Liz’s World

I’m still working on that GED essay to prepare for the test. Last time, I showed you how I drafted the first paragraph of a GED practice essay. Doing the first paragraph takes a little extra time, I think, because you want to make a good impression on the GED test readers. The middle is easier for me. So, here’s how I drafted the middle of the GED writing essay: Read the rest of this entry »

Last time, I showed how I drafted a GED essay for the test. Now, I’m going to show you how I went about drafting. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I’d take a practice question and show you how I try to prewrite about it… so here’s the question!

Sometimes, we don’t know in advance how we’ll react to a new situation.

Describe a time when you were faced with a new or difficult situation and explain your reaction. Do you wish you’d acted differently? Why or why not? Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay.

Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to writing the GED essay, I know that I was concerned about how much time it would take. I wanted to write it all down at once, and just be done. But in order to do it well and get a good grade, the best thing to do is prewrite, take a few minutes to get ideas in order before writing. Read the rest of this entry »

So, did you figure out a better way to write this?

The most important thing to me now that my children are all grown up is to have good relationships with my children, who are away in several places far from me. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes, when I write, I get so involved in trying to pick out a really good word or a really pretty way to say something… well, I either get stuck, or it turns out sounding too formal or just wrong. It’s hard to figure out.

One thing Mr. Williams taught me is that good writing sounds natural. It doesn’t sound formal or forced… so whenever I feel like I’m just getting caught up in a bunch of words, I sit back and ask myself… what do I really mean? What am I trying to say? Then I try to say it like I think it, as simply as possible.

Here’s an example of something I wrote when I got all caught up in the words…

The most important thing to me now that my children are all grown up is to have good relationships with my children, who are away in several places far from me.

It’s just too long, isn’t it? Or something. I have to think about what I really mean, and then rewrite it. How would you rewrite it? I’ll let you know what I did next week.

Here’s the timed GED essay I wrote, using this practice question:

What is one important goal you would like to achieve in the next few years?

In your essay, identify that one goal and explain how you plan to achieve it. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay.

Now here’s my essay:

Much of my life has been about caring for other people. I cared for my husband and my children. Now, I am on my own. I need to care for myself and think about who I am. The GED is my first step toward my goal: finding something meaningful to do with my life.

This goal is not as clear-cut as goals like becoming a nurse or a pharmacist. However, defining what the goal means is part of the goal. The first step I will take is to try to understand what it most meaningful to me. Do I want to work toward a greater social good? Should I concentrate on bringing small pleasures to people?

Once I understand my priorities, I need to look for an activity that will work with my priorities. This may mean finding a new career, or it may mean finding volunteer work to fit into my life. Either way, the skills I’ve learned while studying for my GED will help me write a resume, apply for positions, and talk with people.

I look forward to using my growing skills in something that I find fulfilling. I am happy to have spent my life caring for my family, and I am equally happy to now have time to pursue new interests. Defining those interests is a journey that is just beginning.

Let me know what you think!

The thing about the GED test that I think was most scary was writing a timed essay. I like to have a lot of time to think about what I’m writing. So, for GED preparation, it really helps to time your writing.

I started out by using writing exercises, like the ones I’ve been talking about, and writing a little bit every day. Say, take 5 or 10 minutes and write the whole time. That helps you write faster, so you’re not stuck on a blank page, like what happens to me all the time.

Then, the next step is figuring out how to write an organized GED essay in just a little bit of time. Well, I guess it’s not too little. The GED test gives you 45 minutes to write an essay. You only need to write 4-5 paragraphs… so I guess it’s not too bad. But you don’t want to write just anything, so that makes it harder.

For the GED essay test, I tried to make a time plan. So, I thought, 10 minutes to read the question and brainstorm some ideas. 5 minutes to organize them. Then 20 minutes to write the essay. And 10 minutes to read it over and make any changes.

Maybe you need more time to brainstorm, or more time to write. But you’ll only know that by practicing. So, after you’ve been freewriting for a little bit, try a timed writing practice for the GED test. Here’s a GED practice question to get you started, from the people who put the GED test together:

What is one important goal you would like to achieve in the next few years?

In your essay, identify that one goal and explain how you plan to achieve it. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay.

Give this test question a try, and see how it goes.

Hi again! Here’s a good link I found… it’s another journal writing help. It’s just a list of questions, and you can write an answer to one each day.

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/prompts.html

The important thing is to use the question to really write something… Think about what it’s asking, and try to write a whole paragraph to give an answer, not just one or two words. It’s writing practice, so you’ve got to write!

The first one is this: What is something you dislike about yourself?

Here’s what I tried to write:

One thing I don’t like about myself is that I’m always unsure. I guess I’m not very optimistic. I feel like the choices I make will usually be wrong, and sometimes it’s better not to make any choice at all! But that doesn’t turn out too well, either. I think that if I just think through a problem and trust myself to make a good decision, then things will turn out better. I need to practice clear thinking so that I can make good decisions and be more sure of myself!

Try writing a paragraph yourself, and let me know in the comments what you wrote!

Here’s a cool link I found:

http://www.cmmayo.com/d5mwe.html

There’s a 5-minute writing exercise for every day of the year. For each day, there’s a little blurb like to start a story. So, you take the blurb and use it to write for 5 minutes straight without stopping. It’s really for writing stories, but I think it would help anyone improve their writing. I found the one for today, and here it is:

October 22 “Falling Mirror”

Today’s exercise is courtesy of Christine Boyka Kluge, a poet and visual artist who lives in North Salem, New York.

Imagine a mirror falling. Into a canyon, into a river, onto a tile floor. Is it an antique hand mirror framed with silver roses, a faceted disco ball, or a fitting room triptych, flapping through space? Was it accidentally thrown? Is the owner of the mirror beautiful and vain, or grotesque and horrified? Perhaps the owner isn’t even human. Is it a flawed angel, an escaped gorilla, a mystified alien? View the world in reflected fragments, be the eye of the mirror as it falls. What scenes are captured as it plummets /drifts / explodes? How do these images impact / “reflect” the mirror’s owner?

Here’s what I wrote:

I am a mirror, falling to the ground. I am falling from a great height, and I turn and turn and turn as I fall. I’m falling from the top of a tree. I can see the sky reflect on my surface as I face upwards, and then the dark ground, getting closer, as I face downward. And then upward, where I came from. In the tree, a person. Now down again, facing the ground, where the dry leaves cover the pine needles and the dirt. Now up again. It’s a skydiver, because I can see the brightly colored parachute tangled in the tree. Now the tree branches crash into me as I fall. I am cracking. Leaves, birds, bark, brush, all is reflected in me. I catch the light. Yes, that’s what I’m for, to catch the light, to signal someone, so that the skydiver can be rescued. I cannot control my fall, I can only hope that I’ll land face-upward, that I’ll reflect the bit of sunlight that will bring help soon enough.

Wow, that was kind of a cool experience. Try it! Let me know what you write… and let me know what you think of my writing, too.