~William Strunk, Elements of Style

Conciseness boils down to this: expressing as much as possible without using unnecessary words or details. Concise writing is brief and precise, but that doesn’t mean it has to be dull and dry. Help your children apply some of these tips for more concise writing.

1. Stay on track

Staying on topic is a surefire way to write concisely. When your student takes tangents and rabbit trails, he loses his focus and ends up with cumbersome, awkward, or disjointed writing. Help him create an outline before he begins writing so that he’s less likely to wander off the path. 

2.  Be precise

The more concrete the word choice, the clearer the writing. Your child can be wordy and say “the shaggy gray dog with the long hair hanging in his eyes,” or he can simply say “the gray sheepdog.”

3. Use plain English

Many students mistakenly think that big words impress. In truth, effective writing uses simple, straightforward language. While a handful of mature, well-placed vocabulary words can raise the level of a story or essay, using too many can make a piece of writing seem verbose, over the top, and just plain hard to read. Unless you’re writing for a scholarly audience, don’t overdo the vocabulary.

4. Avoid super-long sentences

To train children to be concise, attach a word limit or try restricting the number of paragraphs and sentences they can use. This will help them say what they need to say in the space allotted.

When kids are first learning to write descriptively and use a thesaurus, the pendulum can swing wildly from three-word sentences to 20 or 30-word sentences. It’s okay to give them the freedom to play with words; they’ll find their center over time. Just know that you may need to gently correct if their zeal begins creating log jams in their writing.

5.  Don’t be redundant

Redundancy refers to extra words or phrases that should be cut out. Your student’s ability to write concisely will always trump filling a page with unnecessary text.

It’s not uncommon for beginning writers to repeat themselves. But such repetition bogs down the writing and makes the reader work too hard. Here are two ways to eliminate redundancy:

• Adding concrete details, facts, or examples instead of rehashing the same point.
• Slashing unnecessary words and phrases. Remember: when two words will do the trick, why use a dozen? Encourage your student to read each sentence and paragraph to see if he can cut out any words. His point will be clearer, stronger, and easier to identify.

Q: Can you help? I’d like to learn how to use Write Shop II with topics from my high schooler’s history studies. For example, I’d like to give her an assignment such as: “Write a 3 paragraph paper on Gregory The Great.”

A: You will be glad to learn that you can use almost all WriteShop lessons to write about things you’re studying in history.

Writing Across the Curriculum

To write about history, you have several choices. First, take a look at Appendix B of your Teacher’s Manual, specifically TM pp. B-4 to B-7. This section, called “Writing Across the Curriculum,” gives you all sorts of ideas for using each WriteShop assignment as a springboard for writing about other subjects such as history or art (the WriteShop II ideas begin on TM p. B-6).

This way, you could give your daughter important practice writing the short report from Lesson 19, having her write a biography instead of an animal report. She could certainly write about Gregory the Great or any other figure from history. This important assignment is the first WriteShop lesson that teaches how to organize a longer composition.

History-based Essays

The remaining essay section (Lessons 25-30) will then teach a new set of skills: beginning with Lesson 25, your student will write short essays that give her opinion, compare or contrast, and describe or define. Each one of these essays can be used with history lessons.

In addition to the suggestions on TM p. B-7, you can also find loads of recommended topics and essay ideas on TM pp. B-21 to B-25. For example, here are some ways you could use Gregory the Great as a subject for some of the upcoming essay assignments:

• On TM p. B-23, one of the suggestions says: “Discuss the significance of a famous battle.” You could tweak this topic to say: “Discuss the significance of the reign of Gregory the Great.” 
• Also on TM p. B-23, instead of describing “what made George Washington a great president,” you might suggest: “Discuss three major accomplishments of Gregory the Great.”
• On TM p. B-25, one of the suggestions says: “Compare or contrast two presidents (scientists, explorers).” Instead, have her compare Pope Gregory I with Pope Leo I.

Once you’ve completed the lessons, it would be wise to continue re-assigning essays from Lessons 25-30 on a regular basis to keep your daughter in practice. So, once she’s used up her lesson-specific checklists, you can provide her with photocopies of the all-purpose essay checklists on pp. C-3 to C-6 (Teacher’s Manual Appendix C). With these checklists, you will be able to give your own parameters for each assignment’s length, enabling you to teach longer essays if you so desire.

.  .  .  .  . 

WriteShop I and WriteShop II have a proven track record! Using the program will help prepare your teens for advanced high school and college writing. For beginning and average writers in 7th-10th grades, consider WriteShop I. For students in grades 8-11 who need a bit more challenge, take a look at WriteShop II.

