Saturday, December 29, 2012

Conquering Essay Writing To Pass Your Praxis II Test!

The Praxis II test has a reputation among future teachers as being a tough test to pass. And for many, the part that is the toughest is the essay part. The essay section in the Praxis II test is meant to test your writing skills. You have only around one hour in which you have to write a grammatically correct and informative essay.

When it comes to essay writing, there isn't anything much that you can study for. However there definitely are some tips that you can use to prepare yourself to score big on your Praxis II essay section. These simple techniques have been taught by Praxis II test experts to countless test candidates and so far these techniques have not let anyone down. Read on to learn them.

Four Steps To Score On Your Praxis II Essay Section

Here are four main steps that you should take if you want to write a good, informative essay:

1. First, make sure you understand the topic given to you.

2. Create the main theme of your essay.

3. Write the outline of your essay down.

4. Finally, you're ready to write your essay.

Understanding your essay topic is the most important step to take before you start writing. If you don't know what your essay should be about, you'll end up writing an essay with a different theme altogether. So take a few minutes to read the topic given to you and understand it. This shouldn't take more than three to four minutes as the Praxis II essay questions are usually easy to understand.

After you've read and grasped the topic of your essay, it's now time to think of your theme. It's also known as the main argument or the thesis statement; however you want to call it. This is important because your main theme is the foundation of your essay. This should also take a short time only if you've understood your essay topic well.

In writing an essay, you'll need to write down your outline for the essay. This should just take around five minutes as you only need to write down what is your main argument, an introduction to it, your supporting points and also your conclusion to further strengthen your argument. You are scored mostly on how well your supporting points strengthen your essay.

The only step left is to write your essay. You should have enough time to write a clear and grammatically correct essay if you have already a good outline. Also don't forget to read through your essay again to correct any mistakes if there are any.

With these steps, I'm sure you'll ace the essay part of your Praxis II test. Don't forget to practice your writing and do a lot of reading as well. All the best!

Monday, December 24, 2012

English Essay Writing

A few observations could be made on English essays and English essay writing. The first thing about the essay is that it is a literary work that is indefinable in nature. It is a definitely a type of literature, but it is not exactly possible to be analyzed, and that is the reason for which literary men and critics differ widely in their assessment of the nature of an essay. Secondly, an essay may be written on any subject irrespective of it being high or low, slight or great. The art of English essay-writing is dependent on the adequate treatment of the concerning subject. The third relevant issue is the importance of the manner in writing an essay. In fact, it is the very manner, as a customary practice, a few observations may be made on essay and not the subject itself that counts in the essay, which has to be impressive and attractive enough in expression. The mode or the pattern of writing is the fourth aspect in the essay. There are no golden rules in terms of the narrative, reflective, subjective and so on, and the essayist may have his own choice of method. The golden key to good English essay writing is freedom of writing.

The writer is given the liberty to choose his own technique in order to make his writing impressive and attractive at the same time. The final observation in English essay writing is that there the style of the essay writer that cannot grow under the fetters of instructions. The style with which the essayist writes is the product of his independent self and may differ from other essay writers. It is needless to mention that English essay writing is a distinct form of literary art, and needs a very creative spirit as well as well as a creative way of writing. A good English essay writing depends, too, like other successful literary form, on the right interpretation of the matter and the manner, of the content and the form. Informality and freedom are the qualities of an essay as distinguished from a dissertation. The want of an organic quality and the absence of that orderly and logical mode of procedure that we look for in the more ambitious kinds of literature may be reckoned among the most pronounced structural peculiarities of the English essay writing. Essay rose because men felt a desire to express through a vehicle in which they could enjoy something of a freedom of expression.

The well-marked tendency among modern English essayists towards greater logical regularity and consistency of structure is only one among many other signs of the evolution of the literary type of English essay writing in response to changing conditions. With Lamb, Hazlitt and De Quincy, the English essay writing became the popular form in which the mind roams independently, soars and sinks. The mantle has fallen on the modern essayists.

Lucas says:

"His body lies a-moldering in the grave

But his soul goes marching on"

Friday, December 14, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts - Learn How to Develop Creative Writing Abilities

Creative writing prompts are something that can help you develop creative writing abilities in you. You can develop your inherent talent of writing in a better manner using writing prompts.

Develop Your Writing Abilities:

Not everybody is capable of writing creative stuff. It is something that one is born with. However, you can develop your talent if you think that you have got that potentiality in you. With right exercise or training, you can develop your aspect of creative writing and nothing can serve this purpose better than writing prompts.

What is the Writing Prompt All About?

If you are not familiar with the term "writing prompt", then you will think that what it is all about. Well, it is simply an idea or a phrase you can use as a starting point to write your stuff. In other words, it is a technique or a way to get started with to let your innate creativity unfold. If you are not sure that you are having some kind of writing ability, then these prompts can help you bring out your latent or potentiality.

How Do Writing Prompts work?

Writing prompts are not something that will tell you how to write and what type of words you should employ into your writing. All depends on you how to translate your ideas, thoughts and feelings into creative writing. The prompts just provide you with a starting point to expressing your imagination. They are a great help especially when you are feeling blocked or empty of inspiration. When you use prompts, your mind will learn to anticipate what the prompt might have been, and it helps in filling in the gaps.

