Austin Wegener's Guide to Writing Great Short Essays
Everything you ever wanted to know about creating a successful writing assignment but were afraid to ask
Grading Standards
To start, I'd like to go over my grading standards. They are displayed below as an Microsoft Excel file. Give it a moment.
Seriously, give it a moment. It takes all of maybe ten seconds to load.
Seriously, give it a moment. It takes all of maybe ten seconds to load.
Some explanations about my standards
Each grade requirements have some similarities to each other, but are all different as well:
"Prove comprehension" means to show me that you know about the subject; you need to show
me what you know. Showing me you can "use the information" means you can utilize information
to make a unique answer. Often this will come in the form of an opinion question, in which there
is no clear "correct" answer; it is up to you, the student, to provide me with your opinion and then
justify why you think that way.
Always answer questions fully. In many cases, questions have multiple parts and not answering
all of those parts will hurt your grade. Make sure you answer every question asked of you.
Be sure your work, before turning it in, is free of spelling and grammar errors. Now I know we're
all human, and we do make mistakes and look over them sometimes (even English teachers), and
for that I give some leeway. However, it is small. One error, maybe two, I can ignore. Beyond that,
it will begin to hurt your assignment. Don't rely on spell check; it doesn't catch everything. Read
your answer twice over before turning anything in.
Use examples from the text. When you have a reading assignment, this is easy to accomplish,
yet it is often not done. If it asks you to describe a character's personality, be sure to bring up a
specific part of the story that shows what that character is like, thus proving to me what they are like.
Using examples also often shows me that you can use the information, killing two birds with one
stone, so it would be a great idea to use examples.
"Prove comprehension" means to show me that you know about the subject; you need to show
me what you know. Showing me you can "use the information" means you can utilize information
to make a unique answer. Often this will come in the form of an opinion question, in which there
is no clear "correct" answer; it is up to you, the student, to provide me with your opinion and then
justify why you think that way.
Always answer questions fully. In many cases, questions have multiple parts and not answering
all of those parts will hurt your grade. Make sure you answer every question asked of you.
Be sure your work, before turning it in, is free of spelling and grammar errors. Now I know we're
all human, and we do make mistakes and look over them sometimes (even English teachers), and
for that I give some leeway. However, it is small. One error, maybe two, I can ignore. Beyond that,
it will begin to hurt your assignment. Don't rely on spell check; it doesn't catch everything. Read
your answer twice over before turning anything in.
Use examples from the text. When you have a reading assignment, this is easy to accomplish,
yet it is often not done. If it asks you to describe a character's personality, be sure to bring up a
specific part of the story that shows what that character is like, thus proving to me what they are like.
Using examples also often shows me that you can use the information, killing two birds with one
stone, so it would be a great idea to use examples.
Want some examples?
Below are some examples of what responses might look like in trying to get the grades listed. The question is about a fictional story and a fictional character that I totally made up.
Question: Throughout the story, Alice shows the reader that she isn’t like other children. What characteristics make Alice a different person than the other children? How do you know this? What do you think about Alice’s character?
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C grade:
alice is angry all the time and that makes her different and i dont like her
While answering the question, it doesn't tell me you know very much about the story. It also leaves out a lot of information that shows me you know the story. Plus the grammar and punctuation is weak. If you gave a response like this, I'd just assume you skimmed the Cliff-notes.
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B grade:
Alice is angry all of the time and gets made at other kids easily even when they do little things that wouldnt normally make a person angry.
I don’t like Alice that much. She's mean.
Better than last time, though it isn't hard to improve on garbage. It gives more insight to the question, comparing Alice's character to a normal person's behavior, thus showing you can use the information.
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A grade:
Alice is becomes easily angered by the other children. At one point, on page 27, Alice attacks another kid, Bruce, after Bruce knocks over her blocks by accident. Normally, it might only bother a person slightly, but Alice attacks Bruce with a large kitchen knife and yelling “I’m going to cut out your heart and show it to your dying eyes!”, which is definitely an a reaction a person shouldn't normally have.
I don’t like Alice’s character. She’s a mean kid and is incredibly bizarre. She has to drive her parents up the wall at home. I know if I was her parent, I’d rather lock her in her room and push her food in through a slot in the door than see her ever.
This answer has it all! It has details, descriptions, and information you would really only get from reading the story. Plus, it has an example along with a page number. That example also helps her statement about Alice being an angry devil-child. It's not a terribly long answer either. But it does have everything the question asks for and that is what makes it worth an A.
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Question: Throughout the story, Alice shows the reader that she isn’t like other children. What characteristics make Alice a different person than the other children? How do you know this? What do you think about Alice’s character?
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C grade:
alice is angry all the time and that makes her different and i dont like her
While answering the question, it doesn't tell me you know very much about the story. It also leaves out a lot of information that shows me you know the story. Plus the grammar and punctuation is weak. If you gave a response like this, I'd just assume you skimmed the Cliff-notes.
