A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.
Gacharná, an English and writing instructor at the University of Phoenix, presents a hands-on workbook on how to write an effective essay for a college application.
The author notes early on in this detailed guide that her essay-crafting instruction focuses on three main aspects of the writing process: “Communicate. Navigate. Punctuate.” In this day and age, the competition for college entry is fierce; it may seem that every student needs to be a prodigy, or at least have an extensive resume by the age of 18. As a result, writing an essay to impress admissions officials can be a daunting undertaking. However, Gacharná reminds readers that academic essay writing is, at its heart, a technical skill, and it’s one that follows formulas that can be learned. Rather than beginning immediately with a draft, she says, one should step back and truly consider what one wants to write; the biggest part of the puzzle, she asserts, is communication. She goes on to discuss rhetorical and organizational modes, and steers students away from writing uninteresting “hamburger”-style essays in which the introductory thesis statement and conclusion are the two halves of the metaphorical bun, and the burger is the author trying to prove the thesis. The workbook also clearly defines the difference between revising and editing and shows how outlines are key to successful writing. What colleges are looking for, she says, are “noncognitive variables” such as confidence, long-range goals, or leadership skills. Gacharná breaks down an array of such variables with charts and illustrations.
Many of the lessons here are likely to feel familiar to students—such as the difference between thesis topics and topic sentences, for example—but Gacharná manages to present them in new ways by supplying practical tips, graphics, and relevant examples, including successful essays from actual students. The latter, in particular, will provide readers with strong models to guide them. The author looks at rough drafts and finished works, showing in specific detail how applying her principles can help shape a strong essay. As readers progress through this work, they will also find it useful to read the provided examples of college essay drafts that didn’t work; the author shows how to transform them into essays worthy of acceptance. One of the most useful sections in the book is a list of common mistakes students make, such as simply talking about one’s passion: “Please don’t use the word passion in your college essay. Period. Instead, show me what passion led you to do.” In moments such as these, Gacharna’s conversational frankness is refreshing. The last section includes several sample essays that address specific prompts and a list of ideas and topics to jumpstart the writing process; these practical tools are likely to give students the confidence to start drafting their own essays. The last five pages of the book contain testimonials from students and parents, expressing their views on how Gacharná’s advice set them up for success.
A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9798886541328
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
