Ms. Gobeille



Elements of Essay Writing

What does a good essay need?

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An academic essay should _________________________________________________________________.

You will be provided with a list of possible prompts. These are the questions you will answer through your essay.

Your essay should have a __________________________________ (answer to the question) and an argument.

Your thesis should be evident in your introduction, and should be continuously referenced throughout your essay.

Where is the thesis?

Napoleon Hill once wrote “The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail”. Green Eggs and Ham author Dr. Seuss must have taken this heart as he created the character of Sam I Am, who goes to great lengths to convince his friend to eat the strange food. Sam I am is a persuasive character because he never gives up on his goal and he does not leave his friend alone until it eventually pays off and he convinces his friend to try green eggs and ham. Sam I Am comes up with a variety of plans, whether it be enlisting a mouse in a house or a driving his car onto a train, and appointing a goat on a boat to accomplish his goal.

Your thesis indicates where you stand. But then you need to develop sound arguments to defend your point

Where are the arguments?

1.

2.

3.

Once you have developed arguments that defend your thesis, you must include textual evidence to prove your points. In the case of your essay you will use quotations from the novel.

Use PPC!

Let’s find examples of “point, proof, comment” in the following paragraph:

In the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White is presented as a typical female character through her beauty, kindness and naivety. First, in the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White is presented as a typical female character by being a beautiful girl. In particular, her beauty is shown when the evil queen’s mirror states that, “Snow White is the fairest of them all” (Brothers Grimm 2). This example proves that Snow White is ranked the most beautiful in all the kingdom, as the mirror sees all. The lead female character in most fairy tales is presented as pretty and attractive. Snow White is also a normal female character since she is a kind person in her story. She is presented as kind when she helps the dwarfs with their cooking and cleaning (Brothers Grimm 3). Snow White helps unselfishly, out of the goodness of her heart, and therefore proves her kind nature. Finally, Snow White’s actions show her naivety, another stereotypical fairytale female trait. For example, Snow White proves her naïve nature when she “slowly takes the apple from the old woman’s hand” (Brother Grimm 5). Without even thinking Snow White accepts an apple from a stranger, who turns out to be the evil queen, showing her overly trusting nature. Often in fairy tales, the women are portrayed as innocent and ignorant. In conclusion, throughout their fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Brothers Grimm portray Snow White as a stereotypical female character because she is a lovely, helpful and trusting character, shown through her actions and others’ reactions to her.

|What are transitions and how are they used? |

|transitions are phrases or words used to connect one idea to the next |

|transitions also show the relationship within a paragraph (or within a sentence) between the main idea and the support the author gives |

|for those ideas |

|different transitions do different things.... |

|Transition Word Examples |

|Agreement / Addition / |in the first place, not only ... but also, as a matter of fact, in like manner, in addition, coupled with |

|Similarity |in the same fashion / way |

| |first, second, third, in the light of, not to mention, to say nothing of, equally important, by the same, |

| |token, again, to, and, also, then, equally, identically, uniquely, like, as, too, moreover, as well as, |

| |together with, of course, likewise, comparatively, correspondingly, similarly, furthermore, additionally |

|Opposition / Limitation / |although this may be true, in contrast, different from, of course ..., but, on the other hand, on the contrary,|

|Contradiction |at the same time, in spite of, even so / though, be that as it may, then again, above all, in reality, after |

| |all, but, still, unlike, or, yet, while, albeit, besides, as much as, even though, although, instead, whereas, |

| |despite, conversely, otherwise, however, rather, nevertheless, nonetheless, regardless, notwithstanding |

|Cause / Condition / |in the event that, granted (that), as / so long as, on (the) condition (that), for the purpose of, with this |

|Purpose |intention, with this in mind, in the hope that, to the end that, for fear that, in order to, seeing / being |

| |that, in view of, while, because of, since, given that, even if |

|Examples / Support / |in other words, to put it differently, for one thing, as an illustration, in this case, for this reason, to put|

|Emphasis |it another way, that is to say, with attention to, by all means, another key point, most compelling evidence, |

| |on the positive side, on the negative side, with this in mind, notably, including, to be sure, namely, truly, |

| |certainly, surely, such as, especially, explicitly, specifically, expressly, surprisingly, frequently, |

| |significantly, particularly, in fact, in general, in particular, in detail, for example, for instance, to |

| |demonstrate, to emphasize, to repeat, to clarify, to explain, to enumerate |

|Effect / Consequence / | as a result, in that case, for this reason, in effect, thus, because, hence, consequently,therefore, |

|Result |accordingly, henceforth |

|Conclusion / Summary / |as can be seen, in the final analysis, all things considered, as shown above, in the long run, given these |

|Restatement |points, as has been note, for the most part, after all, in fact, in summary, in conclusion, in short, in brief,|

| |in essence, to summarize, altogether, overall, to sum up, in either case, all in all, Obviously, Ultimately, |

| |Definitely |

|Time / Chronology / |at the present time, sooner or later |

|Sequence |at the same time, in due time, as soon as, in the meantime, in the first place, all of a sudden, first, second,|

| |immediately, finally, after, last, formerly, shortly, eventually, meanwhile, during, in time, prior to, by the |

| |time, until now, instantly, presently, occasionally |

Transition Words

Developing a Thesis Statement

What is a thesis statement?

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- It is a statement not a question.

- It can be refuted.

- Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.

- Just by reading your thesis, the reader understands the main idea of your essay

- Is focused and specific enough to be "proven" within the boundaries of your paper.

DON'T: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

DO: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A thesis is found in the introduction paragraph, usually near the end.

Developing a thesis statement:

Step One: Generate a topic from an assignment

Step Two: Create a working thesis from the topic.

Step Three: Eventually, you will add evidence to support your thesis.

Integrating Quotations Seamlessly

How do you choose the right quotation?

A good quotation:

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Your essay should flow together naturally, so that your reader doesn’t even realize that you are trying to support an argument – your reader just agrees with you at the end of the essay.

To achieve this fluidity, you have to integrate the quotes into your own sentences.

There are three ways to do this.

Tag Lines:

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Good Example: According to Scout, “Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty” (Lee 89).

Colons:

Bad Example: Bob Ewell is clearly an unpleasant character. “[He] stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life” (Lee 217).

Good Example: Bob Ewell is clearly an unpleasant character, as his rude behaviour demonstrates: “[He] stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life” (Lee 217).

Frame with your own words:

Good Example: Scout was often annoyed with Jem because “his maddening superiority was unbearable” (Lee 138) some days.

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