Category Archives: teaching writing

Use a template to write an essay introduction

Posted on June 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

Starting essays—writing introductions—is one of the hardest writing challenges for many students.  They look at white space on their notebook paper or on their laptop and wonder, “How do I begin?”

What if they had a template that worked?  Here’s one I have developed for students who need to write an essay about some feature of a novel, film or play.

  • First sentence: name the novel, name the author and identify the location of story and when the story takes place.

 

  • Second, write a two-sentence summary of the story.

 

  • Third, write a transition sentence to connect the summary to the main idea.

 

  • Fourth, write the main idea (thesis).

Let’s try it out.  Suppose a fourth-grader is writing about what a silly little brother Fudge is in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  How would that introduction begin?

  • Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume takes place in New York City in modern times.

 

  • A big brother, Peter, is bothered by his little brother, Fudge.  Some people who don’t know Fudge think Fudge is cute.

 

  • But even Fudge’s mother and father get mad at him.

 

  • In the book, Fudge does some really dangerous things like fall off a rock, lose his shoe on a subway, and eat a turtle.

Now, suppose an eighth grader needs to write about a theme in To Kill a Mockingbird. How might that introduction begin?

  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in Alabama during the 1930s.

 

  • Two children, Scout and her big brother, Jem, are fascinated by a neighbor, Beau, whom they have never seen.  They think he must be a monster because he never goes outside.

 

  • But a few times Beau does come out without Scout and Jem knowing it.

 

  • Beau comes outside to show friendship when he places trinkets in a hole in a tree, when he puts a blanket on Scout, and when he saves Jem’s life.

How about one more.  A high school student needs to write about sonnets in Romeo and Juliet.  How would that introduction go?

  • Romeo and Juliet is a five-act play by William Shakespeare which occurs in Verona, Italy, around the year 1600 or a little earlier.

 

  • In the play, two star-crossed lovers meet, fall in love at first sight, and marry.  They are forced to separate, and their efforts to reunite fail.

 

  • Shakespeare tells this love story using puns, words with double meanings, and figures of speech.

 

  • But some of the play’s most clever lines are in sonnet form, and an example of this is the prologue of the play.

Each of these examples is five lines long, the length many teachers require.  Each names the title and author and summarizes the plot.  The fourth line connects the summary to the main idea which is the last sentence of the introduction.  Yet each essay is different because the summaries, transition sentence and thesis are different.

This template follows a pattern that students can use over and over to begin an essay about a novel, film or play.  This template works in most situations where a novel, play, or fictional film is the starting point of an essay.

For more ideas on how to write, read my book How to Write a 5th Grade (or any other grade) Essay.  Or contact me for tutoring lessons.  I am now scheduling summer and fall classes.

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Posted in English Writing Instruction, essay introduction, Introductions, teaching writing, writing template, writing tips

Two typical writing problems for middle schoolers and how a tutor overcomes them

Posted on January 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

Problem 1:  A seventh grader is writing a narrative about the first day of the new semester.  She starts her story by recounting how her alarm rang.  Then, lying in bed, she worries about two new teachers she would meet that day.  Next, she writes that she goes downstairs, eats breakfast, dresses and takes the bus to school.  Once in school, she grabs her texts from her locker, talks to a friend,  heads to her first class, and meets one of her new teachers.

“Do you need that part about going downstairs, eating, taking the bus, and going to your locker?” I ask her.

“Well, yeah.  How else do I show that I go to school?”

“Could you write about waking up and being nervous to meet your new teacher, and then jump to the part where the teacher meets you, saying ‘Welcome to our math class, Cara.’?”

“No, because how will the readers know who is talking and that it is later that day?”

“Okay.  Could you say, ‘Cara, is it?’ my new teacher said as I walked in the classroom an hour later.”

“You mean I don’t need to say all the in-between stuff?”

“That’s right.”  I suggest she cut and paste her paragraphs about eating, riding the bus and going to her locker to the bottom of the narrative for now while she thinks more about it.

She does, hesitantly.  A little later, she deletes that part.  “I guess I don’t need it after all.”

Problem 2:  But I can’t write, “’Cara, is it?’” my new teacher said as I walked in the classroom an hour later” because it’s only one sentence, and every paragraph needs five sentences.”

