�It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. � William Ellery Channing � Some of the things you will discover in Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in English Language, Essay Writing for Junior and Senior High Schools Volume 1, With Bonus Success Secrets: � The book is comprehensively, logically and coherently written and the language used is also easy to understand; hence, little or no further explanation is needed. � The book teaches how to choose examination questions and answer them without sweat. � Sample outlines/plans and sample essays have been written to guide pupils and students. � The bonus success secrets will help pupils and students to pass in all seemingly difficult subjects like mathematics and science. � The bonus success secrets will also guide pupils and students towards the attainment of greater success in life. The book has been designed in such a way that it can be used for examination purposes and for other practical uses in the day-to-day life of whoever uses it faithfully. In writing this book on English Language, essay writing, I decided to move away from the traditional way of some authors flooding their English Language, essay writing books with so many sample essays based on my experiences as an English teacher some years back. Many pupils / students have the habit of memorizing written essays found in books and reproduce them during examinations, class exercises or when given project/home work when they see that the question being asked is similar to the answered one they came across. I hope the experts in the educational sector will agree with me that this does not augur well for the proper development of the child because he/she would not have the opportunity to think and plan on his /her own before writing a script with originality (I stand to be corrected if I am mistaken). It is in line with this that I have given only single sample essays per essay topic treated with more suggested outlines/plans. Most people often fail to plan their lives and this usually have disastrous effects on them. Also in writing examination, most candidates fail to plan their essays before answering selected questions. As the old adage says, �If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.� It is based on the above that in writing this book, I dedicated the first chapter to the basics of essay writing. Below is an excerpt of chapter one of the book. After high lighting on the basics of essay writing, I went ahead to discuss what paragraphs are and how they can be used in our daily writings. This is followed by the use of punctuation marks. Here again, I have given a comprehensive write-up as to how punctuation marks can be used to enrich our written works. Other topics covered in the book are writing of narrative essays, descriptive essays, friendly letters, semi- formal letters, summary writing, argumentative essays, speeches and talks, report writing, articles for publication, expository essays and advertisement. After a comprehensive, logical and coherent treatment of each topic, I followed up with sample questions, outlines/plans and essays. These are only to serve as a guide to users of the book. I will like to take this opportunity to entreat teachers to encourage pupils /students whom they teach to learn how to write an outline/plan and to use it when answering essay related questions, not only with English language, but with all other subjects that they deem it fit to apply. Some people may not see the usefulness of the outline/plan, but it helps the pupil / student to write faster and in a logical and coherent manner than someone who thinks and writes at the same time. The outline will also help pupils / students to avoid the situation in which they sit in examination halls wasting precious time biting their pens because they have lost track of what they are supposed to write. In the event where the pupils / students are being beaten by time, all they need to do is to look at the outline and develop the points there briefly. In writing the sample essays, I took into consideration the level of the intellectual maturity of pupils in the junior high school. Below is an excerpt from the book with a sample question, outline/plan and essay for your perusal. Q.1. �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� Argue for or against the above statement. ARGUMENT FOR THE MOTION � Girls are born to be housewives. � Most girls drop out of school due to teenage pregnancy. � Most educated women are proud and bossy. � The benefit of their education goes to the families of their husbands when they get married. ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MOTION � �When you educate a woman, you educate a nation,� said Dr. Aggrey. � Educated women are more disciplined and strict. � Educating women engenders gender equality. � Availability of reproductive health care / education. OUTLINE / PLAN AGAINST THE MOTION 1. Introduction (State your stand against the motion). 2. Body: i. State and refute points for the motion � Girls are born to be housewives. � Educated women are proud. � Teenage pregnancy. ii. State and explain the points against the motion with evidence, facts and illustrations. � Educating a nation � Gender equality � Women are more disciplined and strict. � Reproductive health care / education. 3. Conclusion (Reinforce your stand against the motion with a summary of your main points). SAMPLE ESSAY TO QUESTION 1 ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MOTION I am against the motion that �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� Proposers of the motion might argue that girls are born to grow to be housewives, but if I may ask; how many educated women in our society end up as housewives? Also, proposers of the motion might say that educated women are proud and arrogant. I will rather say that it is due to the strict and disciplined nature of educated women that makes some irresponsible and lazy men to see educated women as being proud and arrogant. Furthermore, proposers of the motion might argue that most girls drop out of school before they complete senior high school due to teenage pregnancy. On the contrary, with the availability of reproductive health education / care, teenage girls are able to avoid or prevent teenage pregnancy. I rise against the motion that, �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources� based on the facts given below. Dr. Kwagyi Aggrey of blessed memory said that, �When you educate a woman, you educate a nation and when you educate a man you educate an individual.