The Unforgiven Concert

If you look at the right side of this blog, you'll notice a list of projects. Each title is followed by the year that it was originally due. In 2002, I was required to put on a senior concert as part of an advanced credit music course. This concert would feature me performing vocal and piano solos, but I could also include a few group pieces. As you can imagine, most of my musical partners are spread to the many corners of the world.

Yesterday I found a baritone.

Michigan Outline

I'm trying to work out how to include Traverse City, the cherry capital of the world. 

Michigan Research

Writing a five paragraph essay

It's been a while since anyone's taught me how to write an essay. Somehow we are all supposed to have this figured out by high school so we can perfect the art in time for college. Unfortunately, most students forget the basics of essay-writing and must be re-taught.

Why is this? It seems simple enough: pick a topic, research it, and report your findings. What isn't emphasized enough is how to organize your thoughts between these steps. When you finally sit down to write your essay, there shouldn't be a blank page in front of you. Instead, you should have an outline or diagram (aka mind-mapping) laying out the order of the essay as well as lists of quotations or facts to be included as support. Spend as much time organizing your ideas as you do researching, otherwise you will end up with more information than you know what to do with and nowhere to put it.

Attempting to write a finished product from a blank page is setting yourself up for failure. 


Trust me. I've failed.


Resources:
How to Write a Good Five Paragraph Essay with outline
Basic Guide to Essay Writing
Getting Started on that Troublesome Essay

Essay Requirements: Michigan

Hand-written

Blue or Black Ink

Wide-ruled paper 

Five Paragraphs: Introduction, Body and Conclusion

Cover page with picture 

Include the following information: population, cultural facts, biggest industries, state flower, and when it obtained statehood. 

The Beginning.

I did not turn in an essay on the State of Michigan. Everyone was required to write a five-paragraph report about a different state in the Union and I chose Michigan because my family vacationed there every summer. Each student also presented on their chosen state, but when it came time for me to present, for the first time in my life I had nothing to show for myself. This had to be confusing for my teacher because I was an straight-A student who always did her work. Caught in her stern look, I couldn't even lie and say I'd left it at home. She sent me to the principal's office where I called and left a message about my lack of essay and was told to turn it in within the next week.

I never did.

I was ten years old.

I am now twenty-six and still haven't forgiven myself.

It's time to write some essays.

I can forgive almost anybody, with one significant exception:

Me.