Chapter 10

Last week we talked about making the switch from writing paragraphs to essays. We talked about how an essay is made up of the same kinds of sentences (topic sentence=thesis statement, supporting sentences=supporting body paragraphs, concluding sentence=conclusion paragraph), only instead of giving just one sentence, we give a whole paragraph. For example: instead of just giving one topic sentence to introduce the idea of the paragraph, we give a whole introduction paragraph to tell the reader the idea with a thesis statement to tell exactly what the paragraph is about.

Now that we have covered how the information is very similar between just one paragraph and one essay (we just give MORE information in an essay), we will move on to talking about writing an opinion essay. In our everyday lives, we give our opinions or thoughts on different topics to our friends and family. Maybe we say how much we like a certain food, how we really like certain clothes, why we want to travel to certain countries, why we don’t like something or someone, etc.

In college classes, students are asked to say their opinions formally through an essay. Professors want students to say their opinions or thoughts and even disagree with them as long as students can support or explain their thoughts. In an opinion essay, you: -write your opinion in the thesis statement (last sentence of the introduction paragraph) -support or prove your thoughts with reasons -support or prove your reasons with specific details or examples

Please share some of your opinions. We will work together to create what an essay would look like. Some things to remember when writing an essay: -each paragraph should have at least three sentences -each reason should have at least one example or specific detail -each paragraph should follow the same formatting rules as when you only write one paragraph (indent the first line, double space, margins).

Write a rough draft of an opinion essay. This essay should have at least THREE paragraphs and be one page long. You MUST bring TWO copies of the rough draft.