Last Week of Essay writing

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• mavo, havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Today's Lesson

Essay  writing

Teachers look for these elements in an essay:

• Content - Did you do the task you were asked to do?
  
• Communicative achievement - Did you use the right tone and level of formality? Is it good to read? Can the reader understand you?
  
• Organisation - Did you link paragraphs together? Is there a logical flow?
  
• Language - Did you show off your sparkling vocabulary? Did you make lots of grammar mistakes? Did you vary in length of sentences, in word choice and in sentence constructions?

Time management

You have 75 minutes to write your essay. 

Planning is important as it will structure you text and save time in the long run. 

Suggested time plan:

• Planning - 15 minutes
• Writing - 60 minutes
  
• Checking - 10 minutes

What do you do during 'planning'?

brainstorm/make a mindmap

organise ideas

What do you do during 'checking'?

• have you written 2 positive arguments and 1 negative argument that you refute?
• have you written an introduction and a conclusion?
• have you added structure words?
• have you answered the question from the article?
• have you written a title?
• have you written enough words and not too many? (globally)
  

The tone of an essay should be

1. informal
2. formal
3. neutral

WHAT MAKES A GOOD ESSAY?

• We want to see that you can write an academic text in neutral/formal style, and be persuasive while having a good structure, using linking phrases etc.
  
• Keep the reader in mind. Make sure you follow their instructions and that they can understand what your points are.
• You have more access to a wider range of language if you have a negative point and a positive point.
  
• Your essay doesn’t have to be factually accurate! Lie/make things up if it helps your essay! But don't write nonsense.

Tips

Your teacher loves linking words and cohesive devices. These are bits of text like 'firstly', 'whereas', 'in addition', 'however', and so on. Properly used, they will make your writing flow and make your text easier to read. 

You can't do well in essay writing without using these phrases.

Finished!

Well done, you have finished today's lesson. 

You practised your writing skills

See you next lesson!