HOW TO WRITE A SUCSESSFUL essay



How to Write EssaysA compilation of efforts from Ms. Tave’s 2018-2019 studentscenter1075100Purpose of this Booklet:This booklet is meant to teach the difference between argumentative and informative essays. It is also meant to show how to unpack a prompt, properly use transitions, how to place evidence and elaboration in an essay, and how to frame an essay to make ideas clear. This Packet Includes Tips On:Unpacking the Prompt 2. Planning Your Essay3. Parts of a Paragraph4. Writing an Introduction5. Time Management6. Informative Writing7. Argumentative Writing8. Framing9. Transitions10. Transition Words11. Elaboration12. Citing Evidence13. Writing a ConclusionUnpacking The Prompt: How to unpack a prompt?3905254762500What helps and what needs to be done:Sometimes prompts can lead to a possible thesis statement. Figuring out what you are going to talk about (takes about a minute). Understand the following:The Purpose: The type of essay you are writing. It may be opinion, explanatory, or informative.The Writing Task: What you are writing about. The task could have more than one part. (they should be addressed in your essay).Breaking the prompt into chunks:The is often a general statement about the passage’s main topic.Words or phrases signal the writing mode in the writing task statement.Key words: argue, argumentative, take position, informational, explain. It is imperative that you consider the writing expectation to develop your controlling idea.PlanningWhat is planning?Strategies used to help you plan your writing.Used to manage your timeImprove the quality of your writing.How do you plan?You can use a variety of ways to planBullet pointsChartGraphic organizerSequence of eventsCause to effectWhy should you plan?It helps promote the quality of your writing.Helps you manage your time wiselyHelps you find more supportive evidenceHelps you write more logically and enhances your elaboration. center31300This is a great example of a good planning for an essay. Each of the burger parts is a good example of what you need to do when writing an essay. This will help you get a 4 on the FSA and help you meet and exceed the standard.180954345101500The Introduction:Must hook the reader with one of the following:Thought provoking question (NOT, Did you know? Have you ever? Or Yes/No questions)Interesting FactQuoteExampleAnecdoteDetails/ImageryShould include some background informationMust state the Source of the informationEither Source 1, Source 2, etc.Title and author of each textMust state the thesis (informative) or claim (argumentative)Should not use the first-person or second-person pronouns (you, your). 3590925000Essay Time Management Identify the prompt and know what it is asking you to do. Know what type of essay you will be writing and what the main focus is. Plan ahead and stay on task, keeping the main idea in your mind at all times.Save time to revise, edit, and read over your essay (proof-reading).Annotate the text so it is easy for you to come back and clearly find key points to support you essay.Leave space in case there is something you would like to add to your writing when proof-reading.Manage the amount of time you want to take to complete each paragraph and your planning.Only make a plan and a final draft (no rough draft)Don’t waste time by overthinking or procrastinating The counterclaim and conclusion are essential to a passing score, so finish those if you have little time left. Obviously, if you can, after you complete those, then go back to your body paragraphs. Always make sure to write a conclusion!INFORMATIVE WRITINGInformative writing aims to teach the reader about a certain topic. This form of writing gives facts instead of persuading the reader with beliefs and opinions. Informational writing is a form of nonfiction writing that displays factual information, many examples of this writing can be found in newspapers and reference books.TIPS:NO OPINIONS!When writing an informative essay, you should not include your opinion only facts! Although when you write an argumentative essay you include your opinion.STRUCTURE!When writing an informative essay, you should also have an introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This is important because it allows you to include all information you need in your essay in a neat and organized way.PLANNING!Before writing your essay, it is very vital that you plan. Some great ways to plan is to use a web diagram, or a graphic organizer. This will ensure that all the key details that relate to the prompt will be included in you drafted essay.ELABORATION!Elaboration is key to a descriptive and detailed essay. Without elaboration you cannot get anything higher than a one or two on evidence and elaboration. With much elaboration the reader will get a clear view to what your trying to say. If you only cite evidence, you may leave the reader puzzled. TRANSITIONS!Using transitions will allow the essay to flow nicely.Argumentative WritingAn argumentative essay is an essay the persuades the reader on the authors point of view.Argumentative