MELANIE STRICKLAND
ESSAY WRITING
Writing is hard. Writing well is difficult work; it is time consuming, demanding, and sometimes even painful. Whether you are attempting your first literary essay or completing work on your graduate degree or composing a poem for yourself writing requires determination, practice, planning, time for careful thought, reflection, and revision, and the willingness to completely change your mind and start again, this time contradicting everything you previously wrote. Perhaps there exists people who are able to sit down and write a well written essay, paper, or poem in one sitting, but they are rare if not entirely imaginary. Writing is challenging because it requires the writer to clarify their thoughts and ideas and present them to an audience in logical, convincing, and compelling way. This is not an easy feat, but it is an ultimately rewarding undertaking.
Academic and essay writing is an essential skill to develop, and hopefully master, in any student’s high school career. This course will be continuously working to develop and enrich student writing, both academic and creative. A major part of this will be the writing portfolio each student will develop with their sparks and choice of essential question. There will be ample practice time, feedback, and opportunities to collaborate with peers to foster students ability and confidence. Check here often for helpful tips, links, ideas, and general feedback to help with your writing.
GETTING STARTED
There are a vast array of theories, approaches, and methods that writers utilize to help get them started with their writing. Not every method will work for every student. Keep an open mind and be willing to try a few different styles, you may find that the approach that you are most resistant to trying may be the very thing that works best for you.
BEFORE YOU START
1. KNOW YOUR TEXT
The most important starting point for any English or literary essay will always be:
KNOW YOUR TEXT.
Read the text, reread the text, take notes, ask questions, familiarize yourself with the work. Only after this will you be able to start to think critically about the text and formulate questions and ideas that will become the basis of your essay.
2. KNOW THE QUESTION
Take time to read the question carefully and think about what is being asked.
Most writing assignments will start with an essay prompt from the teacher. Take the time to read the prompt or prompts before diving into writing the essay. Does the topic interest you? Is this something you had considered either in your personal reading of the text or in a class discussion or is it something entirely new?
Do you understand what the prompt is asking? This is an important consideration as many students rush in to start their essays without ever thinking about what the assignment is asking. What does the teacher mean when they ask a student to examine, discuss, analyze, compare, or explain? The questions you are attempting to answer should help and guide the development of your thesis and the writing of your essay. The teacher shouldn’t have to ask what question you are answering with your essay, ensure that your understand the question before attempting to answer it.
Understanding Essay Questions
What does the teacher mean when they ask a student to analyze a poem, compare two short stories, or discuss a novel or play?
Here is a short list of some sample essay questions or prompts and some clarification to what they mean and what they are asking you to do:
Analyze/examine/investigate:
Identify and consider the important features, details, and ideas in the text. Explain their significance and any relationships
Comment/interpret:
Explain or give your interpretation of a statement, quotation, idea, or text
Compare:
Identify and discuss any connections, parallels, or relationships between different ideas, characters, or texts, examining both similarities and differences
Contrast:
Similar to compare but focusing on the differences between the two subjects/texts
Demonstrate/illustrate:
Explain clearly using concrete examples from the text
Discuss:
Examine an idea, quotation, or text or present an argument from multiple perspectives (for and against) utilizing supporting evidence from the text
Agree or disagree:
Examine an idea, quotation, or text or present an argument for or against utilizing supporting evidence from the text
Justify/refute:
Support or oppose and argument with supporting evidence form the text
Significance:
Discuss and demonstrate the importance of the idea, character, or quote in relation to the work as a whole.
3. BRAINSTORM AND CLARIFY YOUR THOUGHTS
Brainstorm and clarify your thoughts. There are many techniques writers use to help them to clarify their thoughts and develop an essay topic and thesis. Some writers find that a few minutes of quiet thinking is enough to get them started while others need more to inspire them.
Free writing: Take five to ten minutes to write freely about the subject or topic of your essay. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or even if it makes sense. The idea is to brainstorm and let yourself think freely about the text, even if it is to complain about the text or the assignment. Just get something on paper. Often just getting something written down on paper allows the writer to unlock or unblock their creativity and inspiration enabling them to focus on developing their ideas into a thesis and paper that addresses the prompt given by the teacher.
Concept Mapping and Visual/Graphic Organizers:
Some writers find that visual organizers allow them to clarify their ideas and thoughts and focus on developing their ideas into a thesis and paper that addresses the prompt given by the teacher. There is a huge variety of organizers available, or you may find that one that you develop on your own works best for you. These are especially helpful when the topic seems overwhelming or is too broad, helping the writer narrow their focus and produce a topic and thesis that is achievable.
The Elevator or Escalator Pitch brainstorm or the “Three Minute Thesis”
“An elevator pitch is a short, concise encapsulation of an idea.
But so compelling that it ignites action.”
