Easy questions first
Tonight we begin with easy questions. Each one offers you two things and asks you to pick one.
There are no right answers, and nobody is grading anything. The only mistake you can make is not picking.
We will go in four rounds. First you pick. Then you say why. Then you write for four minutes without stopping. Then you read some of it to a partner.
At the end we will look at what you wrote and give its parts their names. They are the same parts the GED essay asks for.
Pick fast
We will take these one at a time. Type your pick in the chat, and wait to press Enter until you hear “go,” so that everyone answers at once. You can also just say it out loud.
One word is enough. Don’t explain, and don’t think long.
- Chocolate or vanilla?
- Sweet or salty?
- Coffee or tea?
- Rice or bread?
- A plain slice or a slice with toppings?
- Cats or dogs?
- A New York summer or a New York winter?
Everybody picked quickly, and nobody had to explain. That is because these are questions of taste. If you like vanilla, you like vanilla. Nobody can prove you wrong, and you don’t owe anybody a reason.
The next questions are different. Your answers to them come out of how you live, so you will have reasons.
Now add the word “because”
Pick one question from this list. Write one sentence about it, in the chat or on paper. Make your sentence look like this:
I pick blank because blank.
Here is one: “I pick the bus because I can look out the window and see where I am.”
Your reason does not have to be important. It only has to be true for you.
- Morning person or night person?
- The subway or the bus?
- Cook at home or order in?
- Cash or card?
- The day shift or the night shift?
- The bodega on the corner or the big supermarket?
- You have to cancel on a friend. Do you text or call?
- To read something long: paper or a screen?
- In a five-floor walk-up: the first floor or the top floor?
We will read a few out loud. Listen to the reasons. Two people can pick the same thing for different reasons, and two people can pick different things for the same reason.
Pick a harder one, and don’t stop writing
These questions are harder, because now you are not only saying what you like. You are saying which one is better. Somebody in this class will pick the other side, and that is what makes the question worth writing about.
Pick one question. You will write about it for four minutes.
Work
- One more dollar an hour, or one more week of paid vacation?
- A job you love that pays less, or a job you can put up with that pays more?
- A boss who is friendly but disorganized, or a boss who is cold but fair?
- Work from home, or go in to the job?
- For restaurant servers: tips, or a higher wage with no tipping?
Money
- Work boots: a $60 pair every year, or a $200 pair that lasts five years?
- You win a prize. $300,000 today, or $500 a week for the rest of your life?
Home and family
- A small apartment close to everything, or a bigger place an hour and a half away?
- Stay close to family, or move to where the work is?
- For an 18-year-old today: a union apprenticeship, or four years of college?
- Phones in school: locked away all day, or in the student’s pocket?
The neighborhood
- At the store: self-checkout, or the line for a cashier?
- Your block on a summer Saturday: open to cars, or closed so people can walk and children can play?
- High school: start at 7:30 in the morning, or start at 9:00?
The rules for the four minutes
- Start with your pick: “I pick this one because…”
- Keep your pen or your fingers moving the whole time. Don’t stop to look for a better word.
- Don’t fix your spelling. Don’t cross anything out. Don’t go back and reread.
- When you run out of things to say, write “Another reason is” and keep going. A new reason usually comes.
- Nobody grades this. Nobody sees it unless you decide to read it out loud.
Write it badly if you have to. A messy page can be fixed later, and a blank page can’t.
- I pick blank because blank.
- Another reason is blank.
- For example, one time blank.
- Somebody who picked the other side would say blank. But blank.
Writing timer
Write in the box below instead of on paper and it saves as you go, under your code. You can come back to it on any device, and print it. Nothing goes to Myles unless you press Send — the rules above still hold.
Read it to somebody
Read your writing to a partner. Read all of it, or only the first sentence. Read it the way it is, without apologizing for it first.
Partner, your job is to say it back:
You picked blank because blank.
If your partner can say it back, your writing did its job. If your partner can’t, you have found the sentence to make clearer.
Then the partner answers one question: which of the reasons was the strongest?
What you just wrote
Look at your page. It has parts, and the parts have names.
- Your pick is a claim. A claim is a statement that somebody could disagree with.
- Your “because” sentences are reasons.
- Your “for example, one time” is evidence. Evidence is anything that shows your reason is true.
- Your “somebody would say… but” is your answer to the other side.
A claim, reasons, evidence, and an answer to the other side, put together, make an argument. You wrote one in four minutes.
On the GED essay you will read two writers who disagree about a question like the ones in Round 3.
The test does not ask which side you agree with. It asks which side is better supported. The better supported side is the one whose writer gave stronger reasons and better evidence.
Your claim will be “This writer made the stronger case.” Your reasons will say why. Your evidence will come from the two articles. The parts are the same four you used tonight.