Reflecting on Your Past Writing:

It is very crucial to have confidence in you that you are capable to write creatively. And for that reason, you should reflect on your past writing. Find out some of your past writing stuff and assess them which will help you learn that the creativity you are talking about, you are capable of. Even from your immature works, you can learn the instances of your creative potentiality.

Believe in You and Start Writing!

Once you realize that there is a creative writing potentiality in you, you can start writing straightforward. You can develop your ability slowly and gradually. You can also read some pieces of creative writing to get the ideas. But using creative writing prompts, you can give your writing a brilliant head start!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Creative Writing Prompts Can Help You Get Started - Re-started & Finished In Your Writing Projects

Whether you've been struggling for ideas for new creative writing projects, getting stuck with where to take existing work, or trying to find the best ways to finish off your writing, using writing prompts can help.

A writing prompt is just a phrase or idea that gives your imagination a little boost to get going, and sets you off in a new direction, that you may not have thought of yourself. Think of writing prompts as a squirt of fuel on the fading embers of your writing that you thought were were about to die out for good.

Here's how prompts can help at each of the following stages of a writing project:

Getting Started

As writers we often complain of a lack of ideas, having nothing to get us going. How to have more ideas is a topic for another article, and in the mean time, a great way to get your creative juices flowing again is to use a writing prompt.

It's best to be spontaneous and go with what inspires you at the time, so scan through a few prompts you've found, or compiled yourself, and go with the first one that grabs your attention. Then start writing. The important part is to get going, don't worry about where your writing is heading, focus just on enjoying the story and ideas that are unfolding before you.

Getting Re-Started

There will always be writing projects you've begun that have come to a standstill for some reason. Sometimes they've reached a natural conclusion, but often you'll know that there's more potential there to explore. Which is where creative writing prompts come in.

Re-read the last section of your writing, then browse through a few prompts and take the first one that interests or inspires you. Just start writing. You don't have to begin from the precise point where your writing project ended. As you set off on your new piece of writing, because your unfinished piece is fresh in your mind, you'll naturally find ways of connecting the two. It may take 10 words, it may take a few hundred, but the energy inspired by the writing prompt will connect with the point where your writing project paused, and you'll be off again.

Getting Finished

Maybe you're someone who finds it easier to begin writing projects than to end them? This is the case with many other writers, you're far from alone. Again you can use a creative writing prompt to help you, but in this scenario it's a little back to front.

Familiarize yourself with how your current piece of writing ended. With this fresh in your thoughts, pick a writing prompt that catches your interest. Now imagine this prompt being the final sentence or point where your writing will end. How can bridge you the gap between where your writing finished and where the prompt is? Just asking this question will spur your creative mind into action. Try this with a few different prompts and you build up plenty of possible endings for your writing. Then go with what feels best.

Creative writing prompts are a very valuable tool for any writer, and can help whichever stage of a writing project you're at.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Best Ways for English Essay Writing

Dr. Johnson defines English essay writing as "a loose sally of the mind, and irregular, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly performance". It has also been called, "the after-dinner monologue of an interesting and well-informed man". It has been called by Saintsbury as, "a work of prose art". These definitions do not apply to such philosophical essay as Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding or to Pope's Essay on Criticism and Essay on Man. Hugh Walker has divided essay into two types-Essays per excellence and compositions to which custom has assigned the name. the true essay is essentially personal. English essay writing belongs to the literature of self-expression.

Alexander Smith in his paper on English essay writing has characterized the essay par excellence as a literary form which resembles a lyric in so far as it is molded by some central mood-serious, whimsical or satirical. "Given the mood, and the essay from the first sentence to the last grows around it as the cocoon grows around the silkworm". Essays are "attempts", and the guiding principle is determined by the mood of the essay writer. Just as in a lyric, the poet pours out his whole heart delighting in the passing mood of the moment, so the literary English essay writing has a pre-eminently subjective character.

Charles Lamb is the perfector of the Literary type of essay-- subjective, literary and personal. Leigh Hunt in his Indicator revived the manner, quiet narrative and the style of Steele. Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review and Hazlitt in his Table Talk took to literary criticism and raised the standard of literary taste. But Hazlitt has to much bitterness to be affable; De Quincey is often too imaginative in his conceptions and florid in his style. But Lamb is critical, imaginative and romantic. The central subject matter of the Essays of Elia is Lamb himself-Lamb's mind re-acting to his studies and environments-to life itself. This another interesting attribute to English essay writing.

Walter Pater would say, "With him as with Montaigne, the desire of self-portraiture is, below all the more superficial tendencies the real motive in writing at all-a desire connected with that intimacy, the modern subjectivity, which may be called the Montaignesque element in literature". The egotism of Lamb is blended with a sweetness all its own. There is the unmistakable stamp of his lovable personality in his essays and his essays are enlivened by genial humour and impish wit. The English essay writings of Lamb may be called confidential chatters as they are rich in autobiographical pathos and wide sympathy for humanity.

In the modern century the mantle of Lamb has fallen on many writers. Stevenson in the later Victorian age inherited the tradition of Lamb. He may not have the same humour and whimsicality of Lamb, hut he has the same urbanity in his style, the same informal and fresh approach to commonplace subjects. Chesterton writes on trifles but makes the trifles tremendous by his inimitable style while the writings of Hilaire Belloc are on nothing, on something, on everything. He has a clear incisive style in which humour plays an important part in his English essay writings.