Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Essay-T

The AP reports that beginning in 2006, the College Board will require a timed essay in addition to the verbal and math sections of the SAT. As a teacher of college freshmen, I like the idea. We all (students, teachers, professionals) are a little afraid of writing at first. We all want to express ourselves as accurately as possible. It's a matter of overcoming inertia. As with working out, the longer you haven't done it, the longer it takes to get up to speed.

The first steps are always the same, put pen or pencil to paper. When our perception of the first steps changes, they are made more difficult than they have to be. Because the first steps seem difficult, time pressure is a common complaint. Unfortunately, with the exception of some cultures that don't believe in time, the world exists in time. The best we can do is to learn time management. The advent of word processing is another obstacle. Many students have lost the skill to brainstorm on paper and the will to research manually. Students haven't had to worry about their own handwriting as a part of presentation. For all these reasons, it's time to get to work.

First topic: "The reason I hate writing essays is..."

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