� The above assertion is true in the sense that women who are the mothers of our homes spend more time with their children than the men. The true up-bringing of a child is mostly done by the mother with material assistance from the father. Looking at what mostly pertains in various homes, how many children are able to approach their fathers freely with their problems? Since mothers are naturally more caring and loving than fathers wouldn�t a child pay attention more to his/her mother than his / her father? Also, the era in which women were marginalized is past. Modern-day society now advocates gender equality; what is good for the goose is good for the gender. By educating a girl-child, gender equality is being engendered. Most of the things that are being done by men are equally being done by women and even in a better manner. If educating the girl-child is a waste of scarce resources, how come Ghana currently has a female Chief Justice, a female speaker of parliament and a substantial number of female members of parliament and ministers of state? How comes the Secretary of State of USA, the presidents of Liberia and Malawi are all females? Can�t the world boast of female medical doctors, accountants, lawyers, military personnel, taxi and �trotro� drivers? Furthermore, due to the strict and disciplined nature of educated women, some irresponsible and lazy men perceive them to be proud and arrogant. Most institutions and organizations that are headed by educated women can be said to be more productive than those of their male counterparts because educated women do not tolerate acts of indiscipline wherever they find themselves. With the availability of reproductive health care and the inclusion of reproductive health education in most educational curriculum, will the girl-child still be dropping out of school due to teenage pregnancy? Teenage girls apart from learning about reproductive health care at school also learn it from their mothers at home and from programmes on radio and television. From the above arguments presented, one will only be biased to argue that �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources because educating a girl-child is educating a nation, engendering gender equality, educated women are being more strict and disciplined, the girl-child is able to prevent / avoid teenage pregnancy due to the availability of reproductive health education/care, I therefore argue against the motion that, �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� The bonus success secrets section have been included in this book and other books yet to be published because I am not interested in only just the academic development of my readers, but their general well-being. All topics treated under this section are not part of any English Language curriculum known to me, but in my opinion, I have the conviction that they will have a positive impact on the users of this book if they adhere to them. It is a section that should be taken serious because all the issues raised are based on past experiences of me and others and research carried out by experts in those fields. The topics are randomly chosen and I will welcome suggested topics from readers to be included in future books to be published in the series. Topics covered under the bonus success secrets are Nothing is Impossible, The Power of Books, Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Below are excerpts on the various sub-topics under the bonus success secrets. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE �You are a V.I.P.� �You are a very important person.� �You are a wonderful, unique, creative being with talents and abilities you have yet to realize.� � Dee Rimmer � At certain times in your life, you may see some situations to be difficult or impossible. Or at times you are told by others that it is not possible to attain your dreams due to one reason or another. However, I want to assure you that there is nothing in this world that is difficult or impossible to attain except perhaps, the creation or cloning of a human being. What you normally see to be difficult or are told that it is impossible to achieve is only a perception in your mind because whatever you feed your mind with will surely come out physically. When computer programmers say, �GIGO,� they simply mean that if you programme the computer with garbage, all you will get out of the computer is garbage; hence, �GIGO� = GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. In other terms, �GIGO = GOOD IN, GOOD OUT�. The same thing applies to the human mind. If you feed your mind with impossibilities, feelings of negation, failure, fear, poverty, disease and destitution, the mind will loyally carry out plans for the attainment of such. On the other hand, should you feed in visions of success, wealth, good health, fame and fortune; your mind will create the necessary plans for the attainment of same. It gives you exactly what you ask for. This is exactly what Emerson had in mind when he wrote, �Be careful what you set your heart on, for it surely will be yours.� Most of you do complain that certain subjects are difficult to learn, but I want to give you the assurance that no subject is difficult to learn or impossible to learn. It is rather unfortunate that some pupils / students get poor grades in Mathematics, English Language and Science because of the wrong perception that they have about those subjects being difficult to learn or meant for a special class of individuals. Once you make up your mind that a particular subject is difficult to learn or understand, (e.g. Mathematics), you can be given Archimedes or the best mathematician in the world to teach you, but you will still have a dismal performance. On the other hand, if you perceive Mathematics to be one of the easy going subjects and develop the love for it, with little assistance you will be among the best. The same applies to all subjects and all seemingly difficult situations in life. THE POWER OF BOOKS Most people make the mistake of not grasping the fact that there is an abundance of knowledge of things already done, of things that can be done and of things that are being done in books. Visualize in your mind�s eye a picture of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a candlelit room next to a blazing log fire and reading, then realize that �Leaders are Readers.