Student Testimonials
As a history and political science major I am required to write essays on a weekly basis. Thus, in order to succeed at university it is absolutely essential that I am able to properly research and construct an essay. Fortunately, the Social Sciences Department at Earl of March Secondary School does an excellent job of teaching students to write at the university level. I cannot emphasize enough the advantage that being a graduate of Earl of March has given me in university; in fact, I still keep a copy of earl of March’s essay whom are graduates of Canada’s most prestigious private schools, struggle because of their complete inability to research, write and format an essay. I want to take this opportunity to illustrate two specific ares where I feel Earl of March distinguishes itself from other schools that are trying to teach their students how to write.
Firstly, the Social Sciences Department at Earl places great importance on teaching students how to conduct research. During my time at Earl of March I was taught how to use important research tools such as university libraries, online databases, peer-reviewed journals, and periodicals, as well as how to distinguish legitimate information from faulty information. My ability to effectively research my topics has allowed me to write far places on properly formatted essays has allowed me to avoid many potential pitfalls in university. Several of my friends in university have received failing grades because they were never taught how to properly cite a paper using accepted styles for footnoting and bibliographies. Overall my experience with the Social Sciences Department at Earl of March has allowed me to achieve a remarkable degree of success in university
-Stewart C
Earl of March, Class of 2008
Dalhousie University- Class of 2012
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Having taken a first year Politics course at Queen’s this year, I can certainly say that the Earl of March essay “program” gave me a competitive edge when it came to writing my first university level research papers. While my professor and tutorial leader spent what I thought was a tiresome amount of time covering proper research and documentation methods all I could think was, “Doesn’t everyone already know this?”
Apparently not!
In fact, many people seemed to believe that two to three sources were sufficient to draft an entire paper, and that among these select sources was Wikipedia. Having graduated from Earl of March, I knew this was not the case! I knew that many sources should be used when writing a credible and knowledgeable piece, where to find this information, what to document and source, how to select relevant points, and to perform an analysis on the information I was using rather than slap it down in quotations. So while many of my fellow classmates were able to collaboratively achieve a class average on the paper of around 63% I was able to score much higher than this without all the hassle of trying to branch away from poor research and writing habits. I simply did what I did in high school and hoped for the best – and it worked! So, although it may seem a long and drawn out process now, trust me- its highly effective and will allow you to breeze through first year university writing
Megan
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The essay writing process at Earl of March has allowed me to walk into my first year of university with great confidence. The enforcement of preparing a Preliminary Proposal and an Outline has now made these tools essential to my essay writing process. Also, through the progression in the various social science courses at the Earl, I have learned how to conduct useful research, structure my essay, present my essay in the proper format, as well as how to cite my essay correctly. Throughout my current university courses, I feel that this process has placed me at an advantage as I have noticed a significant difference in the essay skills and knowledge of other students.
EOM Graduate, 2009
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I used to complain more than anyone sitting in my grade 11 and 12 classes. I hated writing essays and PEP’s. Once I started some of my first university classes though, I realized I really shouldn’t have complained. I had the competitive edge! I knew exactly what a proper university essay was. I actually found it too simple. I was challenged in high school and that’s’ what really helps you learn. Once my first marks came back, and we heard the class average it was clear that it was the simple rules and skills you learn in high school that really do make the biggest difference. I’m very grateful for all the help and support in the Social Science Department. They made a great impact on my studies. Thank you!
EOM Graduate 2009