No, I'm not going to outline how to write an essay in this post :) I can write one but I don't do so well with trying to explain it to others.
You may recall my post(s) about Stossel in the Classroom free DVDs (and if you don't recall, that's okay, click on the link to go to Stossel in the Classroom). These come in handy for social studies. The only problem I personally have with the Stossel videos is the journalistic slant. I am more of a just give me the facts type of person.
Until February 28th students ages 13-18 (including homeschoolers!) can enter an essay contest on What's Great About America. Prizes range from $50 to $1500 with the first and second place winners heading to New York for a recording of Stossel. There will only be 122 prizes awarded and I am sure the turnout will be quite large but I think this is a great topic to write on in the first place. The award possibilities are just an added benefit.
So Lee has decided that she would like to enter the essay contest but we've not officially been working on essay writing. She has been doing research papers, which do entail some of the steps of essay writing but she felt she needed more instruction.
As mentioned earlier, I'm not one to teach how to write essays. I can write them but I've never actually taught how. Never really put much thought into it. So I went searching for free online help (because free is good and online is at my fingertips!) for writing essays.
The first came from a search: Basic Guide to Essay Writing -this one is by Kathy Livingstone, a member of a few of the Yahoo! Groups I follow and user of Ambleside Online- small world :)
And the second from just reading posts from blogs I follow :) Writing Skills FREE Resources (thanks to Jodi at the Homeschool Desk!)I've bookmarked the sites myself and have emailed the links to Lee so that we can start the process of strengthening her essay writing skills. But first she has to watch the Stossel video. That should be interesting.