Terry O’Reilly
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/elevator-pitches-an-encore-presentation-1.2801770
The term “elevator” or “escalator” pitch is a marketing term describing a sales pitch or speech delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator or escalator. Imagine you found yourself in an elevator with Elon Musk, the Prime Minister, or anyone else you admire that could help you achieve your life’s goals and ambitions. Could you speak to them in a manner that is succinct, engaging, and sums up your main ideas before the ride is over? Could you do it in one sentence? You should be able to do this with the main ideas of your paper, this is your thesis. If you cannot succinctly state your idea, then your ideas, or thesis, are vague or unclear and you will need to develop and clarify them further.
The Three Minute Thesis competition is an annual contest held in universities across the globe where PhD students present their research in just 180 seconds. In order to win their ideas must be clear, concise, and engaging. This is a good exercise to help clarify your ideas to develop a thesis, could you explain to your teacher, parent, or friend what your essay is about in one sentence, a sentence that interests them enough to ask further questions but gives them enough information so that they are not confused. Discuss what was clear and what wasn’t. Ask them how you could have made it clearer or more focused. Getting someone else’s take on your ideas and taking the time to explain it to them often helps to focus and refine your ideas.
Here are some examples of a Three Minute Thesis to illustrate concentrating an idea to get your point across:
THINGS TO REMEMBER BEFORE YOU START WRITING
AUDIENCE
With any and every writing task, academic or otherwise, the question of audience is essential. You, as the author, must know what genre, what style, what format, and for what purpose you are writing. When writing a literary essay or paper there are a few key points about your audience, your English teacher, that you need to keep in mind.
Teachers believe that literature is important, complicated, and how it is written is just as important as what is written. Form and content must be considered together. Explore the subtlety in the text, not just the obvious.
Your teacher has read the text. In all but a small minority of situations the teacher is very familiar with the text you are examining in your paper; there is no need to summarize or restate the plot. What the audience is interested in is your ideas and analysis and how you present and support them. There are so many more ideas to be considered regarding a text than simply plot and a list of characters. If you have not done a close reading of the text your teacher will know, simply restating the plot will not fool us.
THE "RIGHT" INTERPRETATION
You don’t need to worry about the “right” interpretationof a text. There can be a variety of contrasting interpretations of a text, again the teacher is interested in your ideas and analysis. As long as your interpretation and analysis uses evidence from the text, your analysis explains how that evidence from the text supports your claims and your thesis, and is all of this is presented in a compelling and persuasive
WHAT IS A THESIS? CLAIM? EVIDENCE? OR ANALYSIS?
One of the most effective ways of conceptualizing an essay is to think of it as a court case. In a court of law, it is your job as a lawyer to present a case that convinces a jury of the guilt or innocence of the accused. You must present your claim (the defendant is guilty of this crime), state your evidence (there is fingerprints on the weapon), and finally, and most importantly, provide analysis of the evidence to demonstrate how it supports your claim (the fingerprints on the weapon prove that the defendant committed the crime. The combination of the blood evidence on the knife in combination with the defendant’s fingerprints clearly demonstrate that the defendant was in the vicinity to both the victim and the weapon, they had access to the weapon, they had contact with the weapon and the victim near the time of the crime thus the must be the perpetrator of the crime). The evidence does not speak for itself, you must provide the explanation of the evidence and how the evidence supports your claim. This is analysis. This is what the teacher is looking for and what is required for a well written essay.
THE PARTS OF AN ESSAY
“TELL THEM WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO SAY, SAY IT, TELL THEM WHAT YOU SAID.”
Essays are usually comprised of three main component pieces: the introduction, the supporting paragraphs, and the conclusion.
Introduction – or “Tell them what you’re going to say”
The introduction is a paragraph that does just that, it introduces the reader to the ideas that you will be presenting in your paper. Ensure that it provides some context for the reader, let them know what you will be discussing in the essay and what you hope to prove, your thesis. Think of this as the opening statement in a court case, you are introducing what you will be examining and providing context for your reader (the judge and jury), your main claim (thesis), and your evidence (quotations and evidence form the text). The introduction, like an opening statement, provides a roadmap for your essay or your case. Tell them what the case (essay) is about, what the verdict (thesis) should be, and the evidence you plan to use to lead to the desired verdict.
Many writers find it helpful to write or rewrite the introduction after completing the main body of the essay to ensure they are providing a map to the actual essay, not the one they had planned to write.
2.Supporting Paragraphs - “Say it”
These paragraphs are the evidence and the analysis needed to support your thesis. They need to be as focused and well thought out as your thesis, the cannot be just a list of evidence. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence, a mini-thesis, that provides structure for the evidence and analysis contained in the paragraph.
The sentences in each supporting paragraph develop the idea of the topic sentence and thus your thesis. They should provide a clear and logical sequence of evidence from the text and thoughtful analysis leading to a conclusion, which is the topic sentence and the main thesis of the essay.
Concentrate on providing analysis of the evidence. Returning to our court case analogy, you must provide more than just the bloody knife, you must explain why the bloody knife proves guilt.
