14 Ways to Write Better in High School

14 Ways to Write Better in High School Whether youre putting together a research paper for class, posting a blog, composing your SAT essay or brainstorming for your college admissions essay, you just kind of need to know how to write. And sometimes, high school kids really struggle to get the words from their brain onto paper. But really, writing is not all that tricky. You should not break out in a cold sweat when your teacher announces an essay exam. You can write better in six minutes if you just use some of these tips to help you get the ideas that flow so easily from your mouth to do the same thing from your fingertips. Read on for 14 ways to write better essays, blogs, papers, the works! 1. Read Cereal Boxes Yep, cereal boxes, magazines, blogs, novels, the newspaper, ads, e-zines, you name it. If it has words, read it. Good writing will challenge you to up your game, and bad writing will help you learn what not to do. A variety of reading materials can influence you in subtle ways, too. Ads are often perfect examples of succinct, persuasive text. The newspaper will show you how to hook a reader in a few lines. A novel can teach you how to incorporate dialogue seamlessly into your essay. Blogs are great for demonstrating an authors voice. So, if its there, and youve got a second, read it. 2. Start a Blog/Journal Good writers write. A lot. Start a blog (maybe even a teen blog?) and advertise it all over Facebook and Twitter if youre interested in feedback. Start a blog and keep it quiet if youre not. Keep a journal. Report on things happening in your life/around school/ around your home. Try to solve daily problems with quick, one-paragraph solutions. Get started on some really unique creative writing prompts. Practice. Youll get better. 3. Open Up a Can of Worms Dont be afraid to get a little risky. Go against the grain. Shake things up. Tear apart the poems you find meaningless on your next essay. Research a touchy political subject like immigration, abortion, gun control, capital punishment, and unions. Blog about topics that generate real, heartfelt, impassioned discussion. You dont have to write about hummingbirds just because your teacher loves them. 4. To Thine Own Self Be True Stick with your own voice. Nothing sounds faker than a high school essay with words like alas and evermore sprinkled throughout, especially when the author is a skater kid from Fresno. Use your own wit, tone, and vernacular. Yes, you should adjust your tone and level of formality based on the writing situation (blog vs. research paper), but you dont have to become a different person just to put together your college admissions essay. Theyll like you better if youre you. 5. Avoid Redundancy Just drop the word nice from your vocabulary. It doesnt really mean anything. Same goes for good. There are thirty-seven better ways to say what you mean. Busy as a bee, sly as a fox, and hungry as a wolf belong in country songs, not in your ACT essay. 6. Keep Your Audience in Mind This goes back to adjusting your tone and level of formality based on the writing situation. If youre writing to gain entrance to your first choice for college, then perhaps youd better not talk about that time you made it to second base with your love interest. Your teacher is not interested in your sticker collection, and the readers on your blog dont care about the stellar research project you put together on the migratory habits of emperor penguins. Writing is one part marketing. Remember that if you want to be a better writer! 7. Go To the Dark Side Just for the heck of it, allow yourself to consider the possibility that the opposite opinion is actually correct. Write your next essay defending the 180 of your thought processes. If youre a Coke person, go Pepsi. Cat lover? Defend dogs. Catholic? Figure out what the Protestants are talking about. By exploring a different set of beliefs, you open up your brain to endless creativity, and maybe garner some fodder for your next debate, too. 8. Make It Real Boring writing doesnt use the senses. If your writing assignment is to report on the local parade and you fail to mention the shrieking kids, dripping chocolate ice cream cones, and rat-tat-tatting from the marching bands snare drum, then youve failed. You need to make whatever youre writing about come alive to your reader. If they werent there, put them on that street with the parade. Youll be a better writer for it! 9. Give People Goosebumps Good writing will make people feel something. Tie something concrete – relatable –to the existential. Instead of talking about justice as a vague idea, tie the word, judgment, to the sound the gavel makes as it hits the judges desk. Tie the word, sadness, to a young mother lying on her husbands freshly dug grave. Tie the word, joy to a dog careening around the yard when it sees its owner after two long years at war. Make your readers cry or laugh out loud at the coffee shop. Ticked off. Make them feel and theyll wanna come back for more. 10. Write Creatively When Youre Sleepy Sometimes, the inspiration bug bites when youre all strung-out from being up too late. Your mind opens up a bit when youre tired, so youre more likely to shut down the robot-I-am-in-control portion of your brain and listen to the whisper of the muses. Give it a whirl the next time youre struggling to get out of the gate on your take-home essay. 11. Edit When Youre Fully Rested Sometimes those late-night muses steer your writing vessel directly into a rocky shoreline, so dont make the mistake of calling your work done at 3:00 AM. Heck, no. Make time the next day, after a long, satisfying rest, to edit all of those ramblings and misspelled words. 12. Enter Writing Contests Not everyone is brave enough to enter a writing contest, and thats just silly. If you want to become a better writer, find some free writing contests for teenagers online and submit everything you wouldnt be embarrassed to see plastered all over the Internet. Often, contests come with editing or feedback, which can really help you improve. Give it a shot. 13. Dive Into Nonfiction Not all good writers write poetry, plays, scripts, and novels. Many of the most successful writers out there stick to nonfiction. They write memoirs, magazine articles, newspaper articles, blogs, personal essays, biographies, and advertisements. Give nonfiction a shot. Try describing the last five minutes of your day with startling clarity. Take the latest news report and write a two-paragraph description of the events as if you were there. Find the coolest person you know and write your next essay about his or her childhood. Write a two-word ad for the best pair of shoes in your closet. Try it – most of the good writers do!