essays give evidence to support a claim and doesn’t have a tone.In a strong argumentative essay, the statement is backed up with reasons, facts, and examples.An argumentative essay needs a counterclaim, evidence, and supporting points.The basic structure of an argumentative essay is introduction, thesis, supporting points, counter claim, and conclusion.Strong arguments begin with an interesting statement about the subject, gives relevant facts and details as support, are clearly and logically organized, and makes since to the reader.Step 1: Starting Your Essay-When reading a prompt, you need to pick a side to support. This is what you are going to write your essay about. You need to make sure you strongly express your opinion and give facts and evidence towards why you support this idea/topic. Step 2: While Writing-When you are writing your essay make sure you do the following stepsMake a strong claim in your introduction (don’t forget a hook)Maintain your opinion clearly throughout essayInclude evidence and elaboration throughout essay as to why your idea is betterMake sure you include a counter-claim acknowledging their claim while explaining why it is wrongInclude a conclusion to sum up your ideas in your essayStep 3: Counter-Claim Paragraph-MUST address the opposing argument and say why that argument is wrongDo not use evidence in the counter-claim paragraphYou should only refute the opposing ideaSample counter claim sentence starters include:While some may think…It is incorrect because…Some may argue… but…One may reason…however…It is possible to believe…butWhile it is true that…however…Critics may claim…but…Step 4: Editing and revising-Always remember to go back and read your essay to look for mistakesMake sure words are not repeated and grammar is correctMake sure your essay is easy to read with neat hand writingBe sure to have good transitions throughout the essayFramingFraming is a strategy in which you conclude using the same/similar hooking strategy that you placed in the introduction.If you used an interesting fact to open, that same fact should be used in the conclusion.If you used descriptive words to open, then you’d mention them in the conclusion.Capture your reader’s attention.Try to make a good first impression.Make your readers want to keep reading.209486537909500-207818907210Transitions lead readers from one idea to the next. They normally connect pieces of evidence to strong elaboration. Transitions are used within a sentence, across sentences, and across paragraphs.There are multiple different types of transitions including comparisons, contrasts, causes and effects, order of importance, location,?and?time order.In the text-based writing essay rubric it states, “Skillful use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas.” In order to get a 4 on Purpose Focus and Organization you must be able to skillfully uses transitions. The goal is to use transitional sentences to connect your ideas together.00Transitions lead readers from one idea to the next. They normally connect pieces of evidence to strong elaboration. Transitions are used within a sentence, across sentences, and across paragraphs.There are multiple different types of transitions including comparisons, contrasts, causes and effects, order of importance, location,?and?time order.In the text-based writing essay rubric it states, “Skillful use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas.” In order to get a 4 on Purpose Focus and Organization you must be able to skillfully uses transitions. The goal is to use transitional sentences to connect your ideas together.Transitions TRANSITIONS Transitions are words and phrases that provide connections between ideas, sentences, and paragraphs. Transitions help to make a piece of writing flow better. They can turn disconnected pieces of ideas into a unified whole and prevent a reader from getting lost in the story line. Transitions they help your readers get from one place to another as they read.Transitions guide your readers through your ideas and keep them from keeping confused.There are many different situations in which a transition is needed. They help the text to “flow”.Some transitions are helpful contrasting ideas showing differences between themOther transitions can be used to show cause and effect relationships, describe order of importance, or indicate spatial relationshipsELABORATION Elaboration is explaining how evidence provides/supports your claim.Writers use elaboration to provide support details or to expand upon an idea. It helps to clarify ideas, intensify a scene or provide vivid details. Some ways you can elaborate are anecdotes, examples, definitions, facts, statistics, quotations, dialogue, and descriptive details. Elaboration uses specific words, phrases, and clauses. You can extend on your evidence by adding relative information like opinions from others, instances, or facts. Elaboration is explaining your evidence. DO NOT... -be repetitive of your evidence -use the same techniques to elaborate DO... -extend upon evidence by implying its connection to your reason or