How do you organize information prior to drafting an essay?

1. How do you organize information prior to drafting an essay?

2. In this lesson you will learn how to organize your information for an argumentative essay by using boxes and bullets.

3. Choosing a topic Finding Supporting Evidence Planning To Write

4. Lack of organization leading to misplaced information in essay. School lunches do not offer good tasting food to students. The food is not very healthy. There are many times when students choose not to eat the food. The cafeteria does not give enough food to students.

5. 1 • Write claim in first big box with three supporting reasons in bullets below. • Rewrite each reason into the body paragraph boxes below. 2 Fill-in the bullets with evidence to support your argument. Ask, “Do I have enough evidence to make a strong argument for my thesis?” 3

6. How do I use boxes and bullets to organize my essay? School lunches need to be improved. Claim / Thesis • Reason #1 • The food is not tasty • Reason #2 • There are not options • Reason #3 • The food is not healthy

7. Do I have enough evidence to make a strong argument for my thesis? How do I use boxes and bullets to organize my body paragraphs? Reason #1 The food does not taste good. (Topic for Body Paragraph #1) ✓ • Examples I’d rather pack instead of eating the school’s food (Me) • Personal Experiences “The food has no flavor.” (Seth Smith) • Supporting statistics 25% of school lunch food is thrown out (thislunchrox.com)

8. 1 • Write claim in first big box with three supporting reasons in bullets below. • Rewrite each reason into the body paragraph boxes below. 2 Fill-in the bullets with evidence to support your argument. Ask, “Do I have enough evidence to make a strong argument for my thesis?” 3

9. In this lesson you organized information for an argumentative essay by using boxes and bullets.

10. Practice by using boxes and bullets to organize your own reasons for why school lunches need to be improved. Then use evidence to support one of the supporting details. Improve School Lunches Reason #1 • Reason #1 • Reason #2 • Reason #3 • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence

11. With a partner, read an article from the op-ed section of the local newspaper. Use the boxes and bullets method to breakdown the author’s claim and the evidence he/she uses to make the argument.

12. Think of a time that you really wanted something. Now, use boxes and bullets to diagram your argument along with supporting details.

13. Come up with a topic you would like to argue. Use boxes and bullets to organize reasons for why you are correct in your claim. Then, have a partner check to make sure that your argument is well organized.

14. On your own, use your thesis and the evidence for each reason in the boxes and bullets organizer to plan your essay.