im going to go take my GED test again tomorrow, i only have to do the writting part and social studies. When i write any kind of paper, i write as if i was talking to the person face to face. i dont mean to but i guess a cant grasp that i have to make it sound “pro.”

Sounding like a pro can be hard, especially if you spend a lot of time reading stuff on the internet. There’s so many blogs and journal posts out there, and they’re all written pretty informally. Most of the time, when I’m writing something myself, it’s a letter to my kids or a journal entry that’s meant for my friends or something. I don’t think too much about sounding formal. So, just like with math, it’s difficult to do something you’re not practicing all the time.

First of all, why should you sound professional when writing an essay? Is it just ’cause the GED judges are snobs? I don’t think so. It’s more about making sure people can understand you. I mean, that’s what writing and talking is about in the first place, letting people know what you think, right? Sounding professional just means getting your ideas across in the best possible way by using a straight version of English that everyone can understand.

Here’s my list of a few things to avoid in order to make your writing sound a little better:

Avoid Slang

You shouldn’t use slang when writing a formal essay. Even words like, cool or lame are slang.

“I think that snowboards are sick ’cause you can tear up the mountain like a maniac.”

This could be something you’d say to your friends, but is it going to make sense to everyone? Maybe you could write more like this.

“I think that snowboards are great because you can slide down mountains at neck-breaking speeds.”

Keep to Traditional Contractions

The internet has created a lot of new contractions that seem normal, but might not be appropriate for an essay. Words like gonna, ’cause, I’mma, and shoulda don’t seem wrong ’cause you see them online a lot. In fact, the first three words in that list didn’t even come up as “wrong” in my spell check! But they might not be the best choice for an essay. Stick with traditional contractions like it’s, you’re, don’t, and I’ll. If you’re not certain what’s “official” and what’s not, just don’t use the contraction. You’re not gonna be docked points for saying “I will” instead of “I’ll.”

Leave out Filler Words

When you talk, you use a lot of filler words. You say things like so, like, well, and anyway. These words just fill an essay up with fluff and can usually be left out all together. If you want to join two thoughts together, it’s ok to put words like, “however” or “therefor” when the ideas connect to each other. However, saying, “anyway” is more like you got off the topic and are trying to get back to it, which doesn’t make for a very well constructed essay in the first place.

Write with Certainty!

Writing prompts often ask you what you think about something. Formal writing should sound certain about its answer. Starting an essay with, “I think that snowboards are great…” is immediately less certain than just saying, “Snowboards are great.” Leave out words like maybe, and possibly.

Avoid the Second Person

What’s the “second person?” It’s one of the “points of view.” The “first person” is I, the “second person” is you, and the “third person” is he, she, or it. When you’re writing a formal essay, the word “you” kinda makes it informal ’cause you’re suddenly talking directly to the person who’s reading it. I’ve found that using “we” is a good substitute. For instance:

“If you find it difficult to sleep at night, you can take a sleeping pill to help.”

This is kind of like getting into the private life of the reader. It’s making assumptions about the reader’s sleeping habits. If you just replace you with we then it immediately takes a step back and makes it feel a little more formal.

“If we find it difficult to sleep at night, we can take sleeping pills to help.”

Just remember that “we” is plural while “you” isn’t, so make sure to make any changes necessary, like how I changes “pill” to “pills.” After all, we all can’t take one pill between us!

Here’s a prompt and answer from CanTeach:

What is a good neighbour?

I think a good neighbour is someone who’s friendly, but not overly friendly, you know? Like, it’s ok if a neighbour comes over for a cup of sugar or something, but if the neighbour’s coming over all the time and using up all your sugar, then that’s way too friendly. A good neighbour has to be like a yin-yang. They have to keep to their space, but also not only keep to their space. ‘Cause then they’re just a recluse, and not really a neighbour at all. And if you’re like, “Hi neighbour!” and they just ignore you, then that’s just rude!

So, how could you fix this paragraph? I’ll see if I can clean it up myself in my next blog. Good luck with your GED! And keep writing!

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

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.”

It might have been better to list off the foods first to keep things clear, too.

