Essay Writing Best Practices
* What
Am I Interested In?
Essay writing is best served, especially in the
pre-writing or thinking (if you don't pre-write) stage, by thinking broadly
about the topic then refining the topic to a concise and focused thesis before
writing the essay.
Students
should always begin writing from a place of interest from within the assigned
topic, whether it is about a novel, play, poem, or general interest.
* When To Begin the Magnus Opus (Great Work)?
Students should not begin writing until they know what they want to say. Trust me; it's a good idea!
Students should not begin writing until they know what they want to say. Trust me; it's a good idea!
But...what if I don't know what I want to write about? Students can free write until they figure out what they want to say.
Tip: Free writing is writing whatever comes to mind when you think of the topic. Don't censor thoughts during free writing!
Tip: Free writing is writing whatever comes to mind when you think of the topic. Don't censor thoughts during free writing!
Just don't begin writing the essay until you know what you want to write.
* I
Have Something to Say aka the Thesis
A thesis is the main argument of your
paper otherwise known as what you are writing about.
Tip:
It should be one sentence, takes a stance, and is something with which someone (the reader) can agree
or disagree.
* Audience,
Readership & Missed Opportunities
Students typically think about the teacher
when writing essays for class.
Oh no, will this get an A?
This question is a missed opportunity by students to think about what they want to say and why.
In essay writing, students have to figure
out what kind of person would read the topic of their essay and how informed
this person is.
Tips: typically, in English literature papers, for canonical and
well-read books, the standard is to assume a reader who has read the novel. If
the novel is little known, then the essay should include a brief summary
paragraph immediately after the introduction.
Questions to Ask from Owl at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/587/1/):
- Who is the audience for your writing?
- Do you think your audience is interested in the topic? Why or why not?
- Why should your audience be interested in this topic?
- What does your audience already know about this topic?
- What does your audience need to know about this topic?
- What experiences has your audience had that would influence them on this topic?
- What do you hope the audience will gain from your text?
* To
Be Informal or Not…
Is this even a question? Formal for essay
writing.
* Hexes & Curses: That Infernal Grammar!
I know, you never learned grammar or you don’t
retain the rules of grammar.
However, think in terms of clarity. Think
of writing sentences that develop no more than one or two complete ideas.
Tip:
A sentence is a complete idea.
Comments: Class, what other Best Practices for Essay Writing can you think of? Post a 100 word comment below in response. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, which is on Best Practices for Writing 2.0 (Blogging).
from Scribs:
ReplyDeleteSince I do not know what we are supposed to blog about and I have a family event tomorrow, I am going to create my own topic and if anybody wants, they can post after me.
What is Thanksgiving? Ever since I was a small child, they story of Thanksgiving has been told to me. Being told is not experiencing and many people, do not give thanks to things that are truly important in life. This Thanksgiving, I went to Maine to spend time with my family at a lake house. I watched sunsets, ate amazing food that everyone helped prepare, played with my little nephews, and played intense games of poker with the guys. This is what Thanksgiving is about to me. Spending time with the people you care about and who bring you joy. At the dinner table on Thursday, my whole family took a few minutes to pause and reflect about what they are grateful for in this world. As thoughts of CSW, a nice home, clothes, and healthcare to name a few came into my head, I also thought about all the people who did not have a family to give thanks to and who would go hungry that night. I thought about the times when I wanted to have the newest laptop or phone and as the night went on, I thought about how lucky I am to be solely by luck, born into a family who cares about me and who supports me. Thanksgiving is a time for reflecting and opening your eyes to the world around you. While it is nice to have "wicked deals" on Black Friday, I am beginning to look deeper into the true things I am grateful for.
Thanks for that, Eli, but I'm going to respond to Jeanette. I think one of the best practices for essay writing that one can follow is to have confidence in their thesis and topic. If one doesn't believe that what they have to say is important and valid, than the essay turns out to be weak and lacks direction. I like to think that someday, someone else may reference my essay while writing another paper; my work will become a part of academia. Though that will most likely never happen, it helps to keep that as an orientation when putting down my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the argument one puts out will seem less convincing if they lack confidence in their opinion. This will in turn make reading the paper feel tedious to the audience, and one looses credibility as a writer. If finding confidence in my thesis seems impossible, in the past I have simply let my thesis change! In the end, it saves time in searching for remote evidence to back it up, and I churn out an all around steadier argument.
i think that your statement "Students should not begin writing until they know what they want to say. Trust me; it's a good idea! " is wrong in most cases especially for me. when i was first learning how to write proper English and history essays i had a tutor, she would always tell me that no idea was wrong and to just write down whatever came to mind. after you had filled a largish amount of space like that would you go back and take out unneeded words and make everything fit right make sense and flow well. she also taught me that your second idea when writing was always the best and that if you forgot what you were saying to just think of something else to say in place of what you forgot.
ReplyDelete