Discovering interesting topics is a critical component of the essay-planning process. However, a good topic is not enough to guarantee a successful paper. The goal of the initial prewriting stage is not to come up with a subject or a topic, per se, but to identify a controlling idea that will help guide and shape the student’s essay and direct her brainstorming efforts.

Why Write a Thesis Statement?

An essay focuses on a particular concept, idea, or scenario and tries to say something unique about it. It shouldn’t be a sprawling report of all possible facts and details. Instead, essay writing is about choosing and analyzing the most important elements necessary for advancing a particular position. Therefore, the thesis statement for an essay represents a condensed and carefully thought-out argument that will define, guide, and set the tone for the entirety of your student’s paper.

What Is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement presents, in one or two sentences, the central, controlling argument of an essay. It explicitly identifies the purpose of the paper and/or previews its main ideas. Everything your student writes throughout the essay should in some way reinforce this primary claim. A good thesis statement should:

1. Concisely present the central idea of the essay.
2. Guide the direction of the paper and establish priorities
3. Take a definitive stand that justifies the case your student is about to make.
4. Articulate a specific, arguable point with which people could logically disagree. It helps to ask what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about the topic. If the student is presenting a claim or statement that no one would argue against, then he’s not saying anything worth reading. 
   • Uncontestable claim: The world would be a better place without war.
   • Contestable claim: Christians should not participate violently in war.
   • Uncontestable claim: Domestic terrorism is on the rise in the United States.
   • Contestable claim: The rise of domestic terrorism reflects an increased disillusionment with the United States government.
5. Effectively answer the prompt or question (if given).
6. Be thoughtfully and deliberately worded.
7. Avoid vague generalizations.
8. Use clear and concrete language.
9. Pass the “So what?” test of significance. A good thesis should be substantial and important, so ask, “Who cares?” or “What difference does it make?” 
   • Insubstantial claim: Students at ABC University have school spirit.
   • Substantial claim: The strong sense of community at ABC University is evident in its students’ commitment to campus functions and organizations. This challenges the prevailing characterization of Generation X as apathetic, uninvolved, and lazy.

But We’re Homeschooling!

For homeschoolers, it’s easy to let deadlines slide. The sense of urgency just doesn’t exist at home as it does in the public or private school setting. Homeschooling brings with it a false sense of security that says, “We have time…what’s the rush…he’s only 14…that’s why we’re homeschooling,” and so on. As a result, many homeschooling parents either don’t give due dates at all, don’t adhere to them if they do, or don’t impose consequences for late assignments.

Do you want your student to succeed in college? Of course you do! Then you need to realize that in the real world, such permissiveness will never fly.

Create a System for Keeping Track

You need a system for posting and keeping track of deadlines. The best method is to post a large monthly calendar in a prominent spot (in your school area, on the fridge). Even if you use a lesson plan book and give your student daily assignments, it is so helpful to be able to step back and see—at a glance—clearly marked essay or project deadlines and test dates.

A calendar of this nature gives your teen a quick daily review of the panorama of impending deadlines. This prevents the dreaded “due date creep,” where it suddenly dawns on a procrastinating student that he has a test, an essay, and a science project all due in the next day or two.

It also encourages the student to pace himself more carefully when working on big projects, including spreading out the work over several days or weeks, and starting the project early enough to finish without having to pull an all-nighter. A college-course syllabus is sure to include one or more long-term assignments, so developing the habit of scheduling and pacing will prepare him well for handling multiple deadlines that typify college work.

.  .  .  .  .

College prep 101: Learning to meet deadlines

College prep 101: Creating a quiet workspace

College prep 101: Limiting social networking

College prep 101: Teaching responsible study habits

Your teen lives in the modern world. Between phone calls, texting, email, instant messages, Facebook, and any other number of social networking opportunities that distract her, she has to learn to establish boundaries for herself in order to get any work done at all.

Do Not Disturb

When she’s hammering out a paper or other project, there should be none of this electronic interruption until she’s finished, and for good reason. Setting aside these distractions is sort of like hanging an e-version of the “do not disturb” sign. And now I’m going to become very unpopular with your teen—and so will you, if you take my advice!

Unplug the Internet cable during her computer time and turn off her cell phone, if she has one.

Yes, unplug. This will make it impossible to go online or get interrupted by a text message while she’s working on an essay or report. If she needs to do research online, have her separate the research process from the writing process. Let her work online . . . and then simply unplug the cable when her research is complete.

What’s the Big Deal?

When your student tries to work at the computer while chatting with friends via instant message and e-mail, she loses the ability to focus and concentrate. As a result, the quality of her work suffers. In addition, she’ll require more time to finish the project. For one, the interruptions themselves take time. But more importantly, these breaks—no matter how short in duration—require her to keep refocusing when she finally returns to the task at hand.

I regularly experience this myself. I have two tasks open on the desktop, my email open on the laptop, and a barrage of projects stacked on my work surface. When I flit back and forth among them like a restless butterfly, I often close out my day feeling like I got absolutely nothing accomplished. Instead, I end up with myriad loose ends dangling everywhere and just as much on my to-do list as when I woke up.

But when I commit myself to one project at a time, visit my inbox a few times a day instead of several times an hour, and steer clear of both Facebook and the phone during those designated working hours, I am so much more productive as I pick off a whole bunch of little tasks (or take a nice chunk out of a bigger project). The sense of accomplishment is huge for me—and your teen can experience this too.

Goodbye to Multitasking

Making electronic access difficult (or impossible) forces your student to pour all her concentration and effort into her writing. This ability to separate work from play is of the utmost importance at college where she won’t have your help making such wise choices. In your “home training center,” once your teen figures out how much easier it is to write a paper in an uninterrupted chunk of time, she’ll may never go back to multi-tasking again!

That’s it for now—I’m off to take a dose of my own medicine.

Please do not disturb.

.  .  .  .  .

College prep 101: Learning to meet deadlines

College prep 101: Creating a quiet workspace

With a few focused efforts, your teen’s essays and research papers will rise to the challenge.

Use transition words.

Transition words help papers read more smoothly by providing logical organization. They also connect important thoughts or provide transitions between opposing ideas. Students often get into trouble moving from idea to idea. Without transitions, they’ll lose their reader, who will have trouble following the writer’s line of thought.

Transition words act as signals to alert the reader. Words like in addition and furthermore tell the reader that a point is about to be expanded or explained. On the other hand and conversely suggest that the writer will explore an opposite idea. Therefore and finally signal that a train of thought is coming to an end.

Reading through the paper paragraph-by-paragraph makes a good test of fluency. If each paragraph makes sense on its own, the writer probably made wise use of transitions. If not, she can look for ways to add a transition word or sentence to introduce new ideas.

Transitional words and phrases

Don’t plagiarize.

Plagiarism, copying another person’s written work and calling it your own, is the same as stealing. What has been stolen is the author’s unique way of formulating ideas into his own words. Teach your student the proper way to credit the sources she uses in her research paper or essay.

Plagiarism.org 

Focus on clarity and simplicity.

It’s not uncommon for young writers to try to impress their instructors by overwriting. This can take the form of using too many big words, piling on too much (or unnecessary) detail, or taking rabbit trails. The content of a research paper or essay must always, always point back to and support the thesis statement. If it fails to do so, eliminate it.

Word Choice

For more essay and term paper tips, also see 4 tips for stronger papers.

Write a clear thesis statement.

Your thesis statement provides focus, both for the reader and the writer. It should state the research paper’s main message in one or two sentences.

Why should your essay contain a thesis statement?

Stay on track.

As you write your paper, continually support your thesis statement with facts, details, and examples. Avoid irrelevant information that can distract your reader from the main points. By staying on track and avoiding information that doesn’t directly support your thesis, you’ll produce a much stronger essay.

Don’t rehash ideas.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying the same thing over and over in different ways. Instead, do a little more research so that you can support your claims with fresh facts and examples. Your readers will thank you!

Term paper research: Getting started

Make a plan and stick to it.

Essays and research papers need structure—an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Without structure, your paper will fall apart. Avoid diving into your paper without thinking your argument through and organizing your thoughts into an outline. Instead of trying to rope scattered ideas, herd them into formation before you begin to write.

Outline the paper from beginning to end. As you outline the body of the paper, list your key points and hit the major supporting details. It’s a relief to know where you’re going, and it will make your paper much more focused and easier to write.

How to make and use an essay outline

For example, we were supposed to get through a foreign language to meet my son’s college admissions requirements. Time and again, it seems, we’d start fresh and then stop. Spanish kept sliding to the back burner because of everything else that vied for his time. Then one day I nearly had a stroke when I realized he would never be able to finish the course in time for graduation. He paid for my lack of perseverance by having to spend some of his college electives on a foreign language.
 
Do you find that writing is one of those subjects you keep starting and stopping? Does your child drag his feet, fail to finish assignments, or complain night and day? Or are you the one who has trouble following through with lesson planning or editing? Whatever the reason, it’s important that you start afresh, make a plan, stick to your guns, and don’t let your student whine, wheedle, cajole, or otherwise manipulate you into letting him lapse!

Start Fresh

Writing is one of those non-negotiable subjects that forms a basis for academic success. So make a commitment to see your writing program through. If you’re not using a formal writing curriculum, you must still commit to assigning writing on a regular basis.

