Essay Writing a beginner’s guide

What is an essay? Up to this point, you have been writing under the the guide of text types. These include: explanation review recount exposition procedure report narrative discussion

From now on, when you write a critical extended response it will be an essay. An essay most closely resembles an exposition. What are the characteristics of an exposition? What is an essay?

Why did we learn all those other text types? The reason you were taught to write in different text types was to teach you HOW different LANGUAGE STRUCTURES can ACHIEVE different OUTCOMES. Now that you know how different structures affect an audience you can use and abuse them to make your writing POWERFUL.

What are some of the language structures you know and what effect do they have?

Why does my writing need to be POWERFUL ?

In fact, WHY DO I NEED TO WRITE CRITICAL RESPONSES IN THE FIRST PLACE ?

To orangise your ideas To deeply explore your own ideas To cement your learning To learn how to present your ideas clearly, logically, and solidly in writing and conversation So you can convince other people you are right

Because clear, logical and solid arguments are how you are going to convince your family, friends, teachers, lecturers, boss, clients, and the world at large that you are right, that you know what you’re doing, that you deserve great marks, that they should trust you, that they should give you their money, that pay rise, that job, that vote and generally get what you want.

This first thing to know is that essays are all about LINKS. In fact in you think of an essay as A SERIES OF LINKS then you will be giving yourself a good start. As you do more essays you will become better at making MULTIPLE and COMPLEX links. The basics of an essay…

You need to link the content of TEXTS (be it English texts or in other subjects researchers texts) to the QUESTION, to your IDEAS. Later on, you will need to add in another link to lenses through which you look at texts, but that’s not until next year… The basics of an essay…

In an essay, you are TELLING the audience that you are right. Which of the following language forms and features will help you to do this? Person: 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd Tense: future, present, past Voice: active, passive Register: formal, informal

The best way to think of the structure of your essay is this: It is the FRAMEWORK on which your ARGUMENTS and EVIDENCE are hung. The framework is what gives your essay a COHESIVE and LOGICAL shape. If you look in your marking criteria, these are always important essay features. The basics of an essay…

An essay is structured in the following paragraphs… The basics of an essay… Introduction Argument 2 Conclusion Argument 1 Argument 3 Body

Introduction What is the purpose of an introduction? What links is an introduction made up of? What language forms, features and structures do you know, which will achieve this purpose?

Body What is the purpose of the body of your essay? What links is a body paragraph made up of? What language forms, features and structures will achieve these aims?

The structure of EACH body paragraph PEEL which stands for… Point: your idea, which SUPPORTS your argument Example: THOUGHTFULLY selected from the text Explanation: how does your example PROVE your point? Link to question Body

Applying PEEL to Burton How would you write a paragraph about Tim Burton using PEEL?

Conclusion What is the purpose of a conclusion? What links is a conclusion made up of? What language forms, features and structures do you know, which will achieve this purpose?

And last but not least… Remember: an essay does not pop out of your head fully formed and perfect in every way like Athena and Nike out of the head of Zeus. You are not, believe it or not, a god. An essay is a PROCESS. You need to PLAN and EDIT essays. Essays are CREATIVE and CRAFTED.

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