Writing a Classic: Advanced Essay Writing Guidance for Junior High

Author: Gao Shizeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-06-01
Features: The Guide to Upgrading Essays is a writing guidebook designed for students of all grades in junior high school, catering to all readers. The book categorizes selected essays into different levels based on the essay scoring criteria, providing specific guidance to help students of varying proficiency levels improve their writing skills on their existing foundation. The book is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the essay scoring criteria and sample essays. The compilers refer to the scoring standards of the Beijing Municipal Middle School Entrance Examination for readers, offering scoring criteria for both narrative and argumentative essays. They also select benchmark essays from the past two years of the exam in Beijing urban areas as examples to help students better grasp the scoring standards for different types of essays. Chapter 2 focuses on the upgrading guidance for various types of essays, including sections such as upgrading from Category 3 to Category 2, from Category 2 to Category 1, and sample essays for Category 1. Each section provides step-by-step guidance on content, language, and structure, supported by examples, to identify the weaknesses in students' essays and teach them methods to improve their writing quality. Chapter 3 features excellent essay appreciation. The examples in this chapter are selected from outstanding student writings in recent years from key middle schools in Beijing urban areas. They are arranged into three major practical writing types: narrative essays (storytelling, character description, landscape depiction, object description, and life experiences), expository essays (describing things and explaining principles), and argumentative essays (post-reading reflections and discussions on single events), as well as application essays such as letters. Each example is preceded by a title and requirements, and followed by an analysis. The analyses are conducted based on the examples, focusing on content, language, and structure, but each with a specific emphasis to help students better appreciate and learn from the examples.