Writing Notes
Writing Guidelines and Notes
This page is intended to aid those of you who are currently writing an essay for my class. It contains helpful information, guidelines and a brief summary of the writing methods we will use in my classes.
WHAT TO TURN IN
WHAT TO TURN IN
On the day your essay is due, you will be expected to turn in a packet consisting of the final draft and every prewriting assignment you have completed. Only the final draft of your essay may be typed. This should contain: a brainstorming exercise, a list of concrete details/facts generated to support your thesis, a pre-writing exercise such as a bubble cluster or column exercise, the first handwritten draft of your essay, two peer responses completed for your first draft, the second handwritten draft of your essay, two peer responses completed for your second draft, and your typed final draft with a title page.
All of the prewriting material should be stapled together following the order in which they were completed. The final draft will not be attached to the prewriting packet. Save yourself some money by not using a fancy report cover. These are not needed and will only get in the way. Your essay must be turned in on the due date even if you will not be present that day. You know well in advance when it is due and I expect you to make arrangements if necessary. I will deduct ten points from your grade for each day that your essay is late.
Use the checklist below before turning in your final draft.
- Use Times New Roman font, size 12.
- Double Space.
- Remember to indent your paragraphs.
- Include a title page.
- Follow the APA format. I use APA because this is the format used by most colleges and you should be familiar with it.
- Be prepared to turn in ALL of your prewriting/drafts, every scrap.
- Don't use contractions in a formal paper.
- Avoid repetition.
- The introduction and conclusion must each be four to six sentences long and contain at least forty words.
- The Introduction may follow the inverted triangle format covered in class if it is a literary analysis essay.
- The conclusion should be all commentary/opinion and provide a finished feeling to your work.
- Present all of your arguments in the body of your paper, not the introduction or conclusion.
- Ensure that your thesis is clearly stated.
- Ensure that your topic sentences support and help to prove your thesis statement.
- Avoid obvious or simplistic commentary.
- Make sure that your commentary is relevant to your topic. Irrelevant commentary is a major problem in these essays and will greatly affect your grade.
- Include insightful commentary which makes connections. I want to see INSIGHT!
- If you include a quote, explain who said it and why. Attribute all quotes.
- Check for spelling and grammar errors. Do not rely on spell check for this, there are many errors that it simply will not catch.
- Check for obvious diction or word choice mistakes. Diction is the thing I most often write comments about on finished essays. Every word matters. Your sentences must make sense and follow the rules of the English language.
- Do not use a word from a thesaurus if you are not aware of the connotations associated with that word. The thesaurus and the dictionary only give you the denotation (dictionary meaning) of a word. The connotation (implied meanings or associations) of a word may make it completely inappropriate for your sentence.
- Ensure that you have followed the format, i.e. sentence requirements, word count requirements, paragraph layouts, etc. that you were assigned. Not doing so will cost you major points.
- Ensure that each and every piece of evidence you provide is followed by at least two sentences of commentary/opinion which explain, or provide insight into, how the detail you have provided helps to prove your chosen topic.
- Avoid repetition.
- Underline or italicize book or play titles.
- Use parenthetical citations for quotes (APA format).
- Use quotation marks where necessary.
- Scan for run-on sentences and sentence fragments.
- Avoid using "This shows that..." statements in your final draft.
- Do not use words like "stuff," be specific.
- Avoid using questions, make definitive statements instead.
- Do not use "I" or "me" in a literary analysis essay. You are writing about the character's thoughts and motivations, not your own.
- Do not use you, your or yours in a literary analysis essay.
- Do not use would, should, could, may, might or seems in a literary analysis essay. These words indicate uncertainty. Sounding as though you know what you are talking about is half the battle.
- Make certain your commentary/opinion is actually that and not more concrete detail. If it appears in the text, it is a concrete detail. If it is a verifiable fact, it is a concrete detail.
- Did I mention that you should avoid repetition?
A BRIEF SUMMARY of your WRITING NOTES
Each essay written for this class will consist of four or five paragraphs. This includes the introductory paragraph, two or three body paragraphs as assigned, and the concluding paragraph.
The Introduction
The Introduction
The introductory paragraph must be from four to six sentences in length and consist of at least forty words.
Use the inverted triangle method discussed in class to construct your introductory paragraph if writing a character analysis essay. Refer to your notes. Your goal will be to start with broad statements and narrow your focus down to the thesis statement. Your introduction will be very broad in scope at the top, and will narrow to the specific point you want to make at the bottom, just like that inverted triangle.
Use the inverted triangle method discussed in class to construct your introductory paragraph if writing a character analysis essay. Refer to your notes. Your goal will be to start with broad statements and narrow your focus down to the thesis statement. Your introduction will be very broad in scope at the top, and will narrow to the specific point you want to make at the bottom, just like that inverted triangle.
- In your first sentence introduce the story and the setting. This creates the broad, all inclusive, top of the inverted triangle.
- In your second sentence, introduce the characters and establish the main conflict.