� Abraham Lincoln not only read, but absorbed. He was particularly noted for absorbing information. He would read a chapter, and then contemplate what he had read. According to Albert & Comfort Ocran in their book, �The More You Know The Better It Gets,� consistent reading broadens your knowledge base, enhances your confidence and also improves your vocabulary. They encourage that people should invest in libraries of their own. They further said that one cannot be a player in the knowledge economy if he/she does not have a library or store of books and reading materials. There is so much to read; it may pay to invest in some books that teach �speed reading.� These invaluable techniques were studied by people like John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They too, saw the need to increase their reading rate because of the amount of power to be gained from books. Check out on your local library, there are many good books on speed reading available. Read as many of these as you can in order to find the techniques that are best for you. Biographies and autobiographies bring light to many of the secrets of success in life. It is easy to see that many people risk their lives and everything they have in order to attain their major objectives. Among these kinds of people are racing drivers, mountaineers, deep sea divers, astronauts and test pilots. Read exciting and fascinating accounts of dangerous exploits, let your adrenalin bubble be inspired and get out into the field and do these things for yourself. BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! READ! READ! READ! Forget of the parties, movies, televisions, computer games and do some reading. Who knows, maybe you will be inspired to go on the greatest adventure of your life, perhaps by reading a book. Remember that those who won�t read have no advantage over those who can�t read. Set aside a certain amount of time each day as your definite reading schedule. Don�t forget that everything you read is retained by one part of the mind or another and there is no telling when the subconscious mind will draw on it. ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM PROBLEM DRINKING AFFECTS SCHOOL PERFORMANCE How does problem drinking affect young people�s schooling? In some cases the linkage between problem drinking and academic performance is profound. Drinking can affect the biological development of young people�s as well as their school � related achievement and behaviour. Serious alcohol use among youth has significant neurological consequences. Alcohol damages areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory, verbal skills and visual-spatial cognition. Diagnosticians often find that these skills in adolescents who drink are deficient in comparison to those who aren�t drinking. Scientist knows that alcohol problems are tied to lower grades, poor attendance and increases in dropout rates. The US 2000 National Household Survey On Drug Abuse (NHSDA, now known as the National Survey On Drug Use And Health), a federal study, found that as rates of alcohol use by 12-17 year olds increase, grade point averages decrease. Middle school students whose peers avoid using alcohol and other drugs score higher on state reading and mathematics tests than other students. In any age group, heavy and binge drinkers are 4-6 times more likely than non-drinkers to say they cut classes or skipped school. They are twice as likely as non-drinkers to say that their school work is poor and they report more frequently that they are disobedient at school. Among high school students, those who use alcohol are five times more likely to dropout than those who don�t use alcohol. These problems are not limited to the middle and high school setting; hangovers and drinking by college students lead to missed classes and falling behind in school work. Alcohol is implicated in more than 40% of all college academic problems and in 28% of all college dropouts, Source: The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse At Columbia University (CASA). 2003. The Formative Years: Pathways To Substance Abuse Among Girls And Young Women, Ages 8-22.

�It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. � William Ellery Channing � Some of the things you will discover in Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in English Language, Essay Writing for Junior and Senior High Schools Volume 1, With Bonus Success Secrets: � The book is comprehensively, logically and coherently written and the language used is also easy to understand; hence, little or no further explanation is needed. � The book teaches how to choose examination questions and answer them without sweat. � Sample outlines/plans and sample essays have been written to guide pupils and students. � The bonus success secrets will help pupils and students to pass in all seemingly difficult subjects like mathematics and science. � The bonus success secrets will also guide pupils and students towards the attainment of greater success in life. The book has been designed in such a way that it can be used for examination purposes and for other practical uses in the day-to-day life of whoever uses it faithfully. In writing this book on English Language, essay writing, I decided to move away from the traditional way of some authors flooding their English Language, essay writing books with so many sample essays based on my experiences as an English teacher some years back. Many pupils / students have the habit of memorizing written essays found in books and reproduce them during examinations, class exercises or when given project/home work when they see that the question being asked is similar to the answered one they came across. I hope the experts in the educational sector will agree with me that this does not augur well for the proper development of the child because he/she would not have the opportunity to think and plan on his /her own before writing a script with originality (I stand to be corrected if I am mistaken). It is in line with this that I have given only single sample essays per essay topic treated with more suggested outlines/plans. Most people often fail to plan their lives and this usually have disastrous effects on them. Also in writing examination, most candidates fail to plan their essays before answering selected questions. As the old adage says, �If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.