Dear Scholars,
Essay writing is a skill which, like most skills, can be developed through practice. However, unlike many acquired skills -- operating a stapling machine, bleeding brakes, tallying sales figures -- it does not become a mindlessly repetitive and ultimately onerous activity. Despite experience in high school classrooms (using the mass-production educational model and presided over by often well-meaning but uninspired pedants) which so often prompts one to conclude that essay writing is always something decidedly distasteful, the essay is an opportunity for endless creativity and variation, whose flexibility and expressive potential is limited only by the writer's ability to weave poignant and cogent content into a dazzling fabric of felicitous diction.
Well, perhaps it needn't always go that far, but my point stands: essay writing is what you make of it, and the more you do, the better you get, the easier it becomes, and the more fun you are likely to have doing it. So let's do some!
It is very hard to generate enthusiasm for writing when one's labor results only in an ephemeral entity whose sole purpose for existence is to be the subject of a cursory critical evaluation and a single mark in a grade book. Essay writing is often much more exciting and interesting when one is writing for an audience and not just for a teacher who will glance over the paper quickly, make a few red marks, and return it. (If you would prefer to write this way, you may do so by sending works directly to my email.) In our class you have the opportunity to write for an audience -- for the class as a whole, the teacher, and ultimately, after some honing and revision, for other homeschoolers at EIE, for your own portfolio, and for possible publication in any of a number of websites and periodicals. You will also have the advantage of seeing the works of other essay writers, some of whom are more advanced and accomplished writers than you. We are homeschoolers and our objective is to develop our skills while assisting our classmates in developing theirs. If our class members succeed in contributing to periodical literature, homeschooling and otherwise, and are able, as a result, to add a "publications" section to their college application resumes, we will have accomplished far more than just a mark in a grade book or even an "A" in a high school class.
There follow a series of essay prompts provided by The Collegeboard -- the organization responsible for the SAT exam. I will (and you are also welcome to) add more prompts of like ilk to the list. If you are preparing specifically for the SAT, it would be a good idea to practice writing in response to prompts like these; if not, write on anything that inspires you.
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