Essay Writing

Table of Contents

1. What is an Essay?

2. The Process of Writing an Essay

3. “Five Principles of Good Essay Writing” by Robert S. DeFrance

4. Essay Organization

5. Textual Evidence

6. Revision and Annotation

7. References

What is an Essay?The modern essay is rooted in the European Renaissance (14th to 17th century)

What is an Essay?

French magistrate Michel de Montaigne retired to his Bordeaux estate in 1570 and began experimenting with a new type of prose

What is an Essay?

Impatient with formal philosophy, Montaigne used a more flexible, personal discourse

Essay is a French word for “attempts,” “trials,” or “experiments”

What is an Essay?

Today, college essays hypothesize, test, theorize, answer tough questions, try out ideas and positions, frequently write from a position of uncertainty, and, almost always, ARGUE and support a position

Exceptions include: summaries, reports, and reviews

“Thank You for Smoking”

A general principle about argument is put forth in the film “Thank you for Smoking,” where main character Nick Naylor (played by Aaron Eckhart) claims, “if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong.”

Some Great Essayists

William Hazlitt, Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Annie Dillard, Susan Sontag, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., David Sedaris, David Foster Wallace, and E.B. White

Didion

Baldwin

Four Steps to Writing

1.Pre-writing

2.Writing

3.Revising

4.Editing

The DeFrance Process (of Writing an Essay)1. As soon as you receive an essay prompt, jot down 2 to 4 sentences about how you think you might address it

2. Research your Topic and Related TopicsRefine and then develop your initial ideas

3. Write your introduction and thesis, and bring them to class for revision

4. Utilize the revision session to revise your argument and support

The Process

5. Write the Essay

6. Bring a rough draft of your Essay to class for revision

7. Utilizing what you learned from revision, think about how you can improve the readability of your essay:

Introduction/Hook

Clarity of Thesis

Overall Organization/Topic Sentences/Transitions

Coherence

The Process

8. If your paper seems almost finished, edit your essay for grammatical correctness, including appropriate word choice/diction, clarity of phrases and sentences, style and voice, accuracy of your analysis, quotes, and paraphrased ideas.

A. If your paper is not finished, repeat steps 6 & 7.B. If that does not work, start the process over with a different topic.

Five Principles of Good Essays

1. Address the Prompt

2. Research your topics before writing to help generate ideas

3. Introduce the work and concepts Thoroughly in the Introduction

4. Coherently Argue and Defend Your Position throughout the Essay

5. Perform Detailed Analysis on several academic sources in your Body Paragraphs

Elements of a Good Essay

A Good Essay

Textual Evidence

Textual Analysis

An Interesting Argument

Clear Organizatio

n

Grammatically Correct

Argue Correctly: Organization

Upside down Triangle: Introduction

Circles: Body Paragraphs

Right-side up Triangle: Conclusion

Introduction

1. HookCatch the audience’s attentionSee lecture on ‘Hooks’

2. Background InformationIntroduce the main issuesFacts, figures, trends, history, or statistics

Introduction3. Introduce Author and Summarize Text

Author’s Ethos

1. Degrees

2. School

3. Fields of Study

4. Major Publications

5. Major Professional Experience

Text Summary

Thesis

Supporting Reasons or Points

4. Thesis

Main argument of the essay, consisting of 1 claim/argument and at least 4 supporting points.

Note: Use an equal amount of supporting points as supporting paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

1. Topic Sentence (1-2 sentences)Presents main argument of the paragraph

2. Context of EvidenceIntroduces the source, evidence, and meaning

3. Textual Evidence: Quotes

4. Analysis (at least 3-4 sentences)

5. Concluding Sentence (1-2 sentences)

Keys to Topic Sentences

I. Topic Sentence

II. Contextualize Evidence

III. Textual Evidence

IV. Analysis

V. Concluding Sentence

Do NOT state:FactsQuotesSummaryAnalysis

Topic Sentences ARGUE (Topic Sentences connect the body paragraph to your thesis; thus, the claim your argue in the paragraph should support your thesis)

Topic SentencesGood Topic Sentence

When Singer argues that everyone able should donate anything they make over $30,000, he commits the fallacy of broad generalization.

Bad Topic Sentences

Singer says people should donate anything they make over $30,000. (Summary)

“After all, a $1,000 suit could save five children’s lives” (Singer). (Quote)

Singer proposes a solution to world poverty, because there are more than 3 billion people living on less than $2.50 a day. (Fact)

Body Paragraphs: Burger Metaphor

For Body Paragraphs, construct them like a burger, where the top and bottom (buns) keep it together, and the middle, the meat, represents textual evidence and analysis

Body Paragraphs: Adding Complexity

For a more complex and convincing body paragraph, think about constructing it like a burger with 2 patties (like an In-n-Out double-double). The top patty is your textual evidence and the second patty is evidence from a secondary source (providing analysis of the evidence in the top patty)

If you feel your paragraph needs more evidence, follow your instincts

Conclusion Strategies

Concluding paragraphs are about 6-10 sentences that wrap up an essay, typically using one of these methods:

Reflect or Meditate (similar to a freewrite)

Additional Analysis

Speculate about the Future

Close with a Quotation that offers deeper insight

Close with a Story or a Question

Call Your Readers to Action

1. Quotes from Academic Journals, Books, Newspapers, Magazines, Films, Reliable Online Sources, etc.

Reliable Online Domains: <.org>, <.gov>, and <.edu>

2. Quotes from the Reading(s) assigned for the Essay3. Quotes from the Class Lectures4. Personal Experience

Support and Defense

Academic v Non-Academic SourcesNon-Academic Sources

Time Magazine

Newsweek

Rolling Stone

US Weekly

Academic Sources

American Literary History

Cosmopolitan Art Journal

American Journal of Sociology

Modern Language Studies

The American Law Register

Evidence and Citation

There are 2 parts to MLA citation:

1. In-text citations within your essay

2. A Works Cited Page*See The St. Martin’s Guide, The Bedford Handbook, the Purdue OWL website, or The MLA Handbook for more information

In-text Citations

In-text citations appear after quotes or paraphrases to show the reader where the quote, statistic, etc. came from

For example, “At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day” (“Poverty Facts and Stats”).

“And what is one month’s dining out, compared to a child’s life? There’s the rub” (Cohen 382).

Works Cited Page

A works cited page should appear as the last page(s) of ALL of your essays. They are in alphabetical order. It is not in bold; that is only used for emphasis in this lecture.

For example:

“Poverty Facts and Stats.” Global Issues. Anup Shah. 7 Jan. 2013. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

Singer, Peter. “The Singer Solution to World Poverty.” 50 Essays. Ed. Samuel Cohen. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 378-384. Print.

Revision

Anne Sexton

In-Class Revision

I. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your essay with a classmate (5 minutes)

II. Read and Comment (10-15 minutes)

III. Discuss your comments (10 minutes)

IV. Individually, make revisions to your essay (5-10 minutes)

Revision Questions1. Is my hook strong?

2. Does my introduction introduce everything?

3. Is my thesis arguable, complex, and specific?

4. Do my body paragraphs argue something and attempt to prove it using textual evidence and analysis?

5. Does my conclusion reflect on the main issue(s)?

Revision Strategies1. Coherence Test: Read three parts of your paper. Read your thesis, then your topic and concluding sentences--nothing more. Does each idea flow seamlessly into the next?

2. Reverse Order Test: Read your paper from the last sentence to the first. Do you find that anything is missing?

Coherence Test

Coherence Test

Coherence Test

Annotation

Annotation: Oxford Dictionaries (online) defines an annotation as “a note of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram.”

References

Best American Essays. Introduction.