Essay Development & ABCDe Formatting April 24th 2013

Essay Development &ABCDe Formatting April 24th 2013 Mr. Connor Koblinski Ms. B’s 11-12 grade English class

Introduction • Born Tennessee • Albion College ‘14 • English, Spanish, Political Science

The type of student I am • Procrastinator • Easily make personal connections to material • Bad at math • Good at things that connect to people or society. • Terrible at names

Downfalls as a writer • I expect a lot out of my reader. I expect them to understand how I think. • If I don’t take my time, I will organize a paper poorly • If I don’t check back to my plan every once and a while, I will get off track • I was really bad with citations

My teaching philosophy • It is my job as your teacher to help foster a community that will allow you learn… • Skills that will help grow a democratic society • Skills that will help you better understand yourself and your personal connection with the world around you • Skills to better understand your own thinking which will hopefully grow your love of learning

My pledge to you • To the best of my ability everyday I will help my students become active life long learners able to participate in a democratic society.

What I expect • I respect your time by preparing and not asking you to do things that are “unimportant”, I expect you respect my time by bringing a level of effort and enthusiasm that encourages the group • A community atmosphere were everyone feels free to speak, question and assert opinions and view points. • That you help me improve my teaching through response.

On to the lesson! • Journal prompt I: • Why do ‘we’ (academic scholars) write essays?

Journal prompt II: • Think about your topic-Who would you like to read your essay? What result would you like your essay to have? How would you like to change the world with your essay?

Standards • Common Core - College and Career Readiness • 2.Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. • a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

Standards continued • b. Develop the topic thoroughly by… • selecting the most significant and relevant facts, • extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, • or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. • c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, • In order to create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.

Standards continued Research to Build and Present Knowledge • 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism(This skill has been being practiced throughout the last week, but I feel like it is important still to unpack it and discuss it.)

So how do we meet these standards? • The best way for me to explain the process of writing is to explain it the way it was explained to me, ABCDe format. • But before we can work on supporting a thesis, we need to have a thesis worth defending…

ABCDe format- thesis • Starts with a strong thesis at the end of your introduction. • Your thesis: What you are arguing. • Someone needs to be able to take your same thesis and find information against it and argue the opposite. • All of your points will relate back to your thesis so it better be good.

Thesis examples - Good or bad? • “Pollution is bad for the environment.” • “At least 25 percent of the federal budget should be spent on limiting pollution.” • “America's anti-pollution efforts should focus on privately owned cars.” Source: Purdue OWL

Narrowed, debatable topics • “At least 25 percent of the federal budget should be spent on helping upgrade business to clean technologies, researching renewable energy sources, and planting more trees in order to control or eliminate pollution.” • “America's anti-pollution efforts should focus on privately owned cars because it would allow most citizens to contribute to national efforts and care about the outcome.” Source: Purdue OWL

Now that we have our thesis let’s support it. • As we shift through our data, attempt to find three of four strong areas of information that will support your thesis. • Take this time to write down a couple of ideas for your own body paragraphs

In example, • At least 25 percent of the federal budget should be spent on helping upgrade business to clean technologies, researching renewable energy sources, and planting more trees in order to control or eliminate pollution.” • Economic benefits of clean technologies and renewable energy sources • Concerns for the environment in the future and data suggesting a fast change is needed • The benefits of planting more trees.

Once we have these topics, we can begin to organize our information. • ABCDe format Topic Sentence “ There are great economic benefits to be gained by investing in clean technologies and renewable energy sources” • A- General idea • B - Introduce background • C - Content • D - Relate • e - Transition

A - General idea • Introduction of the general idea you will be presenting as evidence of your thesis statement. Should relate to your topic sentence. “ Despite set backs in recent years, the diversity of the green technology field has continued to grow”

B - Introduce, background • The B is where you are able to connect your topic sentence to the Content that will follow. This is where we start to get specific. “In 2013, the investment sector saw a drop in interest for green technology, specifically solar.”

C - Content • This is where you give your hard data that you worked so hard to find. This should be a quote or a paraphrase from your research. Despite this reduction in interest, MIT economist professor Dr. Bozo recently published an article stating, “the solar market is ready for investors. The companies have learned how to responsibly grow a business and their futures look encouraging and profitable.”(Bozo).

C- continued • Despite reduction in interest, in a recent article MIT economist professor Dr. Bozo spoke about the likelihood of a come back in the solar market due to new business practices. According to his data, investors who take advantage of this will reap large rewards (Bozo).

D - Relate, so what? • Once you have presented the data carefully stringing it from your topic sentence to the data, you must ask yourself “So what?” • The D is where you relate your information through your topic sentence and to the thesis.

Thesis reminder - At least 25 percent of the federal budget should be spent on helping upgrade business to clean technologies, researching renewable energy sources, and planting more trees in order to control or eliminate pollution. Topic sentence reminder- There are great economic benefits to be gained by investing in clean technologies and renewable energy sources.

From here, write your own D connecting the information back to the thesis. • (a)Despite set backs in recent years, the diversity of the green technology field has continued to grow and prove to be profitable. (b)In 2013, the investment sector saw a drop in interest for green technology, specifically solar. (c)Despite this reduction in interest, MIT economist professor Dr. Bozo recently published an article stating,“the solar market is ready for investors. The companies have learned how to responsibly grow a business and their futures look encouraging and profitable.”(Bozo).

My D clause (c)Despite this reduction in interest, MIT economist professor Dr. Bozo recently published an article stating,“the solar market is ready for investors. The companies have learned how to responsibly grow a business and their futures look encouraging and profitable”(Bozo). (d) As professor Bozo points out, the United States government has a unique opportunity to take advantage of the economic development occurring today in our country by investing in these green technology companies. Investing in these technologies and companies will not only improve the field of clean business, but provide a profitable investment for US taxpayer dollars.

e - Transition • The e is used to make a clean transition to the next topic. • Requires a little creativity to string everything together • This investment may pay off in ways much bigger than finical gains by helping the United state curve the destructive habits of energy use and the environmental repercussion associated. • (transition into the benefits to the environment)

Does this make sense? • Does the ABCDe format make sense to you? • Remember, this is just a technique of how to organize your ideas. • Let’s check back with the standards…

Standards check • Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

Standards check continued • b. Develop the topic thoroughly by… • selecting the most significant and relevant facts, • extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, • or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. • c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, • In order to create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.

Regardless if you use ABCDe, I hope you will be better able • Pick which facts you should present, and how to format them most effectively based on your audience. • Introduce complex ideas in a way that creates a unified argument • Use transitions and syntax to create a clear argument that shows the relationships between information

Now let’s make our own ABCDe paragraph • Who has an easily arguable topic?

Essay Development & ABCDe Formatting April 24th 2013