� It is based on the above that in writing this book, I dedicated the first chapter to the basics of essay writing. Below is an excerpt of chapter one of the book. After high lighting on the basics of essay writing, I went ahead to discuss what paragraphs are and how they can be used in our daily writings. This is followed by the use of punctuation marks. Here again, I have given a comprehensive write-up as to how punctuation marks can be used to enrich our written works. Other topics covered in the book are writing of narrative essays, descriptive essays, friendly letters, semi- formal letters, summary writing, argumentative essays, speeches and talks, report writing, articles for publication, expository essays and advertisement. After a comprehensive, logical and coherent treatment of each topic, I followed up with sample questions, outlines/plans and essays. These are only to serve as a guide to users of the book. I will like to take this opportunity to entreat teachers to encourage pupils /students whom they teach to learn how to write an outline/plan and to use it when answering essay related questions, not only with English language, but with all other subjects that they deem it fit to apply. Some people may not see the usefulness of the outline/plan, but it helps the pupil / student to write faster and in a logical and coherent manner than someone who thinks and writes at the same time. The outline will also help pupils / students to avoid the situation in which they sit in examination halls wasting precious time biting their pens because they have lost track of what they are supposed to write. In the event where the pupils / students are being beaten by time, all they need to do is to look at the outline and develop the points there briefly. In writing the sample essays, I took into consideration the level of the intellectual maturity of pupils in the junior high school. Below is an excerpt from the book with a sample question, outline/plan and essay for your perusal. Q.1. �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� Argue for or against the above statement. ARGUMENT FOR THE MOTION � Girls are born to be housewives. � Most girls drop out of school due to teenage pregnancy. � Most educated women are proud and bossy. � The benefit of their education goes to the families of their husbands when they get married. ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MOTION � �When you educate a woman, you educate a nation,� said Dr. Aggrey. � Educated women are more disciplined and strict. � Educating women engenders gender equality. � Availability of reproductive health care / education. OUTLINE / PLAN AGAINST THE MOTION 1. Introduction (State your stand against the motion). 2. Body: i. State and refute points for the motion � Girls are born to be housewives. � Educated women are proud. � Teenage pregnancy. ii. State and explain the points against the motion with evidence, facts and illustrations. � Educating a nation � Gender equality � Women are more disciplined and strict. � Reproductive health care / education. 3. Conclusion (Reinforce your stand against the motion with a summary of your main points). SAMPLE ESSAY TO QUESTION 1 ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MOTION I am against the motion that �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� Proposers of the motion might argue that girls are born to grow to be housewives, but if I may ask; how many educated women in our society end up as housewives? Also, proposers of the motion might say that educated women are proud and arrogant. I will rather say that it is due to the strict and disciplined nature of educated women that makes some irresponsible and lazy men to see educated women as being proud and arrogant. Furthermore, proposers of the motion might argue that most girls drop out of school before they complete senior high school due to teenage pregnancy. On the contrary, with the availability of reproductive health education / care, teenage girls are able to avoid or prevent teenage pregnancy. I rise against the motion that, �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources� based on the facts given below. Dr. Kwagyi Aggrey of blessed memory said that, �When you educate a woman, you educate a nation and when you educate a man you educate an individual.� The above assertion is true in the sense that women who are the mothers of our homes spend more time with their children than the men. The true up-bringing of a child is mostly done by the mother with material assistance from the father. Looking at what mostly pertains in various homes, how many children are able to approach their fathers freely with their problems? Since mothers are naturally more caring and loving than fathers wouldn�t a child pay attention more to his/her mother than his / her father? Also, the era in which women were marginalized is past. Modern-day society now advocates gender equality; what is good for the goose is good for the gender. By educating a girl-child, gender equality is being engendered. Most of the things that are being done by men are equally being done by women and even in a better manner. If educating the girl-child is a waste of scarce resources, how come Ghana currently has a female Chief Justice, a female speaker of parliament and a substantial number of female members of parliament and ministers of state? How comes the Secretary of State of USA, the presidents of Liberia and Malawi are all females? Can�t the world boast of female medical doctors, accountants, lawyers, military personnel, taxi and �trotro� drivers? Furthermore, due to the strict and disciplined nature of educated women, some irresponsible and lazy men perceive them to be proud and arrogant. Most institutions and organizations that are headed by educated women can be said to be more productive than those of their male counterparts because educated women do not tolerate acts of indiscipline wherever they find themselves. With the availability of reproductive health care and the inclusion of reproductive health education in most educational curriculum, will the girl-child still be dropping out of school due to teenage pregnancy? Teenage girls apart from learning about reproductive health care at school also learn it from their mothers at home and from programmes on