Essay Structure Review English 60: Fall 2015

Basic Essay Structure a. Hook b. Context or Background c. Thesis a. Topic Claim b. Support (aka details, evidence) c. Analysis (aka justification, explanation) d. Concluding sentence a. Wrap up (aka summary) b. Reach Out Intro ¶ Body ¶ Body ¶ Body ¶ Concluding ¶

Introductions a. Hook: Get your reader’s attention; make them curious; intrigue them. How you ask? Describe a scene using vivid sensory details, quote a startling fact, ask a question that your essay will answer, narrate a compelling personal story, use a song lyric, proverb, or poem. Your hook must be closely related to your topic. It is also fun to match your hook with your “reach out.” b. Context: Move your readers smoothly from your hook to your argument. How? Explain what inspired you to write this essay, give a history of your topic, define the concepts about which you will be arguing, summarize the issue… c. Thesis: Your argument; the topic and purpose of your essay; your opinion, and the reasons you hold it. A thesis is always an arguable opinion (never a fact). It is usually one sentence (but not always). It is a short, concise answer to the prompt question It is not a question (it is the answer to a question) Intro ¶

Body Paragraphs a. Topic Claim: Your main point; the topic and purpose of the paragraph. Claims should be arguable opinions (not facts or quotes). Claims should directly support your thesis. Claims keep you on track and guide your reader as well. b. Support: Facts that help to develop your claim. Support is made up of descriptions of your own observations and experience, and quotes, paraphrases, summaries from sources. **Be careful not to restate your claim in a bunch of different ways and call it support. c. Analysis: It isn’t enough to throw out a string of facts. You need to explain to your readers how those facts support your claim. Break the facts down into pieces and discuss the significance of each piece. Or state how the evidence relates to your claim (This is an example of…This is a definition of… This is an analogy for… This shows the process of…). d. Concluding sentence: Wrap up your point; no new facts here; you may transition here or in the topic claim of the next paragraph (just don’t transition in both). Body ¶s

Concluding Paragraph a. Wrap up (aka summary): You may have once learned to restate your thesis here. That is fine for beginners, but we want to grow beyond that! You just wrote an entire essay about your topic—remind your reader of what was so important, or re-see your topic from a new perspective, or reminisce on the major things you just learned. Do you feel or think any differently after writing this paper? b. Reach Out: Your reader just spent part of their limited life reading your essay—why? Why should they care? How is this related to their life? How will this information benefit them? You can give them a warning, or make a prediction about our world, or ask them to do something (a call to action), or leave them with something to think about… **the best endings somehow tie back to the hook. Play around with beginnings and endings and see what you can do. Concluding ¶

Other Essay Tips There is no set number of sentences in a paragraph. How many sentences does it take you to fully explain your point? That’s how many you need. The average is 5-10 sentences. There is no set number of paragraphs in an essay. The standard formula is 5: intro, conclusion, and 3 bodies. This is a great starting point and often, teachers ask questions that suit this formula. Examples: What are three non-human primates? (You describe each in its own paragraph). What caused the civil war? What were the major battles? And why do you think the North succeeded? (Each question gets its own paragraph). But once you master the 5 paragraph essay, you can add more paragraphs, as well as mess with the structure. (You know the saying, once you know the rules, you can break them? If you demonstrate to me that you know them, I will let you—and help you!—break them). When you are ready to take (responsible) risks with your essays, let me know! Writing is a process and we will treat it as such in this class. Good writing does not magically flow from your fingertips. It first comes out like sludge, and then you refine, and refine, and refine until it is smooth and clear. If your essays appear to you upon first draft as if inspired by a muse, then just think what you could do if you revised. You could be the most inspiring writer the world has ever known! You could definitely get an A in this class ;-)