Chapter 4-The Best Time to be

Alive

Writing a five paragraph essay

Freewriting

Write for 10 minutes about the following topic:

If you could choose another time in history to visit, which time period would you choose? What country would you choose? What would you hope to discover?

Point-of-View Writing

Write a letter to a great-grandparent or another relative who lived in the past. Explain how life today is different from the way it was before.

Writing Assignment

Your task:

Choose one

1. Write a five-paragraph essay (or prepare an outline) describing the best time or the worst time (past, present, or future) to be alive and why.

2. Write a five-paragraph essay (or prepare an outline) explaining the reasons why you think we should study the past. Does the past teach us lessons for the future?

Thesis Statement: Creating Unity

• The thesis statement of an essay creates unity

• What is unity? An overarching idea.• A good thesis statement is supported by

the other ideas, explanations, and examples in the introduction, body paragraph(s), and conclusion.

Topic Sentences: Connecting the Body to the Thesis

• Topic Sentence is usually the first sentence of each body paragraph.

• Restates one of the ideas or reasons from the thesis statement.

• The rest of the paragraph describes the idea found in the topic sentence.

• Topic sentences connect the ideas in the body paragraphs to the thesis statement.

Creating Coherence

• Coherence means that the ideas within and between paragraphs are logically organized.

• Logical Paragraph Order.

Examples of Logical Paragraph Order

• Most important -> Least Important

• Least important -> Most important

• Oldest -> Newest

• Least Personal -> Most personal

Peer Editing

1. Does the introduction begin with general ideas and end with a specific thesis statement?

2. Does your thesis statement give one central idea or opinion with reasons to support it?

3. Does each body paragraph begin with a topic sentence that relates to the thesis statement?

4. Do the body paragraphs follow in a logical order?

5. Are the explanations convincing in each body paragraph?

6. Does the conclusion summarize the main points of the essay?

Adjective Clauses

• Adjective clauses= short sentences -> longer complex sentences

• Immediately follows the noun it defines.

The Shogun was a military leader. The Shogun ruled feudal Japan.

The Shogun was a military leader who ruled feudal Japan (adjective clause).

Forming Adjective Clauses• People+ Who or that

Samurai Warriors were men who/that protected Japanese lords.

• Things+ That or Which

They had a special code of honor that/which was made for them.

• Places+ where, that, or which

Hangzhou was a resort town where/that/which people went to relax.

• Time or period + when or in which

The Ming dynasty was a time when/in which people prospered.

Present Unreal Conditionals

• Describe a situation that has never happened and can never happen.

• If+ simple past+ conditional (would+base form)

If I lived in the future, I would reside on the planet Mars.

If I lived in the future, I would be able to see how the world resolves its problems.