Writing an Essay

1. Writing an Essay

3. The Academic Essay • The academic essay is composed of 3 parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. • Why? To communicate your position on a topic to a specific audience. • How? Use evidence to support your position.

4. TEXT The most important part of the academic essay is finding and using credible evidence to support your thesis. • Provide logical evidence rather than opinion. • You will find this in your novel.

5. TEXT / LOGOS • Sources like Wikipedia, Webster’s Dictionary, or the World Book encyclopedia are not considered academic sources. They are too general and have issues with timeliness, target audience, and credibility. They are a great place to start research or find great links to other, credible sources.

6. WRITER How do write a credible essay as a high school student? You do so by: • Taking an academic tone in the essay. • Editing your essayfor conventions, such as grammar, mechanics, and style. • By accurately citing evidence.

7. READER • Try to avoid emotional or ambiguous arguments It as they are the least useful in most academic arguments. How you FEEL about something can change depending on your mood. Your position on the topic should be the same, regardless of the mood you are in. In addition, YOU are the expert. Do not use words like, “kind of” and “sort of”.

8. READER • Remember the tone is very different for creative writing and academic writing.

10. The Introduction • The introduction should include: • An attention getter – something that grabs the reader’s interest and is relevant to the essay’s topic and tone; • Important background information the reader must have concerning the issue. This helps establish the context for the discussion and why it is a debatable one. • A transition from the general to the specific (thesis). • A thesis statement.

11. The Introduction • The introduction should announce your purpose in a sentence we call the thesis. • The thesis has 2 major parts: the subject (what you are writing about) and the attitude (what you are saying about the subject): • The narrator in Lucien Stryk’s poem, “Cherries,” reflects the greedy and selfish attitude of corporate leadership in North America.

12. The Introduction • A standard component of the introduction is a very brief plot summary that tells the essential plot elements in the your words. • Another option is to briefly mention the overall point of the work in the introduction and work in summary in the body paragraphs. • The intro should also let the reader know what is to come and the order in which you will arrange the information. • The thesis states what you are arguing and consists of three parts: the topic, the point of view, and the sequence.

14. Thesis Statements • A sample thesis (or three): • In the beginning of Anderson’s novel, “Speak,” Melinda is portrayed as a depressed and miserable person, but throughout the novel she becomes increasingly optimistic and resilient, which indicates that the author believes that people have the ability to change. • The title of Marcus Zusak’s novel, “The Book Thief,” has a strong relationship to the content of the novel itself because the title highlights the growth that Liesel experiences every time she steals a book. • The characters, setting, and theme of Ray Bradbury’s novel, “Farenheit 451,” communicate his negative reaction to the mass consumption of the television in the 1950s.

15. The Body • The body is where writers present their evidence to support their thesis. • For an academic essay, the writer must present at least two points of support. You will develop each point in a body paragraph. • The first sentence of each body paragraph should clearly support some part of the thesis. We call these topic sentences.

16. Developing the Body Paragraphs: Defining • Once you have expressed your topic sentence, you now need to prove your point. • Define terms: if you are using a specific term that is either unknown to your audience or is open to multiple definitions,you should define it for your reader. • For example, if you are writing about the novel “Unwind” you may need to explain what a clapper is to the audience if you are making reference to it in your essay.

17. Developing the Body Paragraph: Explanation • Explanation: Show the reader your reasoning – how you have come to the position you hold on this issue. • This is typically used after you have presented your evidence. • This technique is known as the ACE method.

18. Developing the Body Paragraphs: Examples Examples: You will provide two or more citations from the novel to prove your point. This helps your reader “see” what you are talking about. Provide a concrete example of the more abstract concept.

20. Developing the Topic Sentence: Transitions • Transition/Concluding Sentence: This is the last step in a body paragraph. Transitions help wrap up the paragraph’s point and move the reader to the next stage of the essay. • Examples: for example, on the other hand, first, next, after, two days later, before, in contrast, ultimately, furthermore, however, alternatively, also, etc.

21. This might help… • S - STATE what will be in this paragraph • E - EXPLAIN / EVIDENCE- paraphrase and use quotes to prove your point • A - ANALYSIS- explain the significance of your points • L - LINK – to the thesis and provide a transition

22. The Conclusion • This paragraph ends the essay. The first element in a conclusion is traditionally a restatement of the thesis. You never copy the thesis exactly as it appears in the introduction, but you do want to remind your reader of the overall point of your essay. • Your conclusion is a place to show the significance of your thesis – why your interpretation is important or unique.