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The Parts of an Essay Your Guide to Writing Strong Academic Essays
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Literary Analysis The goals for literary analysis Closely examine texts Interpret, understand texts’ meanings Appreciate the writer’s techniques Most importantly: How do the parts work together to make a whole?
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Your Audience Your audience is your teacher She has read the texts: NO SUMMARY Assume you know something about the texts that she doesn’t. Your goal is to explain YOUR ideas about the text.
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The Three Parts Introduction One paragraph, maybe more in longer papers Body Approximately 2 paragraphs per page This is not the five paragraph essay Conclusion One paragraph, maybe more in longer papers
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Introduction Establish common ground with the reader, but no overgeneralizations Should provide necessary background information or context. Should give a brief preview of the upcoming essay, a couple sentences Thesis statement is the last sentence of the first paragraph.
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The Thesis Statement must be one sentence is the most important sentence in the essay Must take a position with which a reasonable person might disagree Should be specific and bold and interpretive
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The Body Develops and supports the thesis statement By providing specific examples and evidence By interpreting and explaining the significance of said examples and evidence Ideas should proceed in a logical order and advance the argument step by step
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The Body Paragraph The typical body paragraph will have these elements: Topic sentence, and perhaps transition Context for a quotation Textual evidence Interpretation of the text Concluding thought, and perhaps transition
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Evidence is essential Paraphrases Writer briefly describes a passage of the story Good when content matters more than language Quotations Good for phrases and when the language itself is important Weave quotes into your own sentences Only use the most important part of the quote, not whole sentence Don’t overuse quotations
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The Conclusion Should not be a summary Provide closure for the reader Answer the question, “Why is the idea I’ve been discussing important? Significant?” Bring the ideas you’ve been discussing out of the literature and into the real world
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Conventions Third Person Present tense MLA Format: citations and heading Serious, academic tone; but not cluttered or inflated – keep the writing tight and focused Avoid rhetorical questions
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