“No, it doesn’t.  Look at any book and count the number of sentences in each paragraph.  Lots will have only one sentence, and others will have seven or ten or even a fragment.”

She picked up a book and opened it and counted sentences.  She closed the book.  “But then why do my teachers say I need to write five sentences in each paragraph?”

“That’s to encourage you to write more.”

“You mean there’s no rule?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

She left the one-sentence paragraph on her page, and followed it by another one-sentence paragraph.

* * * *

Sometimes working with a writing tutor means dispelling myths, like the five-sentence paragraph or needing to write a “before” to a story instead of jumping right in.  Sometimes working with a writing tutor means making mistakes repeatedly, like forgetting to use apostrophes or using texting abbreviations, and asking for help.  Sometimes working with a writing tutor means trying stylistic changes, like adding dialog or figurative language.  Sometimes working with a writing tutor means experimenting with vocabulary the student has not written before.

Do you know a student who could use one-on-one writing instruction?  Tell that student’s parent about me.  I tutor writing to students, second grade to high school,  online.  Together students and I plan, organize, write first drafts, and revise, noting why each step in the process is important.  Writing well is like playing the piano well or kicking a soccer ball well.  It takes practice.  And with a knowledgeable coach or tutor, a student improves faster.

 

 

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Posted in five sentence paragraph, how to teach writing, narrative writing, omitting unnecessary information, teaching writing, tutoring for writing

How to incorporate direct quotations into text

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Incorporating direct quotes into their own writing can be difficult for students.  They may not have read the kind of writing—academic, scientific—which routinely uses direct quotes, so they are unfamiliar with this type writing.  And they may not have been taught it explicitly—with lessons, examples, and practice.

If so, where should a teacher begin to teach how to incorporate quotations?

One way is with the image of a hamburger in a bun.  The hamburger stands for the direct quote, and the top and bottom buns stand for the “before” and “after” information that is also needed.

The top part of the bun is where you introduce the direct quote by explaining who the quote comes from and why the quote is worth quoting.  

For example, suppose you write about democracy, and you want to quote Abraham Lincoln’s definition.  You could introduce your quote by writing, “Abraham Lincoln defined democracy in his Gettysburg Address as. . .”

The hamburger part of the image is the direct quote itself: “government of the people, by the people and for the people.”  You don’t need to quote a whole sentence—just the part which meets your needs.  You might need to rewrite your introductory information to make it work grammatically with your quote.  You don’t introduce the quotation by saying, “It says,” or “Here it is,” or “The quote is.”

For example, you don’t say, “Abraham Lincoln defined democracy.  He said, ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people.’”  This example is not good because the writer does not transition into Lincoln’s quote.  A better way is, “Abraham Lincoln defined democracy.  He said democracy is ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people.’”  Even better is using the word “as” to replace “He said democracy is.”  One word instead of four.

The bottom part of the bun is your understanding of the quote and why you consider it relevant.  A good example is “This definition is deceptively simple yet eloquent.”

The finished quotation is “Abraham Lincoln defined democracy in his Gettysburg Address as ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people.’  This definition is deceptively simple yet eloquent.”

To recap:

  • To use a direct quotation, you must put it in context by identifying who made the direct quote and why it is relevant in the context you are using it.
  • The transition from your introductory information to the quotation must use correct grammar.
  • Sometimes words of the direct quote must be left out or changed slightly (for example, from singular to plural, from one verb tense to another, from one pronoun to another).
  • Any change in the direct quote must be shown either with ellipses or with brackets.
  • If several changes must be made, paraphrasing might be a better alternative.

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Posted in direct quotes, English Writing Instruction, teaching writing, Transitions, writing tips

Recap lessons immediately after they are done

Posted on April 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

Are you an online writing tutor? Or an online tutor of any kind?  If so, might I suggest a quick and easy tip which I have found useful?

Immediately after each lesson, write a recap of that lesson, including everything you and the student or students did in that lesson. 

Send copies of the recap to the student or students you have just taught and their parents if they are children.  This way they receive immediate feedback on the lesson.  And because the recap contains homework assignments for the next lesson, students and parents know what work students should complete for the next lesson.

