Liz’s World

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. Here’s the question again:

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.

I used my outline to put together my ideas. The first thing I did was draft my first paragraph. For the first paragraph, I need: (1) an interesting introduction; (2) my main idea; and (3) any background or other information that’s part of the beginning, like tying it all back to the question. Here’s all I had in my outline:

Main idea: I reacted bad to my son’s engagement

I guess thinking of an interesting introduction is the biggest challenge. I want those GED test readers to have a good first impression! I thought maybe I’d say something surprising…. something that sums up why the whole situation was bad… something like… “The unhappiest time in my life was when I didn’t talk to my son for a year.” That sounds pretty good, right? Then, I figured I’d need to explain the reason, that I reacted bad to my son getting engaged. Then, maybe explain how it goes with the question… Here’s what I wrote.

The unhappiest time in my life was when I didn’t talk to my son for a year. The reason was that I reacted bad to my son getting engaged. His engagement was surprising and shocking to me, and I wish I had reacted differently.

The beginning paragraph is pretty important. Like I said, making a good first impression! Next time, I’ll show you how I drafted the middle of my GED essay.