TJ Essay Writing

Improve essay writing for the TJ Exam, everyday school projects, and life…

Improve essay writing with instruction designed to teach you to:

Lesson 1: Grabbing your readers attention.

We will start with a 20-minute timed writing exercise using an appropriate prompt related to ethics or a personal statement.

The most important sentence in any essay is the first one. We will discuss writing the lead and you will learn how to provide freshness, novelty, paradox, humor, surprise, an unusual idea, an interesting fact, or a question – and also provide hard details explaining to the reader why the essay is being written and why he ought to read it.

We will look at examples of lead sentences from a collection of the best essays of the last few years.

We will do a few in class 10-minute writing exercises aimed at writing good lead sentences.

Lesson 2-3: The heart of the essay.

These sessions will concentrate on the body of the essay – how to find and present examples and facts to support opinion. We will discuss and review theWe will discuss and review the basic structure of argument(presenting facts, opinions, examples) and causal analysis (presenting personal reasons for beliefs or actions). This type of causal analysis is subjective and cannot be evaluated objectively as accurate or inaccurate. Therefore, the essay is evaluated as sincere or insincere, convincing or unconvincing, logically consistent or inconsistent, and reasonable or unreasonable.

We will look at examples of this type of writing. (Of all the subjects available to a writer, the one he knows best is himself: his past and his present, his thoughts and his emotions. What a reader will be looking for in these essays is individuality – whatever it is that makes the writer unique.) We’ll discuss how individual experience can be mined to bring a unique angle to strengthen or support an opinion.

Lesson 4: Pulling it all together.

In this final session we will concentrate on the conclusion – how to sum up and strengthen the lead with session-appropriate examples and writing exercises.

Bits and pieces –In all the sessions we will end with about ten minutes of fun activities. These will vary according to time and interest.

• Collect and keep a list of active verbs (learn to stop using linking verbs and stretch vocabulary to find precise action words)
• Get rid of adverbs (search and destroy)
• Get rid of unnecessary adjectives and substitute with a specific noun that doesn’t need an adjective (search and destroy)

We will take a second look at the timed essay and do a quick editaccording to what has been learned in the session (strike-overs; no erasing)

Homework: Each week the student will be assigned a 30 minute, 200-250 word essay based on an ethics or personal statement prompt.The student will email the essay by Sunday night so that the instructor has time to review and critique the essay before the next class when a hard copy of the essay with instructor comments and grade will be handed back.

Instructor: Katie Fawcett spent ten years in the World Bank’s Publishing Department serving as editor of the staff newsletter and writing about projects in developing countries. She has been a social worker in Appalachia, written ads for Peace Corps and VISTA, and published personal essays and articles in the Fairfax Journal and a number of magazines. Last February her middle-grade novel, To Come and Go Like Magic, was published by Knopf Borzoi Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. In July it was one of twelve children’s books (fiction category-Spring 2010) to receive a Parents’ Choice Award. Mrs. Fawcett also volunteered in Fairfax County Schools for thirteen years in a variety of activities from teaching Hands-On Science enrichment classes to managing publicity for high-school theater.

CLASS SCHEDULE – ALL CLASSES ARE CLOSED FOR FALL 2011!

Fall class meets Saturdays, October 22nd, 29th, November 5th, and 12th from 2 pm to 4 pm. (Mrs. Fawcett teaches this session, which is now filled).

NEW POSTING. Because of the increased demand for a dedicated TJ essay writing class, Mrs.Cathy Colglazer, who teaches our college essay writing class, has agreed to teach a second session of the class. This series meets Wednesdays, October 19th, 26th, November 2nd, and 9th from 7pm to 9pm. 

The price of this course is $490.00, due when you sign up. There is a $50 discount for students who sign up for the six-session fall TJ Test Preparation class or took our summer TJ class. Your seat is guaranteed only upon payment in full.

Refunds & Cancellations:

• A full refund (minus a $100 non-refundable fee) is available up to two weeks before the beginning of the course.
• Should you cancel after having taken the 1st class, an additional $100 will be deducted from the refund.
• Should you cancel after having taken the 2nd class, there are no refunds.

You may pay with VISA, MasterCard, Discover, American Express (only online), Debit Card, PayPal or Check. You may pay online after submitting this registration form, or if you prefer, you may call us with your credit card information. Please keep in mind – if paying by check, your seat is not guaranteed until we receive your check…

Dalby reserves the right to cancel class due to insufficient enrollment.

ALL CLASSES ARE CLOSED!

Call 703-356-2728, if you would like private essay preparation.