online test english midterm

How to Use Your Time:

3 minutes: choosing the topic

3 minutes: brainstorming

4 minutes: thesis

10 minutes: outline

40 minutes: writing

10 minutes: revising

Practice Midterm Topic:

Identify a social change that has impacted your life; then, analyze the causes or effects of that change in a well-developed essay.

Once you see the question, brainstorm possible topics:

Minimum wage increase

Changing jobs

Falling out with a friend

marriage

Moving to Texas

A new law (or old law repealed)

Training for a half-marathon

Giving up smoking

After choosing a topic, create a thesis that clearly identifies your topic and what you want to say about it. Here are some examples:

· After losing my best friend to an absurd and unfortunate misunderstanding, I questioned my ability to really connect to other people. 

· In many ways, the decision to train for a marathon negatively impacted my life: I was constantly in pain, rarely free for social events and became obsessed with healthy eating, which sucked all the joy out of living.

· Even though I knew it was the right thing to do, moving to Texas impacted my life by creating unexpected problems and trials.  

· Even though I was trepidatious at first, moving to Texas positively impacted my life in delightful and unexpected ways.

Now you can take a minute and organize your thoughts before drafting your essay.  I recommend writing a brief outline. 

Sample Outline:

Thesis: In many ways, the decision to train for a marathon negatively impacted my life: I was constantly in pain, rarely free for social events and became obsessed with healthy living, which sucked all the joy out of life.

1. Pain

a. Knees and ankles

a. 8-9 mile runs and blisters

a. Hours of icing afterward

1. Social Life

b. Hours every day

b. Too tired to go out at night

b. A lot of time away from family

1. Obsession

c. Afraid of refined sugar

c. Too worried to eat out

c. Bugging my family

c. Can’t relax easily

Finally, turn the outline into an essay, leaving enough time to go back and edit and proofread what you have written.