Felimanuel Series: The Magical Secret to Success in Essay Writing in English for Junior and Senior High Students (Volume 1) with Success Secrets as a Bonus

By Emmanuel Gbireh

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. William Ellery Channing

Some of the things you will discover in Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in English Language, Essay Writing for Junior and Senior High Schools Volume 1, With Bonus Success Secrets:

The book is comprehensively, logically and coherently written and the language used is also easy to understand; hence, little or no further explanation is needed.

The book teaches how to choose examination questions and answer them without sweat.

Sample outlines/plans and sample essays have been written to guide pupils and students.

The bonus success secrets will help pupils and students to pass in all seemingly difficult subjects like mathematics and science.

The bonus success secrets will also guide pupils and students towards the attainment of greater success in life.

The book has been designed in such a way that it can be used for examination purposes and for other practical uses in the day-to-day life of whoever uses it faithfully.

In writing this book on English Language, essay writing, I decided to move away from the traditional way of some authors flooding their English Language, essay writing books with so many sample essays based on my experiences as an English teacher some years back. Many pupils / students have the habit of memorizing written essays found in books and reproduce them during examinations, class exercises or when given project/home work when they see that the question being asked is similar to the answered one they came across. I hope the experts in the educational sector will agree with me that this does not augur well for the proper development of the child because he/she would not have the opportunity to think and plan on his /her own before writing a script with originality (I stand to be corrected if I am mistaken). It is in line with this that I have given only single sample essays per essay topic treated with more suggested outlines/plans.

Most people often fail to plan their lives and this usually have disastrous effects on them. Also in writing examination, most candidates fail to plan their essays before answering selected questions. As the old adage says, If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

It is based on the above that in writing this book, I dedicated the first chapter to the basics of essay writing. Below is an excerpt of chapter one of the book.

After high lighting on the basics of essay writing, I went ahead to discuss what paragraphs are and how they can be used in our daily writings. This is followed by the use of punctuation marks. Here again, I have given a comprehensive write-up as to how punctuation marks can be used to enrich our written works.

Other topics covered in the book are writing of narrative essays, descriptive essays, friendly letters, semi- formal letters, summary writing, argumentative essays, speeches and talks, report writing, articles for publication, expository essays and advertisement.

After a comprehensive, logical and coherent treatment of each topic, I followed up with sample questions, outlines/plans and essays. These are only to serve as a guide to users of the book.

I will like to take this opportunity to entreat teachers to encourage pupils /students whom they teach to learn how to write an outline/plan and to use it when answering essay related questions, not only with English language, but with all other subjects that they deem it fit to apply. Some people may not see the usefulness of the outline/plan, but it helps the pupil / stude

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Oct 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479736591

Emmanuel Gbireh

Emmanuel Gbireh hails from Tizza in the Jirapa District in the Upper West Region of Ghana. He was born on 26th December, 1974 to Mr. T. D. Gbireh, a Retired Assistant Director of Education and Mrs. Mary B. Gbireh, a Retired Principal Nursing Officer. Emmanuel is married to Felicia Daplah and they live in Tarkwa, Ghana with their lovely kids. Emmanuel is a product of St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary, Wa and St Hubert’s Seminary, Kumasi, where he obtained his GCE O’Level & A ‘Level Certificates respectively. He later pursued a course in Philosophy, Religious and Spiritual Studies at St. Victor’s Major Seminary. Whiles working, he has been taking courses in HND Accountancy, and for a diploma in Psychology and Foundation of Education (English Language and Social Studies) with the University of Cape Coast Centre for Continuing Education in Ghana. Emmanuel taught English Language in several schools including prominent ones such as the Mandela International School and the St. Joseph Preparatory School, both in the Teshie-Nungua Estates, Accra. He is currently an employee of Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Tarkwa Gold Mine. In the near future, he plans to set up his own aquaculture company in the Western Region of Ghana. Emmanuel is a member of Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship International (Golden Chapter, Tarkwa, Ghana) and Apex Springboard Club, Tarkwa. He is the author of, “Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in Essay Writing in English for Junior and Senior High Students (Volume 1), with “Success Secrets” as a bonus published by Xlibris Corporation, UK (www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk).

