| How else can you practice the essay writing experience?
· Practice writing in a variety of styles
It would be wise to write a wide variety of essays while you are still being homeschooled. Write book reports, book reviews, lab reports, persuasive essays, and expository essays. Regardless of what exactly you write you need to get used to writing, as you will be doing plenty of it in college.
To keep from getting bored with one kind of style or paper, write a variety of papers. Write some articles for your homeschool newsletter or better yet be an editor.
· Set a time for your paper or project to be due
Let us assume that you are in college and you have a paper you need to write, okay? So, can you just “turn it in” whenever you are finished with it? NO!
In preparation for this, while you are still at home, set a day and specific time that the paper is due. Stick to it! If you need an extension to finish your paper, take a punishment for that extension (which you should not have needed) for say 5 or 10 points.
While I have found that most instructors will accept papers on the day they are due, as in up to midnight, it actually depends on the instructor. Regardless, you always want to turn the paper in to the instructors before they leave their office for the day, or, you run a fair risk of taking a somewhat serious penalty for being a day late.
By setting a time and day that the project is due you are emulating the atmosphere in which you must have your paper turned in on time or suffer the consequences.
· Stick to MLA standards
For general English and humanities papers, stick to the MLA standard. College instructors will expect papers to be properly documented and sources cited and they will let you know which standard you are to use.
To get used to documentation standards, start out with the MLA standard. Amazon has the MLA handbook here, which I recommend purchasing, as you will probably need it for English 101 anyways. |
