W RITING AN E XCELLENT 5-P ARAGRAPH E SSAY …

W HAT IS A TEACHER LOOKING FOR IN AN ESSAY ? Meaning Language Conventions Organization Development

W HAT IS “ MEANING ?” This is exactly what it sounds like. Your teacher looks at your essay to make sure it makes sense and actually has meaning. An essay should be logical and it should be obvious what you are trying to prove.

W HAT IS LANGUAGE ? Use the right word! Don’t use a big word if you don’t know what it means. Use a variety of words. Try not to use the same word over and over. It makes your writing boring. Use a variety of sentence structures. Don’t start all your sentences the same way. Being graded on “language” means your teacher evaluates the words you use in your essay and how you put them together.

W HAT ARE CONVENTIONS ? Conventions are the standard rules of the English language. Teachers and readers look at your writing to see how closely you followed all the rules of: Grammar Spelling Punctuation Formatting

W HAT IS ORGANIZATION ? Develop a clear thesis. Develop 3 excellent topic sentences that prove your thesis. Stay on topic within each paragraph as you prove your topic sentence. Make clear and meaningful transitions between ideas and paragraphs. Perhaps the most important part of writing an essay is keeping it organized. There are four important things you must do to have an organized essay.

W HAT IS A THESIS ? A thesis is a provable statement that tells what your whole essay will be about. A quality thesis states opinion as fact. An excellent thesis is clear, concise and easy for your reader to understand. Your thesis will become the last sentence in your introduction. Your thesis should be the right size. If it is too narrow, you won’t be able to write five whole paragraphs about it. If your thesis is too big, you will fail to actually prove it in five paragraphs.

W HAT IS A TOPIC SENTENCE ? The first sentence of each body paragraph should be a topic sentence. The topic sentence should prove the thesis! If the topic sentence does not prove the thesis… it is no good and you should think of a new one. Your job as a writer is to prove each topic sentence, thus proving the thesis!

I S THIS AN EXCELLENT THESIS ? “The most important quality of a good student is that he/she knows a lot about Shakespeare.” No! This is more like a topic sentence. It is too narrow. It would be very difficult to write 5 whole paragraphs about this topic.

H OW ABOUT THIS ? “An excellent student must be very smart.” This isn’t very good either. This is too vague and broad. We need a thesis somewhere in the middle of these two.

L IKE THIS …. In order to be an excellent student, the individual must possess not only the qualities of curiosity and determination, but also a keen work ethic.

O NCE YOU HAVE A THESIS AND THREE POINTS THAT PROVE THE THESIS … You are well on your way to having an organized essay! Just make sure you stay on topic within your paragraph! If your topic sentence is that a good student must have a strong work ethic, that is THE ONLY THING you can write about in that paragraph! Stay focused on your topic!!

T HAT JUST LEAVES D EVELOPMENT ! A developed essay has enough evidence in each paragraph to prove the topic sentence. A good rule to follow is that you need to present and analyze three pieces of evidence to prove a topic sentence.

I F YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ALL OF THESE ELEMENTS … Meaning Language Conventions Organization Development

Y OU CAN WRITE EXCELLENT 5 PARAGRAPH ESSAYS FOR YOUR SUMMER READING TEST !!

SUMMER READING TEST~F ORMAT You will need to write two five paragraph essays (one for each book) for your summer reading test. Each essay will be graded on Meaning, Development, Organization, Language and Conventions. Essay Topics ~ Each essay topic will include a famous quotation. You will need to apply the quotation to your specific readings in order to write the essay.

W RITE DOWN THESE TWO QUOTATIONS : “I like flawed characters because somewhere in them I see more of the truth.” — Nicolas Cage “All literature is protest. You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.” — Richard Wright

P RACTICE E SSAY O UTLINE Using one of the quotations as a focus for your outline, create a clear and compelling thesis statement about one of your summer readings. When you are finished, I will come check your work before you move on to Topic Sentences.