fact -use a variety of elaborative techniques (as said before, you can use anecdotes, statistics, and etc.)The goal is to make it more detailed and interesting by telling your reader more. Develop and support your idea by your elaboration. Now, go and spice up your writing!ElaborationThe process of developing or presenting a theory, policy, or system in further detail.Elaboration means simply "adding details." We elaborate on thoughts and ideas every day. For example, suppose a friend says, "I'm leaving school early today." How might you respond?Why is elaboration needed?Writers use elaboration to provide supporting details or to expand upon an idea. For example, say you receive an invitation that states, "You're invited to Lupe's birthday party." What details would you wonder about? You'd probably like to know when and where the party will take place. The writer of the invitation needs to elaborate. Important details are missing. When to elaborate…In the first draft of a writing assignment, it's helpful to focus on getting out your main ideas. Then, as you read through your first draft, try to figure out where more details are needed. The revising step of the writing process is a good time to add supporting, specific, and sensory details. These details will strengthen your writing and make it more engaging for readers. Elaboration is an important feature in all forms of writing.156210010731500Citing EvidenceThe Basics:Quotations should be taken word by word from the textGather the information from the text needed to provide quality evidenceYour evidence can either be opinion from a person or fact from the text Citing:Recognize key points throughout the text-As you read, notice key details and points that contribute to the essayAs you read make notes-When making notes you are already helping yourself analyze the textIdentify how the author uses evidence-Authors may also use evidence in their writingAsk yourself what evidence you need-How much? What type; positive or negative?Identify the best textual formula-Eliminate “fluff”, identify the strongest evidence in the textCiting Evidence????These are some tips to help you?become a?better writer?by citing evidence?better. First are some tips from our notes.??46313883945001. State where you got the evidence from. Talk about where you got it from, for example which line, paragraph, and which source.??3429001117602.Never use personal thought as evidence.??-25192268200003. Use quotes as evidence. Quotes have exact references to the source.??-341432112585004. Must?be strong and support your claim. No point in evidence if it does not support your claim.??-21072143972005. You?must?have two pieces of evidence per paragraph.??Next are some tips from?research. (Not ones we learned in class.)??-29094511248600Explain why your evidence is strong. Explain why it supports your idea well.??-143988175738Notice key details in the text. Some details just pop out and they could?be used for your essay.???-167293179895 3. Know where to look. When citing evidence knowing where your evidence might be is very helpful. It makes it very time efficient to do this.?Now you have mastered one standard of becoming an excellent writer.center27940000Writing a ConclusionFor a proper conclusion:-You need to restate your thesis / main premise -Summarize your main points of evidence for the reader-Include a reference to something from the introduction (framing).-Successfully wrap up your essay-Include transition words to start the conclusion paragraphExamples: To sum up,In summary,To conclude,In closing,Finally, it may be concluded…To summarize,All in all,Overall, it may be said…Taking everything into account,On the whole,All things considered,In sum,Everything considered,By and large,In the end,A good conclusion leaves the reader satisfied, knowing what they just read about. You did it! Now, you can successfully use these tips & tricks to help you write any kind of essay So, remember to:-include an introduction with your thesis, and background knowledge -include 2 to 3 body paragraphs that explain your topic or point of view-add transitions throughout -use proper grammar -edit and revise-finish with a strong conclusion using the framing technique2457450381000Parting Words:Thanks for reading our booklet. To keep this paragraph shorter, we will refer to the booklet as “The Book”. In case you forgot, The Book is supposed to help you improve your writing for the upcoming tests. If you have The Book, then you are probably one of the ones who needs some help with their writing. The Book hopefully helped you improve your writing skills. We went over subjects such as transitions, informative writing, argumentative writing, and other things that will help you in the tests. The Book was made by the different class periods of Ms. Tave’s English Class. To conclude, The Book is a multi-use pamphlet that should help you prepare you for the tests, reinforce already known knowledge, and help you succeed in all things English. Thanks, Ms. Tave’s Class 174307522923500 ................
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