Thursday, May 16, 2013

Writing An Essay!

Five Paragraph Essays

INTRO -

BODY PARAGRAPHS (3) -

CONCLUSION -

Some people were taught about the hamburger paragraph style. We’re going to change that.

We will learn a way of thinking and forming body paragraphs that will last us all the years of high school, as well as make the OSSLT a LOT easier.

HERE IS THE PATTERN!

What goes in an intro? (THREE PARTS)

The hook. The lead. The general introduction to the subject NOT the thesis.

Hey! What’s the difference between subject and thesis?

Subject is a topic area - teaching and education

Thesis is a specific argument point within that subject - marks culture is worse than learning culture

A thesis is an argument that has TWO sides at a minimum!

A thesis has to be PROVEN.

A thesis shouldn’t be so obvious that everyone would agree.

A thesis is specific and requires some support through references and explanation.

HEY! Maybe a body paragraph is all about REFERENCES and EXPLANATION!

Back to the general introduction - you start an essay by telling your reader about the general subject about which you will be writing and for which you will have a specific argument

Thesis Example - Mr. Lobb is a terrible teacher and should NOT be allowed near the fragile young minds of tomorrow’s adults. (this is a specific argument)

The opening of an intro about the above should focus on the general topic, which could be teaching, good teaching, good teachers, bad teachers, Mr. Lobb in general, etc.

If we’re going to spend several paragraphs discussing and PROVING the thesis, we should use the intro to establish who this terrible teacher IS, so that we can talk about him!

That opening sentence is GENERAL and introduces the topic and THEN you go specific INTO THE THESIS, in the next sentence! (or, you could explain a bit more about how you are getting to that thesis) ie Mr. Lobb is this guy in this school and he’s been there for this long, and it hasn’t been good. That part in italics would be the piece IN BETWEEN the intro and the thesis.

The Specific - we state the thesis and briefly outline HOW it will be proven

eg - Mr. Lobb is a terrible teacher and should NOT be allowed near the fragile young minds of tomorrow’s adults. By looking at Area of Discussion 1, Area of Discussion 2, and Area of Discussion 3, it becomes obvious that this man is a danger to those unfortunate enough to be placed into his class.