All About Ged Essay Writing: Structure, Score, Guidelines, And Tips To Score Better.

It may sound scary and difficult to write a whole essay within 45 minutes. Do not worry; together, let us break down the GED essay queries and focus on scoring the highest. This guide will be your one-stop shop for becoming an excellent essay writer and passing the writing portion of this GED test. 

What is a GED test?

To keep it simple, In the GED test, essay writing is a part of GED reasoning through the language arts section. It is also known as the Extended Response section. This essay writing is generally to check your reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and writing skills.

The GED test has four sections: mathematics, social studies, science, and (RLA) Reasoning Through Language Arts. The RLA section has two parts: GED essay and passage reading.

You have a span of 45 minutes to finish your essay with the best possible talent and skills of yours. This essay will be contributing 20% towards your RLA score, so to attain the best grades you must form your best essay. But. Don’t worry, and it will be easy to pass the test even if you don’t even score your best grades. 

Even though the topics for this section might change, they will still follow the same format. You will be provided with two different articles on the same topic, and you’ll be asked to write your essays after a detailed evaluation describing which of the articles held the best point and facts that you loved and agreed upon. Your essay must be 4-5 paragraphs long, and every paragraph must have 5-7 sentences. This means your essay must be  300 - 500 words long.  

GED Essay Structure

The structure for the essay is different for every candidate, depending upon their writing style and thought process. But, generally, there should be an introductory paragraph. You will form 1-3 paragraphs for the body. Lastly, you’ll need one paragraph for the conclusion. To score the best, you must be clear and precise in presenting your thoughts with relevance to the topic given to you. 

The introductory paragraph should present clear and accurate facts about your main idea for the topic. It should claim your argumentative statements. The middle paragraphs should be the body of the essay and must connect the details in the first paragraph and explain your ideas and viewpoints. If any analysis is done, it must be indicated in the body of the essay. The last paragraph of the conclusion must include the final thoughts, highlight your findings, and prove your statements.     

Valuable insight: Do not start to frame your essay until you have an outline of your essay and statements to explain in every paragraph of your essay. This is the most trusted method to get a coherent and persuasive response. 

How is the essay scored?

Your essay can be graded on three main criteria. Each criterion will carry two points, and your overall essay will earn you a total of six points. 

Point 1 - Use of evidence to create arguments 

This scans how strong your claim will be after analysing the arguments and evidence from the provided articles.

Point 2 - idea development and structure formation 

This scans how clear your ideas are and how relevant your points are with your claims and pieces of evidence. A strong introduction and conclusion paragraph is required to make an impactful essay. 

Point 3 - English language command and clarity

It checks how fluent you are in the English language and how strong are your grammar skills and sentence formation in the essay. You need to have a strong vocab and good sentence formation with proper grammar. 

This essay will be 20% of your total score of RLA 

Writing guidelines 

You must follow the following guidelines to keep your time manageable. This will also help you to complete your essay within the provided time. 

Planning - you will need about 10 minutes to read and understand the article provided to you and think about how you want to frame your answer and organise your thoughts. 

Producing -  To complete an average of 3-5 paragraphs with a minimum of 5-6 sentences in each paragraph, you will, on average, require 30 minutes. This is just a general range, but it all depends upon the writing speed and fast thought interpretation of your data. 

Proofreading - save at least 5 minutes at the end of your essay formation to check for any grammatical and spelling mistakes. This time, improve your essay and frame it in the best way. 

Tips to frame the best essay

• Read the instructions before making any answer. Clearly understand the meaning of the article in question and be careful while interpreting the data.
• Outline your ideas and thoughts before writing them down. Organise your answer and make sure you follow your outlines while writing to keep your essay accurate.
• Make notes of the important points while reading the article. This will save you time while writing as you won’t be revisiting your article to find the shreds of evidence.
• Manage your time and edit your essay in the end to save your time.
• Go as fast as you can and focus on completing your essay. Do not panic yourself by looking at the clock and do your best.
• Practise more! The more you write and practise the better will be your speed and result. Remember your main aim is to be time-efficient and relevant while you write.

Conclusion 

Framing an attractive and relevant essay for your GED test might be hectic, but it is not impossible. You just need to plan and practice. Even though this essay does not significantly impact the overall test score, it can help you achieve high scores. You need to follow tips and tricks that will help to increase your writing speed and your thought process. This test is all time-based, and these 45 minutes need to be divided and used strategically. With proper planning and speedy practice, you will surely rock the essay.