Timed Essays: Oy Vey!

Looking back on my old school days, I suppose I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for my classmates who didn’t heed the teachers’ advice about reading as much variety as possible and taking their writing assignments seriously.

I still chuckle, though, when I remember how quickly and thoroughly I would finish my high school in-class essays and journal assignments (also called bell work nowadays). The anguish felt by most of the other kids at having to write AGAIN could have been avoided if they had only accepted the wisdom that practice really does make perfect.

From baby steps to cross-country runner

You see, throughout grade school your writing improves by baby steps as you actively increase your familiarity with the vocabulary, grammar and punctuation of your own language. Writing is a learned skill. Even seventh and eighth graders who read outside of class become more adept at dealing with varied subject matter and issues. Your teachers’ advice concerning reading and writing is the only sure fire way to become comfortable and adept at timed writing assignments. And writing is the only way to improve, well, writing. What a surprise!

If you happen to fall into the category of upper class high school students who’ve realized that passing a timed writing assignment is a critical part of your state’s minimum graduation requirements, you still have time to prepare.

Understand that you’re no dummy. Introduce yourself to your school newspaper’s faculty advisor and let him or her know that you need to practice your writing and that you would like to be a regular contributor of articles. The advisor will most probably welcome you into the fold wholeheartedly and give you a small booklet outlining the basic journalistic style.

I recommend pushing your comfort level in order to advance your timed writing skills. Decide to report on the sporting event of your choice, say the school’s cross-country team. You will automatically be subjecting yourself to a deadline when you do this. Nobody wants to read about a cross-country meet four weeks after the fact, so you will have to submit your article to the newspaper in a timely manner.

Familiarize yourself with the sport’s statistics (distances, times, etc.), the individual team members’ personal records, and also the sport’s competitions (local, regional, state, etc.). This will give you some interesting background information with which to compare the runners’ performances. Then just go to a meet and take race notes on a sturdy, little notepad. It doesn’t have to be neat but it DOES have to be understandable to you!

On the bus ride back or later that night at home start a serious rough draft. The events are still fresh in your mind, so you should be able to write a fairly detailed, chronologically accurate draft. Show this to the paper’s advisor and ask for help in molding it into an article. Before you know it you won’t even need to consult the advisor for future articles.

After you pass the last timed writing assignment of your high school career, who knows? You might actually find that you like writing. Who would’ve thought.