radio and television. From the above arguments presented, one will only be biased to argue that �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources because educating a girl-child is educating a nation, engendering gender equality, educated women are being more strict and disciplined, the girl-child is able to prevent / avoid teenage pregnancy due to the availability of reproductive health education/care, I therefore argue against the motion that, �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� The bonus success secrets section have been included in this book and other books yet to be published because I am not interested in only just the academic development of my readers, but their general well-being. All topics treated under this section are not part of any English Language curriculum known to me, but in my opinion, I have the conviction that they will have a positive impact on the users of this book if they adhere to them. It is a section that should be taken serious because all the issues raised are based on past experiences of me and others and research carried out by experts in those fields. The topics are randomly chosen and I will welcome suggested topics from readers to be included in future books to be published in the series. Topics covered under the bonus success secrets are Nothing is Impossible, The Power of Books, Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Below are excerpts on the various sub-topics under the bonus success secrets. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE �You are a V.I.P.� �You are a very important person.� �You are a wonderful, unique, creative being with talents and abilities you have yet to realize.� � Dee Rimmer � At certain times in your life, you may see some situations to be difficult or impossible. Or at times you are told by others that it is not possible to attain your dreams due to one reason or another. However, I want to assure you that there is nothing in this world that is difficult or impossible to attain except perhaps, the creation or cloning of a human being. What you normally see to be difficult or are told that it is impossible to achieve is only a perception in your mind because whatever you feed your mind with will surely come out physically. When computer programmers say, �GIGO,� they simply mean that if you programme the computer with garbage, all you will get out of the computer is garbage; hence, �GIGO� = GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. In other terms, �GIGO = GOOD IN, GOOD OUT�. The same thing applies to the human mind. If you feed your mind with impossibilities, feelings of negation, failure, fear, poverty, disease and destitution, the mind will loyally carry out plans for the attainment of such. On the other hand, should you feed in visions of success, wealth, good health, fame and fortune; your mind will create the necessary plans for the attainment of same. It gives you exactly what you ask for. This is exactly what Emerson had in mind when he wrote, �Be careful what you set your heart on, for it surely will be yours.� Most of you do complain that certain subjects are difficult to learn, but I want to give you the assurance that no subject is difficult to learn or impossible to learn. It is rather unfortunate that some pupils / students get poor grades in Mathematics, English Language and Science because of the wrong perception that they have about those subjects being difficult to learn or meant for a special class of individuals. Once you make up your mind that a particular subject is difficult to learn or understand, (e.g. Mathematics), you can be given Archimedes or the best mathematician in the world to teach you, but you will still have a dismal performance. On the other hand, if you perceive Mathematics to be one of the easy going subjects and develop the love for it, with little assistance you will be among the best. The same applies to all subjects and all seemingly difficult situations in life. THE POWER OF BOOKS Most people make the mistake of not grasping the fact that there is an abundance of knowledge of things already done, of things that can be done and of things that are being done in books. Visualize in your mind�s eye a picture of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a candlelit room next to a blazing log fire and reading, then realize that �Leaders are Readers.� Abraham Lincoln not only read, but absorbed. He was particularly noted for absorbing information. He would read a chapter, and then contemplate what he had read. According to Albert & Comfort Ocran in their book, �The More You Know The Better It Gets,� consistent reading broadens your knowledge base, enhances your confidence and also improves your vocabulary. They encourage that people should invest in libraries of their own. They further said that one cannot be a player in the knowledge economy if he/she does not have a library or store of books and reading materials. There is so much to read; it may pay to invest in some books that teach �speed reading.� These invaluable techniques were studied by people like John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They too, saw the need to increase their reading rate because of the amount of power to be gained from books. Check out on your local library, there are many good books on speed reading available. Read as many of these as you can in order to find the techniques that are best for you. Biographies and autobiographies bring light to many of the secrets of success in life. It is easy to see that many people risk their lives and everything they have in order to attain their major objectives. Among these kinds of people are racing drivers, mountaineers, deep sea divers, astronauts and test pilots. Read exciting and fascinating accounts of dangerous exploits, let your adrenalin bubble be inspired and get out into the field and do these things for yourself. BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! READ! READ! READ! Forget of the parties, movies, televisions, computer games and do some reading. Who knows, maybe you will be inspired to go on the greatest adventure of your life, perhaps by reading a book. Remember that those who won�t read have no advantage over those who can�t read. Set aside a certain amount of time each day as your definite reading schedule. Don�t forget that everything you read is retained by one part of the mind or another and there is no telling when the subconscious mind will draw on it. ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM PROBLEM DRINKING AFFECTS SCHOOL PERFORMANCE How does problem drinking affect young people�s schooling? In some cases the linkage between problem drinking and academic performance is profound. Drinking can affect the biological development of young people�s as well as their school � related achievement and behaviour. Serious alcohol use among youth has significant neurological consequences. Alcohol damages areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory, verbal skills and visual-spatial cognition. Diagnosticians often find that these skills in adolescents who drink are deficient in comparison to those who aren�t drinking. Scientist knows that alcohol problems are tied to lower grades, poor attendance and increases in dropout rates. The US 2000 National Household Survey On Drug Abuse (NHSDA, now known as the National Survey On Drug Use And Health), a federal study, found that as rates of alcohol use by 12-17 year olds increase, grade point averages decrease. Middle school students whose peers avoid using alcohol and other drugs score higher on state reading and mathematics tests than other students. In any age group, heavy and binge drinkers are 4-6 times more likely than non-drinkers to say they cut classes or skipped school. They are twice as likely as non-drinkers to say that their school work is poor and they report more frequently that they are disobedient at school. Among high school students, those who use alcohol are five times more likely to dropout than those who don�t use alcohol. These problems are not limited to the middle and high school setting; hangovers and drinking by college students lead to missed classes and falling behind in school work. Alcohol is implicated in more than 40% of all college academic problems and in 28% of all college dropouts, Source: The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse At Columbia University (CASA). 2003. The Formative Years: Pathways To Substance Abuse Among Girls And Young Women, Ages 8-22.

�It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. � William Ellery Channing � Some of the things you will discover in Felimanuel Series, The Magical Secret to Success in English Language, Essay Writing for Junior and Senior High Schools Volume 1, With Bonus Success Secrets: � The book is comprehensively, logically and coherently written and the language used is also easy to understand; hence, little or no further explanation is needed. � The book teaches how to choose examination questions and answer them without sweat. � Sample outlines/plans and sample essays have been written to guide pupils and students. � The bonus success secrets will help pupils and students to pass in all seemingly difficult subjects like mathematics and science. � The bonus success secrets will also guide pupils and students towards the attainment of greater success in life. The book has been designed in such a way that it can be used for examination purposes and for other practical uses in the day-to-day life of whoever uses it faithfully. In writing this book on English Language, essay writing, I decided to move away from the traditional way of some authors flooding their English Language, essay writing books with so many sample essays based on my experiences as an English teacher some years back. Many pupils / students have the habit of memorizing written essays found in books and reproduce them during examinations, class exercises or when given project/home work when they see that the question being asked is similar to the answered one they came across. I hope the experts in the educational sector will agree with me that this does not augur well for the proper development of the child because he/she would not have the opportunity to think and plan on his /her own before writing a script with originality (I stand to be corrected if I am mistaken). It is in line with this that I have given only single sample essays per essay topic treated with more suggested outlines/plans. Most people often fail to plan their lives and this usually have disastrous effects on them. Also in writing examination, most candidates fail to plan their essays before answering selected questions. As the old adage says, �If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.� It is based on the above that in writing this book, I dedicated the first chapter to the basics of essay writing. Below is an excerpt of chapter one of the book. After high lighting on the basics of essay writing, I went ahead to discuss what paragraphs are and how they can be used in our daily writings. This is followed by the use of punctuation marks. Here again, I have given a comprehensive write-up as to how punctuation marks can be used to enrich our written works. Other topics covered in the book are writing of narrative essays, descriptive essays, friendly letters, semi- formal letters, summary writing, argumentative essays, speeches and talks, report writing, articles for publication, expository essays and advertisement. After a comprehensive, logical and coherent treatment of each topic, I followed up with sample questions, outlines/plans and essays. These are only to serve as a guide to users of the book. I will like to take this opportunity to entreat teachers to encourage pupils /students whom they teach to learn how to write an outline/plan and to use it when answering essay related questions, not only with English language, but with all other subjects that they deem it fit to apply. Some people may not see the usefulness of the outline/plan, but it helps the pupil / student to write faster and in a logical and coherent manner than someone who thinks and writes at the same time. The outline will also help pupils / students to avoid the situation in which they sit in examination halls wasting precious time biting their pens because they have lost track of what they are supposed to write. In the event where the pupils / students are being beaten by time, all they need to do is to look at the outline and develop the points there briefly. In writing the sample essays, I took into consideration the level of the intellectual maturity of pupils in the junior high school. Below is an excerpt from the book with a sample question, outline/plan and essay for your perusal. Q.1. �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� Argue for or against the above statement. ARGUMENT FOR THE MOTION � Girls are born to be housewives. � Most girls drop out of school due to teenage pregnancy. � Most educated women are proud and bossy. � The benefit of their education goes to the families of their husbands when they get married. ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MOTION � �When you educate a woman, you educate a nation,� said Dr. Aggrey. � Educated women are more disciplined and strict. � Educating women engenders gender equality. � Availability of reproductive health care / education. OUTLINE / PLAN AGAINST THE MOTION 1. Introduction (State your stand against the motion). 2. Body: i. State and refute points for the motion � Girls are born to be housewives. � Educated women are proud. � Teenage pregnancy. ii. State and explain the points against the motion with evidence, facts and illustrations. � Educating a nation � Gender equality � Women are more disciplined and strict. � Reproductive health care / education. 3. Conclusion (Reinforce your stand against the motion with a summary of your main points). SAMPLE ESSAY TO QUESTION 1 ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MOTION I am against the motion that �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� Proposers of the motion might argue that girls are born to grow to be housewives, but if I may ask; how many educated women in our society end up as housewives? Also, proposers of the motion might say that educated women are proud and arrogant. I will rather say that it is due to the strict and disciplined nature of educated women that makes some irresponsible and lazy men to see educated women as being proud and arrogant. Furthermore, proposers of the motion might argue that most girls drop out of school before they complete senior high school due to teenage pregnancy. On the contrary, with the availability of reproductive health education / care, teenage girls are able to avoid or prevent teenage pregnancy. I rise against the motion that, �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources� based on the facts given below. Dr. Kwagyi Aggrey of blessed memory said that, �When you educate a woman, you educate a nation and when you educate a man you educate an individual.� The above assertion is true in the sense that women who are the mothers of our homes spend more time with their children than the men. The true up-bringing of a child is mostly done by the mother with material assistance from the father. Looking at what mostly pertains in various homes, how many children are able to approach their fathers freely with their problems? Since mothers are naturally more caring and loving than fathers wouldn�t a child pay attention more to his/her mother than his / her father? Also, the era in which women were marginalized is past. Modern-day society now advocates gender equality; what is good for the goose is good for the gender. By educating a girl-child, gender equality is being engendered. Most of the things that are being done by men are equally being done by women and even in a better manner. If educating the girl-child is a waste of scarce resources, how come Ghana currently has a female Chief Justice, a female speaker of parliament and a substantial number of female members of parliament and ministers of state? How comes the Secretary of State of USA, the presidents of Liberia and Malawi are all females? Can�t the world boast of female medical doctors, accountants, lawyers, military personnel, taxi and �trotro� drivers? Furthermore, due to the strict and disciplined nature of educated women, some irresponsible and lazy men perceive them to be proud and arrogant. Most institutions and organizations that are headed by educated women can be said to be more productive than those of their male counterparts because educated women do not tolerate acts of indiscipline wherever they find themselves. With the availability of reproductive health care and the inclusion of reproductive health education in most educational curriculum, will the girl-child still be dropping out of school due to teenage pregnancy? Teenage girls apart from learning about reproductive health care at school also learn it from their mothers at home and from programmes on radio and television. From the above arguments presented, one will only be biased to argue that �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources because educating a girl-child is educating a nation, engendering gender equality, educated women are being more strict and disciplined, the girl-child is able to prevent / avoid teenage pregnancy due to the availability of reproductive health education/care, I therefore argue against the motion that, �Educating a girl-child is a waste of scarce resources.� The bonus success secrets section have been included in this book and other books yet to be published because I am not interested in only just the academic development of my readers, but their general well-being. All topics treated under this section are not part of any English Language curriculum known to me, but in my opinion, I have the conviction that they will have a positive impact on the users of this book if they adhere to them. It is a section that should be taken serious because all the issues raised are based on past experiences of me and others and research carried out by experts in those fields. The topics are randomly chosen and I will welcome suggested topics from readers to be included in future books to be published in the series. Topics covered under the bonus success secrets are Nothing is Impossible, The Power of Books, Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Below are excerpts on the various sub-topics under the bonus success secrets. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE �You are a V.I.P.� �You are a very important person.� �You are a wonderful, unique, creative being with talents and abilities you have yet to realize.