how to write a sucsessful essay · web viewthis booklet is meant to teach you the difference...

Unpacking a prompt

Tave Students’ Writing Pamphlet 2019

Table of Contents

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Purpose of this booklet:

This booklet is meant to teach you the difference between argumentative and informative essays. It is also meant to show you how to unpack a prompt, properly use transitions, how to place evidence and elaboration in your essay, and it will show you how to frame your essay so you can get the best possible outcome.

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Table of Contents:1.Planning.

2.Introduction

3. 5 Inspirational Quotes

4. Informative writing page

5. Argumentative writing page

6. conclusion.

7.Overall booklet design.

8. Proofread and Editing

9. Unpacking a prompt

10. Essay time management

11. Framing

12. Transitions

13. Transition words

14. Elaboration

15. Citing evidence

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Unpacking The Prompt How to unpack a prompt?

What helps and what needs to be done:

Sometimes prompts can lead to a possible thesis statement.

Figuring out what you are going to talk about (takes about a minute).

Understand the following:

The Purpose: The type of essay you are writing. It may be opinion, explanatory, or informative.

The Writing Task: What you are writing about. The task could have more than one part. (they should be addressed in your essay).

Breaking the prompt into chunks:

The is often a general statement about the passage’s main topic.

Words or phrases signal the writing mode in the writing task statement.

Key words: argue, argumentative, take position, informational, explain.

It is imperative that you consider the writing expectation to develop your controlling idea.

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PlanningWhat is planning?

Strategies used to help you plan your writing. Used to manage your time Improve the quality of your writing.

How do you plan? You can use a variety of ways to plan Bullet points Chart Graphic organizer Sequence of events Cause to effect

Why should you plan? It helps promote the quality of your writing. Helps you manage your time wisely Helps you find more supportive evidence Helps you write more logically and enhances your elaboration.

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This is a great example of a good planning for an essay. Each of the burger parts is a good example of what you need to do when writing an essay. This will help you get a 4 on the FSA and help you meet standard and exceed the standard.

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Essay Time Management

- Identify the prompt and know what it is asking you to do. Know what type of essay you will be writing and what the main focus is.

- Plan ahead and stay on task, keeping the main idea in your mind at all times.

- Save time to revise, edit, and read over your essay (proof-reading).

- Annotate the text so it is easy for you to come back and clearly find key points to support you essay.

- Leave space in case there is something you would like to add to your writing when proof-reading.

- Manage the amount of time you want to take to complete each paragraph and your planning.

- Only make a plan and a final draft (no rough draft)

- Don’t waste time by overthinking or procrastinating

- The counterclaim and conclusion are essential to a passing score, so finish

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those if you have little time left. Obviously, if you can, after you complete those, then go back to your body paragraphs.

- Always make sure to write a conclusion!The Introduction:

- Must hook the reader with one of the following:o Thought provoking question (NOT, Did

you know? Have you ever? Or Yes/No questions)

o Interesting Facto Quoteo Exampleo Anecdoteo Details/Imagery

- Should include some background information- Must state the Source of the information

o Either Source 1, Source 2, etc.o Title and author of each text

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- Must state the thesis (informative) or claim (argumentative)

- Should not use the first-person or second-person pronouns (you, your).

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INFORMATIVE WRITINGInformative writing aims to teach the reader about a certain topic. This form of writing gives facts instead of persuading the reader with beliefs and opinions. Informational writing is a form of nonfiction writing that displays factual information, many examples of this writing can be found in newspapers and reference books.

TIPS:NO OPINION!When writing an informative essay, you should not include your opinion only facts! Although when you write an argumentative essay you include your opinion.

STRUCTURE!When writing an informative essay, you should also have an introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This is important because it allows you to include all information you need in your essay in a neat and organized way.

PLANNING!Before writing your essay, it is very vital that you plan. Some great ways to plan is to use a web diagram, or a graphic organizer. This will ensure that all the key details that relate to the prompt will be included in you drafted essay.

