Essay Writing Units 1,2 & 3

AntarAbdellah Essay WritingUnits 1,2 & 3

The nature of Writing • Writing is a process NOT a product • You need to go through the experience of writing to produce real valuable pieces • Copying or quoting only is not real writing • True writing is writing COMPOSITION

Unit One • Writing is like magic; it fascinates readers and changes worlds • Good structure of Writing • Prewriting (Analyzing- brainstorming – researching) • Writing ( revising – using sources) • Post writing (editing – revising)

Benefits in other courses • Writing skills will be implemented in other courses • Especially humanities and social sciences • Academic writing is quite different from fiction writings • Can be used in life workforce (writing reports – analyzing articles ..etc).

Common words used in the essay question • Discuss • Analyze • Argue • Assess • Comment on • Compare • Contrast • Illustrate • Outline

Analyzing an essay question • Determining keywords • Outlining • Transitions (signposts) • Arguments • conclusions

Important terminology • Academic writing • Bibliography • The classical period • Essay • Non academic writing • Pre-/ post – writing • Signpost/ road map • Thesis statement • Theme • Transitions

Unit Two Reassessing and Reading • Aims: • how to collect and assess bibliography • How to use source materials from bibliography

The Bibliography • A bibliography is a list of sources. Developed for handling an essay question. • Materials (sources) can be print and electronic • Print: books, journals, video script, audio recordings • Electronic: internet sources, computer programs CD, DVDs

Assessing Materials • Relevance (related to the topic) • Accuracy (reliable, from authentic sources) • Versatility (quite different: different authors, different sources, different points of view)

Primary , secondary & tertiary Sources • Primary: the original work of art , piece of literature under discussion • Secondary: a commentary on the work of art by the same or different authors • Tertiary: a commentary on the commentary

Precautions when using the internet • Who wrote this article? A professional in the field or an amateur? • Who hosts the article? A university, an organization or just a forum of friends?) • When was this information posted? (recent or old? If old, out of date or still celebrated?) • Who manages the information? Wikipedia is not reliable)

Critical Reading • Paying attention to small details of a text, and thinking about what they might mean or imply? • For a critical reader: any single text provides but one portrayal of the facts; one individual perspectives- not the absolute truth.

Questions for critical reading • What is the author trying to do in the article? • What is the tone of the article? • What position is he writing from? • Are there biases for or against something? • Search for: the thesis statement • main ideas • shifts in argument • insufficient evidence • conclusions

Critical thinking • To approach a topic with an open mind • Critical thinkers: are skeptical • are active • are open to new ideas Critical reading requires critical thinking

Critical Writing • Involves the processes of comparing, contrasting and evaluating source materials and ideas. • One good strategy for critical writing is NOTETAKING: • They make you focus your attention on the text • Pick out and think about main ideas • Leaving a trace of the sense you made of the pages

Writing a summary • A summary is a short description of the thesis and main ideas of a longer piece of writing. • How to make a summary: • Read carefully • Reread taking notes • Write the main ideas • Write one sentence summary for each main idea • Revise your writing

Writing a critique • It is a short paper about an article – starts with a summary + evaluation of the original text. Writing a Synthesis: A short summary + evaluation+ uses various sources into a logical short essay. Get a good understandingof each source, write a summary for each, look for relationships among them. Be selective in choosing details for each resource.

Important terminology • Bibliography • Citation • Database • Electronic sources • Plagiarism • Refereed journal • Search engine • Tertiary sources

Unit Three: Getting Started • Brainstorming:

Outlining • A road map to the essay • The skeleton of the essay • Topic sentence: opening sentence (tells the topic of the essay) • Thesis statement: the angle or argument about the topic. • Pollution is a world problem that can not be ignored. The side effects of pollution in the Arab countries in particular should be revisited.

Parts of a thesis statement • Formula: • In this thesis I argue that _________________ • I am using the evidence / sources of ________ • This is important / interesting because _____ • Claim, explain, illustrate, prove, explore …

Important terminology • Brainstorming • Clustering • Free writing • Outlining • Thesis statement • Topic sentence • Writer’s block

Focus of essay Question • THE HERO: • Most exam questions will ask you to analyze a character or an event taken by a character • To do this you should have: • - read the original text • -Understood deeply the nature of the character and even • - overviewed other sources that handle the text

To do writing • You need reading: • Basic reading (vocabulary and structure) • Reading comprehension (events and endings) • Critical reading (why certain characters behaved in certain ways) • Creative reading (why the author followed this model, how this relates to other works by the same other or the same movement)

You need Resources: • Literary criticism that handled the author or the trend • Articles about the author or the story • Websites on the author or the work • Understanding the different evaluations of the author or his work.

You need citation and quotation: • He Read generally to get a common understanding • You can rephrase the ideas you understood or write their exact words. • In both cases you need to cite the resources • Author (date). Title. City: publisher. • Allan. J. (1999). Poetry. London: Longman

Essay Writing Units 1,2 & 3