Peer revision is a strategy that writing teachers can use to help students develop strong editing skills. It involves allowing students to edit and suggest revisions to each others' works. It is an excellent time saver for teachers, but it is only effective if students are adequately prepared for editing.
What is a comparison essay?
A comparison essay (or a Compare and Contrast essay) is used to critically analyze any two subjects, finding and pointing out their similarities and/or dissimilarities.
Depending on your assignment, such essays can be comparative only (looking only at similarities), contrasting only (pointing out the differences) or both comparative and contrasting.
Below you will find specific instructions on how to write a comparison essay on any topic, which is well written and will have a good chance to get a high grade.
A comparison essay can have two patterns: point-by-point (or "alternating") pattern and subject-by-subject (or "block") pattern.
Alternating pattern
Alternating pattern is also known as "point-by-point comparison".
This mode of comparison will result in your essay having 5 paragraphs.
In it, you will need to consecutively compare and contrast each of the similarities and differences in the given subjects:
In the introduction you state your thesis.
Then ...
by Rosalinda Flores-Martinez
Basically, you use the adjectives. You describe people, places, and events. You describe something - a ring, its shape, its color or carat. You have to be keen and deep of thought.
The purpose of your descriptive details, however, should be to create a dominant mood or point for your readers. Such descriptions should contribute to the overall purpose of the essay or story. Avoid clichés. Avoid details that are irrelevant.
Take note of Walden Pond. How did Thoreau let us feel the meaning of solitude? This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense and imbibes delight through every pore. What about Trees by Joyce Kilmer? A tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray... And Machleish's Ars Poetica, a poem should be palpable and mute as a globed fruit.
Use your five senses. Use the different literary devices. However, be careful as to what to include and what to leave out. Remember the "Show Don't Tell," concept.
Look at following lines.
"Such solitary ...
Maybe it is just me - Ha, yeah right! - but grading is one of the most difficult parts of this whole teaching thing.
I know I am not the only teacher who feels this way. In fact I had a student tell me that he was thinking of being a teacher until he realized all his teachers complained about the grading. I actually felt bad that I contributed to his negative thinking and apologized to him for complaining about my job. I gave him honest reasons why teaching is amazing and why it can be a challenge.
I then decided to not say a word about grading to my students and simply keep my thoughts to myself, a few close friends, and you.
My aversion to grading is rather new. I never used to mind grading. I actually used to like it. I enjoyed seeing what my students learned and reading their thoughts.
It all changed this year. I know that there are ebbs and flows with everything and that teaching is one of those things. I know there are good years and OK years and years that make you think "Good ...
1. Introduction
In an argumentative essay, the introduction is very important. It gives the reader his/her first impression of an argumentative essay.
Start with a short background.
Example: Every pet owner knows that there are enormous responsibilities that go along with having a cat or dog. You must feed and exercise your pet, to keep it physically healthy; you must play with it, and keep it emotionally healthy too. You have to keep it safe from cars, people, or other animals, and you ought to protect other people, property, or pets from your own animal.
Introduce the debated question / issue.
Example: There's another responsibility that not all pet owners think about, however: spaying or neutering, or "fixing." What does "fixing" you pet mean? Simply put, it means taking your pet to the vet for a quick, cheap surgery that will prevent your pet from ever becoming a mother or father.
Explain why it's important.
Example: This surgery solves problems that pet owners know about, and ...
When people speak or write, they try to find the best way to describe what they are referring to. Using details to explain things makes the topic more interesting, as well as easier to picture and understand. Sometimes, it gets a little confusing trying to think of descriptive words and to remember how they work. In these moments, you may find that you need a little help.
There are websites that explain how and when to use descriptive words and give many examples of great word choices. Words used to describe other things are called adjectives and adverbs. While both add description, they work a little differently. A quality website that instructs on the proper use of descriptive words will use numerous models to show the differences in how the words are used.
Adjectives describe pronouns and nouns, such as people, places, things, and ideas. Questions that can help you remember adjectives include: which one? How many? What kind? These are questions that can be answered with: that... ; ...
As a relief/substitute teacher, you see many great ideas created by teachers. Here is one such idea. Items one to nine, below, were on a poster with the title, "Writing Checklist" in a Year Three class classroom. What follows each item in the checklist below is what I would explain to my class about each item. (I have reorganised the original checklist into ideas I feel fit together, e.g. presentation).
1. Have I read my writing?
Does my writing have all the ideas I wanted to include?
2. Does my writing make sense?
Is the story in the right sequence? Are there any confusing words or phrases?
3. Have I left out any words?
You can leave out 'little' words because your mind works faster than you can write.
The next four deal with the presentation, particularly punctuation.
4. Do my sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop?
5. Are there 'talking marks' around words that people say?
6. When I read my writing, do I have a comma or a full stop when I pause?
7. Is it ...
Most states require the successful completion of some type of writing assessment to receive a standard high school diploma. Often the exam is given to juniors and I have found that most students pass on the first go-round especially when they are well prepared by their teachers who require some sort of writing every day in every subject. Whether the course is history, math, or music, when students write in a variety of genres with a variety of formats, they improve. Good writing builds confidence as students learn to study their words and sentences to create full impact and to clarify their thinking with strong, descriptive word choices and sentence structure. Reflective writing is a perfect partner to any assignment, project, or creation. It is hard to bluff understanding when writing is an integral part of the final assessment. Mom may have constructed the bookshelves or Dad may have designed the science experiment leaving young son or daughter out of the loop of comprehension. But ...
For the purpose of this article, integrating writing and differentiation into your classroom, I have designed techniques that meet most writing needs most of the time. Teaching writing and differentiation fluctuate with the student and the assignment, the moment and the timing, but the information that follows provides some insight for you.
Differentiation focuses on what students need to know and be able to do
Just as it focuses on what students already know and are able to do. Differentiation also recognizes that there may be gaps in past learning and so materials and techniques are combined to fill those gaps. Think of this as rebar and cement re-enforcement, not sand and a dab of paste. Differentiation accepts that some students already know what they need to know and be able to do at their current level of education and then creates scaffolding, challenges, and adventures to let that learning soar while also accepting that students learn at different paces and that sometimes "One ...
For the purpose of this article, integrating writing and differentiation into your classroom, I have designed techniques that meet most writing needs most of the time. Teaching writing and differentiation fluctuate with the student and the assignment, the moment and the timing, but the information that follows provides some insight for you.
Differentiation focuses on what students need to know and be able to do
Just as it focuses on what students already know and are able to do. Differentiation also recognizes that there may be gaps in past learning and so materials and techniques are combined to fill those gaps. Think of this as rebar and cement re-enforcement, not sand and a dab of paste. Differentiation accepts that some students already know what they need to know and be able to do at their current level of education and then creates scaffolding, challenges, and adventures to let that learning soar while also accepting that students learn at different paces and that sometimes "One ...
