Essay Writing

Below you will find links that specifically talk about different types of essays. No matter what essay you write, you should always outline your ideas first. This is not an English teacher's torture tool; it allows you to think about what you want to say and how to say it before wasting time writing without direction. Ever get stuck writing an essay because you don't know what else to say? Well, with outlines it's okay to skip around; nothing's final yet. Although I don't necessarily like following predetermined formats, if your essay includes some of the following concepts, it should be effective. This is also how I expect you to outline your essays.

Title
I Introduction
      
a. Thesis - the statement that explains what the whole paper will be about. Please do not actually write, "This paper will be about..."
       b. Attention getter - actually choose the attention getter and what you will say for it before writing the paper.
       c. Transition - how are you going to transition into the rest of the paper?

II. - ??. Body Paragraphs (separate one for EACH body paragraph)
      a. Claim/Topic sentence
      b. Examples and details as support
      c. Explain - an overlooked and underestimated necessity. After you have made a claim and provided details and support, you cannot assumed your reader will see it exactly as you do. Therefore, you must explain what you mean or how the examples work. For instance, say you claimed that you should be able to get a car beause it will be easier on your parents, and you provide a situation where you need to go to a sports practice. You may want to explain that if you had a car you'd be able to drive yourself to practice. Without this explanation, your reader may not see why having to go to sports practice is related to whether or not you should have a car.

??. Conclusion
       a. Restate thesis - this is more than simply rewording - of even worse, copying and pasting - the thesis. Now that the reader knows more about your subject, you can write a more specific thesis.
       b. Sythesize the info - many think that a conclusion summarizes. Really it should synthesize. This means that it connects all of the details together. With each body paragraph as a separate subtopic and claim, how do they fit together and relate to your thesis?
       c. Employ a concluding strategy


Expository Essay

An essay that informs or describes

Persuasive Essay

An essay that argues an idea or issue.

Narrative Essay

An essay that uses personal experiences to make a comment about life.

Literary Analysis

An essay that analyzes the literary elements in a text.

MLA Format

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