Writing Fast Facts
T or F: You must use correct spelling and capitalization in order to get a good score on your test.
TRUE!!!
T or F: I should include my opinion, personal stories and thoughts in my informative essay
False! Stick to the FACTS!
When writing an argumentative essay, my opinion on the topic (star idea) is called my what? (Hint: This is my answer to the prompt)
CLAIM!
Descriptive words (ex. red, big, shiny) in a text can help me to create what?
Mental images (imaginary pictures)
True or False: Your teacher can help you on the test.
False! We can help with technology, we cannot help you with the test.
T or F: It's not okay to go back and re-read or annotate the source texts they give you.
FALSE!!!
When I'm writing an informative essay, all of my facts and details should connect to my essay ______.
Topic
What are two other words someone might use instead of "argumentative" when talking about an essay? (Hint "O" and "P")
Opinion
Persuasive
Double Jeopardy: This is what I should do with words I do not know
1. Cloud them
2. Use context clues to try and figure it out
3. Write what I think the definition is down on a scratch sheet of paper.
What are the 3 different things a "star idea" might be called on my AASA test?
Main idea, central idea, or (if it's a narrative text) theme.
T or F: It is okay to use a thesaurus to look up synonyms for common words. Using synonyms makes me sound more sophisticated and demonstrates that I can use complex vocabulary.
TRUE!!!
When writing an informative essay, I need to state my topic in which two paragraphs?
Introduction and conclusion
When writing an argument essay, you should re-read *this thing* over and over again to make sure your claim is actually answering it.
The prompt
When writing a summary, or identifying what summary would best fit, I should identify what 5 things in the text?
Who
What
When
Where
Why/How
I can use this strategy to get rid of answers that are I know are not correct.
Eliminating the answer (cross it out)
T or F: It's okay to have randomly formatted words or phrases (i.e. random things that are bolded, underlined highlighted etc.) in your essay, because it makes your writing stand out.
FALSE!!!
When writing an informative essay, what should I refer to consistently to make sure my information is correct?
Source texts
Double Jeopardy: When writing evidence from a source, you want to put the these two things in parentheses at the end of the evidence to properly cite it.
Author's last name and page number -- and if there is no page number, the article title.
To find the central idea, main idea, or theme of a text, I should identify what 3 things?
1. The topic of the text
2. The authors' purpose for writing
3. Graphic features (pictures, captions, titles, quotes, things in weird font.)
If I don't understand what the question is asking, I should...
Re-read the question (as many times as I need) and then try to write the question in my own words.
List at least 6 different kinds of punctuation.
Commas, dashes, parentheses, exclamation points, question marks, periods, quotation marks, colons, semicolons, apostrophes
Double Jeopardy: What is domain specific language? Why is domain specific language important to include in your essay?
Domain specific language is vocabulary. It's important to include this in my essay because it makes my topic more clear to the reader and also makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about.
When writing an argumentative essay, I need what 3 things to back up my claim?
1. Reasons
2. Evidence
3. Elaboration
I can make inferences to deepen my understanding of a text. When I make an inference, I need to combine two key things...
1. A quote, fact, or detail that the text gives me.
2. My prior knowledge (what I know about the topic or topics that the text doesn't talk about)
If I am struggling with a question, but the next question is one that is super easy, I should...
Skip the difficult question and answer the questions you know first! Sometimes future questions will give you a hint to the previous question. You can always go back and make an educated guess with the question that is hard for you.