The most important part of any essay. Introductions: The most important part of any essay.

A classic terrible introduction: Hi! My name is Garry and today, I’m going to tell you everything I know about this thing called the Neolithic revolution. It was, like, the biggest change in all of human history, ‘cause you know what happened? Well, I’ll tell you! It was when people started farming for the first time!!!!! In my essay, I will talk to you about what made this revolution happen, then I’ll talk about the good stuff and the bad stuff. I hope you enjoy my essay!

I HAVE SEEN THIS GARBAGE SO MANY TIMES, IT’S UNBELIEVABLE! DON’T LAUGH! I HAVE SEEN THIS GARBAGE SO MANY TIMES, IT’S UNBELIEVABLE!

The “Road Map.” Your intro should be the road map of your essay in the sense that it tells your reader EXACTLY what they’re about to read IN THE ORDER THAT THEY WILL READ IT. Use the firstly, secondly, finally model, but don’t write about your conclusion. Start with a strong sentence about the topic, then tell your reader what you’re going to tell them.

The “Road Map.” If you’re ever not sure where to go next, re-read your introduction. Just like a road map, it will tell you what comes next. There should be nothing in your essay that’s not in your intro.

The Body: The “journey.”

The “journey.” Now that you have your road map, you can begin the body of your essay. What will you write will depend on EXACTLY what’s in your introduction. Every paragraph must have a topic sentence, evidence and (if needed) examples. T.E.E. Remember? There should be nothing in that paragraph that has nothing to do with the topic sentence.

A terrible body paragraph: I learnt that the causes of the Neolithic revolution were the increase in world temperature which made animals rarer and plants grow better, early people spilling grains and noticing crops growing, the discovery of domesticating animals, increases of population = the need for more food and soon people realised that settled life was better than hunting and gathering food to survive. What makes this paragraph terrible?

What makes it terrible? It’s all one flippin’ sentence! Used 1st person. It should be many sentences, separated with full stops. No topic sentence, no concluding or linking sentence. No elaborations at all: Just a list, nothing is explained. Terribly short.

Let’s start a better one: Give me a strong topic sentence for my causes paragraph: -The Neolithic Revolution had many causes. One of these causes was the increase in world temperature. Explain this: The world’s temperature increased, animals became rarer and plants survived better.

“Looking back” on your journey. The conclusion: “Looking back” on your journey.

Looking back on your journey: A classic bad conclusion: So that’s the story! I learnt so much doing this unit about the Neolithic Revolution and would love to find out even more about it. It’s changed my life in so many ways and I found it really interesting. Thank you for listening to my speech. I hope you loved reading this as much as I loved writing it. Thanks!!!

A good conclusion must: -Start with the words “in conclusion” or “in summary.” -Review what’s been said all throughout the essay. -Contain NO NEW INFORMATION. Look at the essays we’ve just looked at. What are the conclusions doing? What’s the effect that that has on the reader?

What is a subject that you feel you could talk about forever? Write a short essay about it. It doesn’t need to be long, just needs to make use of intro, body, conclusion. Do this on a loose-leaf piece of paper so I can collect it and have it back to you by Tuesday. While you’re doing this, I’m going to write one about something I could talk about forever.