Has time been the culprit? You may need to give up another subject or extracurricular activity in order to have the time to devote to writing. Your child will not survive in college without writing skills. 

Make a Plan

WriteShop’s convenient scheduling options can help parents stay on track. With older high schoolers, time is running out. So if you’re concerned about the SAT essay, for example, your student will need to complete the essay portion of WriteShop II well in advance of the test because he’ll need time to practice writing timed essays. But no matter what, arm yourself with a plan—and stick to it—or your student will slip into old habits of not completing his work. This means:

• Choosing a schedule to follow;
• Sticking with the schedule;
• Supervising your student’s work to make sure he’s doing it; and
• Editing and returning papers to him on time so he doesn’t fall behind in his writing assignments.

If your student can finish WriteShop II by (or before) 10th grade, you can devote the rest of high school to more advanced writing, such as longer essays, literary analysis, and a couple of research papers.

Stick to Your Guns

Now for the hard part! Help your child develop self-discipline. See that he follows the schedule. If he’s used to giving excuses for why he didn’t get around to doing his writing assignment, make him write first thing each day. Hold him accountable and don’t let him off the hook!

Likewise, if follow-through hasn’t been your strong suit in the past, recommit yourself to helping prepare your student for college by teaching and overseeing the lessons and adhering to deadlines. If your student knows you won’t check up on him, he’ll continue to fritter away his time. But if he realizes that you’re going to hold his feet to the fire and impose consequences for incomplete work, he’ll perform better for you.

You’ll both be much happier in the end, and just imagine the pride at being able to say that you reached your goal!

Q: In a few years, my sons will be taking their SAT college entrance exams. Is the essay section in WriteShop II good preparation? My sons are in 9th and 10th grades.

A: Fortunately, you have plenty of time to prepare. The best time to start training your kids to take timed essays is during 9th and 10th grades, followed by weekly practice in 11th grade.

There’s a good reason for not putting off teaching this important skill till the last minute. In reality, students are worried enough about the questions they’ll face and whether they’ll be able to answer them intelligently and in the allotted amount of time. Repeated practice with timed essays helps make their responses as close to automatic as possible. Sure, they’ll still have an unfamiliar question challenging them on test day, but they won’t be reduced to a bowl of jelly at the sight of the clock ticking away! All that practice helps them learn to pace themselves, and that’s half the battle.

WriteShop II’s essay writing unit provides excellent SAT/ACT essay preparation. CollegeBoard.com states that a top-scoring SAT essay:

• Carefully and clearly develops a point of view and offers strong supporting details.
• Is well-organized in structure and flow.
• Uses appropriate and mature vocabulary.
• Varies structure by using different kinds of sentences.
• Contains limited mechanical errors (grammar, punctuation, spelling)

WriteShop II essay lessons prepare students by emphasizing each of the following important areas:

1. Content and organization At first, WriteShop essays follow a widely-accepted model: Introduction, body (developing three main points), and conclusion. Once students feel comfortable developing a simple essay and supporting each point with details, they have the freedom to expand their essays.
2. Vocabulary WriteShop students are encouraged to improve vocabulary by avoiding weak, vague words and finding synonyms for overly-repeated words. Though they can’t use a thesaurus in a timed essay setting, they can apply new vocabulary gained through other WriteShop assignments.
3. Sentence structure SAT scorers want to read essays that break free from the dull subject-verb sentence mold. WriteShop I introduces nine different sentence variations to add interest and a more mature voice to compositions. In WriteShop II, students review and repeatedly practice each one until it flows naturally from their pens.
4. Mechanics WriteShop does not teach grammar and punctuation, but the detailed Writing Skills Checklist that comes with each lesson ensures that students pay close attention to these important aspects of their writing.
5. Timing Once students know how to develop and polish their essays in a pressure-free setting, they are ready to begin writing against the clock. The Timed Essay lesson teaches them to break the essay into smaller parts, devoting a certain number of minutes to each. At first students walk through the process assisted by a guide sheet, teacher prompts, and a clock. As they practice writing timed essays, these “crutches” are slowly removed until the students can pace themselves with the aid of the clock alone.
6. Practice Parents and teachers are encouraged to assign timed essays once every week or two to keep their students’ skills sharp. Since no advanced prep time is needed for a timed essay, you only need to carve a half-hour time slot out of the week. Appendix B of the WriteShop Teacher’s Manual offers dozens of essay topics suitable for practice. You can also find a few SAT sample writing prompts here.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of how well WriteShop II essay assignments dovetail with SAT/ACT expectations. Hats off to you for beginning to plan now!