Chapter 118 Why Can’t Compositions Get High Marks

“Teacher Liu, please wait a moment.” Tang Su shouted immediately when he saw Teacher Liu was about to leave.

Teacher Liu Yan then turned around and looked at Tang Su.

"Do you have any questions?" Teacher Liu asked.

Tang Su seldom asked her questions, almost never.

Tang Su then took his Chinese test paper from the last exam and walked to the podium, then said a little embarrassedly: "Teacher Liu, I can't get high scores for my essays. I lose about 10 or 20 points every time. I want to know which aspects of my writing lost points and why I always get low scores."

Tang Su felt depressed when she thought about her composition, and she didn't know how to solve it. She had read many high-scoring compositions, but she just couldn't learn it.

Teacher Liu then sat down, turned over the paper that Tang Su handed over, and looked at the composition written by Tang Su on it.

The first-year high school test papers were graded by the second-year high school teacher, so she didn't know what Tang Su wrote in the exam.

After reading it carefully, Teacher Liu looked at Tang Su and said, "Your composition is not off topic, but it does have a lot of problems."

Tang Su then took out his notebook and pen, ready to write down what the teacher said.

Teacher Liu continued, "First, the theme. The theme of your article "Do What You Can" is consistent with the content expressed in the material. It is not off topic, but it is not novel. The two materials given in this test question, the first material expresses the idea that people should not be too ambitious, but should be down-to-earth and live and work in a down-to-earth manner. The expression of the second material means that if you can't do something even if you try your best, then you should know how to give up, rather than going to extremes. Your focus is on the second material, which is of course fine, but there are better ideas, such as: We must accept our ordinary selves, this idea is consistent with the central idea expressed in both materials."

Second, it is about examples. Although the examples you gave in the article do not deviate from the central idea of ​​the article, they are very old-fashioned and have no novelty. For example, the example of "Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains". I think many students must have cited this example, so when the examiner sees it, there will be no surprise at all.

Third, the structure of the article. Your article still uses the most common three-paragraph method, beginning, middle, and end. Although this is OK, the middle part has a lot of content, and the examiner can't even see the central idea of ​​your paragraph at a glance, and will give points based on the beginning and end. This is quite bad.

Finally, it is the expression of the article, which is what we often call whether it has literary talent. The sentences in your article are fluent, but the whole article is plain and straightforward, without any beautiful or emotional sentences. In addition, some individual sentences contain some grammatical errors and punctuation errors.

These points added together result in your entire article being mediocrely written even though there are no major problems, so you can only get 33 points.

Teacher Liu explained to Tang Su very patiently.

Tang Su wrote down all these points. It seems that her article is not only lacking in literary talent, but also lacks any outstanding points.

"Teacher, what should I do then? Is there any way to improve?" Tang Su asked.

She thought that if she could improve her writing skills, her Chinese grades would also be able to improve.

Teacher Liu then gave Tang Su some great suggestions, including purchasing writing materials, accumulating cases, and writing and reading more to cultivate a sense of literature, etc.

(End of this chapter)