1. Tight body, tight mind.

Mind-body connection is real. You want to feel like a boxer in the ring - move like a butterfly, sting like a bee. A loose body loosens the flows of ideas.

• Limber up. Stretch. 

• Let the blood flow that day. Do some light exercise or go for a clarifying walk.

• Breathe deeply throughout the day.

2. Know what rituals and systems work for you.

• Do you have a favorite pen that flies across the page?

• What's your go-to TBLS uniform-friendly outfit when you want to feel powerful and/or comfortable?

• Is there a specific way you like to mark up your text?

• Is there a specific way you like to structure your pre-writing thoughts?

• Is there an acronym or process that makes you feel in control?

3. Lean in on timed writing formula.

Familiarize yourself with essay writing formulae for timed essays. 

• Structure = 5-6 paragraph essay 

• Intro = hook, context, thesis

• Body paragraph flow = establishes, further develops, complicates

• General paragraph structure 🍰

• Topic sentence = context + claim

• Citation = context + choice + citation

• Analysis = emphasized + suggested + revealed

4. To increase speed: optimize your time by recycling and riffing off your intentional annotations.

• Your annotations can be 40% of your essay. Think of your close reading as doubling as your pre-writing stage. 

• Concentrate your annotations: 1-2 words. 

• As you read, keep an eye out for: the literal big picture, the literary elements such as choices, author's purpose, and effect on reader.

• Name what characters are do-ing. Are they challenging, lamenting, reminiscing, pitying, demanding, admitting, confessing, celebrating, etc.?

5. Tensions can help you make sense or "unlock" a passage.

• Use "versus" to help you track thematic tensions. Then, shift to a more appropriate verb (challenges, threatens, clouded by, overwhelms, shadows, )

• What ideas seem to be in opposition?

• Look for a paradox that unifies contradictory ideas in the passage.

6. Using key words from your thesis, brainstorm a bank of word to reinforce your argument.

Identify your key words in your thesis and then web them out.  Your key words can be related to your description of the author's purpose or the very vivid verb you use. Tap into these web of words whenever you make your bridge to your thesis. Cross these words out as you go. 

7. If you're hesitating, skip a few lines and proceed with the next part of your argument.

Leave a space, a line or two or three. Keep your momentum and never let the pen stop moving.

Don't forget to go back to your skipped lined and seamlessly add in your ideas. 

8. When it doubt, web it out. Make your thinking visible.

We may struggle to analyze a choice for multiple reasons: we are unsure what to say, we know something literary is afoot yet can't explain it, we are juggling so many exciting thoughts that we might get frazzled, we are confused by what's happening. 

A web makes your thinking visible, which lightens your cognitive load. Keep adding, connecting, and identifying tensions. Interrogate your ideas and consider what's emphasized or suggested or revealed.

Keep webbing outward until you reach a revelation or an idea that passes the mmmmm™ test. 

9. A colon or an em-dash can help your natural voice come out.

 A colon can echo our natural conversation flow, making your writing more digestible and lucid. Your reader can follow your train of thought with more ease and can focus fully on your argument. Link to Master Class explanation on colons.

An em-dash can be a way to really punctuate an idea or statement. I am not recommending you turn into Emily Dickinson, but I encourage using an em-dash to keep your pen moving across the page. 

10. Positive self-talk determines your testing experience.