Writing is an important skill for most people. We do it at work, at school, at home, and anywhere else we can think of. In his book, How to Write a Great Essay, David Allen shares that there’s a misconception that writing is hard, that it’s difficult, or that it’s boring.
While there is some truth to this, it’s not an incorrect perception of writing. Writing is an art form. It’s not an easy thing to learn. It’s not a drudgery either. In fact, many writers learn it better than you might think.
The fact is that most schools and most colleges teach a very narrow range of writing, mostly writing for the English major. They teach them to be good at using standardized test subjects (most of them are standardized tests for tests), and not writing about topics and ideas that maybe the reader might not be interested in. Writing for a student who is interested in the subject matter of the essay is even harder.
A lot of times in the essay writing class the teacher will offer little more than a “write and submit”. He will have the students write a short essay about a thing they are interested in, and ask for a few “reasons”. Then he will ask for the writer to turn it in, and ask if they liked it.
Writing for a standardized test is one of the most difficult forms of writing ever invented. In the essay I did for a school test recently, I spent a good deal of time trying to explain the “why” behind a question. In practice, the teacher will often offer little more than a write and submit, which is really not a very helpful way to teach writing. But I can tell you that writing for a standardized test is actually one of the hardest forms of writing that you can do.
Writing for a standardized test is very similar to writing for a medical examination. In both, the question is asked to you by a medical professional, and you are expected to write a detailed description of the reason you think you are being tested. In writing for a standardized test, you are not expected to write down the answers to the questions, but are instead given a list of possible answers.
The final result of writing for a standardized test should be based on how much effort you have to work to get the questions right. I’ve found that a total of eight pages per week are all about putting out a good chunk of the test.
The reason for writing a detailed description of the reason you think you are being tested is so that you can actually write the answers to the questions. If you have time for the tests, you can write them yourself.
You should have at least three things to write about: 1) Getting the answers right and 2) Getting a grasp of what is happening. For starters, you should have a grasp of what’s going on. For example, a recent test about a game that is really fun would probably be a good start for a few days.
There are some tests that are really fun and test one of the most difficult aspects of your writing ability: the ability to describe things. They are called “item writing” because the questions are asking you to describe what the items are. When you write them yourself, you don’t have to worry about it taking too long or being too easy.