In-Class Essays
In-Class EssaysIN-CLASS
ESSAYS
(or Essay Exams)
1) What is your goal in writing an in-class essay or essay exam?
When you write an in-class essay, your audience is typically the instructor. With that audience in mind, you should attempt to accomplish the following:
Prove that you command the facts in a subject area.
Show that you can interpret and relate these concepts.
Show that you can use information to provide support for whatever claims you make and examples of whatever you are discussing.
Show that you can use the vocabulary of a subject area.
PASS!!
2) What contributes to your successful performance on an in-class essay or essay examination?
Careful attention to the questions posed
Carefully planned and organized answers
Sufficient evidence and examples
3) Some pre-writing strategies for writing an in-class essay or essay exam:
Read the question(s) carefully. Underline key verbs that tell you what to do with the topic you have been given: describe, analyze, classify, compare, contrast, discuss, evaluate, define, explain, persuade. Each of these words means something a little different and dictates to you the purpose of your essay.
Before you begin to write, break the question down into parts, or into the different writing tasks you are being asked to accomplish. Then make an outline of the major points you want to cover (don’t forget to allow time to do so).
Plan ahead. Read over the entire question or list of questions, estimate the time you can give to each question, work with your eye on the clock, and stick to your schedule.
4) Some writing strategies:
In the first paragraph of each answer or essay, explain what you will do in the rest of the answer or essay. State your major points, repeat key words from the question, and indicate what line of development and organization you will follow. In other words, give a bare bones answer to the question in the first paragraph. If you don’t complete the essay because of a lack of time, the opening paragraph should make it possible for a reader to construct what your essay would look like if you had finished it.
Treat one major idea per paragraph. State the main point of each paragraph in the first sentence—a topic sentence.
Provide transitions, such as first, second, third, consequently, as a result, in contrast, and so on.
Provide specific supporting evidence and examples for what you are discussing.
Use the terminology and names you have heard in lectures and come across in your readings.
Answer the question(s) the instructor asks, not the one(s) you might have been hoping for.
Don’t pad your answers or wander from your topic. You’re probably better off with a focused, shorter essay than a long, rambling one.
Don’t end with your weakest point. Save it for the middle of your essay. You want your reader to enter the essay noticing a strong point and to exit the essay thinking about a strong concluding point.
5) Some re-writing strategies
Leave enough time to revise, edit, and proofread.
If you are handwriting, feel free to revise, cross out, and rearrange the elements of your essay. Such changes show you are thinking. If necessary, use arrows or balloons to insert or relocate whole sentences or paragraphs. But be as neat as possible (and check with your instructor to make sure such re-writing marks are acceptable).
If you are handwriting, leave spaces at the beginning and end of each answer so that, if you have time, you can go back and add more information as it occurs to you. Leaving space at the beginning also allows you to amend the opening paragraph to better reflect what you have done in the rest of the essay or answer.
6) Some final advice:
Just because you have less time, don’t forget the writing process—pre-writing, writing, and rewriting. In fact, think about writing an in-class essay or completing an essay exam as simply requiring you to compress the writing process
Don’t panic, and simply do the best work you can with the topic you’re given and the time you have.