ELABORATION!Elaboration is key to a descriptive and detailed essay. Without elaboration you cannot get anything higher than a one or two on

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evidence and elaboration. With much elaboration the reader will get a clear view to what your trying to say. If you only cite evidence, you may leave the reader puzzled.

TRANSITIONS!Using transitions will allow the essay to flow nicely.

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Argumentative Writing An argumentative essay is an essay the persuades the reader on

the authors point of view.

Argumentative essays give evidence to support a claim and doesn’t have a tone.

In a strong argumentative essay, the statement is backed up with reasons, facts, and examples.

An argumentative essay needs a counterclaim, evidence, and supporting points.

The basic structure of an argumentative essay is introduction, thesis, supporting points, counter claim, and conclusion.

Strong arguments begin with an interesting statement about the subject, gives relevant facts and details as support, are clearly and logically organized, and makes since to the reader.

Step 1: Starting Your Essay-

When reading a prompt, you need to pick a side to support. This is what you are going to write your essay about. You need to make sure you strongly express your opinion and give facts and evidence towards why you support this idea/topic.

Step 2: While Writing-

When you are writing your essay make sure you do the following steps

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Make a strong claim in your introduction (don’t forget a hook)

Maintain your opinion clearly throughout essay

Include evidence and elaboration throughout essay as to why your idea is better

Make sure you include a counter-claim acknowledging their claim while explaining why it is wrong

Include a conclusion to sum up your ideas in your essay

Step 3: Counter-Claim Paragraph-

MUST address the opposing argument and say why that argument is wrong

Do not use evidence in the counter-claim paragraph

You should only refute the opposing idea

Use background knowledge from what you already know

Step 4: Editing and revising-

Always remember to go back and read your essay to look for mistakes

Make sure words are not repeated and grammar is correct

Make sure your essay is easy to read with neat hand writing

Be sure to have good transitions throughout the essay

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FRAMING Framing is a strategy in which you conclude

using the same/similar hooking strategy that you placed in the introduction.

If you used an interesting fact to open, that same fact should be used in the conclusion.

If you used descriptive words to open, then you’d mention them in the conclusion.

Capture your reader’s attention. Try to make a good first impression. Make your readers want to keep reading.

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TRANSITIONS

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Transitions lead readers from one idea to the next. They normally connect pieces of evidence to strong elaboration. Transitions are used within a sentence, across sentences, and across paragraphs.

There are multiple different types of transitions including comparisons, contrasts, causes and effects, order of importance, location, and time order.

In the text-based writing essay rubric it states, “Skillful use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas.” In order to get a 4 on Purpose Focus and Organization you must be able to skillfully uses transitions. The goal is to use transitional sentences to connect your ideas together.

To start off Research show Also, Not withstanding Similarly In reference to To conclude In addition to On the other hand Needless to say Since


TRANSITIONS Transitions are words and phrases that provide connections

between ideas, sentences, and paragraphs. Transitions help to make a piece of writing flow better. They can turn disconnected pieces of ideas into a unified whole and prevent a reader from getting lost in the story line.

Transitions they help your readers get from one place to another as they read.

Transitions guide your readers through your ideas and keep them from keeping confused.

There are many different situations in which a transition is needed. They help the text to “flow”.

Some transitions are helpful contrasting ideas showing differences between them

Other transitions can be used to show cause and effect relationships, describe order of importance, or indicate spatial relationships

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Transitions lead readers from one idea to the next. They normally connect pieces of evidence to strong elaboration. Transitions are used within a sentence, across sentences, and across paragraphs.

There are multiple different types of transitions including comparisons, contrasts, causes and effects, order of importance, location, and time order.

In the text-based writing essay rubric it states, “Skillful use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas.” In order to get a 4 on Purpose Focus and Organization you must be able to skillfully uses transitions. The goal is to use transitional sentences to connect your ideas together.