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Emmanuel Gbireh.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Constructive criticisms are cordially welcome for necessary redress in subsequent editions. All comments should be channelled through:

Emmanuel Gbireh,

P.O. Box 681,

Tarkwa, Western Region,

Ghana, West Africa.

Email: [e-mail]

Typesetting

Evelyn Adubea-Duodu,

Evikcoland Plus-Trading,

Tarkwa, Ghana, West Africa.

Mobile: [phone]

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

[e-mail]

303724

Contents

Preface

Ghana

Nigeria

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 The Basics of Essay Writing

Chapter 2 Paragraph Writing

Chapter 3 Punctuation Marks

Chapter 4 Writing Narrative Essays I (Narrating Everyday Events or Incidents)

Chapter 5 Writing Descriptive Essays

Chapter 6 Writing Friendly Letters

Chapter 7 Writing Semi-formal or Semi-official Letters

Chapter 8 Summary Writing

Chapter 9 Writing Argumentative Essays

Chapter 10 Writing Speeches or Talks

Chapter 11 Writing Reports

Chapter 12 Writing Articles for Publication

Chapter 13 Writing Expository Essays

Chapter 14 Writing Advertisements

Bonus: Success Secrets

Nothing Is Impossible

The Power of Books

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Author’s Note

References

The Faithful Use of This Book will Lead You to the Magical Secret to Success in Essay Writing in English and in Life.

(Emmanuel Gbireh)

Dedication

Glory Be to God

This book is dedicated to my beloved parents, Mr T. D. Gbireh (Assistant Director of Education, Retd.), Mrs Mary B. Gbireh (Principal Nursing Officer, Retd.), for without you, I would not be who I am today, Rev. Apostle George Ofosu-Anim, Founder and General Overseer, Calvary Salvation Church, Tarkwa for accepting to be my mentor and spiritual counsellor, and Mr Emmanuel Kofi Kaningen, Unit Manager, Training and Development and Board Member, Goldfields Ghana Limited, Tarkwa Gold Mine.

Preface

My first book, Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in BECE English Language, Essay Writing for Basic Schools (JHS 1-3), Volume 1, was written based on my experiences as an English teacher of Mandela International School, Teshie-Nungua Estates, Accra, Ghana-between 2004 and 2006.

At that time, I realised that the English textbooks on essay writing for basic schools in Ghana were not detailed enough. To worsen the situation, most of these books did not offer the pupils the opportunity to think and plan before writing their essays.

I became more alarmed when I undertook a research to find out how students in Ghana and other parts of the world were performing at the second-cycle institutions in English language. In my research, I looked at Ghana and Nigeria.

Ghana

In Ghana, it was reported that it has been established that most candidates performed poorly in English language, Mathematics, and Science examinations conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC). In a statement, the International Final Awards and Examiners Committee of WAEC emphasised that the situation did not auger well for national development, which called for immediate steps to reverse the trend. WAEC currently conducts the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for junior high schools and West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) at the senior high level in the sub-region. The committee noted that English, Mathematics, and Science are the basic disciplines for the planned technological advancement envisaged in the Vision 2020 Programme of Ghana.

The same disciplines, it said, also underline the technological advancement of the Gambia’s Vision 2020 and Nigeria’s Vision 2020, among others.

The statement said members of the council recalled that the council’s chief examiners report from year to year, pinpointed inadequate preparation of students, poor use of English, failure to read instructions to questions and reliance on short notes instead of textbooks as some of the factors responsible for the poor performance of candidates.

It said that the poor performance in English language was particularly worrying because it would be impossible for any candidate to do well in examinations if English language as a medium of expression was not mastered.

The two-day meeting, which took place in Accra, was attended by the Ministers of Education of the five-member countries of WAEC, representatives of secondary schools, universities, and Ghana’s Ministry of Education.

Futhermore, a Ghana Education Service (GES) official said the inability of some brilliant senior high students to gain admission into tertiary institutions as a result of poor performance in the English language was a serious bother to GES. Mr Eddy Obeng-Darko, the Atwima-Nwabiagya District Director of Education, said the English language has become a major problem subject to many students, and the situation must be urgently reversed (GNA, Nkawie, Ashanti Region, Wednesday, 6 July 2005).

