SAT Essay Analysis

In class we wrote a practice SAT essay. The topic was whether or not the media influences our culture and what we find important.

I definitely do not think that my essay is my best work. I don’t really work well under pressure and that’s something I can only improve by practice.
Something that I should have done was to take the first few minutes to outline what I was going to write. I was worried about the time limit so I just wanted to start writing. If I had taken a few minutes to just think, I could have some up with a better example. I also should keep my eye on the clock. When Mr. Watson announced that we had 3 minutes left, it was kind of a surprise to me.
For most essays, we are supposed to just pick a side. I didn’t know about this in-between business. It does make more sense, now that I think about it, to show the complexity of the issue, but I am also afraid that if I try to argue both sides I’ll just end up contradicting myself.
I learned that because these essay-readers who sit in a hotel room and decide our future read quite a lot of these, our essay needs to stand out. You can’t feed them the same stuff that they’ve read a million times. Next time we write a practice essay, I will
a) Not pick one side, but discuss the complexity of the issue and make a decision later,
b) Take some time to outline the essay,
c) brainstorm some good examples, and
d) use my example to make my point, but still discussing more sides of the issue, showing it’s complexity.