Essay Writing: Part One~What is an Essay?
This section will take you through the essay writing process. You will do a few activities that will take you through the process, and you will participate in a peer review during key aspects of the writing process.
What is an Essay?
An essay is a piece of writing that organizes ideas into a supported and structured explanation or argument. It differs from a story, a reflection or an informal piece of opinion writing as it requires specific structure.
Essays vary in length from one page to more than twenty pages! Mastering the structure of a simple essay will enable you to structure much longer, and more complex essays in the future.
Types of Essays
There are many types of essays. Each has a unique purpose. Here are six of the most common types of essays.
You will be writing a literary essay that should analyse the theme of the novel. You will need to have a clear focus, which is your focus question (theme strand) to use while you are planning your essay.
What is an Essay?
An essay is a piece of writing that organizes ideas into a supported and structured explanation or argument. It differs from a story, a reflection or an informal piece of opinion writing as it requires specific structure.
Essays vary in length from one page to more than twenty pages! Mastering the structure of a simple essay will enable you to structure much longer, and more complex essays in the future.
Types of Essays
There are many types of essays. Each has a unique purpose. Here are six of the most common types of essays.
- Comparison and Contrast Essay: demonstrates the similarities and differences between two things
- Persuasive Essay: makes a claim, or takes a position and supports the claim with reasoning, statistics, expert opinions and other evidence in an attempt to convince the reader that the claim is correct
- Informal or Narrative Essays: informal essays are often narratives, which tell a story. The difference between 'a narrative' and 'a narrative essay' is that the purpose of a narrative essay is to convey some point, lesson or idea, and it is structured as an essay
- Research Essay: synthesizes information from multiple sources of information and offers some analysis of the subject matter. In order to accomplish this style, you will need to collect multiple sources of information, take point-form notes that summarize the ideas (this prevents plagiarism) and to synthesize the information into a cohesive paper that presents the information in an organized format.
- Expository Essay: the function of the expository essay is to explain something to the reader by giving directions or instructions, or to aquaint your reader with knowledge about how to complete a task or how something is done. You are demonstrating your own knowledge and explaining with facts, not opinions. It is very important that your tone be reasonable and that your presentation be factual and believable.
- Literary Essay: In the literary essay, you are exploring the meaning, interpretation and construction of a piece of literature. It examines the different literary techniques that the author of the work used to write the work. A literary essay focuses on such elements as structure, character, theme, style, tone and subtext. You are taking a piece of writing and trying to discover how and why it is put together the way it is. You must adopt a viewpoint on the work in question and show how the details of the work support your viewpoint. For example, themes, use of irony, alliteration, tone, voice, setting, narration are all possible literary techniques that could be analyzed in the essay. You may write about what the symbolism might mean or hidden connections or a subtle message that no one else has picked up on. This differs from the expository essay such that the expository explains or describes a work of literature--the intention is to inform with facts. Therefore, the difference between the two styles of writing are essentially the focus of the essay and the overall goals the essay attempts to achieve - either more explanatory and analytical (expository) or an exploration of creative literary techniques (literary analysis).
You will be writing a literary essay that should analyse the theme of the novel. You will need to have a clear focus, which is your focus question (theme strand) to use while you are planning your essay.
Part Two~Well Begun
A memorable quote from the movie, "Mary Poppins," is a game that Mary plays with the children called "well begun is half done.” Basically, the game is cleaning up the nursery and the intended message is: beginning a project well makes it easier to do the rest. This seems to be true for all things! Often beginning is the hardest part of a project--especially writing. One great way to begin well is to brainstorm. Even though the key to successfully writing an essay is to organize ideas clearly, there is nothing to organize if you don't have any ideas.
Here are some of the things that you will need to figure out:
Brainstorming is a great way to get those creative juices flowing. You can brainstorm by putting all of your ideas down on paper. Many writers like to start with an unorganized brainstorming session to get all of their ideas out and flowing. The ideas can be your own, as well as ideas that you glean from research, talking to others, or that you have heard before.
TASK #1: A Well Begun Brainstorm
By now you should have chosen your topic--one theme strand from the novel. Begin by brainstorming for that topic. Create your brainstorm in any form you like.
Here are some of the things that you will need to figure out:
- Your main argument (or thesis)
- What you will do to support your argument
- Some facts to support your argument
- A way to finish (conclusion)
Brainstorming is a great way to get those creative juices flowing. You can brainstorm by putting all of your ideas down on paper. Many writers like to start with an unorganized brainstorming session to get all of their ideas out and flowing. The ideas can be your own, as well as ideas that you glean from research, talking to others, or that you have heard before.
TASK #1: A Well Begun Brainstorm
By now you should have chosen your topic--one theme strand from the novel. Begin by brainstorming for that topic. Create your brainstorm in any form you like.
Part Three~Organizing Your Thoughts
You may want to create a web or mind map if you prefer a visual representation of ideas. For some people, listing ideas works better than a web. Listing can be nice if you already have several ideas because it works in a linear fashion. When listing ideas, use headings and list ideas as points beneath them.