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B grade:
Alice is angry all of the time and gets made at other kids easily even when they do little things that wouldnt normally make a person angry.
I don’t like Alice that much. She's mean.
Better than last time, though it isn't hard to improve on garbage. It gives more insight to the question, comparing Alice's character to a normal person's behavior, thus showing you can use the information.
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A grade:
Alice is becomes easily angered by the other children. At one point, on page 27, Alice attacks another kid, Bruce, after Bruce knocks over her blocks by accident. Normally, it might only bother a person slightly, but Alice attacks Bruce with a large kitchen knife and yelling “I’m going to cut out your heart and show it to your dying eyes!”, which is definitely an a reaction a person shouldn't normally have.
I don’t like Alice’s character. She’s a mean kid and is incredibly bizarre. She has to drive her parents up the wall at home. I know if I was her parent, I’d rather lock her in her room and push her food in through a slot in the door than see her ever.
This answer has it all! It has details, descriptions, and information you would really only get from reading the story. Plus, it has an example along with a page number. That example also helps her statement about Alice being an angry devil-child. It's not a terribly long answer either. But it does have everything the question asks for and that is what makes it worth an A.
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Being a successful note-taker
Easily the most important and simple way to improve your grades is take notes. Taking notes
will help solidify the information in your brain, as well as provide you with a handy sheet to look
off of to gain information.
So how does this apply to writing assignments? Writing assignments test your knowledge of a
subject by asking you to recall information, go in-depth about a topic, or tell your opinion and
justify why you think that way. They generally ask for a great deal of information from you,
information that you can easily forget while reading or listening to a video.
By taking notes, not only do you have the information immediately available to you as a reference,
but it becomes more easy to remember because your brain actually has to use the information. Not
only are you hearing it, you're writing it too, and that makes it much easier to remember.
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Take notes in a way that you understand. The only person who needs to understand your notes is you,
so write in whatever way works for you. For example, I often write my notes as bulleted lists. I think the
information is easier to find. However, some people who have seen my notes think they're a mess. But
I don't care what they think. They're not the people who need to understand the notes; I am.
While taking notes, try to figure out what is important and what is not. All teachers, and I mean all
teachers, love to include trivia in their lessons. Trivia, meaning, information that isn't necessarily
important, but is kind of interesting. To be a good note-taker, you need to be able to figure out what
kind of information is worth writing down, and what information isn't all that important to know.
ProTip: Important information often answers the 5W's; Who, What, Where, Why, and When.
will help solidify the information in your brain, as well as provide you with a handy sheet to look
off of to gain information.
So how does this apply to writing assignments? Writing assignments test your knowledge of a
subject by asking you to recall information, go in-depth about a topic, or tell your opinion and
justify why you think that way. They generally ask for a great deal of information from you,
information that you can easily forget while reading or listening to a video.
By taking notes, not only do you have the information immediately available to you as a reference,
but it becomes more easy to remember because your brain actually has to use the information. Not
only are you hearing it, you're writing it too, and that makes it much easier to remember.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take notes in a way that you understand. The only person who needs to understand your notes is you,
so write in whatever way works for you. For example, I often write my notes as bulleted lists. I think the
information is easier to find. However, some people who have seen my notes think they're a mess. But
I don't care what they think. They're not the people who need to understand the notes; I am.
While taking notes, try to figure out what is important and what is not. All teachers, and I mean all
teachers, love to include trivia in their lessons. Trivia, meaning, information that isn't necessarily
important, but is kind of interesting. To be a good note-taker, you need to be able to figure out what
kind of information is worth writing down, and what information isn't all that important to know.
ProTip: Important information often answers the 5W's; Who, What, Where, Why, and When.
Holy Wall of Text! An Example of How Notes Should Look
View the passages on the right and the left. The one on the left is a giant wall of text that I snagged
from the Internet. It's a brief summary of Napoleon's life. Even though it has all the information I need
to know who Napoleon is, it's not convenient or all that easy to use.
On the right is the entire passage in the form of bulleted notes. Notice that it is fantastically easier to
read, while still providing all the information as the passage on the left. This is what you should be
trying to accomplish in taking notes; simplify the information by putting it into words you understand
while eliminating unimportant stuff, like how to spell Napoleon's name if you were Italian, or that blurb
about Charles the Fat (Does anyone else find it interesting that France had a leader named "Charles the Fat"?).
from the Internet. It's a brief summary of Napoleon's life. Even though it has all the information I need
to know who Napoleon is, it's not convenient or all that easy to use.
On the right is the entire passage in the form of bulleted notes. Notice that it is fantastically easier to
read, while still providing all the information as the passage on the left. This is what you should be
trying to accomplish in taking notes; simplify the information by putting it into words you understand
while eliminating unimportant stuff, like how to spell Napoleon's name if you were Italian, or that blurb
about Charles the Fat (Does anyone else find it interesting that France had a leader named "Charles the Fat"?).
Napoleon:
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Napoleon:
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