What You Need to Know About Susan B. Anthony

What You Need to Know About Susan B. Anthony Working closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony was a primary organizer, speaker, and writer for the 19th century womens rights movement in the United States, especially the first phases of the long struggle for womens vote, the womens suffrage movement or woman suffrage movement. Susan B. Anthony Biography To learn more about the life of Susan B. Anthony, consult the biography of Anthony on this site: Susan B. Anthony Fun Facts 13 Surprising Facts About Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony Pictures In this gallery are pictures of Susan B. Anthony and several related to her life. Susan B. Anthony Pictures Susan B. Anthonys Contributions to History Susan B. Anthonys work with the womens suffrage movement is an integral part of that movements history, as she and Stanton were central to that work. General accounts of the suffrage movement for the last half of the 19th century and first few years of the 20th century thus are excellent resources about Susan B. Anthonys contributions to history: The Long Road to Suffrage - a description of the woman suffrage movement from Seneca Falls to 1920 Womens Suffrage Events - a timeline of events in the history of the womens suffrage movement in America, starting with Susan B. Anthonys stand in 1837 for equal pay for women teachers. One particular incident which featured Susan B. Anthony was her attempt to vote and subsequent trial for that offense.   The trial is considered a landmark in American womens history: United States v. Susan B. Anthony National Woman Suffrage Association: Susan B. Anthony (with Elizabeth Cady Stanton) headed up this wing of the split womens suffrage movement, 1869 - 1890. Susan B. Anthony Quotes This collection of Susan B. Anthony quotes will give a flavor of her speeches and writings: Susan B. Anthony Quotes About Susan B. Anthony - Contemporary Accounts Contemporary sources writings from the time someone was alive may not include some of the analysis which historians later developed about particular individuals, but they do provide us with personal details about a persons life, and a perspective on how that individual was perceived while she was alive.   This site includes several contemporary sources about Susan B. Anthony: In these excerpts from The History of Woman Suffrage Volume 1, Elizabeth Cady Stanton describes Susan B. Anthonys entrance into the new movement for womens rights, the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two women:Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady StantonIn Reminiscences of Famous Women, Harriet Townsend described her own memory of Susan B. Anthony:Susan B. Anthony by Harriet A. TownsendWhen Susan B. Anthony died in 1906, she was well-known for her work in the womens suffrage movement.   This contemporary obituary says a lot about how she was known and how the media and general public thought of her at the time of her death:Susan B. Anthony Obituary - 1906 Susan B. Anthony in Context To understand Susan B. Anthonys contribution to the womens suffrage movement, these additional resources may be helpful: Timelines: Womens Suffrage Events - a timeline of events in the history of the womens suffrage movement in America, starting with Susan B. Anthonys stand in 1837 for equal pay for women teachers. American Woman Suffrage Timeline - Winning the Vote - a timeline of the state-by-state legal changes on the long road to the vote for American womenOverviews: The Long Road to Suffrage - a description of the woman suffrage movement from Seneca Falls to 1920Key Events in the Womens Suffrage Movement Seneca Falls Womens Rights Convention - 1848 - Though Susan B. Anthony did not attend this event, it was key in initiating the active movement for the vote that Anthony participated in for the rest of her life. Womens Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment: this amendment to the constitution split the womens suffrage movement, and later served as a basis for winning womens rights Suffrage Turning Points 1913 - 1917: the March on Washington in 1913 through the reintroduction of the Susan B. Anthony am endment August 26, 1920 - after Susan B. Anthonys death, the womens suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution finally was ratified, including women as full voting citizens Related Individuals Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Stanton and Anthony were friends and cooperated closely in their work in the womens suffrage movement.   Womens Suffrage Biographies - find biographies and other resources of other key activists in the womens suffrage movementMore articles and other resources about the womens suffrage movement: Womens Suffrage - what you need to know about the womens suffrage movement Test Your Knowledge Check out how much you know about the womens suffrage movement with this online quiz: Womens Suffrage Quiz Susan B. Anthony - in Print, in Films The following list includes books by Susan B. Anthony (some with recent analysis and commentary by editors), books about Susan B. Anthony, and books for children and young adults about Susan B. Anthony: Susan B. Anthony Books In 1999, a documentary on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and their suffrage work premiered. Not for Ourselves Alone

What are the risks of climate change and global warming Research Paper - 1

What are the risks of climate change and global warming - Research Paper Example This way, the temperature of the earth is maintained by this layer, which has Carbon dioxide as its major component (Pearson, 2011). The earth has various sources where carbon is stored. Plants, humans, oceans and the soil all store carbon. Humans release this carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. Human activities, such as deforestation and fossil fuel burning, aide the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These activities have increased the amount of carbon dioxide by a whopping 42% more than it was during the era of industrialization. The release of green house gases coupled with carbon dioxide makes the earth’s atmospheric outlook to resemble a blanket that traps heat due to its thick nature. The atmospheric blanket is responsible for keeping the climate cool and stable(Pearson, 2011). The human activities cause disruption to this blanket, hence the adverse atmospheric and climatic changes in the planet. These changes destroy the layer that insulates the planet from the excess sun radiations, therefore increasing the warmth of the planet. In addition, the planet is prone to extreme weather conditions, which are attributed to human activity(Nemeth, 2012). The reality of climate change is a subject of discussion in many world environmental forums. Amongst the organizations that acknowledge the effects of the climate change are The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and The United States Environmental protection Agency. These agencies concur with the argument that the world is facing the effects of the climate change (Simon, 2010). The average earth temperature is 14 Í ¦ C, but this has risen rapidly since the ice age period. The average global temperature has increased, from 1901 to 2014, by 0.89 Í ¦ C. the largest part of the increase is attributed to the Industrial Revolution, that increased the number of establishments