Writing Your Essay

 

Planning Your Paper

• Once you know your purpose for writing, your thesis, and your argument, plan out your paper by writing your thesis paragraph and organizing your reasons and evidence.

• It is always useful to outline your essay first.

  • An outline is a map of your argument—it should show the sequence of your reasons.

  • You should include your purpose and thesis at the top of the outline and include the evidence you plan to use for each of your reasons.

• If you run into problems while planning your paper or writing an outline, you’ll know you should do additional research or thinking before you begin to write.

Introduction: Thesis Paragraph

• The first paragraph of your essay is the most important. It should include:

  • Background material and context: Give only the most relevant information, not an exhaustive summary of your subject. Assume your reader is well-educated and well-read and can understand your subject without extensive background.

  • Purpose for writing and thesis: Tell your reader why your essay is relevant and important. In most cases, your thesis statement should be the last sentence in the paragraph.

• Get right into your subject, without throat-clearing. Many writers make the mistake of approaching their subject from a wildly distant perspective that they can’t possibly know about or support. Readers will be instantly suspicious if the first thing they read is a generality like “From the dawn of mankind . . .”

Sample introduction/thesis paragraph: Body Paragraphs

• Use the body paragraphs of your paper to present your reasons and evidence and to develop your argument.

  • In most cases, you should use as many body paragraphs as necessary to develop your points.

  • Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that develops your thesis statement and should include evidence to support that topic sentence.

  • Besides just presenting the evidence, you should also include analysis sentences that explain why the evidence supports your argument.

• Avoid having every body paragraph play the same role.

  • Although some paragraphs may indeed operate independently, they don’t have to, and you can explore an idea over multiple paragraphs.

  • Body paragraphs may be used to:

    • Introduce the opposing side of your argument. Addressing the opposing viewpoint makes your argument more sophisticated and interesting. Pretending to give equal time to the other side is a good rhetorical strategy because it makes you seem fair and open-minded—then you can explore the weaknesses in the opposing side’s argument to make your own argument stronger.

    • Explore the opposite side to reach a conclusion. Although you may indeed be able to crack open the opposition and expose its flaws, you might also glean valuable information from it that you can use to reach a conclusion. This strategy is especially useful when you’re arguing about a very controversial topic.

    • Explore a reason further Rather than present a new reason, explore a different angle, acknowledge inherent weaknesses, or suggest modifications to the reason as a way of developing your argument further.

    • Introduce evidence not organically related to your reasons. Sometimes, you’ll want to include an aside, a related anecdote, or an extra piece of information that doesn’t “fit” into an essay but that adds to it anyway.

  • Use transitions to guide your readers through your body paragraphs.

    • Body paragraphs should follow one another logically. Each paragraph should be linked in some way to the preceding and following paragraphs—you shouldn’t be able to shuffle your paragraphs around.

    • Avoid weak transitions like Also, In addition, or We should also note that. These are empty phrases that fail to explain the relationship between successive paragraphs.

    • Weak transition: Another way that Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy represents the Joads’ hopefulness is . . .

      • You could move this paragraph to another spot in the essay without interrupting the logical flow of the argument.

    • Strong transition: The literal life inside Rose of Sharon symbolizes the spiritual and emotional vigor of the other Joads as well.

      • This transition indicates that the idea to follow (how the Joads maintain spiritual and emotional vigor) will build on what came before it (an explanation of the pregnancy as it affects Rose of Sharon specifically).

  • Present information within each paragraph in a logical sequence.

    • The sequence in which you present ideas within a paragraph can explain, complicate, or develop the idea in the topic sentence.

    • Transitional words within a paragraph help readers understand how you’re developing your idea. These words indicate contrast, provide examples, explain results, or establish a sequence.

      • Useful transitions includefurthermore, however, in contrast, for example, as a result, and soon after.

      • Avoid weak transitions like also or and, since these suggest but do not explain connections.

    • If every sentence begins with a transition word, chances are you’re forcing connections to make your writing sound better. Eliminate unnecessary transition words.

Sample body paragraph: Conclusion

• Your conclusion should explain the significance of your thesis in a larger context. This is your chance to synthesize the points you’ve made in order to make a more global statement about your topic.

• Do not simply summarize the essay or repeat your thesis statement. The conclusion should be a culmination of your reasons and your evidence.

• Techniques for concluding:

  • Ask yourself: Why is my topic important? How does it connect to issues beyond this essay? What can readers take away from my argument and apply to their lives in different ways?

  • Cite a relevant quotation from the text and explain how to interpret that quotation using your argument.

  • Explain a term you brought up in your thesis statement.

  • Show that your argument can be applied to a related topic to reiterate the relevance of your ideas.

  • Avoid generalities. Your conclusion, though it should push your ideas into a more general direction, should not be so vague that you could tack it onto the end of any essay. The point(s) you raise in your conclusion should be rooted in your particular argument.

Sample concluding paragraph: