Improving Your Essay

1. Improving Your Essay English II Honors Ms. Kreger

2. Thesis Statements • Is your Thesis Statement unified? • Choose one single focus for development. • Check: • Are there two large statements connected loosely by a conjunction (and, but, or, for, so)? • What a different conjunction help (through, because, since, although) to signal a relationship?

3. Thesis Statements

4. Thesis Statements • Is your thesis statement analytic? • Do more than announce your topic • Must reveal your position and how you plan to analyze the subject • Ex. Socialism is the best form of government for Kenya. • Revised: If the government takes over industry in Kenya, the industry will become more efficient. • Ex. Hoover’s administration was rocked by scandal. • Revised: The many scandals of Hoover’s administration revealed basic problems with the Republican Party’s nominated process.

5. Thesis Statements Avoid generic arguments. Keep revising as you write your paper so that it reflects your real ideas. Ex. There are advantages and disadvantages to using statistics. Careful manipulation of data allows a researcher to use statistics to support any claim he/she desires.

6. Concluding Paragraphs Use the devices for introductory paragraphs If you use a quotation or literary device in your intro, bring it back in the conclusion (bring full circle) Summarize points in the essay, but make this brief Call for awareness and/or action (persuasive) Point to the future

7. Concluding Paragraphs • Avoid • Introducing new ideas • Rewording your introduction • Listing the main ideas • Announcing what you have done • Do not apologize!

8. Transitions Paragraph hooks- stronger and more sophisticated than transition words Paragraph hook- repetition of a key word or idea from the last sentence of one paragraph in the first sentence of the next idea Use a combination in your essay Transition words are also helpful within paragraphs

9. The game of baseball, although familiar to many and popular throughout the world, is actually more sophisticated than the average enthusiast would think. If one were to study the game more closely, for example with the guidance of an insider such as a coach or a professional player, he would probably be surprised to learn of the various complexities involved in playing America’s national pastime. The complexities in the game of baseball can easily be demonstrated first by surveying coaching strategies and tactics…

10. Essay Titles • Should reflect your argument • Should not include the word “essay” • Capitalize almost all words (except articles, prepositions, other small words) • Example: • Abraham Lincoln Essay • Better: Abraham Lincoln • Best: Abraham Lincoln: Preserver of the Union

11. How to Type Titles of other Works • Italics: titles of books, magazines, newspapers, long poems, plays, films, TV programs, websites • When handwriting, underline instead • Quotations: articles, poems, essays, chapters, short stories • When handwriting, still use quotations • Never both • “Civil Disobedience” • Walden • “The Devil and Tom Walker” • Moby Dick