Save another copy for yourself.  For each student or each class, copy the email sent to the student and parents.  Paste it along with the date you sent it in a folder named after the student or the class.  Paste the most recent recap at the top of a file.  If you send any additional information before the next lesson, add this to the top of the file with the date.  This recap helps you recall the past lesson and reminds you of the homework expected at the next lesson.

Since I teach writing online, in my recaps I include the writing we did during the lesson.  Students sometimes keep a copy from the class, but in case they don’t, they can copy from the recap and paste the writing  to a document and continue the work there.  Or in the recap I remind the student that the unfinished work is a google doc which they can easily access.

Here is an example of an email I sent recently:

Today ____ and I revised an essay he wrote on the film The Last of the Mohicans.  It was perhaps the best essay he has written for me in terms of organization.  That is because we organized the essay last week before he wrote it, and he followed the prewriting organizer.

Next he chose another topic (see below) and together we created a prewriting organizer for that topic.  He will complete the essay for next our next lesson.

Genre:  Persuasive

Topic:  Why Miss Kathy should visit Orlando, FL

Intro:

Thesis:  You should visit Orlando, FL, because it has Universal Studios and a waterpark.

Topic sentence 1:  One reason you should visit Orlando is because Universal Studios is there.

  • Harry Potter, Hogwarts world
  • Underground roller coaster

Topic sentence 2:  Another reason you should visit Orlando is because it has a great water park.

  • High, long sliding board/tube
  • Bumper cars in water

Conclusion

Because I include the essay outline in the recap I save for myself, I have a detailed reminder of the work we did in class and the work expected from the student.  I reread the recaps before the next lesson.  Sometimes in my own version I include work I must prepare for the next lesson, such as finding grammar worksheets on a particular topic or providing an answer key to a vocabulary quiz.

For me, this kind of recap is definitely worth the small effort it takes.

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Posted in English Writing Instruction, teaching with technology, teaching writing, tutoring for writing

Forbidding am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being

Posted on November 15, 2019 | 3 comments

1  What if you could not use any forms of the verb “to be”?  No am, is, are, was, were, be, been or being.  No progressive verb tenses.  Fewer passive verbs. No “that’s” or “it’s.”  Could you do it?

2  That’s what two of my high school students were asked to do on a research paper due today.  Any form of the verb “to be” was outlawed by their teacher, even if that verb was part of a direct quote.

3  With no choice, they wrote and rewrote sentences.  They pared down direct quotes or paraphrased them.  They eliminated passive voice.  And then they asked me to scour their writing to be sure no forms of “to be” still lurked.

4  And they did it!

5  I was telling this to another student, an eighth grader, whose writing we had just revised, and for the heck of it, we re-revised, eliminating the verb “to be” in all its forms.  A funny thing happened.

6  The student’s writing became more concise.  The student’s writing contained more active verbs and fewer linking verbs.  “It’s better,” the student said.  “Oops,” he added, realizing he had said “it’s.”

Let’s try the strategy on this blog now.

In paragraph 1, I cannot eliminate the forms of the verb “to be” or you might not know what I am talking about.

Paragraph 2 begins with “That’s,” meaning “that is,” and later in the sentence, contains the passive verb “were asked.”  I can rewrite that sentence to say “Two of my high school students needed to do. . .” dropping the “were asked” part.  In the next sentence “was outlawed” and “was” need to be eliminated.  Instead I can write, “Students could use no form of the verb “to be” even if the verb occurred within a direct quote.”

Paragraph 3’s last sentence contains the infinitive “to be.”  I could rewrite that sentence like this:  “And then they asked me to scour their writing until. . .”

Paragraph 4 passes okay.

Paragraph 5 begins with “I was telling.”  I could easily change that to “I told.”

Paragraph 6 passes okay.

When I first heard about the “confining” verb choices for my students’ assignment, I said to myself, “Ridiculous.”  But now I am an ardent fan of this way of writing.  The results convinced me.  Fewer words.  Tighter sentences.  Fewer linking verbs.  More specific verbs.  More active voice.

Win-win.

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Posted in "to be", action verbs, active verbs, English Writing Instruction, passive verbs, practice writing skills, teaching writing, verb choice, writing tips