Mrs. Graham's Learn@Home 8-12 English 12 English 12: Essay Writing Module This module focuses on the process of essay-writing. An essay is a piece of

Mrs. Graham's Learn@Home 8-12 English 12

English 12: Essay Writing Module

This module focuses on the process of essay-writing. An essay is a piece of writing that organizes ideas into a supported and structured explanation, or argument. It thus differs from a story, a reflection, or an informal opinion piece, and requires a specific structure. Essays vary in length from one page to 20+ pages. Mastering the structure of a simple essay will enable you to structure much longer and more complex essays in the future.


In this module, you will:

learn about five types of essays; do six short activities that take you through the

essay-writing process; write three essays: for each you will brainstorm

your ideas, organize your brainstorms, and create a full essay outline before crafting your final copy.

The purpose of this module is to focus on the structure of essay writing. Accordingly, you will be writing short essays on simple topics, rather than long, researched essays.


Types of Essays

There are many types of essays. Each has a unique purpose. Here are five of the most common types of essays:

expository essay comparison/contrast Essay persuasive essay research essay narrative essay


Expository Essay

An expository essay introduces the reader to a body of knowledge, or explains something. For example, you could write an expository essay on the history of the city of Nanaimo, or on how Canadian athletes did at the Beijing Olympics. You could explain how to build a house, or how to plant a garden. You could also write an essay about an author’s personal or writing history: How J.K Rowling rose to fame, or the early life of Charles Dickens would make for interesting reading.

These are examples, and not your assigned topics, by the way. You’ll find your topic choices later in this module.


Comparison/Contrast Essay

A comparison/contrast essay demonstrates similarities and differences between two things You might, for example, compare and contrast hockey and basketball, the Canadian and American political systems, the theme of two poems, or a novel and a movie version of that novel.

These are examples, and not your assigned topics. You’ll find your topic choices later in this module.


Persuasive Essay

A persuasive essay makes a claim, or takes a position, and supports it with reasoning, and often with statistics, expert opinions, and other evidence. Here are a few potential topics:

Religion should be taught in school. The Young Offenders Act is not strict enough. Smoking should be allowed in public buildings. Sixteen year-olds should be allowed to vote. These are examples, and not your assigned topics. You’ll

find your topic choices later in this module.


Informal or Narrative Essay

An informal essay is often a narrative. In a narrative, the writer tells a story or relates a sequence of events. The difference between a narrative (a story), and an informal, or narrative essay is that the purpose of a narrative essay is to convey some point, lesson, or idea, and it is structured as an essay. For example, you could write an informal essay about your childhood summers to show how the times you spent with your family over the years have made you who you are. (Note that an informal, or narrative, essay is the only type of essay where you would use the first person pronoun, "I".) Other types of narratives, on the other hand, can assume a variety of different forms, and may be written simply to entertain, or to inspire.

You will not be writing an informal/narrative essay for this module.


Research Essay

A good research essay synthesizes multiple sources of information and offers some analysis of the subject matter. In order to write a good research paper, you need to access multiple sources of information, collect information in point-form and summarize/analyze it in your own words. You also need to incorporate quotations correctly, and cite all your sources correctly, both in the body of the essay and in a formal bibliography. You will be practising some of these skills when you incorporate research into the essays you write for this unit, but you won’t be writing a full research essay, as going through the entire process to do this properly would comprise a module in itself.

You will not be writing a research essay for this course.


Activities One to Six

You are now beginning your first assignment for this module.

You will do six, short activities that will take you through the essay writing process. These six activities comprise one assignment, so send them in one file.

See your Jupitergrades, and/or your course schedule for the full list of your assignments. All your assignments are listed in theses two places, in the order in which they appear in the course.


Activity One- Types of Essays Response

In two to three well-developed paragraphs, of at least five sentences, discuss your experience with essay-writing. Answer the following questions clearly to guide your discussion:

How do you feel about writing essays? Do you have difficulty starting? Do you have difficulty deciding where paragraphs should begin and end? Do you have difficulty putting your thoughts down on paper?

What experiences do you have writing essays? Have you written many? If so, what were some of the topics?

Which of the five types of essays described above have you written? Explain.

