10b. In case you missed it, WE ARE PRAISING GRANDMA HERE.

This also answers the prompt clearly: YES we should give people praise to improve their self-esteem! Why? (And this is implied...) Because it probably saved my grandma's life!

Ethan Sawyer

Eleven Tips for Using an Objective Correlative in Your SAT (or Any) Essay

The Prompt: Should we give people more praise in order to build up their self-esteem?

The Essay (by Joseph Tsai): My grandma makes the best steamed fish. She garnishes a fresh fish with ginger, fresh green onions, and a special delicious black sauce. Every time my family and I go out to Monterey Park to visit her, she has two steaming plates of tasty, tender fish waiting for us. It has truly become one of our family traditions. That is, until my grandpa passed away this April. My grandparents were inseparable. My grandpa took care of my grandma when he still had strength, and my grandma watched over my grandpa after he had become weak. She perfected the art of creating succulent dishes that were easy to chew and swallow--tofu, steamed egg whites, preserved vegetable porridge, and others. However, upon my grandpa’s passing, my grandma became an entirely different person. She entered a melancholy state of depression which lasted for weeks. We often visited her to try to comfort her, but those steaming plates of fish no longer awaited us. She would no longer leave her house to play mah-jong with her friends. She began to sleep on my grandpa’s side of the bed. When we went out to eat, she would usually just sit silently, only speaking when spoken to, answering with responses as short as possible. Then one day when we were at Monterey Park, my dad brought back live crabs. We cooked them and began to eat them, but decided the crab meat would be better with some sauce. My mom mixed some soy sauce with chili sauce and brought it back to the table. My grandma tasted it, and without a word, took the sauce back to the kitchen. I heard furious chopping for half a minute and she came back with the sauce which looked entirely different. She added minced garlic, some chopped basil, hot peppers, and sesame oil. It blended perfectly with the crab. We all praised my grandma and soon the sauce was all gone. She smiled, went to the kitchen, and came back a few minutes later with more sauce. Soon, we finished all the crab at a record-breaking pace, and flooded my grandma with more compliments. Afterwards, I went out to play basketball at a local park with my brother. After a couple hours of playing, we headed back exhausted. As I walked in, I could make out the unmistakable aroma of my grandma’s fish.

Q: What does the steamed fish represent so far? A: At least three things:1. Family tradition. 2. Grandma's love for her family.3. Grandma's artistry/creativity.

2. Start "programming" the OC early too.

(Personal note: when my grandpa died my grandma would sleep in his pajamas. Those pjs

would make a great OC.)

4. Once the OC is established, launch the story with an Inciting

Incident. Usually this is the answer to "What is the worst thing that could happen?" (In this story:

grandpa's death launches grandma's journey.)

5. Raise the stakes by letting us know why the Inciting

Incident was such a big deal.

(Another OC, representing connection with friends.)

(Genius: we hear her before we see her! More suspense: what is she doing?)

7. Remove the OC and watch how everything it represents goes away. (No fish? Well then: no

tradition, no grandma expressing love, and no grandma expressing

creativity. Ouch.)

9. Create suspense by having important things happen "off-screen." (We don't know what

grandma is doing, but we're curious!)

1. Set up your objective correlative (OC) early.

6. Feel free to use other small objective correlatives. (And note how these food

examples reaffirm that grandma expresses love through cooking.)

...and see that the fish has returned!So what else has returned? 1. Family tradition. 2. Grandma's love for her family.3. Grandma's artistry/creativity.Bing, bang, BOOM. And, once again, all is right with the world and we are back to status quo. Well, minus grandpa. (Sad face.)

(Read: the sauce isn't just different;grandma is different.)

8. Create a Lowest Point for the character. (This is grandma's lowest point.)

3. Make sure the reader knows what the OC represents. (In this case, steamed fish = tradition.)

Q: Why does he go out to play b'ball here? A: He needs to go away so that he can come back...

10. Make sure you give a crystal clear and concrete example that connects back to the prompt. (In this case: should we praise people to

build up their self-esteem?)

(First signs of life from grandma in a while.)

11. Bring back the OC in a new context to show how the main character has changed.

And all that in just 394 words written in 25 minutes. (I swear.)