When someone tells you to "wear your Sunday best", what does that mean? Instead of your normal jeans and tennies, you wear a nice outfit with nice shoes, right? (Look how nice and presentable I am!) You make sure your hair is combed, your teeth brushed. You might even wear a nicer watch, jewelry, or a tie. You want to look presentable!

You should also "dress up" your essays when presenting them to your teacher for a grade. You want your paper to look "presentable" - remember you're going for that "A"!
 

• Always present your final draft in your best handwriting, or typed whenever possible.
• Always edit carefully for spelling and grammatical errors.
• Make sure you use appropriate transitional phrases between your paragraphs. Click here for transitional phrases lesson and examples.
• Use more descriptive verbs and adjectives. Instead of walked, try strolled. Instead of big, try gigantic.
• Count how many compound sentences and complex sentences you have. Only one or two in your whole paper? Rewrite some of your sentences, then!
• Rewrite some sentences to give more variety in your sentence structure. Do all of your sentences start with a subject/verb pattern? They do? Well, change a few sentences to start with "ing" words, prepositional phrases, actions, questions quotes, sound effects, or even adverbial phrases. Here are some examples:

Example: The walk to school was a long one.

IMPROVEMENT -

Walking to school seemed to take forever. (start with "ing")


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Example: Some children do not have health insurance.

IMPROVEMENT -

In spite of our nation's great wealth, many children have no health insurance. (added prepositional phrase "in spite of") Click here for more prepositional phrases.


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Example: I did not want to do my homework, but my mom made me.

IMPROVEMENT -

Reluctantly, I finished my homework. (added -ly word at the beginning)

IMPROVEMENT -

"Jamie, get that homework started NOW!" Mom said sternly. (Started sentence with a quote)

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Example: Mom was making dinner.

IMPROVEMENT -
I could smell the delicious pot roast mom was making. (started with an action)


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Example: Jamie was playing the piano.

IMPROVEMENT -
"Plink! Plunk!" I could hear my sister banging away on the piano. (started with a sound effect)


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Example: I was hungry.

IMPROVEMENT -
What would we be having for dinner? I wondered. (started with thought or question.)

IMPROVEMENT -

"Grrrrowlummble, " my stomach complained . (Started sentence with a sound effect.)


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Now - Trade papers with a partner. Read each other's papers and give each other at least three ideas to edit/revise the papers.

So, remember, before you hand in that paper, is it "dressed up"? If not, send it back to the dressing room for a touch up!