Have you ever had an essay exam and the time is limited but the ideas just won't get onto the paper??? Or perhaps you've had a writing assignment in class due at the end of the hour, but you struggle with getting ideas organized and onto the screen?
Some strategies from the Prentice Hall Guide for Writers might help.
General Guidelines
First, If you have a prompt or a question, read it carefully. Read it out loud if you can. If not, consider rewriting the question. Circle the parts you need to tackle so you see them as separate tasks.
Get your thoughts in order (more on this in a minute).
Focus on getting an answer to what the question or prompt actually requires or asks for, not what you wish you could write about.
Once you start writing, don't ramble.
Give specific examples. If you can quote from your book, do it.
When you have your answer drafted, sum it up in a sentence or two.
Proofread. Edit.
Keep calm. It's okay to not be perfect!
Specific Guidelines
To prepare for an essay exam, write out sample questions and answers in advance. Make sure you have thoroughly studied the content you are going to be writing about. If you can't tell someone that information without looking at your textbook, you don't know it yet. Keep working on it!
Okay, so what should you do on the day of the test?
1. First, do you have more than one question to answer? How much time do you have in total? Divide it up and set time limits for yourself. You don’t want to answer one question and leave the others unanswered.
2. Once you are ready to tackle the first question, spend time on the question as suggested above. Circle parts of the question if you can. Think about your audience, your teacher, What does this person hope to see in your answer?
3. Next, analyze key terms:
Discuss: A general instruction that means “write about.”
Describe: Give sensory details or particulars about a topic. Sensory details are what you see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. Obviously, not all of these apply in many cases. Think about creating a “word picture” when you describe. Can you describe things well enough that a person can picture what you’re talking about?
Analyze: Divide the topic into parts or pieces. Then, look at those pieces closely in your discussion. How does those pieces affect the topic as a whole?
Synthesize: Can you bring a couple of ideas together? Blending ideas is often called “synthesis.” Also, writing about how the parts of a topic relate to the main ideas in that topic is also called synthesis.
Explain: This means to show a relationship between a specific example (or examples) and the general principle or topic you are explaining. Explain what (define), explain why (cause/effects, or explain how (analyze a process).
Define: Explain what something is (or isn’t). This involves a definition, a description, an analysis of its parts or function, and a comparison or contrast with other similar things.
Compare: Exploring similarities between two things.
Contrast: Exploring differences between two things.
Illustrate: Give specific example of an idea, concept, process, etc.
Trace: Give the sequence or chronological (time) order of key events or ideas. When did this start? How did it progress? Where is it now?
Evaluate: Explain the value or worth of an idea, thing, process, person, or event. Set up your criteria or standards and measure it up against those.
Solve: Come up with a solution, explain it, show how it fixes the problem, explain why it’s better than alternative solutions.
Argue: present opinions on a controversial issue. Sometimes you must present both sides. Sometimes just your own. Give evidence to support your position.
Interpret: Offer your understanding of the meaning and significance of an idea, event, person, process, or work of art. Support your understanding with specific examples or details from the text, art, etc. being interpreted.
4. After you understand what you are to do, make a sketch outline.
Be confident and watch the clock.
If you are out of time, you are out of time! Get your work turned in. Some credit is better than no credit at all.