Essay Writing Workshop The Dos and Don ts of Essay Writing. Created by Michella Tacbas
There are different kinds of Essays Here are four of the major (and most prominent) types of essays that you will be required to write from now until probably the next (I would say) seven years. 1. The Expository Essay 2. The Persuasive Essay 3. The Analytical Essay 4. The Argumentative Essay
! Explanation of theme, idea or issue.! Could also act as a personal response to something you have read.! Must have well defined/ stated thesis (obviously)! Must have evidence to back up claims that are made.! Overall, should be concise.! It is a functional essay. It serves to provide information in a short and sweet way. The Expository Essay Also known as the procedural essay. It is very commonly used for specific functional documents. For example: brochures, how-to guides, prosaic editorials, personal reflections, and even just your basic Pizza Pizza advertisement.
The Persuasive Essay This is the try to convince me of something essay. This can come in many forms. For example: speeches (both written and oral), critiques, rebuttals, debates (both written and oral) etc. The point is to use your already gained knowledge, along with some research and evidence to prove a point and make sure your reader is convinced. So much so that in essence, your readers take your point of view/ perspective. Must have a clearly identified point of view. You need to keep your readers interested. You NEED to have sound evidence to make and support your claim. Try not to be overly emotional about your topic. (That makes your reader disinterested.) Start with something amazing: an overarching question that human nature has been pondering for years, a provoking thought. Then end with a BANG. Some kind of newly found idea that might poke the nerve and keep people thinking about your essay.
The Analytical Essay (dun dun dun) What is analysis anyway? Somebody, anybody. This type of essay requires a large amount of wondering and questioning. This is where your close reading comes in handy. Actually, that is where you should start when writing an analytical essay. That is where the analysis happens. What matters here is your interpretation and understanding of the themes, events, style and other techniques implemented by the author in the text that you have just read. Answer the big question: Why should your reader care? You must have : A clearly stated thesis A well organized and logical presentation of arguments EVIDENCE. Quotations to provide examples of your ideas and to reinforce your claims. ANALYSIS. Oh look there is that word again! This is the part that we teachers look at. How have you made connections between the ideas you found and the purpose or intentions of the author? To your thesis? 1. What knowledge can be gained by your given explanation of what you have just read? 2. Why should your reader care? 3. Make a connection to the human experience in some way.
The Argumentative Essay This is the type of essay where you prove that your opinion, theory or hypothesis about an issue is correct or more truthful than others. It is similar to the persuasive essay, but the difference is: you are stating and arguing for your opinion as opposed to one that already exists and you are supporting. By the end of this type of essay, you should have proven your argument. There is a pro/con structure to this type of essay. You must state your argument first, and deduce the pros and cons as you continue through your foundational argument (your thesis). Transition phrases are very important to make this type of essay look and sound fluid. USE: While I have shown that... others may say Opponents of this idea claim / maintain that Those who disagree claim that While some people may disagree with this idea... When you want to refute or counter the cons you may start with: However, Nonetheless, but On the other hand, This claim notwithstanding If you want to mark your total disagreement: After seeing this evidence, it is impossible to agree with what they say Their argument is irrelevant Contrary to what they might think...
! Theme! Tone! Genre! Politics! Archetypes! Characterization! Etc. The Comparative Essay The comparative essay is more complex because you must use one of the 4 other models of essays in addition to using more than one text/ source. You must compare OR contrast. In most cases, the more academic thing to do is to contrast. Think of differences within those similar Think of commonalities in: aspects. For example: Macbeth- kills the king to gain power. Claudius kills King Hamlet to gain power. Contrast: Claudius is the brother of the king. Macbeth is one of the king s most loyal men. *There are similarities in their motivations and their actions, but differences in their positions. What could this mean for the progression of their respective plots? *
So how do we know what to do, and what not to do when writing essays? Good question. Here is some stuff to keep in mind.
Generally, essay writing is not easy. Now that we have established that, you need to know that it requires quite a bit of work. A high school teacher of mine told me that a good essay takes at least 10 hours of work. He knew his stuff. Just a thought before you start the process Essay writing requires some interest and even more commitment. If you are going to write an essay, do it right the first time so you are not wasting your time, and so that you excel. Otherwise what is the point of producing pages of,well garbage?
Step 1: Reading/ Research You basically do both of these things at the same time. Depending on your type of essay, you will need either one to an infinite amount of sources. (Usually that is specified by your teacher). Reading information (and I mean actively reading), taking notes, saving information for future reference, and making a list of all your resources. These are all important things to be doing prior to writing the essay itself. Choosing the right topic becomes so much easier when you have enough content and context to work with. Doing research by reading will make it clear to you just what it is that you might be interested in writing about. In addition, because you ve already started the process, you might already know what you re going to say.
Step 2: Create an outline Don t just write any outline, write a really good one. One that is so good that your essay basically writes itself! There are different ways of going about doing this. All of which include one major component: ORGANIZATION. Which means you REALLY need to get all of your STUFF together. When outlining: Have your books, articles etc. with you the whole time. You should have made notes already (when reading). Have those notes with you. Start a brainstorm of sorts. What was the topic you chose? Why did you choose it? What aspects do you like? You don t like? Ask yourself: What is it that I want to tell my reader? How will I make them care? You WILL be talking to yourself often. Probably a good idea to do this somewhere quiet. If you re not talking to yourself, you re doing it wrong.
