1. Explaining a Concept
English 10
Essay 1

2. Create an outline that wilL organize your explanation
Introduction: Attempts to gain readers interest in the concept
Thesis: Identifies the concept in a sentence or two; may include a brief definition, an example, or another strategy to clarify the focus, and mya forecast topics that will be addressed later.
Summary: Explanation of your concept. Remember, you are explaining your concept to readers who have not read the text.
Incident 1: Choose a specific incident from your educational history to illustrate the impact of this concept on your motivation as a student.
Incident 2: Choose a specific incident from your educational history to illustrate the impact of this concept on your motivation as a student.
Conclusion: Bring me up to the present…

3. Draft your working thesis
An essay explaining a concept is made up of three basic parts:
An opening that will engage readers’ interest
A thesis statement, announcing the concept and its focus, and possibly forecasting the main topics
Information about the concept, organized by topic

4. Draft your working thesis
The thesis statement in a concept explanation announces the concept to be explained and identifies the writer’s focus on the concept.
It may also forecast the topics to be explored.
Example:
It is important to cut out all nonsense about romantic love, to focus on the scientific precision, in other words, to put love under the microscope. When scientist uncover love they do not see a silly, senseless thing; their findings reveal that love rests firmly on evolution, biology, and chemistry.

5. Writing the Introduction
English 10
Essay 1

6. Begin with a surprising or provocative quotation or aspect of the concept.
O.K., let’s cut out all this nonsense about romantic love. Let’s bring some scientific precision to the party. Let’s put love under a microscope.

7. Offer an anecdote or an example illustrating the concept.
Three men doing time in Israeli prisons recently appeared before a parole board consisting of a judge, a criminologist and a social worker. The three prisoners had completed at least two-thirds of their sentences, but the parole board granted freedom to only one of them. Guess which one:
Case 1 (heard at 8:50 a.m.): An Arab Israeli serving a 30-month sentence for fraud.
Case 2 (heard at 3:10 p.m.): A Jewish Israeli serving a 16-month sentence for assault.
Case 3 (heard at 4: 25 p.m.): An Arab Israeli serving a 30-month sentence for fraud.

8. Start with a concrete example.
A beautiful woman lowers her eyes demurely beneath a hat. In an earlier era, her gaze might have signaled a mysterious allure. But this is a 2003 advertisement for Zoloft, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) approved by the FDA to treat social anxiety disorder. “Is she just shy? Or is it Social Anxiety Disorder?” reads the caption, suggesting that the young woman is not alluring at all. She is sick. But is she?

9. Make a comparison or contrast
Possibly the most destructive natural disaster, short of a large asteroid impact, would be the eruption of a supervolcano. Supervolcanoes are volcanoes that produce eruptions thousands of times the size of ordinary volcanoes. Like hurricanes, volcanoes are measured using an exponential scale, called the Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI.

10. Writing a Summary
English 10
Essay 1

11. Why a summary?
The purpose of a summary is to give the reader, in about 1/3 of the original length of the source, a clear, objective picture of the original text.
Most importantly, the summary restates only the main points of a text.

12. Before Writing the Summary
Read, mark, and annotate
Make sure you fully understand the text
Highlight
Topic sentences
Key points/ key words/ phrases
Concluding sentences
Outline each paragraph in the margin

13. Writing your Summary… Steps:
Organize your notes, which should include main ideas and major supporting details

14. Writing your Summary… Steps:
2. Write an introductory sentence that includes a frame… Example: In his book The Pearl, John Steinbeck illustrates the fight between good and evil in humankind.

15. Reporting Verbs

16. Other examples of frames:

17. Writing your Summary… Steps:
3. The main idea or argument needs to be included in this first sentence. Then mention the major aspects/factors/reasons that are discussed.

18. Writing your Summary… Steps:
Throughout your summary remind your reader that you are summarizing by using “reminder phrases”

19. Write about the incident
English 10
Essay 1

20. Write about the Incident…
To do this you can either
Narrate (tell a story) Or
Illustrate (give an example)

21. Narrate To narrate is to tell a story that explains.
We tell stories to teach a lesson, illustrate an idea… what you narrate should have a clear point.

22. Outline your narrative
Divide your story into events:
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
Etc..

23. Narrative example:

24. Narrative All events occur in chronological order
Use specific details to make the narrative vivid
Use transitional expressions:

25. Illustration
To illustrate is to explain a general statement by one or more specific examples.
Illustration makes what we say more vivid and more exact.
An illustration paragraph will begin with a topic sentence and follow with supporting details.

26. Illustration example

27. Illustration Transition Words