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In Class Essay

This week in class, we got back our first in class essay. These essays had been scored on the AP grading scale from one to nine, with a five being a fail on the AP test and a six being a pass on the AP test. As I got my essay back and looked at what I wrote, I began to think of in class essays differently. Whereas before I thought more of in class essays as only an answer to the prompt, I now think of it as a reflection of my own ideas and thoughts.
As we read the sample essay that scored a nine, I realized the author was answering the prompt mainly with his or her thoughts and not evidence or quotes from the text. This reminded me of the true reason we write essays, to convey your OWN thoughts in a new, original way. This author conveyed their thoughts on the prompt, and in doing so they answered the prompt as well as providing deep insight on the topic.
This taught me to use MY original though more when writing an in class essay. As I looked back on my essay, I had quotes in every one of my boy paragraphs. With this frequency of textual evidence, I realized the source was beginning to dominate my paper. The regurgitation of facts provides no new thoughts, and even though it may answer the prompt, it doesn't provide that deeper level of thinking readers seek. This means that original thoughts should be the focus of an essay, and the author's thoughts the driving factor behind the author's argument. By using original thoughts to steer an essay, it is almost assured a high score will follow.

Comments

  1. Emily Estrada-ManzanaresFebruary 10, 2019 at 2:41 PM

    Great post. I also agree that if we include more original thinking and our thought process, we can communicate better our essays and essentially score higher.

    ReplyDelete

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