Writing an Essay

2 May Lecture

Three Main Types of Writing

1. Narrative Writing: Tells a personal or fictional experience or tells a story based on a real or imagined event. 2. Expository Writing: is writing that is designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand. 3. Persuasive Writing: Attempts to convince the reader to accept a particular point of view or to take a specific action.

How to Write a Personal Narrative:

A personal narrative is a story told in the first person, often using pronouns like "I," "me," and "mine." The story is about real life, not creative fiction or literature. It may be about the writer, something the writer witnessed, or about someone the writer knows, having heard it second-hand. Truth and experience are the hallmarks of this style. The narrative emphasizes a clear focus. It recounts what is probably a short story in an informal as well as an informational way. Your narrative can include autobiographical elements. You may choose to reveal details from your life or the life of someone you know or care about. If it's not autobiographical, the story should outline an event, or series of events, with which the writer is clearly familiar. By the conclusion of the paper, a narrative will have made a main point.

Guideline for Writing a Personal Narrative:

WHAT? Tell readers the basic story, as though responding to their collective unasked question, 'What happened?' SO WHAT? Then revise your story to make readers care. Bad and good things happen to us all. Why should they care about the events in your paper? Make it exciting, meaningful, and purposeful. NOW WHAT? At the end of the paper, give readers a principle that they can take with them. By applying what they learn from your narrative experience, they may view the world or themselves differently.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay:

The purpose of a persuasive essay is to convince the reader to agree with your viewpoint or to accept your recommendation for a course of action.

Guideline for Writing a Persuasive Essay:

Use evidence to support your viewpoint. Statistics, facts, quotations from experts and examples will help you to build a strong case for your argument. Appeal to the readers sense of logic by presenting specific and relevant evidence in a well-organized manner. Consider opposing views. Try to anticipate the concerns and questions that a reader might have about your subject. Responding to these points will give you the chance to explain why your viewpoint or recommendation is the best one. Present a strong conclusion. All your evidence and explanations should build toward a strong ending in which you summarize your view in a clear and memorable way. The conclusion in a persuasive essay might include a call to action.

How to Write an Expository Essay:

Expository writing is any type of writing that is used to describe, explain, or inform. In a nutshell, expository writing is used to convey information from writer to reader.

Guideline to Writing an Expository Essay

STEP ONE: SELECTING A TOPIC

If your professor assigns you a specific topic to write about, then this step is completed before you even begin. However, often the teacher will allow students to choose their own essay topic, so it is important to be able to choose effectively. It is important to narrow down your choice so that it is appropriate to the essay length requirements. For example, if the professor has assigned a two-page essay, it is not a good idea to choose a big topic. Conversely, if the professor wants an especially lengthy essay, do not choose too narrow of a topic so that it becomes difficult to fill up the pages with information.

Guideline to Writing an Expository Essay

STEP TWO: CHOOSE A DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERN

There are a variety of ways to develop a custom expository essay, just as there is a variety of ways to convey information. The following are just a few examples of the developmental patterns you can adopt for your own essay:

Definition - This may be the most straightforward of the developmental patterns. As its name suggests, you will simply use the expository essay to thoroughly define a topic. Example - In this developmental pattern, you will provide and describe an example of a particular subject or group. Cause and Effect - With this developmental pattern, you will illustrate the relationship between to variables, one dependent on the other. Describe the many ways in which this particular variable affects the other, and explain why it does so. Classification - This developmental pattern is used to categorize multiple subjects into separate or distinct groups by certain criteria. Compare and Contrast - With this developmental pattern, the writer will examine both the similarities and the differences between two or more distinct subjects.

Guideline to Writing an Expository Essay

STEP THREE: PERFORM ADEQUATE RESEARCH ON YOUR TOPIC

Too often students begin writing expository essays without first having learned about their subject.

If the teacher requires you to write the essay with knowledge from the top of your head, then obviously you will not have to perform research.

However, if this is not the case then it is vital that you take some time to learn about your topic before beginning to write. Doing so will only lead to a much stronger essay.

How to Structure Your Essay

These simple steps will guide you through the essay writing process:

Decide on your topic. Prepare an outline or diagram of your ideas. Write the introduction. Write your thesis statement. Write the body. Write the main points.

Write the subpoints. Elaborate on the subpoints.

Write the conclusion. Add the finishing touches.

What is a Thesis Statement?

The thesis statement tells the reader what the essay will be about, and what point you, the author, will be making. You know what the essay will be about. That was your topic. Now you must look at your outline or diagram and decide what point you will be making. What do the main ideas and supporting ideas that you listed say about your topic?

What is the Body of an Essay

In the body of the essay, all the preparation up to this point comes to shape. The topic you have chosen must now be explained, described, or argued. Each main idea that you wrote down in your diagram or outline will become one of the body paragraphs. If you had three or four main ideas, you will have three or four body paragraphs. Each body paragraph will have the same basic structure.

1. Start by writing down one of your main ideas, in sentence form.

If your main idea is "reduces freeway congestion," you might say this: Public transportation reduces freeway congestion.

2. Next, write down each of your supporting points for that main idea, but leave four or five lines in between each point. 3. In the space under each point, write down some elaboration for that point.

Elaboration can be further description or explanation or discussion.

What is an Introduction

The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and give her an idea of the essay's focus. Begin with an attention grabber.

If the attention grabber was only a sentence or two, add one or two more sentences that will lead the reader from your opening to your thesis statement.

Finish the paragraph with your thesis statement.

What is a Conclusion

The conclusion brings closure to the reader, summing up your points or providing a final perspective on your topic. All the conclusion needs is three or four strong sentences which do not need to follow any set formula. Simply review the main points (being careful not to restate them exactly) or briefly describe your feelings about the topic.

Finishing Touches

Check your writing.

Nothing can substitute for revision of your work. By reviewing what you have done, you can improve weak points that otherwise would be missed. Read and reread your paper.

Does it make logical sense?

Leave it for a few hours and then read it again. Does it still make logical sense?

Do the sentences flow smoothly from one another?

If not, try to add some words and phrases to help connect them. Transition words, such as "therefore" or"however," sometimes help. Also, you might refer in one sentence to a thought in the previous sentence. This is especially useful when you move from one paragraph to another.

Have you run a spell checker or a grammar checker?

These aids cannot catch every error, but they might catch errors that you have missed.

Finishing Touches

Check the instructions for the assignment.

When you prepare a final draft, you must be sure to follow all of the instructions you have been given.

Are your margins correct? Have you titled it as directed? What other information (name, date, etc.) must you include? Did you double-space your lines?