“I can cook lots of things like lasagna, pesto sauce, and some desserts. Lasagna is especially hard to get right.”

Here’s another run-on sentence:

“My mother had five children so she cooked a lot and thats where I learned it from.”

Again, this can be cut down to two sentences.

“My mother had five children, so she cooked a lot. That’s where I learned it from.”

or

“My mother had five children. She cooked a lot, and that’s where I learned it from.”

If you want to read more about run-on sentences, I wrote a post on comma splices a while back.

Here’s the writing topic for today:

What is your favourite room in your home and why?

I just love my kitchen. The walls are spring green, and when the sun comes in, it feels so bright and cheerful. It’s also the place where everyone always comes together. When my boys come to visit, we’re always chatting away in the kitchen, especially in the morning. We’ve leaned against the counters with our mugs of coffee or tea and talked lots of mornings away in my kitchen. It’s also the place where all the best smells come from. Whether I’m cooking up dinner, or boiling homemade potpourri, the smells always fill up the whole house.

Leave a comment with your own answer to the question, or just if you need any help with writing at all.

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

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.

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!

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.

I remember my kids, when they started going to high school… boy, sometimes it seemed like I couldn’t understand anything they’d say. They had a whole new language, with their friends. The same thing’s true with people I know now. Some of them use slang words I’ve never heard of. And try to talk to someone about their favorite hobby, if it’s something you don’t know anything about! They’ve got a whole lot of terms and ways of talking, particular to that hobby.

EAE is supposed to be the common ground… that’s why there’s rules for the “right” way to spell things and make sentences, because if everyone’s off doing their own thing, they can’t communicate. EAE is the type of language they teach in school… language that’s “correct” in the U.S.

What does it mean when you’re writing your essay? Avoid slang, online “shortcut” spellings (like “4″ instead of “for”), or confusing sentences. You should be as clear as possible, and have as few mistakes as possible.

If you have some gaps in your knowledge of English spelling, grammar, and punctuation, it can be difficult to avoid mistakes. The most important thing is to be clear, so that someone else can easily understand you. Here are some guidelines to help:

• Before you take the test, try to identify common mistakes that you make in your writing and learn how to correct them. Most people can improve their writing a lot by focusing on a few common errors that they personally make, instead of studying lots of errors that other people make. Having other people read your writing and let you know what mistakes make it harder to read is a good way to find the errors you need to study.
• Try to write in simple, complete sentences. Don’t try to write something complex. If your sentence is getting really long, maybe you can divide it up into shorter sentences. Make sure every sentence has a subject, a verb, and a complete thought.
• Read your essay to yourself. Try to hear the words in your head, as if they were spoken by someone else. Does it make sense to you? Would it make sense to a stranger who didn’t already know what you’re trying to say?
• Make sure you’re putting punctuation at the end of sentences, starting sentences with a capital letter, and capitalizing “I.” These are easy fixes to remember and improve your writing.

The most important thing is to be clearly understood on your GED essay. If you have difficulty with sentence structure, write in short, simple sentences. Avoid overcomplicating what you’re trying to say. And watch for the mistakes that you know are common in your own writing.

That’s about it! Remember, the GED won’t penalize you for a little error. But if you have a lot of errors that make your writing hard to understand, that’s when it might affect your GED essay grade.

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

Now, people ask me about the 5-paragraph essay structure, and I say, if you’ve got it down, use it. But you don’t need 5 paragraphs exactly. 4 or 6 paragraphs is just as good. You also don’t need to follow a special structure for your introduction. And one thing I notice, a lot of people who learned the 5-paragraph essay, learned by rote: I’ll write a thesis that lists 3 things I’ll talk about later, etc. Then, the essay sounds stiff and repetitive, a lot of the time. I mean, that’s okay. You’re not going to fail or anything for being a little repetitive, but to me, it’s more important that you write an essay that’s logical, interesting, makes sense, and answers the question.

