BUILDING AN ESSAY:
BASIC ESSAY
STRUCTURE
Mr Jernigan
Essays
•What is an essay?
•Why are essays important?
•How long will I have to be
able to write essays?
If You Learn Nothing Else…
• An essay is a relatively short piece of nonfiction
in which a writer attempts to develop one or more
closely related points or ideas.
• If you learn nothing else this year, please
grasp these concepts about essays and put
them into use.
• Your ability to write in essay-like formats will
greatly affect your ability to advance and succeed
in life.
Basic Essay Structure and Terms
• What is a thesis?
• What are the three basic parts of an essay?
• How does each of these three basic parts function?
Basic Essay Terms
• The thesis of an essay is its main idea.
• A good essay has three parts:
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• Each part of an essay is made up of paragraphs.
Good body paragraphs have these parts:
• Topic Sentence (Claim)
• Evidence supporting the topic.
• The writer’s expansion, connecting the evidence and
the topic sentence
Thesis
• What does a good thesis do?
• What does it mean for an essay to be unified?
Some Thoughts on Thesis
• Implicit VS Explicit
• Sometimes, it is implied rather than directly stated.
• The thesis determines the content of the essay: everything the
writer says must be logically related to the thesis statement.
• A good thesis statement identifies the topic and makes an
assertion about it.
• A well-written essay should be unified; that is, everything in it
should be related to its thesis, or main idea. A unified essay
stays within the limits of its thesis.
• Your essay is unified if you advance a single point and stick to
that point. If all the details in your essay relate to your thesis
and supporting topic sentences, your essay is unified.
Introduction
• What should a good introduction do?
• How long should an introduction be?
• What specific parts of an introduction should I have?
Introduction
• The introduction paragraph should include an attention
getter (or hook), a bridge or connecting sentence that
helps ease the reader toward the paper’s subject, and a
thesis statement that clearly states the central idea about
the subject of the paper.
• Hook (AGD)- This can take the form of a quote, statistic, anecdote,
definition, or any other item that will grab the attention of the reader.
This should be able to be related to the thesis of the paper
• Transition/Bridge- This sentence should help bring the reader
from the hook into the general subject explored in the paper. The
subject of the paper should be the general umbrella under which
the remainder of your paper falls.
• Thesis- A thesis is a specific statement about the subject that you
will illustrate throughout the remainder of the paper. This specific
statement is the one thing you want your reader to walk away from
the paper knowing. The rest of your paper should prove this point
true.
Body
• What is my goal in the body of an essay?
• How many paragraphs should I have in the body of an
essay?
• What are the basic sentence types for a body paragraph?
• How does the body of my essay relate to the thesis?
• How do I keep my paragraphs unified?
Body Paragraphs
• Good body paragraphs make a claim about the topic (topic sentence),
provide specific evidence supporting the claim, and most importantly spell
out the connection between the evidence, key point, and thesis.
• Key Point Sentence (Claim) This sentences should be a specific sentence
illustrating a point that shows the truthfulness of the thesis statement.
• Evidence -This part of the paragraph should point out specific evidence (quote, stat,
anecdote, summary of events, paraphrase of information, etc.). If this evidence is
drawn from an outside source, be certain to cite them as the source of the
information.
• Expansion (warrant/reasoning)-This is the most important part of the body
paragraph. This is you spelling out the connection between evidence, key point, and
thesis. Here, you should spell out, in-detail, the significance of the evidence, and its
relationship to the thesis.
• repeat evidence/ expansion as needed to fully support the key point
• The body paragraph format should be utilized for every subsequent body paragraph until the
thesis is sufficiently supported.
• Body paragraphs should be unified by the topic sentence.
• The Author should use as many body paragraphs as is necessary to
adequately support their thesis.
Conclusion
• What is the main function of a conclusion?
• What types of things would be most beneficial in a
conclusion?
• How long should my conclusion be?
• Does my conclusion have to be its own paragraph?
Conclusion
• The paper should wrap up soundly with a good
conclusion.
• The conclusion should bring the reader back to the thesis
(restated in different words), restate the key points, and
bring the reader full circle by tying the back into the
attention getter.
• Restate Thesis- Put your thesis in other words. This phrase should
encapsulate the same central idea of your original thesis.
• Restate Key Points (claims)- Once again, using different wording,
recap the key points that illustrated the truthfulness of your thesis.
• Reconnect to Hook/ AGD- This should bring the reader full-circle to
your introductory hook thus giving the reader a sense of full
closure.
The CYCLE of Good ESSAYS
PROMPTED WRITING
How To Write A Constructed
Response
• PLANNING:
• Read the entire question.
• Identify and underline key words in the
question, such as: explain, elaborate,
illustrate.
• Restate the prompt in your own words to be
sure that you understand it.
• List items you should identify in your answer
• List facts & examples to support your answer
R.A.C.E.
• Reword
• Answer
• Cite Evidence
• Explain
R.A.C.E
WRITING:
• Reword: restate the question and make it
into a statement as a part of the answer
you provide.
• Example:
• Ques - "What color is the sky?"
• Correct written answer - “The color of
the sky is usually blue," or words to
that effect.
A.C.E
R.
• ANSWER: show how you arrived at your answer with
general reasons. Usually R & A in R.A.C.E. are in the same
sentence.
Example:
“What color is the sky?”
• REWORD: The color of the sky is usually blue, …
• ANSWER: because of how we see light waves and the
weather conditions.
C.E
R.A.
• Cite Evidence/Examples: Use the facts or examples
to support the R & A in R.A.C.E
• At least 3 Evidence or Examples
• EXAMPLE:
• The Sky is usually blue because of how we see light waves
and the weather conditions. According to scientist, humans
see blue sky based on what kinds of light waves are visualized
in the eye, how sunny the day is and the direction of the
sunlight.
E
R.A.C.
• EXPLAIN THE ANSWER: Elaborate on the evidence and
examples you cited in C.
• EXAMPLE:
•
The Sky is usually blue because of how we see light waves and the weather
conditions. According to scientist, humans see blue sky based on what kinds
of light waves are visualized in the eye, how sunny the day is and the
direction of the sunlight. On a clear, sunny day, the sun is directly shinning
on us. Because the molecules in the air reflect the scattered blue light
waves more than red or orange when it bounces off the direct sunlight, we
see blue. As the sun sets, the direction of its light goes away from us so the
molecules reflect the red or orange waves of light that we see at sunsets.
THE A-B-C STRATEGY:
For writing a timed essay
Attack the Prompt
Brainstorm Possible Answers
Choose the Order of Your Response
Attack the Prompt
① Circle “to do” action words.
② Unwrap the question by re-writing it in a “Do/What” chart.
•
Attack the prompt either verbally or graphically,
identifying the “to do” words.
•
“To do”/action words include: choose, write, describe,
discuss, explain
•
It’s what they want you to do in your essay!
Brainstorm Possible Answers:
• List ideas in bullet form
• Bubble map
• Outline
• Line clusters
• Columns
*THIS IS YOUR PRE-WRITING TECHNIQUE!
Choose the Order of Your Response
•
After brainstorming, quickly choose the order in which you will
discuss each idea of response.
*Remember: check your paper by reading it before you turn it in!
Sample A-B-C
Attack the prompt:
• Some activities are fun and more interesting than
others. Some people like to play sports, others like
to read, while others like to play an instrument.
Think of an activity that you enjoy doing more than
anything else. Discuss the three main reasons you
enjoy this activity & provide examples and details to
support each of your reasons.
Do/What
• Think: activity you enjoy doing more than anyone
else
• Discuss: 3 main reasons I enjoy this activity
• Provide: examples and details to support each
reason