Don’t hand this in yet. When you have finished Activities One to Five, hand them all in together in one file.


Brainstorming to Begin

The key to successfully essay writing is organizing your ideas. Before you can organize your ideas, however, you have to figure out what you are going to say in your essay: what your main argument, or thesis, is going to be, and what arguments and facts you will use to support your thesis.

A common way to start is by brainstorming. Brainstorming is the process of getting all your ideas about a topic down on paper. Many writers like to start their writing process with an unorganized or spontaneous brainstorm, just to get the ideas flowing, and to keep their minds open to many different ideas and points of view. The ideas you write down when brainstorming can be your own, as well as those you have discovered through readings, conversation, and other research - anything that comes to mind that relates to your topic.

Brainstorming…

The next frame is an example of an unstructured brainstorm on the topic of “How to Improve as a Flutist”. This is a topic for an expository essay. As I created this, I just threw out my ideas, trying not to judge which ones were better than others. You'll notice some of the ideas appear to be grouped to a certain extent, but I made no systematic effort to group my ideas during the process.


Example of Brainstorming


Activity Two: Your Brainstorm For this activity, you will choose an expository

topic, and then you’ll create a spontaneous brainstorm for this topic. You’ll be working with this topic for the rest of the activities. Here are topics you can choose from:

How to fix something… (examples to choose from… a car, a bike, a relationship… etc…);

How to make something (examples to choose from: a cake, a scarf, a specific meal, a cabin, etc…);

Create your brainstorm on paper, or using a webbing programme. (Inspiration is a program that works very well, and you can download a free trial).

If you want to do a topic not listed here, email your teacher to approve it before you start.


Organizing Your Brainstorming

Once you have got all your ideas down, it's time to look at what you've got to see what main ideas, or categories of ideas, emerge. You start to get a sense of what your main argument (thesis) is, and you look for sub-topics.

Of course you have an idea of your topic before you start the process, but you’ll need to spend time refining your idea, or position, and identifying your subtopics. In doing this, you are creating an organized brainstorm, or, in the case of my example, you could call it an organized idea web.

In the next frame I have organized my brainstorm for my “How to Improve as a Flutist” topic. Can you see that I have now identified my main subtopics and organized my ideas under these subtopics? That is the purpose of this step in the essay writing process.

See the next frame to see how I’ve organized my “How to Improve as a Flutist” brainstorm.


Sample: Organised Brainstorm


Did you Notice?

Did you notice that I have now identified my main subtopics and organized my ideas under these subtopics? That is the purpose of this step in the essay writing process. Without it, your ideas can easily become jumbled and tangled. In fact, you may have noticed that the more complex the topic and ideas you are working with, the more interconnected ideas become and the harder it is to categorize them. It is then even more important that you spend the time to figure out your subtopics and organize your ideas before beginning to write your essay. Otherwise, you may think your ideas are flowing logically and smoothly because they are your ideas and you are (naturally) in love with them. Your readers, however, may not follow your particular twist of thread and may find the way you are presenting your ideas is less than clear, repetitive, or even confusing.

Cut to the Chase

In other words, your essay should cut to the chase. The purpose of an essay is to inform or to convince. It is your job to communicate as clearly as possible. Save your more personalized, potentially abstract and nonlinear way of communicating for poetry, fiction, personal reflections, and informal opinion pieces, where jumping from idea to idea, and writing metaphorically, etc. can sometimes be very effective.


Listing as an Alternative to Webbing For Activity Three, instead of organizing your

brainstorm web-style, you could of course organize it in a more linear fashion, with headings and points listed under the headings. For example, this could be part of my outlined brainstorm for my “How to Improve at the Flute” essay. Here is one sub-topic from my brainstorm, with the points listed below.

I. Work systematically practise tonal exercises * specific recommended resources: Taffanel and Gaubert practise scales, and studies work on fingering agility practise a variety of pieces work on musical expression, articulation, breathing * Note that I have added this item; feel free to add and change

things as you go: this is all part of the thinking process.


