10 Mastering Essays

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English Language Arts:

Writing Process

Page 099 from Write for College

Focusing Your Efforts

This page helps students begin—understanding the assignment and narrowing the broad subject area to a specific topic and focus.

Make sure that students understand the PAST questions. They help to capture the rhetorical situation of any writing assignment, so students will use them in all of their writing and nonfiction reading. In essence, these questions help student think of reading and writing as forms of communication, the Purposeful transfer of information to an Audience about a Subject using a specific Type of medium.

Have students use the PAST questions to analyze a writing assignment of your choosing. If you don't have an assignment in mind, you can use the following prompt.

"I just couldn't live without . . ." How would you finish that sentence? Literal-minded people might say, "I just couldn't live without oxygen." Others might say, "I just couldn't live without family" or ". . . friends" or ". . . music" or ". . . sports." Complete that sentence with a word or phrase, and write an essay that explains and defends your statement to your classmates.

After they analyze the assignment, tell students they will be writing an essay in response to it. (If students are answering the prompt above, have them start by completing the sentence. If students have trouble choosing something they could not live without, direct them to the "Basics of Life" minilesson, which provides many general subjects as starting points.)

Lead students through the process of narrowing their general subjects to specific topics and finally arriving at a focus.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.10.C, 110.38.c.5.J, 110.39.c.5.J

NE ELA Standard:

LA 12.2.1.b, LA 12.2.2.a

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Writing Process Prewriting Strong Ideas

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Page 100 from Write for College

Forming a Thesis Statement

The thesis statement expresses the focus in one or two sentences. Teach students the two-part approach on this page, which works not only for thesis statements (the controlling sentences of essays) but also for topic sentences (the controlling sentences of paragraphs). The thesis statement should name the topic and some feature about it (a specific thought, feeling, claim, or purpose).

Lead students through the example thesis statements. Then have them write their own thesis statements based on the focuses they found as they worked on page 99.

Finally, provide students with the Checklist for a Thesis Statement so that they can evaluate their work. Have them discuss their statements and evaluations with writing partners.

Downloads:

Checklist for a Thesis Statement

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.10.C, 110.38.c.5.J, 110.39.c.5.J

NE ELA Standard:

LA 12.2.1.b, LA 12.2.2.a

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Writing Process Prewriting Strong Ideas

English Language Arts:

Page 101 from Write for College

Planning and Organizing Your Essay

Show your students that the organization of essays depends on their purpose. A narrative essay and an argument essay follow very different patterns. Explanatory essays of different stripes—cause-effect, classification, comparison-contrast, report—each have different patterns as well.

Use this page as an index to different patterns of organization and exemplary models in this handbook.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Writing Process Prewriting Logical Organization

English Language Arts:

Page 102 from Write for College

Establishing a Pattern of Development

Use this page to teach students how their thesis statements can launch the development of their essays. Read through the first thesis statement, and ask students what pattern of development it suggests. Then read the discussion afterward. Do the same for the second thesis statement.

Then have students return to the thesis statements they wrote on page 101. If the statement suggests a pattern of development, have the student write a brief paragraph about that pattern. If the thesis statement doesn't suggest a pattern, have the student revise it to do so, and then write a paragraph about the pattern.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Writing Process Prewriting Logical Organization

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Page 103 from Write for College

Outlining Your Ideas

Students often dislike outlining. If an outline is required, they often write it after they finish the essay. However, for some students, outlining is a helpful step in thinking through ideas. For all students, outlines are easier if they aren't so formal.

Teach students how to create a quick list—write a thesis statement and then jot notes below about support. They will use this very quick, informal outlining technique when they write on-demand essays (free-response questions, document-based questions, high stakes essay responses, and so on).
Then show students that a topic outline is just a slightly more thoughtful quick list.
Demonstrate that a sentence outline is just a topic outline with full sentences.

Demystifying outlines helps students use this technique for different contexts and purposes.

Ask students to organize their essay responses by creating a quick list, a topic outline, or a sentence outline.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Writing Process Prewriting Logical Organization

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Page 104 from Write for College

Writing the Initial Drafts

Help students understand that their first drafts don't have to be perfect. They are just opportunities to get their ideas down in a first form.

Breaking the draft into parts—opening, body, conclusion—also makes the process more manageable. Each part does a different job.

Use this page to help students understand the job of the opening paragraph—to get the reader's attention and lead up to the thesis statement. Suggest strategies for grabbing reader interest, and indicate intros to avoid. Then have students write their own opening paragraphs, experimenting with strategies and leading to their thesis statements.

You can provide sample openings by directing students to page 105.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Page 105 from Write for College

Sample Openings

Direct students to the sample openings on this page, which show different intro strategies:

Sharing a shocking statistic
Providing an anecdote
Giving background about a problem

These opening paragraphs also demonstrate ways to lead to the thesis statement. They show a sophistication of ideas and development that students should seek to emulate in their own writing.

Encourage students to page through the Forms of Writing section of their handbooks (pages 133–255) to find more example openings.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Explanatory Writing Response to Literature

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English Language Arts:

Page 106 from Write for College

Developing Your Main Points

This page shows middle paragraphs from the essays introduced on the previous page. Each paragraph starts with a topic sentence that names a main point in support of the thesis. The body sentences of each paragraph in turn support the topic sentences with a variety of details.

Have a volunteer read each paragraph aloud, and then discuss the topic sentence and types of details. Ask students how these types of details help the writer to achieve the purpose of the essay.

Then have students write their own body paragraphs.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Explanatory Writing Response to Literature

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English Language Arts:

Page 107 from Write for College

Writing the Closing

Once students have written the body of their essays, the closing should come fairly naturally. It is the opportunity for the writer to reflect back on what has been said. The main point of a closing is to draw the ideas of the writing together into a form that readers can take along with them.

Have a volunteer read each sample closing. Ask students what the writer is doing in the closing. Ask how the different closing techniques give readers something different to think about.

Then have students write closings for their own essays.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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Explanatory Writing Response to Literature

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English Language Arts:

Page 108 from Write for College

Improving Your Writing

Revising looks at the big traits of writing: ideas and organization. Changes to these traits make large-scale improvements to writing. As revisions continue, writers also begin to focus on voice, word choice, and sentence fluency.

Editing looks at conventions and design: a final polish for correctness and a final pass to make sure all elements of design help express the ideas and fit the parameters of the assignment.

Provide students with the Checklist for Revising and Editing to guide their work in improving their essays.

Downloads:

Checklist for Revising and Editing

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.C, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.C

NE ELA Standard:

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