3. The Conclusion – “Tell them what you said.”
The conclusion should be, at least in theory, the easiest part of the essay to write. It is the logical conclusion to your argument. In the conclusion you restate your thesis and your evidence, recapping your analysis for the reader. Like in the courtroom, your conclusion is the closing argument where you restate your evidence and claim of guilty or innocent in hopes of swaying the jury.
The conclusion is also where you can discuss, albeit briefly, the broader implications of your thesis. The text has suggested an idea which you have substantiated in your essay, now take a moment to suggest why this would be important to the world, to society, or to an individual. In a courtroom, this is where you would again assert the defendant’s guilt or innocence and ask the jury to consider the broader and societal implications of a particular verdict. “I have proved the defendant’s guilt and you the jury must find the defendant guilty to ensure that he is unable to commit another crime like this in the future, or perhaps because a message must be sent that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.
Not every essay you will write will contain a message that will resonate throughout the ages, but if we agree (as most English Literature teachers do) that literature is important and has important messages for humanity, think and write about why this idea presented and developed through the text and your essay is important and has something significant to offer the world. It may not be the cure for cancer or world peace but it should have something of value to say about the human condition.
STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL ESSAY
Read and reread the text and the essay prompt. Know your text and what is expected of you.
2. Brainstorm and organize your ideas. If you are dealing only with the source text, make notes and focus your ideas to develop a thesis. If you are doing additional research, take time to refine your research questions. Know what you are researching and make a plan to find the materials you need.
3. Organize your time. Ensure that you will have enough time for all the stages of essay writing. Do not skip planning and editing because you run out of time.
4. Gather any materials or information you may need. This would be the time to ask for any clarification from the teacher. Take notes, brainstorm and discuss with your classmates, clarify the focus of your writing.
5. Write a thesis. Write a clear, concise, and engaging thesis statement to direct your writing. Construct a succinct sentence that describes your main claim and the evidence you will use to support that claim.
6. Create an outline. Do not worry about spelling or formatting too much, just get your ideas down on paper. You can address these problems in your writing and editing stages. Start with a basic plan, outlining your thesis, introductory paragraph, supporting evidence, and paragraphs. This is just a basic plan, you can and will flesh out your arguments further in the upcoming drafts.
7. Write a more comprehensive outline. Start expanding your argument and analysis, begin to add quotations from the text, and focus your thesis and supporting paragraphs.
8. Write a rough draft. Again, try not to focus on spelling or formatting, focus instead on developing the analysis of your evidence. Use quotations and evidence form the text, explain fully how this evidence supports your thesis.
9. Edit, edit, edit. Here is the time to concentrate on spelling, punctuation, formatting, and most importantly that you have crafted a compelling argument and successfully provided evidence for your argument. You may also wish to spend extra time revising your introduction and conclusion, which will be much easier now that you have developed your argument. Be ruthless, edit out anything that does not add to your writing such as extra descriptive words, and ideas that distract from your thesis. This is also a good time to get a new perspective, whether it be yours after a good night’s sleep or a friend’s opinion.
10. Proofread. Then proofread again. Polish and ensure that your paper fulfills all the formatting requirements for the assignment. Title page, works cited, page numbers, proper font, and your name all make it easier for the teacher to give you the mark you deserve.
THE BIG FIVE
MOST COMMON MISTAKES IN STUDENT ESSAYS - IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
"TOO BROAD"
If you attempt to write about something that cannot possibly be proved or even explained in an hour or five paragraphs you are making a lot of work for yourself and the reader. Pick a few specific points or ideas and explore them fully. For example: Talk about visual, dark, or melancholy imagery and what they do, not just imagery.
Examples:
In metaphors, Plath uses metaphors.
In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare uses figurative language, metaphor and imagery to portray life is difficult.
In Swifts, Hughes uses words, language, and imagery to convey that communing with nature will lead to world peace.
"NAME DROPPING"
It is not enough just to drop the name of a literary device or technique, you need to explain what it is, what it does, and why the poet might have chosen to use this instead of something else. Explain how this supports your claim and your thesis.
"NO CONTEXT"
Introduce the poem, what it is , what it attempts to do. Let the reader know what you are going to focus, or provide some context of what you are writing about. Do not write a summary, instead provide context for the the reader. It will also make it easier for you to write if you are focusing your ideas and what you intend to discuss in your writing.
"LAND THE PLANE" - OR SIMPLY GET TO THE POINT.
Teachers know when you are stretching your ideas to fulfill the word requirement. Adjectives need to be a friend to your writing not the enemy. Make sure they add to your evidence and argument not detract or confuse. Is there any point to adding the word very in your paper?
ex. A political speech - talking for a long time and never really saying anything or answering the question.
"ASSUMES FACTS NOT IN EVIDENCE"
Do not write about something as fact or already proven when you have not proven it. In a court of law this term is used for when an attorney attempts to bypass or skip proving something but proceeds to base their argument on that something that has not yet been proven, like attempting to prove someone stole a pie when the theft of the pie has not yet been established.
For example: writing about an author’s tone when you have not provided evidence that the tone exists. Present your evidence in a logical way.