Liz’s World

Lauren posted this:

hi here is my sentence

I am a good cook. I can cook lots of things like lasagna which can be hard to get right and I can make my own pesto sauce or also some desserts too. I learn how to cook from when I was a child. My mother had five children so she cooked a lot and thats where I learned it from. Lots of people tell me I am good at cooking now and that makes me happy. My mom would be proud.

That’s a great paragraph, Lauren. You brought up different kinds of things that you could cook, and talked about your mom, which could end up being two main ideas in an essay. You might think about a third thing if you ever wanted to turn this into an full essay, but it’s a great start!

I noticed you had a few run-on sentences, so I thought I might talk about that a little.

Run-ons are pretty hard to catch. When we talk, we say a lot of “ands” and “buts” without really pausing sometimes. Our brains don’t think like an essay, they just kinda run and run. Just like run-ons.

“I can cook lots of things like lasagna which can be hard to get right and I can make my own pesto sauce or also some desserts too.”

This sentence can be split up. They best thing to do to split it is to find the verbs and the conjunctions (joining words). I’ll mark the verbs in green and the conjunctions in red.

“I can cook lots of things like lasagna which can be hard to get right and I can make my own pesto sauce or also some desserts too.”

A good rule to follow is to have two verbs at the most in each sentence. Since there’s three verbs in this sentence, it can be cut down to two sentences by removing the and. I would also replace the “or” with “and” because “or” means that you can cook pesto sauce or desserts, not both.

“I can cook lots of things like lasagna which can be hard to get right. I can make my own pesto sauce and also some desserts too.” Read the rest of this entry »

Writing can be scary. Especially writing that asks you to talk about things you don’t normally talk about. Like, if the GED essay asked me about what sort of things I might go grocery shopping for and why, I could probably fill up page after page. And sometimes the writing prompt does ask some pretty interesting questions, but explaining it in a real clear way that everyone can understand is hard. And I think the only way to prepare for it is to write write write.

So, I’m thinking I need to write a little more. Nothing too long, not a full essay, just a little paragraph to get some practice in. And you can write too. We can help correct each other’s mistakes and learn more about the rules of writing together.

Here’s a prompt from Can Teach, and what I wrote:

What is something you do well?

I think that I am good at parenting. I had kids pretty young, and I know I made a lot of mistakes when I was raising my two boys, but I worked hard to make sure they had a good upbringing. They always had nutritious meals, and there was no disrespect allowed to their elders like I’ve seen with some other kids. I also always made sure they knew they were loved. I always went to their games, and now that they’re older, I visit them as much as I can. I know no one’s perfect, and I certainly wasn’t the perfect mom. However, I think I did a good job and that it’s something I do pretty well.

That’s a good start. It’s not a full essay, like the GED test asks for, but I could definitely write an essay from the ideas I came up with in this paragraph. Writing up short paragraphs like this as often as you can gets your brain working and thinking about how to answer these types of questions, and when you have time, you can use a paragraph you already wrote to practice writing a longer GED essay, with 4 or 5 paragraphs.

Write your own answer to this prompt, just a short paragraph, then think about how you can turn that into a full essay.

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Joachim writes:

Thanks for giving me chance to contact with you. i appeared ged exam for two times. But i can’t make it. i don’t know why i couldn’t pass essay part. my grammar part is fine. Now i decide to appear again. Will you suggest me, how i can get better number in essay part.

Okay, the essay part can be hard. Here are a couple of tips… brainstorm beforehand about ideas, people, and events that are important to you. You won’t know what the test is going to ask about, but it’ll get the ideas flowing. Then, when you take the test:

(1) Make sure you understand what the question’s asking, and really respond to the prompt. That’s a big deal. Spend some time reading the prompt and thinking about it, so you’ll be able to answer the question, otherwise, you’ll be “off-topic,” and that’s not passing!

(2) Write enough detail. Don’t just write a couple of sentences or be really general. Think of real-life examples…. things that happened to you, something you saw on the news, what your son did… having details is important to passing! If you’re too general, that’s not going to pass!

(3) Get your writing organized. Have A MAIN IDEA, and tell what it is in the beginning. In the middle, give details that support or give reasons for your MAIN IDEA. In the end, make a conclusion about what you wrote. What’s it all mean? Why’s it important?

If you do those three things, and the readers can understand what you wrote, then you’ll pass!

Brock writes:

I have A.D.D and staying on task is really hard for me I have been to take practice tests for the GED and would have passed if the essay was not a part of it. I also have a few problems when it comes to writing. Do you know of any good methods to stay on task.

Here’s my advice:

A.D.D. can be tough! First, have you checked whether you qualify for extra time or breaks because of your A.D.D.? It’s at least worth looking into. There’s information on the ACE GED website: http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ged/test/Take/Accommodations_Disab.htm

Now, you may or may not be able to get accommodations, depending on your medical history. There are still things you can do to maintain focus. One is breaking apart the essay into smaller tasks. Write a list on your notepaper of the things you’re going to do:
1) Read the prompt and restate it in my own words:
2) Make an outline of a main idea, two supporting ideas, and a conclusion:
3) Write an intro paragraph:
4) Write the first body paragraph:
5) Write the second body paragraph:
6) Write the conclusion:

That gives you six small things to do, instead of one big thing that you can be lost in. It’ll also help your writing stay organized and focused. A couple more tips: (1) Give yourself a break. If you find yourself drifting, take a deep breath, look around, say “I can do this,” and re-focus. It can help to have a ritual, like doodling a cat or saying a mantra (I will pass!) to yourself, to give a short break and then be back on track. (2) Eat before the test, layer your clothes so you won’t get too hot or cold, and choose a seat that won’t be distracting. Being hungry or by a window or cold or hot can ruin your concentration, so pay attention to your needs!

Hope this helps!

For more information on the GED test or GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

One of the things that the GED essay is scored on is called “EAE” … that stands for Edited American English. Basically, EAE is the normal grammar, spelling, use of words, and sentence structure that is taught in classrooms around the U.S. The idea of having a “standard” language is to make sure that writers in English can communicate with each other. Here’s one thing I’ve learned about language… we all speak and write a little differently. We’ve all lived in different areas, with different people, and different groups of people use language in slightly different ways. That’s how slang starts. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things your GED essay is scored on is whether it’s organized. It’s got to all work together, and it’s got to be easy to follow. In other words, you’ve got to write something that makes sense. The basic idea of organization is simple, especially since the GED essay is pretty short: You’ve got to have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Read the rest of this entry »

The GED essay is scored on five criteria. (1) Did you answer the prompt and stay on topic? (2) Is your essay well organized? (3) Is your writing developed well, with good details and examples? (4) Did you follow the conventions of Edited American English grammar and spelling? and (5) Did you use good word choices to say what you mean?

I’m going to look at each of these GED essay scoring criteria in detail in its own post. The first one is answering the prompt, and staying on topic. Read the rest of this entry »

Semicolons are actually pretty easy. The main use of semicolons is to join two complete sentences without one of the joining words I mentioned before, “for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” or “so.” Read the rest of this entry »

Commas are a big issue in writing, and it’s confusing to a lot of people. But, this is another important thing to get the hang of to pass the multiple choice part of the GED writing test. Here are some rules for comma usage: Read the rest of this entry »

Hi everyone! I had someone write into the forums and ask about a few things, so I’m going to put my answers here, too, so everyone can find them on the blog. The first one was about possessives! I know they give lots of people trouble. Read the rest of this entry »