Essay Writing ENG 3 UI Summary vs Analysis

Essay Writing ENG 3 UI

Summary vs Analysis

Introductions ✤ ✤ Essays usually begin with one introductory paragraph. The first section of this paragraph "eases the reader in". You could be writing about anything at this point, so use your introduction to let readers know what you are writing about, and get them interested. Possible ways to do this are: ✤ Find a quotation ✤ Give an example ✤ Start general, move to specific ✤ Give some background ✤ Offer a definition ✤ Ask a question ✤ Make a comparison

Introductions: Your Thesis ✤ A good thesis statement or main idea is the key to a good essay. It is usually one sentence but can be two if necessary, and it is traditionally placed at the very end of your introduction. It is the main thing you are trying to say or argue in your essay, and all of your body paragraphs will go to prove, support and elaborate on it. It is the pin that holds your essay together. A topic is what your essay is about, while a thesis is your stand, your particular, focused statement or argument on that topic--the insight that all of your points come together to show.

Thesis Statement ✤ Here are some ways to improve thesis statements: ✤ Make sure your thesis makes a claim. ✤ Make sure your thesis is not obviously true: a statement of fact or a cliché. ✤ Make sure your thesis can be proven within the constraints of the assignment. ✤ Make sure your thesis is not based only on opinion. ✤ Make sure your thesis is focused: not too broad.

Thesis Statement ✤ The thesis must not only state a claim worth proving; it must also give the reader an idea of how you intend to develop your main idea. For instance, if you have three sub-points to your main idea, you can list them within your introduction in brief in the same order you will discuss them in your body paragraphs. Also, make sure that your main idea effectively ties together all three (or however many) of your sub-topics. What do they have in common? What makes them different?

Thesis Statement ✤ The thesis is like a preview of your essay. This means that it helps a lot to have an idea of what you are going to say before you begin to write a first draft -- and that if your idea changes as you write and experiment, you should go back and change thesis to fit. Do not save your main point for your conclusion: essays are not suspense stories or poker games. Lay your cards on the table in the introduction. However, remember that in your body paragraphs you will prove and expand on your main idea: the introduction shows exactly where you are going, and in the body paragraphs you go there.

Sample Introduction William Butler Yeats wrote two poems which are together known as the Byzantium series. The first is "Sailing to Byzantium, " and its sequel is simply named "Byzantium. " The former is considered the easier of the two to understand. It contains multiple meanings and emotions, and the poet uses various literary devices to communicate them. Two of the most dominant themes of this poem are the desire for escape from the hardships of this world and the quest for immortality. These are circumstances of the poet's life that influenced the composition of the poem. Those personal experiences and Yeats's skillful use of words come together to emphasize the need, or at least desire, that many people have for escape and immortality.

Sample Introduction William Butler Yeats wrote two poems which are together known as the Byzantium series. The first is "Sailing to Byzantium, " and its sequel is simply named "Byzantium. " The former is considered the easier of the two to understand. It contains multiple meanings and emotions, and the poet uses various literary devices to communicate them. Two of the most dominant themes of this poem are the desire for escape from the hardships of this world and the quest for immortality. These are circumstances of the poet's life that influenced the composition of the poem. Those personal experiences and Yeats's skillful use of words come together to emphasize the need, or at least desire, that many people have for escape and immortality.

Your Title What is one of the very first things you notice on the page when you read an essay? The title, of course! A title is the name of your essay, and should be what first captivates the reader. Before we get into practicing writing some effective titles, it is important to note some rules about writing titles. An effective title SHOULD: 1. be memorable and intriguing, and want to make your reader continue reading your paper 2. be capitalized throughout, except articles such as a, an and the, and conjunctions such as and, but, for, nor, unless it is the first word in the title a. Example: Television: Has It Gone Too Far? b. Example: Video Game Violence and Its Effect on Teenagers 3. mention the topic of the essay

Title An effective title SHOULD NOT: 1. include the word “essay, ” or “paper” or “assignment” in any part of the title (i. e. Research Paper, Essay on Television, Mrs. Sanderson’s 5 th Period Assignment) 2. be underlined, italicized, or put in quotation marks 3. be too long (generally 8 words maximum) 4. merely state the topic (i. e. School Uniforms, Television, Macbeth)

Grabbers A grabber is the first sentence of an essay. It should grab the reader’s attention and make the reader want to continue reading. Grabbers can be in the form of a question (ending with a question mark), exclamation (ending with an exclamation mark), strong statement (ending with a period), statistic, short anecdote, or a famous quote. Whichever type of grabber you choose, it should always be interesting, thought-provoking, or even dramatic. Directions: To practice writing grabbers, complete the following exercises. For each prompt given, write one grabber “for” the topic and one grabber “against” the topic. An example has been done for you. Ex. The topic of this essay is a longer school year. FOR: Could a long school year actually help students become smarter? AGAINST: Don’t take away our freedom—we need a summer break!

