Lesson One - Essay Writing
| Site: | MoodleHUB.ca 🍁 |
| Course: | ELA 30-1 RVSO |
| Book: | Lesson One - Essay Writing |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Monday, 10 November 2025, 9:03 AM |
Introduction
Lesson One - Essay Writing
Duration - 1 block (1 x 80 min + homework)
"There is no room for the impurities of literature in an essay... the essay must be pure - pure like water or pure like wine, but pure from dullness, deadness, and deposits of extraneous matter." - Virginia Woolf, British writer
Unit One is heavy on notes. Do not panic - the remainder of the course is not like this!! This unit is designed as a review and presentation of the bulk of the theory (notes) that you will need for this course. Please print off the notes and rubric and store them in a separate binder for easy reference as you move through ELA 30-1.
You will not be able to escape the task of writing essays during your high school career. It is essential, therefore, that you understand the basics of the five-paragraph essay.
Several times throughout this course, you will be expected to write a well-supported, carefully constructed essay. You likely have written essays before, but this lesson will serve as a review for that particular process.
Lesson
Read and study the notes on the Five Paragraph Essay.
Read and study the notes on the Literary Essay.
Study the Literary Essay RUBRIC, so you are aware of the various categories in which your writing will be assessed.
Carefully peruse the Literary Essay EXEMPLARS and rationales. These documents will provide you with excellent examples of what I am looking for when assessing the literary essays which you will write during this course.
Essay Writing Links
The web site links above are also found on the ELA Websites, which you access via the INFO tab. Explore them to be aware of the kind of online writing help that is available to you.
Take the time to check out all of the links under "Links". You will also find a dictionary and thesaurus - which you should always use when you write. In fact, when you write Part A of your ELA 30-1 Diploma Exam, you are allowed to use a dictionary and thesaurus.
Assignment
(10 marks)
Open a new Word document. Label it E301U1L1surname
In this document, answer the questions based on the literary essay notes, editing, rubric, and exemplars, as outlined below
Submit this assignment using the Dropbox for U1L1 essay questions
- Describe the three parts of the introductory paragraph.
- What is a thesis statement?
- What is the main purpose of the body paragraphs?
- What are the three things that a conclusion needs?
- What are two of the restrictions placed on a literary essay?
- What is one way that a quotation can be introduced into a paragraph in a literary essay?
- What are the five categories in the literary essay rubric on which you will be evaluated?
- What is the topic of the essays in the literary essay exemplars?
- What are some of the writing resources available at the University of Calgary website?
- What link will you find useful at the OWL writing strategies website
Conclusion
You have reviewed various concepts and terms relating to essay writing. Store this information in your "NOTES" binder for quick referral as you progress through this course. Create a section for the rubric, as well as a separate section for the lengthy literary essay exemplar document. You will be returning to this information often in the units ahead.
"Essay writing is perhaps ... the easiest for the author and requires little more than what is called a fluency of words and a vivacity of expression to avoid dullness; but without ... a real foundation of matter ... an essay writer is very apt, like Dogberry in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, to think that if he had the tediousness of a king, he would bestow it all upon his readers." - Sarah Fielding (1710–1768), British novelist, and Jane Collier.
Store this information in your "NOTES" binder for quick referral as you progress through this course. Create a separate section for rubrics, and add the literary exploration rubric there.