Month: August 2021

Building Creative Confidence

Dull writing can leave examiners yawning. At Think Tutors we have refined the art of essay writing instruction to perfection, working with industry-leading professionals trained at many of the world’s top universities. Here are just two tips that will brighten up your essays and make them exciting to read.

Creative Thinking Skills: The drop intro 

Capture the reader’s attention with a drop intro. Look at the essay title and think of a strange or striking example. Discuss it for a few lines, then zoom back in and answer the question head-on.

 

You might start with an anecdote, a quote, a shocking fact, or a story in the news.

 

Imagine you’re writing an essay about the climate crisis. You’ve been asked to discuss whether renewable energy can fully replace fossil fuels in the next 50 years.

 

It’s not exactly an inspiring question, and could yield some boring answers. Dodge the trap and dive straight in with some action:

 

Climate protesters set out to “swarm” the capital in April 2019. Organisers staged simultaneous demonstrations across London, blocking roads and even gluing themselves to trains to make their cause known. 

 

In the last few years, the fight for action on the climate crisis has reached fever pitch.

 

Now comes your argument. You could say: “But it’s too little, too late,” or “keeping the pressure up is the only way we will meet our zero-carbon goals”.

 

You can then build in material on renewable energy and fossil fuels. The trick is to get the reader excited first.

 

The key skill here is pulling back from your example and making sure you link it neatly to your argument – the line that normally comes first in an essay. It might help if you draft this part first, even though you’ll be saving it for your second paragraph.

 

It can be difficult to pull off, but a good drop intro shows you’re in control of your material.

 

From this point, it’s up to you — as long as you engage with the question and provide some strong examples, you’ll be on the right track.

Creative Thinking Skills: the snap judgement

The best essays pack a punch. For humanities questions that ask how successful a decision was, or how a writer achieves an effect, a quick snap-take response can lift a good essay to new heights.

 

Imagine you are answering the question: “How does Shakespeare use language and structure to portray King Lear’s death?”

 

Somewhere in your response, tell us exactly what you think. You can be quite chatty. The line can take on the tone of a review, or a boxing match commentator sizing up the competitors:

 

“Shakespeare pulls out all the stops as Lear cries in disbelief at his daughter’s death. It’s a heart-wrenching scene, and Shakespeare makes sure the audience knows it.”

 

Don’t be afraid to answer the question bluntly. You can heap up your evidence later.

 

Each paragraph could do with a line or two like this. They will help guide your analysis and signpost your argument in an exciting way for the reader.

 

These lines give your points a crisp framework – and lend your essay some welly.

 

Private Tutoring, Academic Mentoring and University Tutoring

It doesn’t matter where you are in your educational journey, essay writing skills (and writing abilities more broadly) are fundamental to your success and the realisation of your personal and academic goals. At Think Tutors we offer a wide range of services to help students hone their creative and analytic writing skills. We have worked with everyone from young children to graduate students.

The Latin Language

Some say Latin is a dead language. In so far that it is not spoken widely anymore, that is correct. However, others see it rather as an eternal language, useful in so many ways to understand not only the times we live in but also to connect us with the past. Just think how many times you have seen a company or organisation with a Latin name or motto. I’d reckon quite a few.

 

It is no accident that the subject that Latin is a part of, Classics, comes from the Latin word classis meaning ‘fleet’. When one comes to studying Latin, and Greek, ancient history and civilisation, you are learning a whole fleet of subjects encompassing history, politics, law, poetry, philosophy, drama, science, geography and more, that make up and can be found within classical literature. It’s also a sought-after degree at both Oxford and Cambridge, with many distinguished alumni in fields ranging from politics and literature to the military and journalism.

Learning Latin

This is what lies ahead for a student beginning Latin. Immediately, a student will be able to recognise the connections between Latin and English, the roots of our language, where words derive from, and how languages work. In this way it most definitely helps increase attainment in English and subjects requiring analytical thought such as Maths.

 

The Latin Language can also lead students to learn and love the Romance languages as well such as French, Spanish and Italian which have similarities. However, when learning Latin through translating Roman myths and history, and other writings, you can perceive the very roots of Western Civilisation and humanity itself; that there are things that we can learn about ourselves and our society and, if we open our minds to it, take it as an inspiration or a warning as to where we are heading.

Why Learn Latin

Latin is a wonderful language, and wonderful to study. It is delightful to hear that the British Government is encouraging more state schools to take up Latin, along with other modern languages as part of a pilot scheme. It is already building on a lot of work over the past decade by the charity Classics for all in giving more state school pupils the opportunity and resources to study Latin, Classical Greek, Ancient History and Classical Civilisation.

 

The linguistic links between Latin and English were the initial fascination for me, and enough of a spark to pursue Latin further and find my talent. Then I eventually transitioned to studying Classical Greek too, developing an interest in historical writing and rhetoric, and eventually leading to study Classics at university and a route into Law.

 

I have had the privilege to study Latin at school. It has also been a privilege for me to share my passion for Latin and Classical Greek for over ten years to independent and state school students alike, and it has been so rewarding to see them do so well. I look forward to even more students seizing this opportunity in the future… carpe diem!

Academic Support

If you’d like to find out more about learning Latin with an expert tutor, please contact us. We also offer online tutoring, and academic mentoring  across a variety of subjects. If you’re interested in studying classics at university (especially at Oxford or Cambridge) then connect with us as our academic and university mentors can offer invaluable insights and guidance on the admissions process and including tutors for university students.