Read a book once a week, and write an essay summarizing the book afterwards. Pay attention to the following details:
Who: the main characters of the story.
Where: the place and background of the story.
When: the time of the story (modern or historical).
Why: the purpose of the story.
What: the happenings of the story.
How: the progression of the story.
Ask yourself why the author wrote the way it is. If you were the author, would you write differently and how.
Describe to others what the most exciting/worst parts are in the story, and why others should read or buy the book.
Tell others what lessons you have learned from the story.
After a few weeks, you will surely become a good essay-writer.
This short cut has worked very well with my kids, who are currently 14 and 12 yo. I started training them about 4 years ago. Every week, they had to write an essay and we paid them $2 per essay. In the begining it was hard, as they did not have any faintest ideas on what to write. After explaining the short cut to them, they got some feel and confidence in writing. They are still writing one essay per week now, and instead of $2, they receive $3 per essay which I think is definitely getting better. At the moment, they believe they are the best essay writers in their classes and years. Thus, if there is a will there will also be a way.
By the way, you can also use this short cut to improve your critical reading skill for SAT. In other words, if you can master the 'what, when, which, who, why and how' issues in a book/essay, you will have no problem in getting a good score on critical reading skill for SAT. All you need is plenty of reading and some thinking.
Who: the main characters of the story.
Where: the place and background of the story.
When: the time of the story (modern or historical).
Why: the purpose of the story.
What: the happenings of the story.
How: the progression of the story.
Ask yourself why the author wrote the way it is. If you were the author, would you write differently and how.
Describe to others what the most exciting/worst parts are in the story, and why others should read or buy the book.
Tell others what lessons you have learned from the story.
After a few weeks, you will surely become a good essay-writer.
This short cut has worked very well with my kids, who are currently 14 and 12 yo. I started training them about 4 years ago. Every week, they had to write an essay and we paid them $2 per essay. In the begining it was hard, as they did not have any faintest ideas on what to write. After explaining the short cut to them, they got some feel and confidence in writing. They are still writing one essay per week now, and instead of $2, they receive $3 per essay which I think is definitely getting better. At the moment, they believe they are the best essay writers in their classes and years. Thus, if there is a will there will also be a way.
By the way, you can also use this short cut to improve your critical reading skill for SAT. In other words, if you can master the 'what, when, which, who, why and how' issues in a book/essay, you will have no problem in getting a good score on critical reading skill for SAT. All you need is plenty of reading and some thinking.