Activity Four: Your Thesis Statement Your thesis statement is key to your essay. It

includes your main idea and mentions the subtopics you will explore in support of your main idea. It is the road map to your essay, or think of it as the seed inside a plum: that seed contains the genetic material that enables the flesh of the plum to develop the way it does, given the requisite sun and rain.

Similarly, your thesis statement encapsulates your final, polished essay. Just add thoughts and labour. From the thesis statement, you and your reader know what your main idea is and what main arguments you will present in support of this main idea. By the time you have completed your organized brainstorm, you should know what your main idea is, and what your main subtopics are. Use these to create your thesis statement.

Thesis Statement, Continued In the next frame, I have written a thesis

statement for my “How to Improve as a Flutist” essay. Study my thesis statement, noting how it relates to my organised brainstorm. Then study the organised brainstorm you have created, and write your own thesis statement.

Your thesis statement should end up being only one sentence (two maximum), but I’ve made it an activity of its own because it is so important. It can take a bit of work to create a good thesis statement, but once you’ve got it, you have your plum pit, and you are ready to begin fleshing out your essay.


Thesis Statement Example

My thesis statement: To improve one’s flute playing, one needs to work systematically, seek an excellent instructor and maintain one’s motivation.

Notice that this thesis statement has the main idea (that the essay is about how to improve as a flutist), and also the three subtopics that will support this idea.

Now that I have my organized brainstorm and my thesis statement, I am ready to create a complete outline. This is going to give my essay great structure.

Note that this essay happens to have three subtopics. This is a convenient number for a simple essay, but it is actually arbitrary. Two well-developed subtopics are often appropriate, and some really long essays can have many more subtopics. You will be writing fairly short essays (600-800 words), so three subtopics will work well.


Activity Five: Essay Outline

Now that you have your organized brainstorm and have created your thesis statement from it, you are ready to create a complete outline. This will not only give your essay great structure; it will also make it easy to write To create your essay outline, use the outline sheets I have provided in the wiki below this PowerPoint. You’ll need four copies altogether for this module – one for this activity, where you are going through the steps of writing an essay, but not writing the full essay, and one for each of the three essays for which you will complete the full process, including a final polished copy of the essay.

See the next frame, for some pointers for creating your outline using these sheets.


Pointers for Creating Your Outline Once you have the outline sheets in hand, you’ll

notice that they are set up to guide you through the process. Follow the instructions and look at the sample provided (in the wiki).

A Few Pointers The first part of your introduction of your essay

sets the context for your essay. Don’t discuss your main points here.

Your thesis statement goes at the end of the introduction. It also goes at the beginning of your conclusion.

Make sure your topic sentences are full sentences and that they tie your subtopic into the main idea of your essay.

Keep everything else in point-form: this gives you more flexibility when you go to write your essay - you’ll find it easier to rearrange and combine ideas with your work in point-form

Outline Sheets You Need and Sample The outline sheets and a sample outline on my

topic are below the PowerPoint in the wiki. Print both off. You can also copy and paste the outline sheet into a document if you prefer. Take a close look at mine, and create your own for your topic.


Activity Six: Introduction and Conclusion Now that you have fully completed your outline

sheets, take a look at your intro. points and craft a good introduction and conclusion for your essay. Write up your point-form notes that set the context for your essay and end your intro. with your thesis statement.

Start your conclusion with a restatement of your thesis statement. Change the wording. You may want to make your thesis statement more emphatic in your conclusion since you will have spent the essay stating your points or developing your argument, and by now your reader is hopefully with you. Expand your ideas, or talk about the significance of your topic to give your essay a strong ending.

And the Point is…

The point of this exercise is to ensure you know how to write a introduction and a conclusion for an essay. In reality, when you write an essay, you might end up writing the intro and the conclusion last because even though you will have though out the points and established your thesis statement when creating your outline, you will want to align your intro. and conclusion with the rest of your essay once it’s fully written. So, at the very least you will go back and revise and improve your intro. and conclusion once your essay is completed.


Assigned: Your Expository Essay

Expository essays explain how something is done, or describe or explain something. (Review types of essays.) Your essay will be 600-800 words.