When you figure out what you want to explain to your reader, think of a phrase to best communicate it. This is called a working thesis. DO NOT stress about a final thesis. It is almost impossible to have a finalized thesis in the beginning stages of writing. You might not even have a good one until the very last sentence of your essay! Just get your ideas down, then you can reorganize throughout. Next, use your working thesis to frame your arguments. Think CAUSE and EFFECT. If this, then this. This is the source of your major arguments. Use this to help you think of phrases to explain your arguments for every paragraph of your essay. MAKE SURE NOT TO REPEAT YOURSELF. Outlining Continued When you have an idea of all of your arguments, and have put down words to help you remember what they are, go find evidence (quotations). This is one of the hardest parts, but it should be a little easier because of your previous research. Skim through your notes, passages, sticky noted sections of your texts and find phrases that are close to your arguments. Your quotations do not necessarily have to have exact words from your arguments, BUT THEY DO NEED TO BE IN THE SAME CONTEXT. Make sure to find at least 3 quotations that you can potentially use for every argument that you have. Usually the requirement is at least two, have a third as a back up.
Step 3: Find Proof! Regarding Quotations How do you know it is the right one? Or if you re using it correctly?! Is it about your topic?! Have you made sure it works in the correct context?! Does it enhance and reinforce your argument? Or is it just repetition?! Can you use it to provide a new idea or thought regarding your thesis?! Does it help to make connections between your ideas?! Is it relevant to what you are trying to achieve?! Did you randomly find it and stuck into your essay?! The point of using quotations is to further or advance your thinking by providing proof. If you are going to make a claim, you need to back it up. You can use quotations (and by association, the author of the text) as your push in the winning direction.! Quotations are not used in essays just to show that you used them. They serve a purpose. Make sure to choose them and use them correctly and wisely. (We will talk about formatting and proper citation later on). You probably have questions about quotations right?
STEP 4: ANALYZE Now it is time to answer your questions regarding quotations. For every quotation, explain how it helps your argument. What does it add or take away from your text? How does it progress the plot, or character etc.? Don t tell your reader what it says, because it is already saying it. Instead, tell your reader what it means, why it matters, to who it matters to. Does the idea the quotation explains, help the story/text? Overall, explain: what does it do? and why should we care? When using quotations, make sure only to use the sections that you need, not an entire paragraph. Otherwise, you are just filling in space, not really saying anything of importance. Additionally, it is imperative that you CONCISELY explain the relevance of a quotation, because after all, brevity is the soul of wit (II,ii,86-92).
STEP 5: Drafting &Writing body paragraphs! Once you have all of the information you need (thesis, major arguments, quotations), you just need to worry about sentences and phrasing. That ends the outlining stage.! Next is the writing stage. In the previous steps, you took care of the nitty gritty stuff: argumentation and evidence.! Now you need to make it look and sound beautiful.! I think you know how to write fantastic sentences, right?! KEEP THIS IN MIND: Connect everything. Transition sentences so they flow seamlessly. Try your best. Read it out loud if you have to. Most importantly, DO NOT REPEAT YOURSELF.! REMEMBER: you will have many chances to revise, proof read and edit.! At this point, your main concern is writing the darn thing and getting it done! So do that!
What is revision? STEP 6: Revision (Draft 1)! Take a look at what you have written. Did you answer all of your questions?! More importantly, did you answer the essay question/topic that was assigned? If not, the revision step is when you should rectify these major problems.! Revising helps you keep track of the things you have done and haven t done. It also makes sure you are writing everything correctly.! Basically, if you essay doesn't make sense, this is the time to fix that.! LOOK AT : structure of sentences, paragraphs, how you ve integrated quotations etc.! You should have more than one draft by the end of this step.
Step 7: Proof Reading Once you have a fully drafted (rough copy) essay, read it aloud to yourself. This is usually one of the toughest parts of essay writing, and for good reasons: Does anything sound funny? Are there things that you repeated? Have you covered your topic properly? Do you think it answers the essay topic thoroughly? 1. You might be a shy writer. You don t want to show other people your writing, so you self-check. HOWEVER, you don t usually see your own mistakes, so this is problematic. 2. You don't want to check it over, because you are sick and tired of writing. That s okay, save this task for tomorrow, OR have a smart friend take a look! **Ultimately, you need to make sure it looks and sounds like it makes sense**
STEP 8: EDIT! EDIT! EDIT! You MUST edit at least 3 times! That is my recommendation, anyway. Editing means: looking for issues in: grammar, punctuation, syntax AND correcting them. It might be difficult to find these errors yourself, so you should consider asking someone else to do it for you. **HOWEVER, if a person is editing your work, they should ONLY be changing minor errors, not rewriting sentences or paragraphs. They can recommend that you rephrase things, but they should not be doing the work for you. **
Step 9: FINAL CHECK Did you answer the topic question? Do you have a clearly identifiable thesis? Do you have 3 main premises/arguments? Do you have 2 quotes for each argument (6 in total)? Did you use proper MLA formatting? Did you cite things properly (using parenthetical documentation)? Did you revise? Did you proof read? Did you edit? Did you ask another person to look at it? Did you follow ALL instructions given to you? Do you feel confident in all the steps you took, effort you ve made, and final product you have created? If this essay were your resume, would the person receiving it hire you for the job?
STEP 10: SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY If you are confident in your effort, your written essay and you are ready to submit your essay, then do so. Make sure you follow the instructions you are given in submitting your essay. FOR THIS CLASS: ENG4U 1. You MUST email your essays to my me. 2. In your email, your SUBJECT should say: YourName, Lastname, ENG4U Period# Example: MichellaTacbas ENG4U Period2 Essay 3. YOU MUST ASK ME TO MAKE SURE IF I HAVE RECEIVED IT.