The Beginning, or Introduction of a GED Essay

The beginning of your essay will be an introduction. Your introduction needs to tell what you’re going to write about and get the reader’s interest in what you have to say. You’ll need to get across your main idea, or thesis, in the introduction. You don’t need to restate the question. Think about the essay topic given above. Now, think about a typical GED essay reader, with a stack of dozens of essays to sift through. How many of those essays begin:

An event from my childhood that taught me an important lesson that I use today is…

As soon as the reader starts reading this exact same sentence for the twentieth or thirtieth time, he or she has already decided that this definitely isn’t a 4 essay. It’s copying the essay prompt instead of stating something in your own words. Now, it’s important to actually answer the prompt, but that doesn’t mean copying the prompt word-for-word.

A better approach is to briefly summarize the event (or at least give a hint about what it’s about) and tell that it taught you an important lesson.

The Middle, or Body

The middle of your essay is the body. In a 5-paragraph essay structure, the middle has 3 paragraphs. Each paragraph addresses one point or argument that you want to make, and each point or argument relates to the main idea in the beginning of the essay. In the GED essay, 2 to 4 paragraphs is a good length for the middle of your essay, so the 5-paragraph essay structure falls right in the middle. Making three points, and then talking about each of them in one paragraph, is a good approach. But it’s not always the best or easiest way to write about a particular topic.

Sometimes, you can tell a story about what happened, what you learned, and how you use that today. Those three things could become your three middle paragraphs. Or, you could write your middle paragraphs as story, starting at the beginning of what happened, and continuing to the end. That’s an easy structure to write and follow, for most people.

Either type of body works. Both versions answer the question and keep to the main point. For many students, it’s easier to tell a story about themselves than to break up the question into two or three different points. Either way, the middle of the essay needs to contain details about what you know or what you experienced.

The Ending, or Conclusion

The last paragraph of your essay needs to be a conclusion. Many students think of a conclusion as just restating what you’ve said before. But the truth is, a conclusion is much more effective if you’ve got something new to say. Ask yourself:

• What did I learn? Why is this important?
• How does this affect other people? What can other people learn from this?
• Can I apply what I learned to bigger ideas and issues?

If you can think of something new and interesting to say about your experience, you’ll have a great conclusion, and you’ll leave the GED reader with a great last impression. If you use the storytelling route to write the body, you’ve got a lot of material for your conclusion. You need to tell what you learned and how to use it today. In either case, you need to say something interesting that wraps up what you think.

Hey, try it yourself!

Read More: http://www.passged.com/student_blogs/elizabeth/category/ged-essay-start-to-finish/

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.

Your most important task on the GED essay is to really answer the question that’s asked. You won’t know what the question is in advance, so you’ll need to think on your feet a little bit. But the questions won’t be too difficult. They’ll ask you about your opinions and experiences, so you won’t need any information except for your own thoughts and memories.

The GED prompt is really the blueprint for your GED essay. It tells you exactly what to write. Make sure that you answer everything that it asks, and you’re a good part of the way to passing.

Here’s an example of a GED essay prompt:

What event from your childhood taught you an important lesson that you use today?

In your essay, tell about the event, and explain how what you learned affects your life today. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay.

The prompt gives you everything you need to create your GED essay. First, it asks you a main question. What event from your childhood taught you an important lesson that you use today? You’ll need to think about your experiences and figure out one thing that happened to you that taught you something.

The next part of the prompt tells you what to put in your essay. First, tell about the event. That’s easy. You’ll tell the story of what happened. Then, explain how what you learned affects your life today. That has a couple of parts. First, you’ll need to identify what, exactly, you learned. Then, you’ll tell how that changed your life or affects your life. That’s your whole essay.

The last part of the question is important, and it’s something you’ll see in all GED prompts: “Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay.” That means, you need to use details about what you know. For this topic, that’s fairly easy. You need to tell a story from your life, and that will include details of what happened to you. You also need to tell how you use the lesson you learned. Again, you’ll need to tell details from your current life.

Let the prompt guide you about what to write, and you’ll score well on the GED essay.

Next time I’ll talk some about organizing your GED essay.

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

Say I want to join these sentences:

Dan is going to school.
Chris will meet him after class.

