2-1 Lecture
THE ELEMENTS OF AN ESSAY
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Page updated:
24-Aug-2009 03:15 PM |
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"A Writing Process: An Introduction and Overview"
(Because I assume most students
are familiar with the writing process, I will not be covering this material in
class or on-line lecture; however, if you want a refresher on what the writing
process is, please download this PowerPoint file and review the notes.) |
download
file |
Download
the PowerPoint Viewer if you do not have the program. |
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"An Overview of a Well-Structured Essay" |
download
file |
Please review the PowerPoint
notes above. To print a copy, follow these steps:
- First, right-click on the link
and select Save target as...
from the pop-up menu.
- Save the file to your
English 100 folder on your computer.
- Open
the .ppt file either by double-clicking on it or by starting
PowerPoint and finding the file on your hard disk.
- Go to FILE--Print and select Handouts under "Print
What".
- Print 2 handouts per page, and check off Pure Black and
White.
- You will get miniature versions of the slides with room to
write notes on the right hand side.
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Please print out the handout
notes for the "Well-Structured Essay" lecture above and bring these to class.
By the end of this
second week, you should
be fluent in the following writing vocabulary terms:
- essay
- introduction
- main body
- conclusion
- thesis statement
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- topic sentence
- main idea
(controlling/central idea)
- hook
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This week we will start off with a quick
review of what essays look like. But first let's begin with what the structure
of a well-written paragraph looks like.
Essays have three kinds of paragraphs, an
introductory paragraph, a conclusion paragraph, and a main body paragraph.
The main body paragraph is what we will take a look at. Each main
body paragraph should have three parts to it:
- a topic sentence
- supporting sentences
- a concluding sentence
The topic sentence indicates the main idea
of the paragraph. This sentence contains a claim or assertion about this
main point. Think of this claim as an opinion or angle towards your
point. Always remember that the topic sentence is the controlling idea
of a paragraph. It limits what you can say within a paragraph, so it is
pretty important. Readers look for them to be stated in the first sentence
of a main body paragraph.
Supporting sentences vary in the type, but
usually they offer evidence in the form of facts, details, specifics,
or an anecdote to illustrate your point. Your whole objective is to
elaborate on your central idea of the paragraph contained in the topic
sentence. These supporting sentences appear in the middle of the
paragraph.
Finally, the concluding sentence of
a paragraph functions to bring some closure to your thoughts. It can be a
summary of your ideas, but at the very least it should echo the claim stated in
the topic sentence in different wording. And it is probably obvious that
the concluding sentence appears at the end of a main body paragraph.
Now, if you understand the structure of a
main body paragraph, it is easy to understand the structure of an essay.
If you reflect back on the structure of a paragraph, it basically follows the
format of claim--support-conclusion. An academic essay follows the same
format, but we use different terms to describe the parts.
The beginning of an essay is called the introduction,
and it performs 4 main functions.
- First, it must hook or grab
the reader's attention. (You can do so in a variety of ways depending on your
audience, and I'll cover this in more detail in the next
lecture.)
- Second, the introductory paragraph must establish
the general subject matter of the essay and ease the reader into the
topic about which you will write.
- Third, the introductory paragraph must
indicate the purpose of the essay. Is it to inform the
reader? call her to action? persuade?, offer a solution?, provide
commentary? The reader likes a clear picture of what the essay will
do or prove, and this is stated in the thesis of an essay.
- Lastly, no essay can exist without a thesis
statement. It is the brain of the essay, and it
"talks" to the
other main parts of the essay, namely the topic sentences. If you don't
provide a clear thesis statement, your readers will be completely lost in terms
of what your overall main point or controlling idea is. An
"essay" without a thesis is just a bunch of misguided paragraphs
floating on the page.
These third and fourth functions sometimes
get combined into the thesis statement, and a well-written introductory
paragraph contains all of these four parts. (More in-depth
information on thesis sentences in the next lecture.)
The meat of the essay is the main body
made up of multiple main body paragraphs. Like the supporting
sentences of a main body paragraph, these multiple paragraphs have a clear
task: to support and offer evidence for the thesis statement.
These paragraphs achieve this support by various rhetorical methods (I'll
explain that term next lecture as well!)
Finally, the conclusion paragraph
ends the essay. Like the concluding sentences at the end of each main body
paragraph, the conclusion paragraph's job is to bring closure--closure to
the essay. Some of your past teachers and professors may have called
this
paragraph a summary paragraph. The descriptions imply two different
functions for this paragraph. A summary in this paragraph means
that you are taking the material you just discussed and restating the main
points. Some readers will find the summary approach insulting, especially
since good readers will be paying attention to your main points throughout your
essay.
- A better approach to the final paragraph
is to write a conclusion that leaves the reader with something powerful to think
about.
- Another way to conclude is to call the
reader to some action and engage her mind.
- You can end with hypothetical scenarios
depending on what your topic is about.
But the main thing you do not want
to do is to waste the last half page by re-writing your essay in summary
form. (Yes, I admit that I am biased against summaries; they do
insult me!) Readers will lose trust and confidence in you and in your
ideas, which is why you are writing in the first place--to have some impact on
the minds of your audience.
Next lecture I will cover in more depth
the thesis statement and the kinds of thesis statements you can
write. I will also discuss the role of an audience and the
relationship between the writer and her audience.
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