How to write an essay well

Nurse is also the author of Carnival Woman, currently being revised. It will be on book shelves in 2017. Carnival Woman was self-published in 2002. The TT native, who now lives in the United Sates told WMN, “If students can write properly in high school, then college will not be as challenging because college is 60 percent writing.”

Nurse’s passion for writing was born out of her own love for the written word, saying she always wrote poems and plays. Nurse said when she left TT to pursue higher education in the United States she also pursued higher education in English. Her thesis turned into the book, Carnival Woman.

After pursuing her Teacher’s Diploma, How to Write Essays and Research Papers was born. The book was written in 2007.

She said, “With the formulas and methods in this book students can easily prepare [a] structured paper of eight, ten, 20 pages or more.” Nurse noted that several local and international writers have reviewed the book. But although it has had such great reviews the book is yet to be fully adopted by schools throughout TT. The professor of English at La Guardia Community College hopes that the book would become a staple in schools throughout the country.

Nurse said although she has contacted Government officials to have the book added to its list for secondary school students, no response was received.

For many students, Nurse said, the difficulty in putting pen to paper, so to speak, was translating what was contained in one’s head onto the page. “How to document it from paper is the problem,” she said.

For Nurse, the book is her gift to students across TT. People, she added, spoke in essay but was unaware of the fact. Sighting that each essay/story had the structure of the beginning middle and an end.

When people recognise that, she said, they are better able to write effective essays. “When students can recognise that, they will be able to write effectively. That is the magic in my book. When people unlock that magic they can write effective essays.”

On the website ratemyprofessor.com Nurse’s book has received a 4.8 out of 5. One student on the site said, “Before taking English 112 and English 150, I did not know how begin to write a proper essay with structure. Professor Nurse is very dedicated and patient with all her students. She taught me that we can write a whole book if we wanted to, as long as we had structure. I would recommend her to any student.”

Nurse also gives free lectures when she in TT, both at the University of the West Indies and at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago.

Ultimately, at the core of Nurse’s work is sharing the art of writing and doing so well.