Now that you have your brainstormed idea, you will need to start organizing your ideas. You should start looking at what the main ideas, or categories of ideas that are emerging from your brainstorm.
You will need to start forming a main argument or thesis, and start looking for sub-topics. Spend some time refining your idea. The more time you spend doing this organizing and refining, the better your essay will turn out in the end.
TASK #2: Organizing Your Thoughts
Now it is time to revise your brainstorm that shows how you will organize your ideas, be sure to include some central idea or thesis.
This may be in the form of a web or a list, where the central aspect is a beginning thesis (main idea) and then you move to your main subtopics (perhaps three) and then to supporting ideas organized around the main subtopics. The purpose of this step is to help to keep your ideas straight, so they don't get all tangled up when you write your essay!
Now that you have your brainstormed idea, you will need to start organizing your ideas. You should start looking at what the main ideas, or categories of ideas that are emerging from your brainstorm.
You will need to start forming a main argument or thesis, and start looking for sub-topics. Spend some time refining your idea. The more time you spend doing this organizing and refining, the better your essay will turn out in the end.
TASK #2: Organizing Your Thoughts
Now it is time to revise your brainstorm that shows how you will organize your ideas, be sure to include some central idea or thesis.
This may be in the form of a web or a list, where the central aspect is a beginning thesis (main idea) and then you move to your main subtopics (perhaps three) and then to supporting ideas organized around the main subtopics. The purpose of this step is to help to keep your ideas straight, so they don't get all tangled up when you write your essay!
Part Four~Your Thesis Statement
The thesis statement is the key to your essay. It will include your main idea, and will mention the subtopics that you will explore in your essay to support your main idea.
Formula for a thesis: Main claim (your specific standpoint)+argument #1 (to be provided in body paragraph #1) +argument #2 (to be provided in body paragraph #2) and argument #3 (to be provided in body paragraph #3)
TASK #3: Now that you know what a thesis statement is, and have watched the videos on creating thesis statements, you will need to write your own thesis statement based on your brainstorming and listing activities. Write your thesis statement. You will submit your thesis along with your outline in the next step (to your peer reviewer).
- Your thesis must be more specific and it makes an assertion--it is a sentence/statement that tells the reader the main points your paper covers and in what order they appear. It is your entire paper squeezed in 1-2 sentences at the end of the introduction.
- A strong thesis is disputable (some readers can disagree), it is focused (not too broad), it is relevant (readers won’t say “so what?”).
- Formula for a thesis: Main claim (your specific standpoint)+argument #1 (to be provided in body paragraph #1)+argument #2 (to be provided in body paragraph #2) and argument #3 (to be provided in body paragraph #3)
- Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis statements contain words like because, since, so, although, unless, and however.
- The thesis is your distinct standpoint on the subject
- It is a brief summary of the main points of your argument and it is a road-map for the paper.
Formula for a thesis: Main claim (your specific standpoint)+argument #1 (to be provided in body paragraph #1) +argument #2 (to be provided in body paragraph #2) and argument #3 (to be provided in body paragraph #3)
TASK #3: Now that you know what a thesis statement is, and have watched the videos on creating thesis statements, you will need to write your own thesis statement based on your brainstorming and listing activities. Write your thesis statement. You will submit your thesis along with your outline in the next step (to your peer reviewer).
Part Five~The Essay Outline
The final step in organizing your essays it to create an essay outline. This will give your essay great structure, and will also make it easier to write. You will create an outline that works for you, but your outline must include the specific components that are listed in the example. In the video below, the author combines brainstorming and outlining to create a structure for his essay.
Essay_outline.docx | |
File Size: | 17 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Part Six and Eight~Peer Review
"As a peer reviewer, your job is not to provide answers. You raise questions; the writer makes the choices. You act as a mirror, showing the writer how the draft looks to you and pointing out areas which need attention."
- S. Williams (Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa's Writing Program)
Why?
Peer-review of writing assignments, is a commonly recommended technique to improve writing skills. Peer-review not only provides you with feedback, it also gives you the opportunity to read essays of other students and improve your reflective skills. Several studies have found that providing feedback leads to improvement in the reviewer’s writing, especially when the students provide constructive feedback and put effort into the process.
TASK #6: Peer Review
At this point, I want you to share your outline with a Critical Friend for peer review. Your outline must include the thesis, introduction, body, and conclusion (see the essay outline above).
Peer Reviewers: Please review the essay rubric and complete the Peer Reviewer Form while assessing your critical friend's work.
TASK #8: Once you have completed your DRAFT essay (after receiving feedback from the outline), once again share your work with your critical friend for peer review.
peer_review_form.docx | |
File Size: | 16 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Part Seven~Your Literary Essay
Below is a guide to writing a literary essay.
Rubrics for Peer Review & Essay Writing
peer_review_rubric.docx | |
File Size: | 16 kb |
File Type: | docx |