Essay Writing Notes

Critical Essay Notes

Essay Writing Notes

 

Format:  Five-paragraph essay

Before you can begin to write your essay you should develop your thesis.  Please refer to the THESIS WRITING NOTES.

When you hand in your edited essay, please highlight or underline your thesis.

Paragraph one: Introduction

       An introduction is generally composed of a topic sentence, thesis and the three ideas that you will be expanding upon in your body paragraphs.

Topic Sentence:  A topic sentence introduces the topic or prompt you are given, gives the title of the text(s) you will be using in your essay AND the author of the text.

Introduce supporting evidence:  The next 3-4 sentences generally outline the supports you will be using in your body paragraphs one, two and three.

Thesis:  The thesis statement is the backbone of the essay.  If you don’t have a viable thesis you will struggle to write the rest of your essay because you won’t be proving anything.

A thesis should be debatable and have two components:  WHAT AND WHY.  Many students create thesis statements that address the “what”, but not the “why”.

A thesis statement is NOT a fact, a personal opinion or a personal observation; it is an assertion.  You are putting forth an idea about the topic and you will be using evidence from the text to prove your thesis.

What are you suggesting about the text/topic?  Why are you suggesting it?

An example of an opinion-based thesis is: 

“Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel”  (This is an opinion and not a thesis.)

An example of a “WHAT” thesis is:

“Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore”  (It shows the what but not the why. Why does that matter? )

If you write a “WHAT” thesis you can ask yourself the following questions to inspire you to finish it:

Why is it significant?  To what extent did this impact plot development? How does it reveal motives, characterization, ideals or themes?  So what?  Who cares?

An example of a “WHAT AND WHY” thesis is:

“Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American ideals, one must leave ‘civilized’ society and go back to nature”

This is a proper thesis statement.  It covers both the “what” and “why” of the topic and the text and the reader will have a clear idea of what the essay is going to be about.

Body Paragraphs

There are generally three body paragraphs in a literary essay at the high school level.  The purpose of the body paragraph is to elaborate on the three points of support you have chosen to illustrate your thesis.  The topics of the three body paragraphs could be three different characters, three different events, ideologies or different examples of one characters’ behavior.

When appropriate, you should include quotations from the text to illustrate your points and use specific examples from the text.  You should also include a works cited page. (SEE MLA FORMAT NOTES)

Paragraph five: Conclusion

A conclusion includes a restatement of the thesis using different words than you used it the introduction.  It includes a synthesis of the main supporting evidence of your three body paragraphs.  Your wording should be confident and concise. You can end the conclusion with a definitive overarching statement that synthesizes the theme of your essay.

Do not introduce a new idea or concept into the conclusion and do not begin your conclusion with “in conclusion or to summarize” as this is redundant. 

Do not put a quotation or supporting evidence in your conclusion.  If you end your essay and find you have more to say then you can write an additional body paragraph or use these ideas to augment your arguments from your other body paragarphs

Rules for Essay Writing

• Do not use contractions or slang (write out ‘cannot’, instead of using ‘can’t’)
• Properly cite all of your text quotations or anything you have paraphrased from an outside course
• Do not summarize the plot.  Assume the reader is familiar with the text and use plot points from the text to illustrate your point, but do not summarize.
• Do not use flowery, dramatic or hyperbolic language in a critical essay. (ie.  “Since the dawn of time, man has struggled with the overpowering allure of danger…”- this reads more like a review than a critical essay)
• Do not write in the first person at all in a critical essay.
• Do not give opinions (I think or I believe….)
• Do not narrate the essay (“We can see from this character’s behavior that he is avoiding the consequences of his actions”.  Instead of using “we”, use “the reader can see”, or “the author reveals”)
• Indent paragraphs, do not put a space in between them.
• Title your essay (the title should not just be the title of the text, it should be about the topic/theme you are exploring
• Essays should be double-spaced
• Essay must be edited carefully before submission
• Use 12 point font
• Use Arial or Times New Roman font