Name: ___________________________________Date:___________________Ms. Estes Period:___
1.
BRAINSTORM ideas for a 5-paragraph essay using information from the article
“Scared of School: Middle School Bullying a Disturbing Trend.” Add ideas and quotes from the article to your brainstorm that help to explain the problem of and
causes of bullying, and your ideas about how to solve the problem of school bullying
using the PERSUASIVE ESSAY BRAINSTORM handout.
2 . ORGANIZE your ideas following the guidelines on the ORGANIZING YOUR
PERSUASIVE ESSAY handout . You must organize 5 paragraphs as follows:

INTRODUCTORY paragraph

ONE BODY PARAGRAPH explaining the PROBLEMS of school bullying

ONE BODY PARAGRAPH explaining the CAUSES of school bullying

ONE BODY PARAGRAPH explaining YOUR OPINION of how to school bullying can be stopped.

CONCLUDING paragraph
3.
WRITE A ROUGH DRAFT of your essay ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER or ON
YOUR OWN LINED PAPER skipping every other line and closely following the
organize step you completed. You must include a MINIMUM OF 3 PROPERLY CITED
QUOTES from the article “Scared of School: Middle School Bullying a Disturbing Trend.”
4. REVISE your own rough draft using the REVISION CHECKLIST FOR 5-
PARAGRAPH ESSAY (On the back of this sheet!) handout and then
have TWO classmates help you revise your essay and sign the Revision
Checklist as well.
5. WRITE THE FINAL DRAFT of your essay ON YOUR OWN
COMPUTER (in 14 pt. Arial or Times New Roman) or ON YOUR OWN LINED
PAPER in blue or black INK skipping every other line.
In either case, make sure
you have a HEADING in the UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER of the paper that
includes YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME, DATE TURNED IN, AND YOUR
CLASS PERIOD.
6. TURN IN all of the materials you completed for this essay when the final draft is due:

The bullying ARTICLE and completed QUESTIONS

BRAINSTORM

ORGANIZE STEP

ROUGH DRAFT (showing revisions you made) and complete REVISION CHECKLIST

FINAL DRAFT

Name: _____________________________________________Date:______________Ms. Estes Period:_____
Read your essay out loud to yourself first to catch silly mistakes and check off each item in the first column below. Then, have at least two people help you to make revisions to your paper.
Have them check off each item in the other two columns of blanks.
Essay Structure:
___ ___ ___ Introduction Paragraph present?
___ ___ ___ Grabber/Warm-Up Sentence(s)
___ ___ ___ Road Map (3 points)
___ ___ ___ Thesis Statement
___ ___ ___ Support Paragraph 1 present?
___ ___ ___ Topic Sentence
___ ___ ___ Sufficient Points, Details, Quotes
___ ___ ___ Support Paragraph 2 present?
___ ___ ___ Topic Sentence
___ ___ ___ Sufficient Points, Details, Quotes
___ ___ ___ Support Paragraph 3 present?
___ ___ ___ Topic Sentence
___ ___ ___ Sufficient Points, Details, Quotes
___ ___ ___ Concluding Paragraph present?
___ ___ ___ Thesis ( re-worded ?)
___ ___ ___ Road Map Recap (are all 3 points
included and re-worded ?)
___ ___ ___ Zinger/clincher sentence(s)
Mechanics & Format:
___ ___ ___ Transitions
—are there good transitions between paragraphs, sentences and ideas?
Did the author avoid “Franken-speak?” (choppiness?)
___ ___ ___ Run-on sentences
—does the essay need periods or commas to be clear?
___ ___ ___ Sentence fragments
—does the essay have incomplete sentences?
___ ___ ___
Use of “I,” “me,” or “you” —does the essay paper avoid these words?
___ ___ ___ Indented paragraphs
—is each of the 5 paragraphs indented?
___ ___ ___ Slang
—did the author avoid slang or immature language?
___ ___ ___ Word choice
—did the author vary (change up) their word choices?
___ ___ ___ Spelling
—did the author take care to spell everything correctly?
___ ___ ___ Punctuation
—are there periods at the ends of sentences? Did the author avoid
unnecessary exclamation points? Are commas included where necessary?
___ ___ ___ Capitalization
—is there a capital letter at the beginning of every new sentence? Are all
proper names and titles capitalized?
___ ___ ___ Heading – is the proper heading in the upper right-hand corner of the paper?
___ ___ ___ Format – is there a 1-inch margin (no more!) around the outside edge of each page? Double-
spaced (skipped lines)? Typed (Times New Roman 14 pt.) or hand-written (in blue or
black ink ?)