If you’re in high school, and are a junior or a senior, there’s a good chance that you’re already turning your attention ahead to college. More specifically, you are probably researching schools and trying to determine where you want to go. Do you want a traditional four-year university? A community college? An online school? A school, such as Argosy University, that combines elements of online and traditional teaching? Do you prefer an institution that is public or private? There are certainly many questions to ask yourself at this point.

But before you start spending all your free time browsing CollegeBoard.com or Online-Degree.com, it is important that you take the necessary steps to improve your candidacy at whatever school you ultimately choose. This means working to maintain (or boost) your grades, adding extracurricular and volunteer work to diversify your application, and taking the SAT or the ACT so that you can be considered for admission in the first place.

Originally used primarily by Midwestern schools, the ACT has grown considerably in usage and popularity in recent decades, and it now surpasses the SAT in many regards. In 2005, the ACT added a 30-minute writing section at the end of its administration. The writing section, scored on a scale from 6 to 12, has become increasingly useful in recent years to colleges that seek to assess the expository skills of their applicants.

There’s a good chance, then, that the ACT and the ACT writing section will fall somewhere on your path from high school to your dream college. Here are a few tips for easily boosting your scaled score and mastering the writing section:

Have an introduction and a conclusion. Even if your introduction seems weak and your conclusion is only a couple sentences long, breaking up your essay into the standard expository format can translate into an automatic 2 point boost on your scaled score.

Pick a side and stick to it. The ACT graders don’t care which side of an argument you support. They do care, however, that you support one side and present an explicit opinion to that effect. A student that vacillates between the two viewpoints will not be viewed favorably when grading occurs.

In the introduction, start general and end with a thesis. No matter what the essay topic, starting the introduction with a broad observation and ending it with a prescriptive thesis is sure to immediately put your essay in the top half of scorers. If the essay question is: “Should high school seniors get parking privileges over underclassmen?,” you may want to start your essay with this generic statement: “People have long debated whether seniority should entail special privileges at school.” You can then provide a couple filler sentences and then transition to your thesis statement: “Seniors should (or should not) get parking privileges for reasons X, Y, and Z.” This is a standard thesis format that can be used for any essay.

Think outside the box. Picking a side of the argument and then giving obvious supporting reasons can leave you with an essay that receives solid scores. But if you want to fall in the 10 to 12 range, you can get an added point or two by thinking outside the box. Using our previous example, a standard argument for senior parking privileges may be that there needs to be some sort of method to determine spots, it’s fair because everyone will eventually become a senior, and seniors are usually more responsible by virtue of their age. An out-of-the-box reason, however, may be that seniors might need to often leave school during the day for college interviews or internships.

Acknowledge the opposing view. Acknowledging that the other side of the argument has some validity will get you 1 to 2 easy points on the writing section. Don’t go on and on about the strengths of the opposition, simply provide one sentence where you point out an argument on the other side.

These are the main ways you can boost your score on the ACT writing section. While it may be difficult to improve the quality of your writing and of your grammar, any student should be able to learn these tips and then apply them when the time comes.

By Jennifer Smith

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The purpose of a narrative descriptive essay is to tell a story vividly to appeal to the reader’s senses. The more sensory images, or description, that is used to tell a story, the more interesting it will be to readers. Narrative descriptive essays are commonly assigned in first-year college writing classes, and writing one involves many steps.

1. Choose an effective, interesting topic. The story you want to tell should be interesting. While a simple vacation to Florida may have been fun and interesting to you, think about whether it will be to your reader. Choose a topic that includes lots of sensory impressions so that you have lots to describe.
2. Make an outline of the basic story you want to tell. Obviously, you need a beginning, middle and end. Having an outline of the story will keep the essay organized and help keep you on track in telling the story.
3. Decide on the type of description to include. What images do you want to impress upon the reader?
4. Write a statement of purpose. You probably won’t have a traditional thesis statement in a narrative essay, but you should have a clear purpose. What story are you telling, and why are you telling it?
5. Write a clear introduction that tells the reader what story will follow. Include the purpose in the introduction. The introduction should hook the reader and make him want to read the story. For this type of essay, use a catchy opening line that is linked to your story.
6. Tell the complete story in the body. Clearly tell the story that you have mentioned in the purpose.
7. Organize the body chronologically. Because you are telling a story, you obviously want to tell it in order. Choosing a different organizational method may be confusing to the readers.
8. Use lots of descriptive language. You want to paint a picture for the reader so she feels she is part of the story. Use description to set the scene. Describe people, events and other things as they come up in the story.
9. Describe sounds, appearances, smells and anything else to make the story more interesting and real.
10. Describe only what is pertinent to the story and moves the story along. Do not describe something in the essay that really isn’t relevant to the story.
11. Write a conclusion that sums up the essay and leaves the reader with a parting word. What do you want readers to take away from the story?

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A term paper is a paper that you write at the end of a term, which summarizes a specific idea or research project you’ve been working on. Although term papers are specific papers, you will have different guidelines, such as the page length, the subject matter, and the writing format, depending on your school and the class, as well as your grade level.

Read and make sure you understand the parameters of the term paper. A term paper, like a research paper or a thesis, is a paper for which a teacher or school can create any guidelines for that they wish. You should figure out how long it should be, what your topic should be, and what format you should write in, from what your teacher or syllabus says.

Decide on a topic for your term paper, if one was not assigned to you. The topic should be something that you are interested in, as well as something you know has a lot of information available. Try to choose something that will be easy to research with the resources that you have, as well.

Come up with an angle for your term paper. Writing about the Civil War is an idea, but you’ll need an angle, such as the particular battles of the war, or the outcome of the war, or the impact the war has today.

Research your paper based on the criteria that you were given — if you need five sources, find five and use them. Find good sources of research according to what your school or teacher considers to be appropriate, and according to the assignment — if you need a specific number of Internet or book sources, be sure to find and include them.

Come up with a thesis statement, or main idea, for your paper. This should be the overall main idea that you want to get across in your writing. After you’ve found that, you can come up with several proofs or points to support that main idea. Research your proofs or points and take notes on what you find.

Write a rough draft of your paper. Be sure that you include your thesis statement and points, and that you give information and details for your points. Then you can edit your rough draft and move on to a final draft.

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