Essay Writing

1. Essay Writing How to make your case

2. A Good Essay… • Gives the reader something to think about. • Provides a single statement (thesis) that begins a one-sided argument. • Proves that the presented thesis is valid through a series of examples and observations supported by fact. (quotes) • Leaves little to no doubt.

3. The Difference between an essay and a report • A report is meant to simply inform the reader about a specific subject. • “Death of a Salesman is the story of a New York family in the 1950s.” • An essay creates an argument that demonstrates the informed opinion of the author. • “To Kill a Mockingbird shows how racial prejudice is the result of mob mentality, not individual opinion.”

4. Writing a good thesis • A thesis is the heart of your argument. It is the point you are trying to make. A thesis consists of two parts: • The overall argument: PROPOSITION • The details or reasons that make the proposition valid: ISSUES

5. Good Proposition vs. Bad Proposition Make an argument; don’t just state a fact. “To Kill a Mockingbird is a story that takes place during a time of racial oppression.” -This is undisputed. Nobody could argue this point. “The most important life lesson that To Kill a Mockingbird teaches us is that prejudice is not inborn, but learned.”

6. Issues: A matter of Opinion Proposition: Women are superior to Men Issues: - Women are physically stronger - Women are emotionally more stable -Women are more intelligent -Women are socially more adaptable OPINION + EVIDENCE = VALID OPNION –EVDIENCE= INVALID

7. Evidence: Will your argument hold up in court? Evidence can take many forms… Examples: An incident that demonstrates the issues. Quotations: Actual lines from the source Appeals to Authority: An expert opinion Statistics and Illustrations: Actual data that proves your issue

8. Prewriting: before you begin Clarify all the steps of your argument before you begin Proposition Issue #1Issue #2Issue #3Issue #4 Evidence (a) Evidence (a) Evidence (a) Evidence (a) Evidence (b) Evidence (b) Evidence (b) Evidence (b) Evidence (c) Evidence (c) Evidence (c) Evidence (c) Evidence (d) Evidence (d) Evidence (d) Evidence (d)

9. The Thesis Paragraph Step 1: Begin with a sentence which catches the reader’s interest. This should not be the proposition. Sometimes what seems new and inventive has really just borrowed from a classic.

10. The Thesis Paragraph Step 2: In a literary essay, it is necessary to state the title of the author and the work being discussed Example: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Or Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

11. The Thesis Paragraph Step 3: State the proposition in a single sentence. Example: The film Fight Club contains many elements borrowed from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Do not explain the preposition at this point!

12. The Thesis Paragraph Step 4: State each issue in a separate sentence for each. -The lead character of fight club is forced to live in different sates of reality to cope with life, just like Willy Loman. -Fight Club, like Death of a Salesman, deals with the fake desires of modern society. -Fight Club examines the qualities of being a man, a theme quite prevalent in Death of a Salesman.

13. The Thesis Paragraph Step 5: Conclude the paragraph by restating the proposition. Fight Club has based much of its message on the themes raised first by Death of A Salesman

14. Paragraphs: The body of the essay Paragraphs of the essay must follow a pattern to maintain unity. Unity means that there is one idea per paragraph. One issue =one paragraph

15. Paragraphs: the body of the essay Long essays (2500-5000 words) – the issues will be stated in the thesis paragraph and which also subdivides the issue into several component parts. Each component will then have one paragraph explaining it. Then a concluding paragraph will summarize all the component parts of the issue before the author moves on to the next issue. Thesis = Christmas Dinner Issues = All the different dishes on the table (turkey, stuffing, gravy etc.) Component of the issue: the recipe of each dish

16. Paragraphs: the body of the essay Long Essay: Issue – stated in the Thesis Paragraph Components of the issue – Also stated in the Thesis Paragraph. Each component has a paragraph to explain it. Concluding paragraph – Each Issue has a paragraph summarizing all components of the issue. There is also a concluding paragraph summarizing all of the issues at the end of the essay.

17. Paragraphs: the body of the essay Short Essays (500 words) Don’t worry about components of the issue (the recipe) Just focus on the issues themselves (the dishes) One issue = One paragraph One concluding paragraph summarizing all the issues and the proposition.

18. Each paragraph… Step 1: Start with a transition. State the issue in a single sentence. Issue #1: The lead character of fight club is forced to live in different sates of reality to cope with the hardships of his life, just like Willy Loman.

19. Each paragraph… Step 2: Explain the issue as necessary. (This step will not always be necessary) Tyler creates an alternate personality; Willy lives in the past.

20. Each Paragraph… Step three: Provide evidence to support the issue. Either an ‘example’ or a ‘quotation’. Tyler converses with his alternate personality in a hotel room in an attempt to understand the turn his life has taken.

21. Each Paragraph… Step 4: Explain how the evidence supports the issue. Unhappy with his job and his obsession with material things, Tyler created his alternate self as the embodiment of who he wanted to be. The lead character of fight club is forced to live in different sates of reality to cope with like, just like Willy Loman.

22. Each paragraph… Step 5: Repeat steps three and four for each piece of evidence. Willy Loman turns to the memory of his dead brother for advice about whether he would be more of a service to his family by killing himself, “Does it take more guts to stand here the rest of my life ringing up zero?”(Miller, 126).

23. Each paragraph… Step 6: Sum up the issue and refer to the proposition. Tyler uses a modern version of Willy’s coping mechanism , showing the parallel between these works.

24. Citing your work • Avoid plagiarism – you must cite all quotations, summaries and paraphrases that are not common knowledge. • “Quotation marks are used around short, direct quotes from an outside source.” • Quotes 4 lines and longer must be separate from the body and indented 10 spaces from the left.

26. Quotations within quotations • Use a single quotation mark to enclose a quote within a quote. According to Paul Eliott, Inuit hunters “chant an ancient magic song to the seal they are after: ‘Beast of the sea! Come and place yourself before me in the early morning!’”

27. Inserting Quotes • Avoid ‘dropping’ quotes. Nature has an important role in Macbeth. “A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place was by a mousing owl haw’k at and kill’d” (Shakespeare 2.4.14-15).

28. Inserting Quotes • Quotes should be set up by the sentence. Act 1 Scene 6 describes an air that “nimbly and sweetly recommend itself unto our gentle senses” (Shakespeare 1.6.3-4)

29. Inserting Quotations • Multiple sources End each quote with author and page number in (parentheses) Example …Boo Radley” (Lee 78). Followed by the punctuation

30. Inserting Quotations • Single Source Only the page number is needed. …Boo Radley” (78). *For multi-source essay you can get away with just the page number if you have already identified where the quote comes from.

31. Works Cited page Book: Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Penguin, 1967. Author. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, year.