The building blocks
of writing
Each of the sentences in an
essay will be one of the following
types:
• your own ideas.
• evidence to support your ideas.
Types of sentences in an essay
that contain your own ideas:
• thesis
• supporting areas (your ideas that explain
why you believe your thesis to be true)
• topic sentences
• sentences that elaborate
• concluding ideas (for paragraphs or for
essays)
• transitions
Types of sentences in an essay
that contain evidence to
support your ideas:
• support or sentences that present evidence
in the form of
–
–
–
–
text quotes
facts
statistics
examples from your life
In sum:
Your Ideas
• thesis
• supporting areas
• topic sentences
• elaboration
• transitions
• concluding sentences
(clinchers)
Evidence to support your
ideas
• support
Your job is to use these
building blocks to get your
ideas across most clearly.
3 guidelines:
• your ideas should form the majority of your
essay
• for each sentence that contains evidence
(support) there should be two sentences
explaining the significance of that evidence
(elaboration)
• all sentences need to be connected!
Let’s start with a paragraph:
• All paragraphs in essays
need to be built around
one of your ideas, which
should be contained in the
topic sentence.
•Then, present evidence that
supports/illustrates that idea.
(support)
•Explain HOW that evidence
supports your topic sentence
idea. (elaboration)
•Sum up your paragraph in a
concluding sentence.
The Paragraph
Topic Sentence Idea
Support
(evidence to support topic)
Elaboration
(HOW the evidence supports
the topic sentence idea)
Concluding Sentence
Now for the essay:
• All essays are built around a
thesis statement that you
believe to be true. The
purpose of your essay is to
explain how and why.
•Your reasons as to how
and why you believe the
thesis to be true are your
supporting areas.
•Those supporting areas
become the topic ideas for
the other paragraphs in the
essay.
•Sum up your argument in
your conclusion.
The Essay
Intro:
Thesis Idea
Supporting Areas
Supporting Area#1
Supporting Area#2
Conclusion
Compare
Paragraph structure
Essay structure
• topic sentence
• introduction:
thesis/supporting areas
• one body paragraph to
illustrate each
supporting area
• conclusion
• support/elaboration
• concluding sentence
For your reader to best
understand your essay, all
of the pieces must be
connected to each other.
The Paragraph
Connecting the
pieces in a
paragraph:
Make sure your
words reveal how
the different
pieces of your
paragraph relate
to each other.
Topic Sentence Idea
Support
(evidence to support topic)
Elaboration
(HOW the evidence supports
the topic sentence idea)
Concluding Sentence
Connecting
the pieces
in an essay:
The Essay
Intro:
Thesis Idea
Supporting Areas
Supporting Area#1
Make sure your
words reveal how
the different
pieces of your
essay relate to
each other.
Supporting Area#2
Conclusion
To practice this, you will
complete an OUTLINE only.
• This will enable you to examine closely
how all of the pieces fit together.
• You will turn this outline into PowerPoint
slides to present to your peers informally.
Outline Topic:
Considering what you’ve learned about
communication and personality types
what are your strengths and weaknesses
as an employee of any workplace?
Outline components:
I. Introduction
thesis/supporting areas
II. Strengths
support/elaboration
III. Weaknesses
support/elaboration
IV. Conclusion
I. Introduction
A. hook or grabber
B. thesis (mention your specific personality
type and learning style and how you think
those will help you in the work place)
C. supporting areas (brief statement on
strengths, brief statement on weaknesses).
II. Strengths are . . . (write them briefly)
A. Supporting detail: an example from your life that illustrates a
strength.
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail. How does
it show a strength?
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail. How does
it show a strength?
B. Supporting detail: another example from your life that illustrates a
strength.
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail. How does
it show a strength?
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail. How does
it show a strength?
C. Repeat B as needed.
D. Transition thought to weaknesses.
III. Weaknesses are . . .
(write them briefly)
A. Supporting detail: an example from your life that
illustrates a weakness.
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail.
How does it show a weakness?
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail.
How does it show a weakness?
B. Supporting detail: another example from your life that
illustrates a weakness.
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail.
How does it show a weakness?
Elaboration: your explanation of that supporting detail.
How does it show a weakness?
C. Repeat B as needed.
D. Transition thought to conclusion.
IV. Conclusion
A. Restate thesis and supporting areas.
B. Emphasize the most important ideas from
your outline.
What next?
• You’ll find this outline on the class website.
– Course Documents
• Professional Portfolios
– Personality outline
• Build your actual outline in the PowerPoint
outline view to turn it into a slide
presentation.
So . . .
• Tuesday: PowerPoint training and work on
slides
• Wednesday: work on slides
• Thursday and Friday: present slides to
classmates informally in A10