* Introduction: Be Brief; give some suggestion of the direction you intend to take in your essay. Indicate the aspects of the book you intend to deal with.
* Paragraphing: In your plan you should identify very clearly around six distinct points you intend to make and the specific parts of the text that you intend to examine in some detail. When writing your essay you should devote one or two paragraphs to each point. Try to make smooth links between paragraphs.
* Evidence: When you make a point - you must prove it. Just as a lawyer in court must produce evidence to support his case, so you must produce evidence to prove the comments you make about characters, relationships, themes, style etc. When you make a point, refer to the text. give an example to support what you say. Better still, use a quote.
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Quotes: Remember to lay out quotes correctly. Start a new line and indent like this:
“quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote”
Remember to introduce the quote with a colon and use quotation marks. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for category mass media essay
Literature Essay
Oct 29
Classification Essay
Oct 29
What is a Classification Essay?
In a classification essay, a writer organizes, or sorts, things into categories.
Three Steps to Effective Classification:
1. Sort things into useful categories.
2. Make sure all the categories follow a single organizing principle.
3. Give examples that fit into each category.
Finding Categories
This is a key step in writing a classification essay. To classify, or sort, things in a logical way, find the categories to put them into. For example, say you need to sort the stack of papers on your desk. Before you would put them in random piles, you would decide what useful categories might be: papers that can be thrown away; papers that need immediate action; papers to read; papers to pass on to other coworkers; or papers to file.
Thesis Statement of a Classification Essay
The thesis statement usually includes the topic and how it is classified. Sometimes the categories are named.
(topic)…(how classified)…(category) (category) (category)
Ex: Tourists in Hawaii can enjoy three water sports: snorkeling, surfing, and sailing.
How to Write an Effective Classification Essay
1. Determine the categories. Read the rest of this entry »
Essay Contests
Oct 29
Are you a writer? You may be able to win cash, scholarships, trips, and other awards with your essay-writing abilities. There are many contests out there that address a wide variety of topics. Why not enter a competition today?
Contest rules will vary significantly, and some may contain important information about possible restrictions, so be sure to read all individual rules carefully. Please note that most of these competitions require that participants be citizens of the United States.
1. NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund
The NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund(NRACRDF) is holding an essay competition to encourage students to recognize the Second Amendment as an integral part of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The theme for the essay is “The Second Amendment to the Constitution: Why it is important to our nation.” Students can win up to $1000 in savings bonds.
2. Confronting Crimes Against Humanity
The United States Institute of Peace offers a contest on “confronting crimes against humanity.” Those interested are prompted to discuss “how international actors (the UN, regional organizations, governments, and/or non-governmental organizations) can improve their capacity to implement the responsibility to protect civilians from crimes against humanity during conflict.” The deadline is February 1, 2009.
3. In Darwin’s Footsteps
The Alliance for Science sponsors a contest called “In Darwin’s Footsteps” in which students are encouraged to “write about a person or group who is expanding the horizons of knowledge today, and show how their work reflects the values and principles Darwin demonstrated during his life. Read the rest of this entry »
Lesson Three: Short Essays
Oct 29
Some schools require you to write a series of short essays rather than submit a single personal statement. If this is the case for you, then you should consider the impact that your essay set will have as a whole. You need to balance the structure and content of the set as much as you do within each essay individually. Yet, with these challenges come several advantages. More essays means more opportunity to sell yourself. Multiple essays give you ample space to do justice to all the different areas of your life, avoiding the pitfall of cramming too many points into one essay. And, you can take more risks being creative in one essay, while providing other traditional essays, thus appealing to readers with different tastes.
When you are required to answer multiple questions, there is often a strict word limit for each answer. But even though each essay is short, each one requires as much attention as long essays. The best way to approach a short essay is to write a regular, full-length essay and then cut it down. Let yourself write as long as you feel inspired, without time limits or length constraints. After you have the ideas on paper, go back and look for the pieces of gold buried under all of the words. Begin by reducing the introduction and the conclusion from one paragraph to one sentence each. Read the rest of this entry »
Introduction
The easiest way to sabotage all the work you have done so far is to skip this lesson. Writing is as much a discipline as it is an art, and to ensure that your essays flow well and make sense, you need to construct solid outlines before you write. Unless you conscientiously impose structure around your ideas, your essay will be rambling and ineffective. An outline should make sense on its own; the ideas should follow logically in the order that you list them. As you add content around these main points, these words should support and reinforce the logic of the outline. Finally, the outline should conclude with an insightful thought or image. Make sure that the rest of your outline reinforces this conclusion.
The body paragraphs should consist of events, experiences, and activities you have already organized in chronological order or in order of importance. In many of the essays that our editors read, the order of paragraphs seems to have been chosen at random. Make clear why one point follows another: each point in your outline should connect with the next; each main category should be linked to your introduction or thesis; and each sub-category should be linked to the main category. As you make your outline you should be able to see where there are holes in your essay.
Continue on to descriptions and examples of various essay structures, a sample outline and essay, short essay strategies and samples.
The following structures are demonstrated and discussed:
*Example Structure
* Compare and Contrast
* Narrative or Chronological Structure
* Descriptive Structure
* Cause-and-Effect
Example Structure
The Example Structure follows the rules of a traditional academic essay: begin with a main argument or thesis statement, follow this with three pieces of evidence that support the argument, and wrap up by stating what the essay has shown. Read the rest of this entry »
Introduction
Choosing an essay topic can be one of the most difficult aspects of the entire admissions process. Questions often ask you to think about your entire life, pick just one thing, and talk about it in great depth. Even the most reflective writers are left wondering: “How am I supposed to know the ONE event that has changed my life or the one thing that represents my entire personality.” In all likelihood there isn’t just one. But there probably is one that you can write about most passionately and effectively. The most important part of your entire essay is finding this one subject. Without a topic you feel passionate about, without one that brings out the defining aspects of you personality, you risk falling into the trap of sounding like the 90 percent of applicants who will write boring admissions essays. Coming up with this idea is difficult and will require a great deal of time. But whatever you do, don’t let this part stress you out. Have fun!
EXERCISE #1: BRAINSTORMING
First please complete our Brainstorming Worksheet. The worksheet is a .PDF file and requires the free Adobe Acrobat viewer. If you do not yet have the free viewer, please click here to download it. Read the rest of this entry »