Basic Civil Engineering first year Notes- Chapter 4 Building.pptx
The sat essay – first impression
1. The SAT Essay – First Impression
Writing an Effective Introduction
2. First Impression
• Your graders are human! Although they are
instructed to score the entire essay
holistically, they will naturally make a first
impression of your essay beginning with your
first sentence!
3. What effect does the Introduction
have in holistic scoring?
• In holistic scoring, graders are instructed to
score the essay as a whole, not on its separate
parts.
• A poorly-written introduction will not by itself
result in a poor score
• BUT . . . It is a part of the WHOLE – and the
FIRST IMPRESSION of the WHOLE!
4. Begin with a GOOD IMPRESSION
• Show critical thinking
• Facility of language
• Focused topic
5. Strong openings
Know your topic well enough so that you
can provide an example of one of the
following:
• A relevant quote (but not one from the prompt)
• A striking statistic
• An unusual fact
• An analogy or comparison
• A topic in the news
• Anecdotes (not always good in SAT essays because of the time
limit – it would have to be very brief)
6. Some Samples for the SAT question:
“Is failure necessary for success?”
EXAMPLES of a relevant quote:
• “Think different.” (Steve Jobs)
• “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career”
(Michael Jordan)
• "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in
rising every time we fail.“ (Confucious)
7. Some Samples for the SAT question:
“Is failure necessary for success?”
Examples of a striking statistic
• Abraham Lincoln lost 8 elections before being
elected as President.
• Ford lost over $350 million in the 1950’s on
their new car, the Edsel. That’s over 2 billion in
today’s market.
8. Some Samples for the SAT question:
“Is failure necessary for success?”
Examples of an unusual fact
• Because Steve Jobs failed in college, he “sat in”
on a calligraphy course that inspired the fonts
we all know and use today – on the Mac and in
Word.
• A Native American chef named George Crum
invented the potato chip after a picky customer
kept sending his potatoes back into the kitchen
to be cut thinner and thinner.
9. Some Samples for the SAT question:
“Is failure necessary for success?”
• An example of an analogy or comparison
• Just as we fall and get up in learning to
walk, learning from failure is the key to success.
• From natural disasters to man-made
disasters, our present success comes from the
failures of our past.
10. Some Samples for the SAT question:
“Is failure necessary for success?”
• Examples of a topic in the news
• The iPad, iPod, and even Pixar movies like Toy
Story are in our lives today largely because Steve
Jobs was fired at Apple and turned his creativity
and failure into amazing successes.
• Has the recent wave of protests been failures or
just opportunities for success? (also a rhetorical
question added here)
11. After the opening sentence . . .
• Move QUICKLY to your focused thesis
statement
• Connect your opening to your topic
• Focus your thesis as much as possible (your
thesis becomes focused as your brainstorm and
plan)
12. Avoid in your Introduction . . .
• Cliché and trite openings (“Is failure needed for
success?”
• Generalized and wasted words (“Some people in
the world today …” where else would they be?)
This opening gets a huge “groan” from the
grader
• Announcing your intention – just do it! (“In this
essay, I am ….”)
13. An effective sample intro
for the SAT question
“Is failure necessary for success?”
“Think different.” Few people realize that many of
Steve Jobs’ greatest successes are a result of his
greatest failures. He failed at college and at
Apple before starting Pixar and inventing the
iPod, iPad. Thesis Likewise, some of our
greatest successes result from failures that
inspire a better and different way to create
success.
