Over the last number of days, we have been looking at the objectives for each part of the essay to prepare you for the essay writing process. 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)
Finally, your conclusion has only one objective:
Expand on the thesis. Like a lawyer's summation, you may not present new evidence. Instead, you are to write a few sentences that take your thesis and explain in greater detail what you were trying to argue.
You have all written an introductory paragraph, and the first paragraph of the body of the in class essay you were assigned. All students were checked to ensure that each paper fulfilled the objectives above.
After successfully completing this task, you were assigned another in class essay. This particular assignment made use of the material in the textbook from pages 279-285. You may pick up the reading entitled "Manitoba Reading" from the drop box anytime.
The essay question for this assignment was as follows:
What impact did Louis Riel have on the settlement of the West?
This essay is due --- Wednesday, March 16,2011.
Make sure you can identify which specific sentences accomplish each of the objectives outlined above for both the introductory paragraph, the body paragraph, and the .
