Preparing for
PRAXIS CASE Essays
Ekstrom
Library
Room 132
(502) 852-2173
louisville.edu/writingcenter
writing@louisville.edu
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Two minute freewrite:
• What do you know about the format and
expectations for the Praxis CASE ?
• What strategies have been successful in the past
for timed writing?
• What do you want to learn from today’s
workshop?
Argumentative Essay
“Draw from personal experience, observation, or reading to
support a position with specific reasons and examples”
• Argue a point—agree, disagree— with convincing
evidence
• Use your own words to analyze
• Demonstrate critical and analytical thinking
Brief introduction & thesis statement
Example Evidence Example Evidence
Short conclusion
Argumentative Example Prompt
“Minimum wage jobs are a ticket to nowhere. They are boring
and repetitive and teach employees little or nothing of value.
Minimum-wage employers take advantage of people because
they need a job.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with this
opinion. Support your views with specific reasons and
examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
Source-based
• “extract information from two provided sources to identify
important concerns related to an issue”
• Sort through information, identify important concepts, and
discuss importance
• Synthesize – identify the main point of debate.
• Make connections, discuss relationships, compare, contrast
• Demonstrate critical and analytical thinking
• Directions: In the following section, you will have 30 minutes to
read two sort passages on a topic and then plan and write an
essay on that topic. The essay will be an informative essay
based on the two sources that are provided.
Examples of 2 sources
Preparation
• Read successful examples
• Practice, practice, practice
• Time yourself (30 minutes)
• Get feedback:
• Organization: What order do you present your
ideas and which ideas are grouped together?
• Content: What are you actually trying to say?
• Style and voice: How do present your ideas, on the
sentence level?
Writing the Essay
• Read directions carefully
• Use some of your 30 minutes for planning
• Use words from the question in your response.
• State your claim (argument) or overall synthesis (source-
based) in the first sentence.
• Consider short paragraphs
• Use clear transitions and connections between ideas and
paragraphs. (handout)
• If you think of new ideas as you write, stop and jot it
down on your outline.
Editing & Proofreading
• Use some of your time to
proofread
• Strive for clarity and focus
• The best word isn’t the
always the fanciest word
• Help the essay evaluators
to easily read and
understand what you
write.
Reducing Test Stress & Anxiety
• Give yourself enough time to study
• Get plenty of sleep the night before
• Have a healthy, energy-boosting snack before (or
during) the exam. Drink plenty of water. Don’t have
caffeine.
• Before and during the exam, take deep breaths. If
possible, stretch, close your eyes for a moment.
• Bring a “good luck charm”
• Use all your time
Practice: 10 minutes
• Brainstorm, write a thesis, and create an outline
for the following argumentative prompt:
Parents are not playing enough of a role in schools
today. They need to be more involved in their
children’s education. That is why schools are not
doing so well today
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree
with this opinion. Support your views with specific
reasons and examples from your own experience,
observations, or reading.
Questions?
Additional resources
• Wise Words handout
• How do I write an essay that makes an argument?
• How can I revise my draft if it doesn’t seem to “flow”?
• Writing With Sources: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and
Summarizing (video)
• Using Sources (PDF)
• Style and Usage handouts (active voice, parallelism,
commas and semicolon)
What is your main “take away”
from the presentation?
