HOW TO WRITE EFFECTIVE WAEC/NECO ESSAYS…TACKLING COMPOSITIONS FROM YOUR CLASSROOMS

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. ~Mark Twain, attributed

Most English textbooks do confirm that the building blocks of an essay long before WAEC and NECO exams are Words, Sentences and Paragraphs. But to plan an essay we shall follow a different course by looking at the following elements like someone who wants to write a prose or drama in literature.

1.Characters involved

These characters can be human, non-human or both. They can be fictional or as real to life as you want them to be. But they usually have relationships or interrelationships within the composition.

2.Action involved

The characters should do things based on motives.

3.Setting for the composition

This has to do with the time, place(s) of the action or of the event.

4.Climax

In some compositions, it is necessary to describe the actions in such a way that they will lead to conflict or even an event which can be called a climax. This is especially true of short stories.

5.Instances/ Causes/ Effects

In some compositions, what would be required are instances, causes of these instances and their effects.

6.Political/ Social/ Economic/ |Financial

It is always good to remember that the instances under 5 can be influenced to a certain degree by political, social, economic and financial factors.

7.Pros & Cons

Remember also that the question may ask you to relate the advantages or disadvantages or both as effects arising from the causes mentioned.

8.Memory Joggers

When writing an essay and you begin to run out of steam, you can always get back on track if you are able to ask yourself these questions and remember relevant answers which hopefully can help you overcome the temporary block:

a. What/Who/Whom am i writing about and what are its/his/her characteristics or nature?

b. Where/When and How did events take place or follow each other?

c. Remembering some useful nouns, verbs and adjectives on the subject can also be helpful.For example if you want to write a composition about a car you saw at a sales exhibition the following simple terms which you can easily remember in an exam hall will be useful in writing a fair or decent composition.

nouns….name and make of car,2-door or 4-door,alloy wheels, seat leather, etc

verbs…driving,braking,speeding,slowing,accelerating etc

adjectives…colors,bright,dull,attractive,neat engine etc

Other Relevant Notes:

9. Expected essay could be a letter (formal or informal), a speech, a narration/storytelling, a description, a debate, an argument, a report, an article, an exposition or creative writing

10. The minimum length ,time and mark allocated are usually as stated in the syllabus of the examination body and usually indicated on question papers.(about 450 words for some years now)

11.Students are best advised to choose a topic suitable to their interest i.e. they should be advised to make choices 2 months before the exam, and practice a related essay taking the do’s and dont’s of each essay type as indicated on this blog into consideration. For this purpose, students may regard themselves as letter writers (formal/informal), narrators/ storytellers/authors or journalists ( report/article/exposition) or debaters ( debate/argument). The tutor should divide up the class and use past questions for practice according to their chosen professions.This is for getting each student to specialize say, in two aspects of compositions long before the exam date.

12.Purpose

After reading an essay question either in class or during private study, students should jot down ideas immediately as they occur to them. These ideas would form the floor plan for the essay. The tutor should then mark or judge the essay in terms of the writer’s success in achieving the purpose – be it to entertain, instruct, tell, admonish, persuade or plead.

13. C.O.E.M

Essays are expected to be marked in relation to -CONTENT, ORGANIZATION, EXPRESSION,MECHANICAL ACCURACY (COEM)

Adequacy and treatment of subject (content)

Originality of approach (content)

Balance and paragraph linkages (organization)

Appropriateness of language(expression)

Clarity of exposition or narration in argument (expression)

Avoidance of spelling and grammatical errors and the misplacement of punctuation marks(mechanical accuracy)

More detailed notes on these shall be made available later on.