What would the hive recommend for honing writing skills for the SAT essay???

[Robin in DFW]

Dd16 writes quite well, but wants to work on organization, structure and speed for the SAT. She will probably take it this upcoming summer for the first time.

I have considered the IEW program for the college-bound student, but that may be overkill. Plus, I just read a bunch of posts on the K-8 board that are making me question if IEW is worth it. And, I don't want her to have an artificial writing style, which is something many say comes from IEW.

Would something like Jensen's Format Writing work? And just have her practice writing from prompts? Or, is the IEW SAT package different than the TWSS/SWI program?

Thanks for your help.
Robin

[Kareni]

Here's a thread that will lead you to some helpful prompts:

SAT Essay Question (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108645&highlight=prompts)

And here's a different thread with what may be some helpful discussion:

What is a really good SAT writing program? IEW's Elegant Essay or Essay Writing Int? (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119240&highlight=sat)

And this last thread had lots of great suggestions that are worth looking at:

ACT essay tips? (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18612)

Regards,
Kareni

[Musicmom]

The IEW High School Essay Intensive is different from the regular IEW program and can easily be used independently from it. It's a seminar that was given to regular high school students (who, of course, had not done TWSS or SWI.) We found it quite helpful. Also ds did the writing section of the McGraw-Hill SAT prep book and that was helpful as well. The one thing I wish we'd done was practice more over a longer period of time--such as a timed essay per week. Others on this board have done that. Perhaps they will also chime in with the resources that helped them.

[Lori D.]

We haven't taken the SAT yet, so I can't guarantee that the following IS a help for the SAT essay testing -- but it is *certainly* helping writing in general here -- it's a great tip shared originally by Momof7 (thank you!):

Once a week we sit down and do a timed essay practice from a past SAT prompt, then critique them together (I write an essay, too, alongside our 10th and 11th grade boys). Past SAT essay prompts from 2005 to present are available at the Online Math Learning website (scroll almost ALL the way down to the bottom of this page): http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/sat-test-prep.html

This is our third year of doing this, and we try to focus for a number of weeks or months on improving a particular part of our writing:
- a good opening "hook"
- including a number of specific, supporting facts / examples / details
- try to include a literary example (most of the people grading these essays are English / Literature teachers!)
- good, logical argument flow
- remembering to take a minute to create a brief keyword outline to help remember where you're going, with your essay and to remember your specific examples
- trying to finish with 5 minutes left to have time to go back and revise and edit
- work on writing quickly but *legibly*

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[Luann in ID]

The IEW High School Essay Intensive is different from the regular IEW program and can easily be used independently from it. It's a seminar that was given to regular high school students (who, of course, had not done TWSS or SWI.) We found it quite helpful. Also ds did the writing section of the McGraw-Hill SAT prep book and that was helpful as well. The one thing I wish we'd done was practice more over a longer period of time--such as a timed essay per week. Others on this board have done that. Perhaps they will also chime in with the resources that helped them.

:iagree: The High School Essay Intensive is excellent, and it is invaluable even if you never use anything else from IEW. Then do practice essays once a week over a long period of time.

[OLG]

This is going to sound trite but it works - ds just got a 10 on the essay and probably could have done better if anyone could actually read his handwriting!

First, stick with the five (or three, long) paragraph essay format. Have a strong opener and restate everything with the closing. THEN, use "for example" or whatever suits you to open each new paragraph (seriously). (Writing an SAT essay is NOTHING like real writing!!!)

And, the best tip we ever read was to pre-select a literay and an historical piece as examples that you can use in [I]any[I] essay along with a personal experience. THere are your three examples to support the answer. This allows your kiddo to not have to mentally run through everything they have read in order to include examples and takes some of the pressure off.

Again, this is not typical college level writing by any means!!! It's the silly SAT so if you through in a bunch of "SAT words" too, you will be fine!

Just my cynical thoughts....

Mary