organization

A well organized essay, of any length, will always score higher than one that is poorly organized. That's a given. What is not so obvious is the commonality of unorganized writing assignments that have come across my desk in the eight years I have taught. And it's not only high school students who are guilty of this crime. A college professor recently told me that her biggest complaint with her graduate students (that's post-graduate) was they lacked organization in their writing! It's almost an epidemic.

So, why are so many students negligent in proof reading their own writing? The common answer to that question is time. Most of my students have complained that there wasn't enough time for them to proofread their work. Now this could be a valid point, when thinking about the HSGQE, because, even though it is not timed, most students don't want to stay in the testing room all day. My advice is to train yourself to make proofreading a part of the time you allot to writing. Getting into this habit will, in my belief, raise your writing scores considerably.

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