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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45134
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I suggest that, instead of following the instructions exactly as written, that you write the essay to a particular imaginary person who will be grading the test.

For a standardized high-school essay test, the essay will probably be checked by a piece of software for so-called "errors." A human reader, probably an underpaid teacher with a Master's in English from a local university, and having 700 essays to read, will grade your essay, taking into account the software score.

Software can't grade the quality of human-written essays for shit, so minimally try to avoid the kind of writing style that software considers to be an error; that would be, avoid "ain't" and "y'all" and other stylistic so-called "errors" like these.

Remember that your essay will not be necessarily graded by the smartest reader in the world, nor the most stupid. This will be an Everyman type teacher, with a good grounding in grammar and spelling, but without the writing chops to make it as a professional writer. So, avoid errors first, but always try to write an essay To This Person. Convince them that what you're saying is how you actually feel, and develop an attitude and outlook they will likely sympathize with.

If you take an outlandish or wild position in your paper, you will be marked down for it. Human graders of this type can't tell the difference between "poorly written" and "something I personally disagree with."

On another note: why are you answering high-school essay prompts anyway?

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