Over the last number of days, you have written an in class essay and you have been working on the objectives for each part of the essay. Below is a summary of the class notes for this section:
The essay assignment typically comes in two forms -- a question or a directive.
for example:
What is the most important characteristic required to be successful in school? (question)
Discuss the most important characteristic required to be successful in school. (directive)
The most important thing to remember when writing the essay is to make sure you understand the question and answer the question directly.
Below you will find the objectives we discussed for the introductory paragraph (in order of importance - NOT appearance):
1. Answer the question (thesis statement)
2. List of supporting ideas (evidence which will serve to prove your thesis)
3. Introductory statement (this is the first sentence in your essay)
Next, you will find the objectives for the body paragraphs (in order of appearance):
1. Topic sentence (from your list of supporting ideas and relates to thesis)
2. Supporting details (logically prove why the thesis is true... between 5-7 sentences)
3. Transition sentence (make the connection from the present supporting idea/topic to the next supporting idea/topic)
You have all written an introductory paragraph, the first paragraph of the body, and hopefully a conclusion based on the in class essay you were assigned. All students were checked to ensure that each paper fulfilled the objectives above.