Nigeria

In the case of Nigeria, based on findings I got from a research conducted by O. A. Asikhia (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Curriculum Studies and Instruction, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija-Epe, Lagos State) on ‘Students and Teachers’ Perception of the Causes of Poor Academic Performance in Ogun State Secondary Schools (Nigeria): Implications for Counselling for National Development, it came to light that all over the country, there was a consensus of opinion about the fallen standard of education in Nigeria (Adebule, 2004). Parents and government were in total agreement that their huge investment on education was not yielding the desired dividend. Teachers also complained of students’ low performance at both internal and external examinations. The annual releases of Senior Secondary Certificate Examination results (SSCE) conducted by WAEC justified the problematic nature of poor secondary school students’ performance in English language. For instance, the percentage of failure compared with students who passed English from 2004 to 2007 is shown below.

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) performance in the Senior School Certificate Examinations: May and June 2004-7: English language

Further findings from a research by David O. Fakeye, Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Yemi Ogunsiji, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, Nigeria, on ‘English Language Proficiency as a Predictor of Academic Achievement among EFL students in Nigeria in 2009’, involving 400 students in Oyo and Osun States of Nigeria, revealed that the poor performance of students in English language at public examinations in recent times has been explained as a major cause of the decline in academic achievement and standard of education in Nigeria. As Maleki and Zangani (2007) observed, having difficulties in grasping fully the contents and concepts of the various subjects of the curriculum taught in the targeted language (English language) seemed to be one of the most serious problems that EFL students faced in their particular course of study. This was the same problem with Nigerian ESL students whose performance in the various school subjects at public examinations was nothing to write home about. This might be due to their weaknesses in English language, the medium of instruction, which may have negative consequences on their overall academic achievement. In the argument of Feast (2002), when students are deficient in the language of instruction, it follows that they would not perform well in various school subjects taught in the targeted language. Therefore, the overall performance of Nigerian ESL students depended, to a very large extent, on their English language proficiency.

Findings from my research also indicated that English language is the official language of communication in many countries in the world, for example UK, USA, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Gambia, and so on, as well as the medium of instruction in schools, colleges, and universities. It is also the pre-eminent language of international communication. Consequently, those who master English are likely to reap many academic, social, and professional benefits. In the school setting, proficiency in English will make the learning of other subjects much easier because it is the common denominator which provides the pupil or student with the capacity to grasp all subjects and the ability to think and communicate his or her thoughts whether he or she hopes to be a teacher, an engineer, or a lawyer.

The various issues raised above prompted me to undertake further research, review my first book, and come out with books that can serve pupils and students at the first and second-cycle institutions, as well as teacher trainees and teachers.

Pupils in the junior high schools might need little assistance from their teachers to enable them to use the books effectively and efficiently.

Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in Essay Writing in English for Junior and Senior High Students (Volume 1 and 2) With Success Secrete as a Bonus have been designed in such a way that they can be used for examination purposes and for other practical uses in the day-to-day life of whoever uses them faithfully.

In writing my books on English language, essay writing, I decided to move away from the traditional way of some authors flooding their English language essay writing books with so many sample essays, based on my experiences as an English language teacher some years back. Pupils or students have the habit of memorising written essays found in books and reproduce them during examinations, class exercises, or when given project or homework when they see that the question being asked is similar to what they have come across. I hope the experts in the educational sector will agree with me that this does not augur well for the proper development of the child because he or she will not have the opportunity to think and plan on his or her own before writing a script with originality. (I stand to be corrected if I am mistaken.) It is in line with this that I have given only single sample essays per essay topic treated with more suggested outlines or plans.

The Bonus: Success Secrets have been included in books written by me to let users of my books to understand that I am not just only interested in their academic development but also in their general well-being.

All topics treated under this section are not part of any English language curriculum known to me, but in my opinion, I have the conviction that they will have a positive impact on the users of my books if they adhere to them. It is a section that should be taken serious because all the issues raised are based on past experiences of me and others and research carried out by experts in those fields. The topics were randomly chosen, and I will welcome suggested topics from readers to be included in future books to be published in the series.

I will like to take this opportunity to entreat teachers to encourage pupils or students whom they teach to learn how to write an outline or plan and to use it when answering essay-related