
Brainstorming is better with other people. There is nothing more inspiring than a few "Oh wows" and "Oh yeahs" and wait until someone starts reading back to you your own ideas.

Joe(Me? I said that? Me?)Nation