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The labyrinthine halls of language are bedecked with silken tapestries of syntax, strewn with the careless sprays of simile and sprinkled with gentle confetti frostings of style. Yet the granite pillars of the linguistic arts are words. Words are the spring from which Scrabble springs...and a good score on the SAT Verbal section. This will be a lacuna in this raconteur's raucous Scrabble ravings. Running the entire eclectic gamut from the esoteric to the mundane, SAT vocabulary ranks right up there with the other Kafkaesque, phantasmagoric nightmares such as public speaking and African killer bees. But before you swathe yourself in a straitjacket, know that this looming, leering leviathan of the SAT Verbal section can be conquered!
In spite of my rich, lustrous, language, please don't be misled. A plethora of pomposity, postulated by a posturing panjandrum will not endear you to the reader/marker. However, what will make you utterly appealing are the simple fruits of focus. I obtained an 800 on my SAT Verbal but only an 11/12 on my SAT essay. Your first sentence must be a rich weave of logic and words that sucks the reader into the abyss of your essay.
* Be organized and clear. An intriguing sentence in the essay must be supplemented by a clear logical train of thought. Progress from thesis to opening paragraph. If your essay deals with innovation don't go straight to talking about a fictional character. Talk about a factual character, move to his or her abstract characteristics, tie that to a fictional character and then move back to fact.
* Be Original. Everyone has written on To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye or Walden. Use characters from works of similar literary merit, but not as well known. I believe suitable books would be Lord of the Flies, A Clockwork Orange or A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. A competent writer aims to communicate while distinguishing himself from the motley mob.
* Be succinct. An eight paragraph epistle in which one attempts to stuff with knowledge will result in a stifling essay and poor time management. Think out your essay before you write; it will result in a compact essay of about 4 or 5 paragraphs in which you fully develop your thoughts.
* Read. Spend the summer reading anything from newspapers to high tech magazines.
In spite of my rich, lustrous, language, please don't be misled. A plethora of pomposity, postulated by a posturing panjandrum will not endear you to the reader/marker. However, what will make you utterly appealing are the simple fruits of focus. I obtained an 800 on my SAT Verbal but only an 11/12 on my SAT essay. Your first sentence must be a rich weave of logic and words that sucks the reader into the abyss of your essay.
* Be organized and clear. An intriguing sentence in the essay must be supplemented by a clear logical train of thought. Progress from thesis to opening paragraph. If your essay deals with innovation don't go straight to talking about a fictional character. Talk about a factual character, move to his or her abstract characteristics, tie that to a fictional character and then move back to fact.
* Be Original. Everyone has written on To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye or Walden. Use characters from works of similar literary merit, but not as well known. I believe suitable books would be Lord of the Flies, A Clockwork Orange or A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. A competent writer aims to communicate while distinguishing himself from the motley mob.
* Be succinct. An eight paragraph epistle in which one attempts to stuff with knowledge will result in a stifling essay and poor time management. Think out your essay before you write; it will result in a compact essay of about 4 or 5 paragraphs in which you fully develop your thoughts.
* Read. Spend the summer reading anything from newspapers to high tech magazines.
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