1: Choose a topic for an expository essay. You may choose from any of the suggested topics (see two frames ahead), or create your own. If you create your own, you must email your teacher to have your topic approved. This will prevent you from starting on a topic that is either too large, or that doesn't lend itself to an expository essay. You may not write this essay on the topic you used for activities one to six.

After you have Chosen your Topic

2. Create a brainstorm for your topic. 3. Create an organized brainstorm (structured web, or outlined brainstorm).

4. Create your thesis statement: remember this includes your main idea and the subtopics you will develop to support your main idea.

5. Develop your organised brainstorm into a proper essay outline, using the outline sheets that are provided here in the course.

6. Use this outline to write your essay. You will hand in your brainstorm, your organised

brainstorm, your full outline and your final essay. See the next frame for a list of topics and some important criteria.


Topics and Criteria

Some possible topics for an expository essay are:

How to Create a Specific Meal or Dish (ex. Lasagna) How to Work Out at the Gym How to Become a Super Hero How to Change a Flat Tire How to use a Digital Camera, or a Specific SoftwareWhat to Expect on a Trip to the Okanagan, etc.

How to Prepare for a Road (kayak, bicycling, hiking) Trip

Your essay will be 600-800 words and is to be written in the third person. (Do not use ”I”). It should be in Times New Roman or Arial font, and be double-spaced. Email your teacher if you have a different idea for another topic. When you are finished, hand in your brainstorm, your organised brainstorm, your completed outline and your final product.


Comparison/Contrast Essay

Comparison/contrast essays demonstrate similarities and differences between two things. When writing a comparison/contrast essay, it is important to compare and contrast the topics throughout the essay. It is tempting to describe one thing in the first half of the essay and then describe the second thing in the second half of the essay. This structure tends to create a descriptive essay on two topics, however, rather than a comparative/contrast essay.


Comparison Contrast Essays - 2 The trick to writing a comparison/contrast essay

is to learn how to compare and contrast two things in each section of the body of the essay. The key is to identify sub-topics you can discuss for both subjects. For example, if you want to compare hockey and soccer you might identify sub-topics, such as “Sporting Equipment”. “Playing Surface”, “Participation Around the World”, and “Enforcement of Penalties”. Or, if you were to compare Christianity and Sikhism, you might discuss sub-topics such as, “Religious Founder/Leader”, “The Holy Book’, “Beliefs on Life After Death”, “Places of Worship” and/or “Special Clothing”.


Comparison/Contast Essay: 3 When comparing and/or contrasting two things in

the same paragraph, it is useful to have a variety of comparative/contrast words or phrases. Here are some examples you will find useful:

Words to Indicate Contrast

however, unlike, on the other hand, conversely, in contrast

Words to Indicate Comparison

Similarly, likewise, as well, also, equally


Some Possible Comparison/Contrast Topics

Now, let’s look at some possible essay topics and then create a sample paragraph. Some possible comparative essay topics are:

Compare and contrast Christianity and Sikhism. Compare and contrast hockey and baseball. Compare and contrast apples and oranges. Compare and contrast Mt Washington and

Whistler. Compare and contrast road biking to mountain

biking. Compare and contrast life in the country and life in

the city. Compare and contrast two different types of music. Compare and contrast Canada and the United

States.


Sample Paragraph, Contrasting…

Here is a simple paragraph which might be part of an essay on Christianity and Sikhism. We start by creating a topic sentence that introduces the main sub-topic of the paragraph. In the following example, the sub-topic will be “Places of Worship”.

Christianity and Sikhism each have different places of worship. Christians worship in churches. The physical appearance of Christian churches varies significantly depending upon when and where they were built and on the denomination of the church. Churches often have steeples or spire pointing to the heavens. Sikhs, the followers of Sikhism, on the other hand, worship in a Gurudwara, which is often referred to as a Sikh Temple. Gurudwara means door to the guru. Gurudwaras don't usually have spires, but often do have domes on their roofs.

More on This…

After reading this (short) paragraph, the reader gets a little bit of information about both religions and the differences in their places of worship. Re-read the first sentence (the topic sentence), and note how it introduces or speaks to everything that follows in the paragraph. You are encouraged to invest a lot of time creating clear and strong topic sentences in all your writing. (Note that this is a short paragraph and the ideas in it could be further developed with more details.)


Assigned: Your Comparison/Contrast Essay: Criteria

Select a topic that enables you to compare and contrast two things. You may choose from any of the topics provided (See previous frame), or create your own. If you choose your own topic, make sure you email to have it approved before beginning. Create an organized brainstorm (structured web, or outlined brainstorm), and use this to create a more detailed essay outline. Create your outline using the sheets provided in the course for this purpose. Take care to identify subtopics that enable your to compare and contrast your two items, and to craft your thesis statement carefully.

When Your Outline is Done

Use your essay outline to create a complete comparison/contrast essay on your topic. Pay special attention to your introduction (including your thesis statement), your conclusion, and your topic sentences. Your essay should be written in the third person, typed, TNR 12, and should be 600 to 800 words. Try to use a topic for which you do not need to do any research. If you do seek information, however, list any sources of information you used at the end of your essay: title or name of book or website; date of publication of book or webpage; author of book or webpage; url of webpage. Also indicate when you are using a fact from somewhere right in the body of your essay. Example: According to the Statistics Canada…. )

Hand in your brainstorm, your organised brainstorm, your essay outline, and your essay.


Assigned: Your Persuasive Essay

It is typically easiest to write a persuasive essay about something you are passionate about. In order to clarify your thinking, however, and keep your mind open, it is important to look at issues from all sides. Also, when getting into a debate or argument on a specific topic, it is beneficial to predict the viewpoints of people who view the issue differently from you.

Topics for Your Persuasive Essay Here are just a few examples of potential topics for a

persuasive essay. You could argue for or against any of these topics:

Smoking should be allowed in public places in BC; Capital punishment should continue to be illegal in Canada; Lack of privacy is a growing and significant problem on the Internet;

The driver licensing system in BC is too complicated and strict;

Our society is in a state of moral decay; There should be more bicycle paths in Nanaimo; The media should not be allowed to publicize the

details of violent and horrific crimes.


Your Persuasive Essay…

Choose one topic you would enjoy debating. You may choose from any of the suggested, topics, or create your own. If you come up with your own topic, email your instructor to have it approved before you start. Also, please remember that you may not submit an essay that you have written for another class. Create an organized brainstorm (structured web brainstorm, or outlined brainstorm). Include both opposing viewpoints in your brainstorm.

More on Your Persuasive Essay Next, use this structured brainstorm to create

your thesis statement and then your essay outline for your persuasive essay. You must use the outline sheets provided in the course for your outline. You will argue for one side of the controversial issue, but your essay will be much stronger if you mention some of the opposing arguments, and hopefully show why these arguments are not as strong as the arguments you are putting forth. Accordingly, when you create your essay outline, be sure to include some of the opposing arguments in your outline. This will take careful thought and planning.

Criteria, Continued…

Use your essay outline to write a complete, persuasive essay on your topic. Pay special attention to your introduction (especially your thesis statement), conclusion, and topic sentences, and to the logic of your argument. Also, your essay will be most convincing if you build toward your strongest points. Your essay should be written in the third person, typed, TNR 12, and should be 600 to 800 words.

Using Statistics

If you support your argument by referring to facts, remember to record your research information in point-form when you gather it so that when you write it up it is not word-for-word from one of your sources. Do not copy and paste from websites, as this is the fastest route to plagiarism. Record all your sources, and punctuate any quotations correctly. If you refer to any facts, you must say who authored these facts within the body of the essay. Indicate what person or organization presented the information you are using. For example, you might say, "According to Health Canada, --% of children under the age of twelve are overweight." Then in your list of sources at the end of your essay, you would list the name of the organization and the website address (url).

Hand in your brainstorm, your organized brainstorm, your essay outline and your essay.


Checklist for this Module

Here’s what you should have done for this module:

Activities One to Six Expository Essay Comparison/Contrast Essay Persuasive Essay Activities One to Six are one assignment

and should be handed in in one package, or in one file/document. Hand in your brainstorms, your organized brainstorms, and your outlines with your essays.

Documents

Mrs. Graham's Learn@Home 8-12 English 12 English 12: Essay Writing Module This module focuses on the process of essay-writing. An essay is a piece of