J&B Green Program“Building An Essay From the Ground Up” Highlights: The J&B consulting team worked with the client on a three-month learning project where they practiced writing essays and outlines for the New York Times Editorial Contest John Locke Essay Competition. Every Zoom session consisted of in-class learning and detailed instruction. The team broke the project down into three essays, where they helped the client identify relevant articles, paraphrase sources, create analyses, and transform their outlines into polished essays. J&B helped the client learn how to write clear, concise, and grammatically correct sentences, bringing clarity, depth, and critical analysis to their sentence construction. The Topic:J&B and the client worked together on a three-month learning project breaking down the essay outlining, writing, and editing process. The team practiced writing an op-ed for the New York Times Editorial Contest and two essays for the John Locke Essay Competition. The Process:Every session consisted of in-class learning and instruction that took place over Zoom. The J&B team broke the project down into three smaller, mini-projects for each essay. For Essay #1, the consulting team met with the client and assisted the client in preparing a micro outline for the essay, sentence by sentence. J&B helped the client identify and quote relevant news articles to support their claims. After the client completed their outline, J&B helped the client transform it into an essay, polishing and editing their sentences and offering grammatical and structural guidance as needed. For Essay #2, after a brainstorming session, the J&B team provided the client with a detailed, micro outline which the client then rewrote in their own words and used to guide their essay. During all meetings for Essay #2, the team focused on building an understanding of the outline’s content and providing grammatical and technical writing assistance for each sentence. The J&B team provided the client with a less detailed, macro outline for Essay #3, and supported the client in elaborating on key ideas and analyses to create a persuasive essay. At the end of the project, the client felt more confident in the step-by-step process needed to construct a strong, five-paragraph essay. Writing Style:As the client was less familiar with English grammar, the J&B team helped the client to create clear, concise, and grammatically correct sentences. The client also voiced a desire to better understand paraphrasing, so the consulting team offered in-session writing tricks and exercises to build better paraphrasing techniques. Throughout the project, the J&B team worked with the client to bring 1) clarity, 2) depth, and 3) critical analysis to their sentence construction. By Essays #2 and #3, the client was able to point out the errors in their own sentences. J&B’s Key Goals: Instruction Collaborative learning Scaffolding Clear communication Key Sentences from the Final Draft: “Using recyclable straws, we are protecting not only our environment but our health. Microplastics are in the oceans, they’re in seafood and in table salt. They are even in freshwater systems like rivers and streams (Stanford).” “Using South Korea’s economic ‘miracle’ from 1962 to 1979 as a model shows that the strong state is a prerequisite for economic growth if governments are supportive of their private sectors.” “Although an extreme and totalitarian state may have problems, the power of a ‘strong’ state will come from an ability to regulate and cooperate within.”
