Essay Writing Requirements and Conventions:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EVERYTHING LISTED BELOW IS DUE ON FRIDAY, April 20
Here are the requirements. Everything but the notecards must be typed.:
1. 30 notecards
2. An Outline, Roman Numerals I-V. This must be in FULL sentences.
3. A Thesis Statement must be a part of a one-paragraph introduction that is
submitted as part of the outline. The introduction must also appear in the essay, of
course.
4. An Analytical Essay, three FULL pages. (The majority of this must be in your
words.)
5. A Works Cited Page
PLEASE NOTE: Five points will be deducted for each day that any of these
requirements are missing. In other words, the essay will be accepted when all of the parts
are submitted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------HOW TO GET STARTED:
1. Pick a tense, usually present, for literary essays, and stick with it
throughout your essay. Usually use the past tense for research papers.
2. Your intro and conclusion are the essay’s most important parts and get the
most attention. Be SURE that you have a clear argument in the
INTRODUCTION. Take a clear stand, ideally with three areas that you will
develop in your body paragraphs.This is known as your thesis statement.
Ex. Literary Thesis.: Throughout “Hamlet,” Shakespeare explores the
poisonous effects of exploitation and deceit, beginning with the ghost’s
revelations of murder. The corruption within the play builds as Hamlet and
Claudius cruelly manipulate the people around them, and it finally infects the
entire castle, leaving every key member of the royal household dead.
**** Ex. Research Thesis: One of my mom’s most difficult moments was when
she became the first responder at a terrible car accident, where two old women
struggled to stay alive. Although she held the women’s hands and wiped blood
from their faces, she feared that the drunk driver in the other car had done
irreparable damage. Statistics bore out her fear: in the 1980s most victims of
drunk drivers didn’t survive. Because of that terrible fact, Mothers Against Drunk
Drivers started its campaign on the road. And now the deaths from drunk driving
are half of what they were in New York state (Woods).
Research Example to Brainstorm and develop as body paragraphs:
A. Why was drunken driving so widespread in the 1980s in New York and
other states?
B. Why was Mothers Against Drunk Drivers started? How did it become a
powerful organization?
C. When the accident involving my mom occurred, what actually happened to
the driver? What happened to most drunk drivers in that time frame?
D. What changes did MAD campaign for?
E. By 2010, MAD’s determination to take drunk driving seriously and punish
drunk drivers, led to a noticeable change in the number of alcohol-related
accidents and deaths. Punishments became much more severe.
F. CONCLUSION: If the accident that my mom witnessed had happened
today – well, chances are much higher that it wouldn’t have happened in
the first place. If a drunk driver had bypassed all the efforts to stop him and
collided with another car, chances are high that he would have faced a
serious amount of time in jail. MAD brought about significant changes in
social behavior.
Lit Paper To Brainstorm and develop as body paragraphs:
A. What corruption surrounds the murder and its aftermath?
B. How do Hamlet and Claudius heartlessly use people to achieve their
opposing ends?
C. How does a culture of lying, trickery, and exploitation eventually engulf all
the key characters?
D. Conclusion: Although there is much to admire about Prince Hamlet,
Shakespeare ends the play with a catastrophe, suggesting that human
nature invariably falls far short of our expectations.
3. Develop new material for the conclusion. Echo early ideas; don’t REPEAT
anything in a short essay.
Other tips:
4. Use quotes rarely. No quote should be longer than three lines in a short
paper. Note that the punctuation goes inside the quotes.
Ex: “It was the roughest time of my life,” my grandfather said. “I wish it had
never happened.”
“Because I didn’t look where I was going,” my grandfather sighed, “I took the
life of an innocent child.”
5. Don’t use “you” or “I” for anything but quotes. Ex.: NO: I was shocked
at my grandpa’s admission.
YES: Grandpa’s admission was shocking. Or: The grandfather’s
admission seems shocking.
6. Alternate long and short sentences, as well as simple and complex
sentences.
Ex. to avoid: World War II was long. Many people died. But my dad
survived.
Better: Although World War II was one of the world’s longest and most
complex wars, with millions of violent deaths and others from illness and
starvation, my dad was the lucky exception. He survived, becoming a hero
decorated with a Purple Heart, when he left the toughest conflict of his life.
Use caps for proper names and titles, such as WW II. In general, refer to adults
by their last names only, not their first names. The exception is DUE ON FRIDAY:
7. You are finished when you proofread. Be alert for ROs and Frags. Tricky
words that can get you in trouble are “because, after, while, meanwhile,
since,” etc. Each of these involves cause and effect relationships that
demand a conclusion.
Ex.: NO: While I was waiting. I ate pretzels. YES: While I was waiting, I ate
pretzels. YES: Because I was excited, I gave my best performance.
8. DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. Otherwise, you might be
tempted to plagiarize. Remember, that BHS has a no-tolerance policy. No
plagiarism is allowed. Papers with plagiarism will receive zeroes, and
there are no second chances for this! For questions, review the posted
plagiarism policy on the BHS Home Page link (See “Honesty is the Best
Policy”), as well as the many handouts on this topic.
9. Try to write something interesting that you would want to read.