Planning and Drafting an Essay
Writing
a competent essay takes work – and writing a good essay takes even more
work. The steps below should help make the process easier.
Organization
Here you'll work on planning out your ideas.
- After choosing question, re-read poem/s.
- Type
out words/lines that seem related to your question/topic and group them down
into categories, labeling each group with a key word or phrase
- Looking
over the quotes you've chosen and/or your notes, write a list of
different reasons which support your answer, and then look for evidence
(quotes) to support these reasons. Take your time: work through
choosing the quotes to make sure they support your point.
- Construct thesis statement (see Thesis and Topic Sentences)
to organize your thoughts and guide readers through your argument, and
then construct an outline (see below) with reasons and evidence.
- Arrange the information: several options here
- Reasons and Evidence sheet: download the following for fill in the blank organizers PDF for hand writing; RTF for typing
- Copying and pasting thesis four times and breaking down into topic sentences (we'll review this in class)
- Conventional outline: I. a) i)
- Concept Mapping: Idea Tree: see Basics of mind/concept mapping for more.
Drafting
-
Using your rough outline/Reasons and Evidence sheet, start drafting
essay. Start with the thesis statement and then develop your body
paragraphs using the examples/arguments from reasons and evidence sheet
to back up your topic sentences.
Remember
you can start your draft anywhere: once your thesis is set, you can
dive right into your body paragraphs and come back later for your
introduction. |
- Remember to form your body paragraphs around topic sentences (Thesis and Topic Sentences)
that make a claim (use your reasons as topic sentences), and then work
from quotes to back up your assertion (I often type out the quotes I
may use separately, then insert them as needed).
- Your
purpose is to explain the quotes in detail: not summarize what they
literally say, but how specific, individual words (and their
connotations), convey the point you are trying to make. Be sure to introduce words/phrases by using context to set them up -- this will also set up your argument.
Explaining Yourself
-
After writing down quote, tell readers how it supports the topic
sentence/thesis by explaining – out loud – exactly how and why it does
indeed back up your argument.
- Break down an
important quote into parts and describe how the connotations/meanings
of individual words support your reading of the passage, and compare it
to other patterns/ideas or quotes in the story.
- Discuss how the tone (angry, sad, amused, sarcastic) of a particular passage contributes to the meaning.
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-
Write introductory paragraph: answer the question "what are you talking
about?" Remember to include author's name and poem's title – underline
novels and long short stories, use quotation marks for short stories and poems.
- Write conclusion paragraph: answer the question "what's it all mean?".
- Come up with five possible titles, and choose the best one. Make title a reflection of your own focus.
- You're done: take a break. When you come to class we'll start on revisions.
Yes this is formulaic; yes it can help; your call.
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© David Bordelon 2015 |