Focus Statement A focus statement is the topic or subject of your essay, written as a complete sentence. For example, if your topic is healthy school lunches, you would need to take that topic and make it into a general fact: Many schools are finding ways to provide healthy school lunch selections for students. The focus statement should not be confused with a thesis statement. The focus statement should be a broad, general view of the topic, and should be a commonly held belief or fact. Your thesis statement is your own opinion on the focus statement. Think of this concept as an upside-down pyramid, from broad to narrow, as show below.

Focus Statement

Your Thesis ✤ ✤ 1. Animal Farm is a novel about class struggle. Orwell describes the events of the Russian Revolution through the use of animals in his allegorical tale. The character of Napoleon changes from a strong leader to a corrupt dictator. The moral of Animal Farm is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Your Thesis ✤ ✤ In Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, the setting contributes to theme. In the short story Bluffing, flashbacks are used to describe significant events that lead the main character to the realization that Liam is not the man she thought he was. In the short story Mirror Image, the repeated motif of mirrors and reflections represents the duality of Alice’s life. In Saturday Climbing, W. D. Valgardson uses symbols in the form of objects and the setting to parallel the emotional growth of both Barry and Moira.

Body Paragraphs ✤ You can have as many body paragraphs as you wish. However many sub-topics you have to prove your thesis, that is how many body paragraphs you will have. You can place them in any order, so long as it makes sense. For instance, you can: ✤ Place the strongest argument last ✤ Move in chronological order ✤ Move from causes to effects ✤ Alternate: if you are writing about more than one thing, move back and forth between them ✤ "Chunk": if you are writing about more than one thing, write all about one then all about the other.

Body Paragraphs ✤ ✤ Every body paragraph must have a topic sentence, which is like a mini-thesis, and which is usually placed at or near the beginning of the paragraph (indicating what you are going to prove), but can also come at the end (indicating what you have just proven). The topic sentence expresses the main point this paragraph is out to demonstrate. Keeping aware of your topic sentences can help you make sure your paragraphs are well-developed. Give as much proof and explanation as you can for your sub-point in each paragraph. Go into detail.

Body Paragraphs ✤ Make sure in every paragraph you: ✤ ✤ Offer some kind of evidence. Offer a full explanation of how and why your evidence proves your point, and how and why that point relates back to your thesis. ✤ For every assertion you make, give proof and explanation. ✤ Use transitions to move on to your next point.

Conclusion ✤ The conclusion of an essay wraps things up. It reiterates the main idea in different words, and looks back over how thesis was proven. This is not just repetition: it gives you an opportunity to show you have developed your idea, to indicate what the reader has learned by reading your essay. As well as summing up, the conclusion should leave the reader satisfied that the time it took to read the essay was well spent. Answer the question, "So What? " Why is all this important? What are the implications of what you have argued? What does it mean in the big world? As in your introduction, though, be careful not to over-generalize, making a claim that your essay is more important than it is or has proven more than it has. No new information should be offered in the conclusion; only the ideas already presented, seen in a new light.

Conclusion ✤ What you can include: ✤ Quotation ✤ Figurative Language ✤ Example or Anecdote ✤ Predictions or Speculations

Thesis Practice ✤ Potential Thesis Topics for Animal Farm ✤ The Power of Words, Language, and Rhetoric in Animal Farm ✤ Class Issues in Animal Farm ✤ The Corrupting Influence of Power in Animal Farm ✤ From Utopia to Distopia (or vice versa)

After Your Rough Draft Words to Avoid The following is a list of words you should avoid in your writing. These words can be referred to as “dead” words: in other words, they do not enhance your writing at all—and often make your writing sound dull and monotonous. a lot good anyway nice so I did every got stuff said just everything great the end fine my like went thing fun get goes gone lots myself well very me