Secrets to Success: The TA Writing Roadmap
Summer is the perfect time to get a head start on an important school year skill—writing! Our top tutors have oodles of advice on how to jumpstart any writing assignment and see it through, stress free, to the end:
Your race begins the moment you have your essay assignment in hand. If your teacher hasn't set any internal deadlines, work with your tutor to lay out a plan. How long will you need to gather evidence? Does this paper have a bibliography? Be sure you leave time to revise your full draft—even for the shortest paper.
There's no such thing as a bad idea while brainstorming! Let your thoughts and impressions flow freely onto the page until you find the ideas that will animate your paper—ideas with the strength to carry you all the way to the finish line. Set a timer for free writing to get you started! If you’re writing an analytical paper that includes quotations and evidence, get started with notecards as you read.
Write down quotations and paraphrase references from your source(s) on notecards—one quotation or idea per notecard (make sure to write the page number and source on each card...a lettering system works for the sources, for example). Set a goal for how many notecards per source and how many per week. This way, you’ll work steadily over a longer period of time and can easily arrange your citations into an outline when you are ready to start the writing process.
Time to dig in. Gather your evidence (already organized in notecard form!) in a central location and work with your tutor to organize it into paragraphs that flow logically from beginning to end. Propose a thesis, but don't get too hung up on the wording: you may find yourself revising it soon. Our Analytical Essay Outline Template is a helpful tool to make sure you’re evaluating your evidence, forming a thesis, and then proving that thesis—the key foundations for a great paper!
That's right, drafts with an "s”. Expect to review and revise your entire paper at least once. On your first draft, don't worry about the phrasing. If you are hung up on how to express an idea, try explaining it casually to a friend or family member and write that down. You have your whole second draft to wordsmith. As you reread (and rewrite), keep asking yourself the essential questions: Have I answered the essay prompt? Does this paragraph support my thesis? Can someone else follow my thinking? Is my analysis linked to evidence? Has my thesis changed?
Our tutors love using Google Docs as a handy tool for drafting. You can use one as a place to keep track of chapter summaries, important quotes, themes, symbols, etc. as you read and start to write. You can have a document for strong transition words, a document for each draft, a document for the grammar and punctuation rules you go over in a tutoring session…you get the idea. This is also a great technique as you draft so you can share your writing with a friend, family member, or tutor (rather than having them look over your shoulder).
You're almost there! Don't let rogue commas or missing citations spoil your hard work. To catch errors in sentences you've already read twelve times, shake it up by reading your paper aloud or backwards (or both!). Have a friend or a family member read your paper to lend an extra (less fatigued) set of eyes.
Give yourself a pat on the back. You did!! On to...the next paper.
Want to talk more about your child's writing process (or lack thereof!!)? Schedule a call with a Program Director now to start to put together a plan—646.638.3504!