To start off Research show Also, Not withstanding Similarly In reference to To conclude In addition to On the other hand Needless to say Since


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ELABORATION

Elaboration is explaining how evidence provides/supports your claim.Writers use elaboration to provide support details or to expand upon an idea. It helps to clarify ideas, intensify a scene or provide vivid details. Some ways you can elaborate are anecdotes, examples, definitions, facts, statistics, quotations, dialogue, and descriptive details. Elaboration uses specific words, phrases, and clauses. You can extend on your evidence by adding relative information like opinions from others, instances, or facts. Elaboration is explaining your evidence. DO NOT... -be repetitive of your evidence -use the same techniques to elaborate DO... -extend upon evidence by implying its connection to your reason or fact -use a variety of elaborative techniques (as said before, you can use anecdotes, statistics, and etc.)

The goal is to make it more detailed and interesting by telling your reader more. Develop and support your idea by your elaboration. Now, go and spice up your writing!

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ElaborationThe process of developing or presenting a theory, policy, or system in further detail.

Elaboration means simply "adding details." We elaborate on thoughts and ideas every day. For example, suppose a friend says, "I'm leaving school early today." How might you respond?

Why is elaboration needed?Writers use elaboration to provide supporting details or to expand upon an idea.

For example, say you receive an invitation that states, "You're invited to Lupe's birthday party." What details would you wonder about? You'd probably like to know when and where the party will take place.

The writer of the invitation needs to elaborate. Important details are missing.

When to elaborate…In the first draft of a writing assignment, it's helpful to focus on getting out your main ideas. Then, as you read through your first draft, try to figure out where more details are needed. The revising step of the writing process is a good time to add supporting, specific, and sensory details. These details will strengthen your writing and make it more engaging for readers. Elaboration is an important feature in all forms of writing.

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Citing Evidence

The Basics:

Quotations should be taken word by word from the text Gather the information from the text needed to provide quality evidence Your evidence can either be opinion from a person or fact from the text

Citing:

Recognize key points throughout the text-As you read, notice key details and points that contribute to the essay

As you read make notes-When making notes you are already helping yourself analyze the text

Identify how the author uses evidence-Authors may also use evidence in their writing

Ask yourself what evidence you need-How much? What type; positive or negative?

Identify the best textual formula-Eliminate “fluff”, identify the strongest evidence in the text

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Citing Evidence   

These are some tips to help you become a better writer by citing evidence better. First are some tips from our notes. 

1. State where you got the evidence from. Talk about where you got it from, for example which line, paragraph, and which source. 

2.Never use personal thought as evidence.  3. Use quotes as evidence. Quotes have exact references to the

source.  4. Must be strong and support your claim. No point in evidence if it

does not support your claim.  5. You must have two pieces of evidence per paragraph.

Next are some tips from research. (Not ones we learned in class.)  1. Explain why your evidence is strong. Explain why it supports

your idea well.  2. Notice key details in the text. Some details just pop out and

they could be used for your essay.   3. Know where to look. When citing evidence knowing where

your evidence might be is very helpful. It makes it very time efficient to do this.

Now you have mastered one standard of becoming an excellent writer.

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Conclusion

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You did it! Now, you can successfully use these

tips & tricks to help you write any kind of essay

So, remember to:-include an introduction with your thesis, and

background knowledge -include 2 to 3 body paragraphs that explain

your topic or point of view-add transitions throughout

-use proper grammar -edit and revise

-finish with a strong conclusion using the framing technique

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Parting Words:

Thanks for reading our booklet. To keep this paragraph shorter, we will refer to the booklet as “The Book”. In case you forgot, The Book is supposed to help you improve your writing for the upcoming tests. If you have The Book, then you are probably one of the ones who needs some help with their writing. The Book hopefully helped you improve your writing skills. We went over subjects such as transitions, informative writing, argumentative writing, and other things that will help you in the tests. The Book was made by the different class periods of Ms. Tave’s English Class. To conclude, The Book is a multi-use pamphlet that should help you prepare you for the tests, reinforce already known knowledge, and help you succeed in all things English. Thanks, Ms. Tave’s Class

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how to write a sucsessful essay · web viewthis booklet is meant to teach you the difference...

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