{"id":254,"date":"2017-01-10T17:09:09","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T17:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/?p=254"},"modified":"2017-08-22T02:00:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T02:00:26","slug":"10-steps-that-will-help-you-write-a-great-college-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/2017\/01\/10\/10-steps-that-will-help-you-write-a-great-college-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Steps that Will Help You Write a Great College Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-256 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-08-at-8.21.49-PM.png\" width=\"872\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-08-at-8.21.49-PM.png 872w, https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-08-at-8.21.49-PM-300x41.png 300w, https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-08-at-8.21.49-PM-768x105.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\" \/> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Preparation:<\/strong> Grab a handful of different colored pens, pencils, and\/or highlighters. Print out a draft of your paper. I don\u2019t know why, but you can see your writing better\u2014or at least differently\u2014when it\u2019s on paper.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Put a squiggly line under your <strong>thesis statement<\/strong> and ask:\n<ul>\n<li>Where does the statement come?<\/li>\n<li>Is it precise and arguable?<\/li>\n<li>Does it require evidence and analysis to defend it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Go through the draft and underline the <strong>topic sentence<\/strong> of each paragraph.\n<ul>\n<li>If there is not a clear topic sentence, ask yourself: What am I trying to say in this paragraph?<\/li>\n<li>Write your answer in the margin and move to step 3.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Go back to the <strong>paragraphs<\/strong> that have topic sentences and ask:\n<ul>\n<li>Do all the other sentences relate to this idea?<\/li>\n<li>Have I provided evidence to support it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Go through your essay and look at each piece of <strong>evidence<\/strong> (quotation, block quotation, media) and ask:\n<ul>\n<li>Have I introduced the evidence by identifying its source and giving a brief, purposeful summary?<\/li>\n<li>Have I followed up with explanation of how the evidence\/quotation serves my argument?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Go through your essay and highlight <strong>keywords<\/strong>, using a different color for each keyword. See what patterns emerge and ask:\n<ul>\n<li>Have I drifted in my focus or lost track of an important concept?<\/li>\n<li>Have I mixed up too many different concepts?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Extract your <strong>topic sentences<\/strong>, put them in order in a separate document, and ask:\n<ul>\n<li>Is there a logical development of ideas?<\/li>\n<li>Should you rearrange the order for a more logical flow?<\/li>\n<li>Can you envision a shape, path, or structure for this flow of ideas?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>As you assess the overarching structure of your paper, think about ways to implement <strong>parallel structure<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s dream would not be nearly as memorable if he had imagined a nation where his children \u201cwill be judged not by the color of their skin, but by who they really are on the inside.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>You can achieve parallel structure at the sentence level by putting items in a series in the same grammatical structures, e.g.: \u201cnot by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>You can implement parallel structure at the macro level by setting up a template for each source you analyze and addressing each in the same order or pattern.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Cut and paste your text into the <a href=\"http:\/\/writersdiet.com\/?page_id=4\" target=\"_blank\">Writer\u2019s Diet test<\/a>.\n<ul>\n<li>Look for diagnoses of <strong>passive voice<\/strong> (pink highlighter).<\/li>\n<li>Consult the <a href=\"https:\/\/owl.english.purdue.edu\/owl\/resource\/539\/01\/\" target=\"_blank\">OWL at Purdue website<\/a> for help converting passive voice to <strong>active voice<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Read your essay <strong>out loud<\/strong> from start to finish.<\/li>\n<li>Use <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/davidson.libguides.com\/zotero\" target=\"_blank\">Zotero<\/a><\/strong> to collect, manage, and cite your sources and generate a bibliography in a snap.\n<ul>\n<li>Remember to double check the citations Zotero generates, because it often gets something wrong or leaves out crucial information (like the author).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Preparation: Grab a handful of different colored pens, pencils, and\/or highlighters. Print out a draft of your paper. I don\u2019t know why, but you can see your writing better\u2014or at least differently\u2014when it\u2019s on paper. Put a squiggly&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/2017\/01\/10\/10-steps-that-will-help-you-write-a-great-college-essay\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-08-at-8.16.27-PM-360x200-e1484593813211.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}