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Recommendations for book of short essays please?

4 replies

Phineyj · 17/07/2013 13:44

I teach a sixth former who struggles with essay writing, partly as she was educated in the US where that skill is introduced later on. I'm hoping to teach her some writing skills but would like recommendations of a book of interesting short essays so that she can see how a skilled writer constructs an argument. Ideally the topics would be science/tech/engineering based but anything would do as it's about style and structure, not content. Any suggestions?

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HeyCarrieAnn · 18/07/2013 19:51

How about a science magazine, such as New Scientist, Nature, Eureka or some of the Philip (Phillip?) Allen Review magazine aimed specifically at A level students? There are Biology, Chem and Physics Review (all separate) which have excellent articles as well as detailed analyses of previous students' exam answers and where they scored well or not. We have them in our school library and they are excellent. I think a 2 year subscription is about £24 per subject and you get access to the back catalogue online too.

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HeyCarrieAnn · 18/07/2013 20:03

Or Sunday supplements of newspapers? Or Time Magazine?

I'm sure some books of essays will come to me soon but the ones I keep thinking of are really long and not comparable to A level study in length or difficulty. Maybe Bad Science by Ben Goldacre? The New Scientist books such as Does Anything Eat Wasps?

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AlienAttack · 19/07/2013 13:12

Not science but Salman Rushdie published a fantastic collection of Essays called Imaginary Homelands and George Orwell's essays are beautifully written. There are various collections of Orwell's essays but you could start with "inside the whale and other essays"

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Phineyj · 21/07/2013 20:56

Thanks very much - great suggestions and I have the Ben Goldacre. After I wrote the post it occurred to me I could try her on some Richard Feynman too. I like the George Orwell suggestion.

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