So, as soon as that clock starts ticking, you better be going full steam on that intro. However, i’m going to avoid using that term here because i feel it is a little too general and misleading. For one, we’ve been taught that brainstorming is this creative process in which we should just dump as many thoughts on paper as possible. You may have even been taught to put circles around your ideas and then link them together accordingly.

All this not only robs precious time on the sat essay, but can also cause you to lose focus. Below are the steps you should take to keep you focused on the essay prompt, while generating ideas both good and bad. And, for more help in dealing with specific prompts, take a look at our sat essay theme guide. At the very beginning, you should explore both sides and ask yourself: which side can i write a more persuasive essay on? even if that side is the one you do not necessarily agree with, choose it if you feel it will make for the better essay. But how do you decide such a thing and what exactly do i mean by explore both sides ? well, let’s take the following example, lifted from the college board book: can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit? you might think, well without knowledge we couldn’t have any science. at this point, consider the other side. Now what? well, to ultimately choose a side you are going to have to follow the next step.

An essay in which you repeat yourself ad nauseam, knowledge gives us science and technology isn’t going to be too convincing. What about the internet? sure, without knowledge and without the internet we wouldn’t have a lot of benefits. Notice the question: can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit? the prompt is assuming that knowledge is a good thing. What it is asking you, however, is if there are some instances in which knowledge can be bad. There has never ever been a downside? sure, that’s a rhetorical question, which is a question in which i don’t expect an answer. But the thing is, over the years, i’ve seen so many essays on this topic with a thesis sentence that says knowledge is good.

Many describe the latest smartphone, or all the cool forms of transportation that knowledge has given us. Okay, so we’ve figured out what the prompt is asking and we’ve taken a side: there are times when knowledge can be a burden. On the thesis click here: now that you can always look back clearly at your thesis, it will help ground you as you come up with examples. One way to test whether you’ve picked a good example is to imagine that final sentence of the body paragraph. Let’s put the above into practice by choosing a few examples for the knowledge prompt above. Below i’m going to imagine i’m in a student’s head as he or she thinks up the example. Hmm…how does knowledge specifically lead to war? well, that isn’t too specific…what about world war ii, because hitler had too much knowledge to build weapons…nah, that is kind of dumb…hmm, wait something more specific.

The manhattan project required the brightest physicists that oppenheimer guy at the time to devise the atom bomb. That’s why einstein didn’t want to be a part of it, because he couldn’t deal with the guilt that would come from killing thousands of civilians with one press of a button. See, how the process was kind of messy, but ultimately yielded a valid insight? that’s how it is for most people: you’ll find one thing that doesn’t really work but is still kind of vague like the hitler bit , but then you’ll stumble upon something far more concrete the manhattan project and einstein. Notice, too, how the last sentence, with maybe small embellishment or two, can serve as a great ending for the body paragraph. Imagine, what that last sentence would have looked like had the essay stuck with the hitler example: hitler had knowledge that allowed him and his army to come up with destructive weapons, which were a burden for…uh… all of the above may seem time consuming.

Melting Pot Essay

When you are actually thinking through each step, you will find you are efficient. And perhaps the most important point of all this is to remember the following: you will actually save time by planning your essay rather than plunging in full steam ahead. An example doesn’t make sense, or we are just vague and keep repeating generalities like too much knowledge can be a burden because many people can get hurt when someone knows too much. Or, worse yet, knowledge is always a benefit because has helped people create many successful things like my iphone. Coming up with examples is tricky, so there is another segment that deals with that more in depth.

Once you become good at doing so, the 20 minutes you have of actually writing will be focused and fruitful. Readers judge essays on the depth and complexity of the argument you make and you will be taking a side , so be sure to show that you understand both sides of the issue you’re writing about. However, you can’t be wishy washy! you will pick one side and explain why it is right. Demonstrate that you understand both sides, but pick one and explain why it is correct. Don’t get hung up if you don’t actually have strong feelings one way or the other on a subject. your task is to show that you can craft a complex argument essay. That means you will have to make specific statements about your position and expound upon your individual points.