Say Something!: Writing Essays that Make the Grade

Front Cover
Brush Education, Jun 21, 2019 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 208 pages

Stop boring your professors with tedious, predictable essays. Get better grades!


How do you write a great essay? It’s not about five paragraphs filled with quotations from experts—you need to discover who you are as a writer and what you want to say. In a conversational style, writing instructor Laura Swart uses real student writing to show you what to do (and what not to do). Unlock your creativity and potential as a writer and create essays that stand out from the rest of your class.


In this guide, you’ll learn how to:


- Avoid common student writing errors that keep your essays out of the A zone.

- Use the CSI (claim, support, investigation) method to write a critical essay.

- Integrate relevant and meaningful quotations and research to highlight, not overshadow, your ideas.

- Write natural transitions, structure seamless arguments, and craft compelling introductions and conclusions.

- Extend the boundaries of your thinking, giving a wide berth to mundane ideas and plodding expression.


 

Contents

11 Examining a Draft
79
TAKE FOUR
86
12 Primary and Secondary Sources
87
13 Transitioning Between Arguments
113
14 Refining Introductions and Conclusions
122
TAKE FIVE
132
15 Sample Essays
133
16 Conclusion
185

TAKE TWO
25
7 Writing a Critical Essay
26
TAKE THREE
61
8 Integrating and Discussing Quotations
62
9 Transitions
73
10 Introductions and Conclusions
77
Appendix 1 Bedouin
186
Appendix 2 Marrakech
188
References
195
About the Author
196
About the Illustrator
197
Copyright

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About the author (2019)

Laura Swart is passionate about writing and teaching. She taught academic writing at the University of Calgary for over twenty years, encouraging students to find and raise their writing voices. She is a published novelist and the Director of I-AM ESL, an English-language school that uses story and song to teach the intricacies of English to refugees. Laura lives in Calgary with her husband and two children.

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