- In the third sentence, establish what role the character being analyzed plays in the complicating or unraveling of the conflict.
- Notice that the scope of your sentences is becoming narrower, building down to the point of your inverted triangle as you refer to more specific events from the story. The next sentence is called the bridge sentence because it bridges the gap between the general statements given about the story in the previous sentences and the specific point you will be making in your thesis. It will probably be the most difficult sentence to write in your introduction. Consider the actions taken by the character throughout the story when developing this sentence. What actions taken by the character relate most appropriately to your thesis statement? You may also consider writing about the the character's motivations for this sentence. It may be necessary to use more than one sentence here in order to build an adequate bridge.
- The final sentence will be your thesis, the "point" you are trying to make with your essay.
You will, at this point, have moved from a very general introduction of the literary work, in the first sentence of this paragraph, to the specific idea that you hope to prove with your thesis statement. *The thesis statement is not always the last sentence in an introduction, but for this assignment, while following this formula, it will be.
Body Paragraphs
Each body paragraph presents a point you hope to make in order to support your thesis statement. Each body paragraph will consist of a minimum of eight or eleven sentences, depending upon the assignment. You will start each body paragraph with a topic sentence, which will explain the point you hope to prove in the paragraph. Your second sentence will be a concrete detail/fact which will provide evidence to support your topic sentence. You will follow this with two sentences of commentary which explain, in your opinion, exactly how that concrete detail supports the topic sentence. (This group of one concrete detail and two sentences of commentary is called a chunk.) This will result in a total of eight sentences if you are required to include two supporting facts, and eleven sentences if you are required to include three supporting facts, when added to the topic and concluding sentences.
Still with me? Good.
You are not limited to eight or eleven sentences. These are only minimum requirements. You may add as much commentary as you deem necessary in order to explain how your facts or details help to prove your topic sentence.
Eight sentence paragraphs must contain a minimum of 100 words. Eleven sentence paragraphs must contain a minimum of 125 words.
An eight sentence paragraph will be laid out as follows:
Each body paragraph presents a point you hope to make in order to support your thesis statement. Each body paragraph will consist of a minimum of eight or eleven sentences, depending upon the assignment. You will start each body paragraph with a topic sentence, which will explain the point you hope to prove in the paragraph. Your second sentence will be a concrete detail/fact which will provide evidence to support your topic sentence. You will follow this with two sentences of commentary which explain, in your opinion, exactly how that concrete detail supports the topic sentence. (This group of one concrete detail and two sentences of commentary is called a chunk.) This will result in a total of eight sentences if you are required to include two supporting facts, and eleven sentences if you are required to include three supporting facts, when added to the topic and concluding sentences.
Still with me? Good.
You are not limited to eight or eleven sentences. These are only minimum requirements. You may add as much commentary as you deem necessary in order to explain how your facts or details help to prove your topic sentence.
Eight sentence paragraphs must contain a minimum of 100 words. Eleven sentence paragraphs must contain a minimum of 125 words.
An eight sentence paragraph will be laid out as follows:
- Topic sentence
- Supporting fact or concrete detail #1
- Commentary/opinion sentence
- Commentary/opinion sentence
- Supporting fact or concrete detail #2
- Commentary/opinion sentence
- Commentary/opinion sentence
- Concluding sentence
An eleven sentence paragraph will include an additional supporting fact and the required two sentences of commentary.
Concluding Paragraph
The concluding paragraph will be mostly opinion/commentary and will provide the "closing argument" for your essay. Do not simply repeat what you used in the introductory paragraph. Some of you were taught to do this at some point but this does not make for good writing.
Imagine that you are a lawyer with one final chance to convince a jury. The body of your essay has explained your case. What is the final statement you would present to that jury in order to make a lasting impression? How would you drive your point home? Put that statement into the conclusion.
Like the introduction, the concluding paragraph must contain at least forty words and must consist of four to six sentences.
Imagine that you are a lawyer with one final chance to convince a jury. The body of your essay has explained your case. What is the final statement you would present to that jury in order to make a lasting impression? How would you drive your point home? Put that statement into the conclusion.
Like the introduction, the concluding paragraph must contain at least forty words and must consist of four to six sentences.
The main things I will be grading for, aside from the obvious grammatical and structural concerns, will be that you have provided solid evidence to support your thesis and that you make insightful connections with your commentary. If you succeed in proving your thesis by providing solid evidence and insightful commentary, you will receive a passing grade even if you have made numerous mistakes throughout the paper. The opposite is also true. If you fail to prove your thesis you will not receive a passing grade, no matter how well written it may be. Proving your thesis statement is job number one.
Keep in mind that not all teachers will have the same expectations and requirements for writing assignments. At times there will be vast differences. Some will be very regimented and have very stringent requirements. Others will give you rein to express yourself more freely. Most will fall somewhere in the middle. The sooner you can figure out what their expectations are, and adapt your writing to fit those expectations, the better off you will be. Learning to adapt in this manner will be one of the skills you need to develop throughout the course of your education. Such a skill will serve you very well in college.