I could use the word “and,” with a comma in front of it. Or, I could just use a semicolon.

Dan is going to school; Chris will meet him after class.

Simple, right? You’ll really only need a semicolon when you’re joining two complete sentences. Now, people get confused about the words “however” and “therefore,” because they’re sort of similar in meaning to “but” and “so.” But really, “however” and “therefore” are a totally different kind of word. You often use them as an “extra” word at the beginning of a sentence, so a comma goes after them if you use them that way:

Dan is going to school. However, I’m staying home.
We’re out of milk. Therefore, I need to go to the store.

Here’s the part that people find tricky. Often, people want to join sentences with “however” or “therefore,” and there’s a tendency to want to use them to work like “but” or “so.” But they’re not the same kind of joining word! So, the way to join these sentences is just to use a semicolon, just like the other sentences. “However” and “therefore” are still extra words, so you keep the comma after them.

Dan is going to school; however, I’m staying home.
We’re out of milk; therefore, I need to go to the store.

It’s simple, really! You’re just taking two sentences and joining them with a semicolon. Nothing else changes.

Well, I hope this helps! Good luck and good GED studying!

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

(1) Joining Sentences

Use a comma before “and,” “but,” “or,” “so,” “for,” “nor,” or “yet” to join two sentences. Don’t use a comma if you don’t have two complete sentences on either side of the joining word!

Here are two sentences:

Dan is going to school.
Chris will meet him after class.

Use a comma if you’re combining them with the word “and”:

Dan is going to school, and Chris will meet him after class.

BUT don’t use a comma if you’re not combining full sentences:

Dan and Chris will meet after class.
Dan is going to school and then to meet Chris.

Since “Dan” (in “Dan and Chris will meet after class.”) and “then to meet Chris” (in “Dan is going to school and then to meet Chris.”) aren’t whole sentences, don’t use a comma with the “and.”

(2) A Series or Group

Use a comma between three or more items in a series or two items in a series not joined by a connecting word.

You might say:

Dan, Chris, and Paula all went to the library.

That’s a series, or group, of three or more people, so separate them with commas. Some people leave out the comma before the “and.” I think it’s clearer to leave it in, but it’s not really wrong either way. The GED writing test won’t test you on the comma before the “and” in a series. They only test you on things that are really clear if they’re right or wrong. They might test you on the comma between “Dan” and “Chris” in a sentence like this!

Now, two items in a series without a connecting word would be like:

Early settlers endured a long, difficult journey to California.

“Long” and “difficult” go together. They’re a group of words describing the series. You might put an “and” in the middle and it would still make sense (“a long and difficult journey…”) Since you don’t have the “and” in there, put a comma instead.

(3) “Extra” Bits in Sentences

When there are words or phrases that are aside from the main part of a sentence, they’re set off by commas.

Use a comma after an introductory word, phrase, or dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence.

Hey, that’s my lunch!
John, go to the store for me.
You see, it’s too late to get a present now.
On second thought, we could stop at the corner store.
When you get there, don’t forget to buy milk.
At the store, we ran into some friends.
Because we were running late, we forgot the milk after all.

You can see that there’s a lot of “extra” phrases you can put at the beginning of the sentence, and they make your writing interesting! The comma marks the beginning of the “main” sentence, and stops there from being any confusion.

The same thing happens at the end of a sentence. Use a comma before an extra comment or question at the end of a sentence.

You’re going to the store for me, right?
You won’t forget the milk this time, will you?
Don’t be late again, John.

And the same thing happens in the middle of a sentence! If you’re putting in extra information, put commas around it to separate it out from the main sentence:

The first lesson, which is about commas, is really hard.
I’m telling you, John, that I don’t want you to be late.
I went to the store, the one one First Street, to get groceries.

Do you see how you could take all the bits in commas out and keep the meaning the same? You could say:

The first lesson is really hard.
I’m telling you that I don’t want you to be late.
I went to the store to get groceries.

The parts in commas give extra information. Putting the commas around them shows that it’s extra information, and not part of the main sentence.

That’s commas, in a nutshell!

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