� � Dee Rimmer � At certain times in your life, you may see some situations to be difficult or impossible. Or at times you are told by others that it is not possible to attain your dreams due to one reason or another. However, I want to assure you that there is nothing in this world that is difficult or impossible to attain except perhaps, the creation or cloning of a human being. What you normally see to be difficult or are told that it is impossible to achieve is only a perception in your mind because whatever you feed your mind with will surely come out physically. When computer programmers say, �GIGO,� they simply mean that if you programme the computer with garbage, all you will get out of the computer is garbage; hence, �GIGO� = GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. In other terms, �GIGO = GOOD IN, GOOD OUT�. The same thing applies to the human mind. If you feed your mind with impossibilities, feelings of negation, failure, fear, poverty, disease and destitution, the mind will loyally carry out plans for the attainment of such. On the other hand, should you feed in visions of success, wealth, good health, fame and fortune; your mind will create the necessary plans for the attainment of same. It gives you exactly what you ask for. This is exactly what Emerson had in mind when he wrote, �Be careful what you set your heart on, for it surely will be yours.� Most of you do complain that certain subjects are difficult to learn, but I want to give you the assurance that no subject is difficult to learn or impossible to learn. It is rather unfortunate that some pupils / students get poor grades in Mathematics, English Language and Science because of the wrong perception that they have about those subjects being difficult to learn or meant for a special class of individuals. Once you make up your mind that a particular subject is difficult to learn or understand, (e.g. Mathematics), you can be given Archimedes or the best mathematician in the world to teach you, but you will still have a dismal performance. On the other hand, if you perceive Mathematics to be one of the easy going subjects and develop the love for it, with little assistance you will be among the best. The same applies to all subjects and all seemingly difficult situations in life. THE POWER OF BOOKS Most people make the mistake of not grasping the fact that there is an abundance of knowledge of things already done, of things that can be done and of things that are being done in books. Visualize in your mind�s eye a picture of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a candlelit room next to a blazing log fire and reading, then realize that �Leaders are Readers.� Abraham Lincoln not only read, but absorbed. He was particularly noted for absorbing information. He would read a chapter, and then contemplate what he had read. According to Albert & Comfort Ocran in their book, �The More You Know The Better It Gets,� consistent reading broadens your knowledge base, enhances your confidence and also improves your vocabulary. They encourage that people should invest in libraries of their own. They further said that one cannot be a player in the knowledge economy if he/she does not have a library or store of books and reading materials. There is so much to read; it may pay to invest in some books that teach �speed reading.� These invaluable techniques were studied by people like John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They too, saw the need to increase their reading rate because of the amount of power to be gained from books. Check out on your local library, there are many good books on speed reading available. Read as many of these as you can in order to find the techniques that are best for you. Biographies and autobiographies bring light to many of the secrets of success in life. It is easy to see that many people risk their lives and everything they have in order to attain their major objectives. Among these kinds of people are racing drivers, mountaineers, deep sea divers, astronauts and test pilots. Read exciting and fascinating accounts of dangerous exploits, let your adrenalin bubble be inspired and get out into the field and do these things for yourself. BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! READ! READ! READ! Forget of the parties, movies, televisions, computer games and do some reading. Who knows, maybe you will be inspired to go on the greatest adventure of your life, perhaps by reading a book. Remember that those who won�t read have no advantage over those who can�t read. Set aside a certain amount of time each day as your definite reading schedule. Don�t forget that everything you read is retained by one part of the mind or another and there is no telling when the subconscious mind will draw on it. ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM PROBLEM DRINKING AFFECTS SCHOOL PERFORMANCE How does problem drinking affect young people�s schooling? In some cases the linkage between problem drinking and academic performance is profound. Drinking can affect the biological development of young people�s as well as their school � related achievement and behaviour. Serious alcohol use among youth has significant neurological consequences. Alcohol damages areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory, verbal skills and visual-spatial cognition. Diagnosticians often find that these skills in adolescents who drink are deficient in comparison to those who aren�t drinking. Scientist knows that alcohol problems are tied to lower grades, poor attendance and increases in dropout rates. The US 2000 National Household Survey On Drug Abuse (NHSDA, now known as the National Survey On Drug Use And Health), a federal study, found that as rates of alcohol use by 12-17 year olds increase, grade point averages decrease. Middle school students whose peers avoid using alcohol and other drugs score higher on state reading and mathematics tests than other students. In any age group, heavy and binge drinkers are 4-6 times more likely than non-drinkers to say they cut classes or skipped school. They are twice as likely as non-drinkers to say that their school work is poor and they report more frequently that they are disobedient at school. Among high school students, those who use alcohol are five times more likely to dropout than those who don�t use alcohol. These problems are not limited to the middle and high school setting; hangovers and drinking by college students lead to missed classes and falling behind in school work. Alcohol is implicated in more than 40% of all college academic problems and in 28% of all college dropouts, Source: The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse At Columbia University (CASA). 2003. The Formative Years: Pathways To Substance Abuse Among Girls And Young Women, Ages 8-22.

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