1. Reviewing The Basic Parts of an Essay
First Paragraph: Introduction
The purpose of an introduction is to set your reader up for the rest of the essay:
Catch your reader’s attention, and get them interested in the topic.
Give the some BREIF background on the topic if they need it to understand your main idea.
Give them your main idea (thesis) that you will be expanding on and supporting in the rest of the essay.
Your Thesis for this essay needs to make a clear statement about you’re experience as it is connected to reading, writing, and identity.

2. Body Paragraphs This is the main part of your essay.
This is where you expand on your topic and support you thesis with vivid description, background and explanations, outside support, and logic.
Remember the Rhetorical Triangle: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. What might these three things look like in this Essay?
Organize your body paragraphs so that each body paragraph has a main point that connects to the main point (thesis) of your entire essay.
Make sure that the paragraphs are organized in a logical manner. Remember: you can move your paragraphs around!

3. Last Paragraph: Conclusion
The purpose of a conclusion is to conclude your essay in a way that lets your reader understand in a BREIF FORM what they have just read.
Imagine it this way: You have just taken your reader on a journey in your essay. The purpose of the intro is to give your reader a mental "map" or preview of where you are going to take them.
The purpose of the conclusion is to show them where they have been, yes, but also to emphasize the basic essential points you want them to walk away with. What do you really want them to remember and think about AFTER they are finished reading? Why does it matter? THAT is the purpose of a conclusion.

4. Work Cited page:
Is required and NOT OPTIONAL whenever you do ANY outside research or get any information from anyone other than yourself.
Needs to be correctly formatted in MLA style.
If we need to review MLA style futher, we can do that, just let me know.
Keep in mind that your textbook has a very helpful and detailed guide on how to do this. You don’t really have an excuse for not looking it up yourself.

5. Organizing Paragraphs: The Topic Sentence
Your topic sentence introduces the main idea of your paragraph.
A topic sentence has two parts: a topic an a controlling idea.
Your topic is what the paragraph is about.
Your controlling idea is the opinion or idea about the topic that the paragraph will explain.

6. Example Topic Sentences
Let’s say that you were assigned to write a paragraph about the topic “Cell phones”.
There are many different ideas or opinions about cell phones that you could explore, so it’s important to pick just one. You might write…
Cell phones that can connect to the internet have changed the way people shop.
Cell phones and texting should be banned during class time.

7. Supporting Your Topic Sentence
When you have decided what your topic and your controlling idea will be, it is time to support your topic sentence.
Primary support points are the major ideas that support your topic sentence. (They are usually general rather than specific.)
Secondary support points are specific examples and details that back up your primary support.

8. Example Paragraph Outline
Topic Sentence: Cell phones that can connect to the internet have changed the way people shop.
Primary support 1: Able to check reviews online.
Secondary support: Checked reviews for digital camera at Best Buy.
Secondary support: Check reviews of new authors at amazon.com before buying at a bookstore
Primary support 2: Able to compare prices at other stores while shopping.
Compared prices on the new season of Burn Notice the first day it was out.
Compared prices for new flash drive when I lost my old one.
Primary support 3: Able to use coupons without ever printing them out.
Used a 40% off coupon scanned off of my iPhone at World Market last week.
Used an ed coupon at a candle store last month.

9. Completed Paragraph
Cell phones that can connect to the internet have changed the way people shop. First of all, customers can immediately check reviews online before making a decision. When I was shopping for a digital camera at Best Buy, I used an iPhone to see which brand had the most positive reviews. Also, when I buy a book by a new author at the bookstore, I sometimes check reviews of his or her books at amazon.com first. Second, customers can compare prices at other stores while they are out shopping. When the new Sherlock Holmes movie came out, I compared prices online and was surprised to find that Target had a better price than some online discount stores. I also compared prices using a cell phone when I lost my flash drive and had to buy a new one. Finally, customers are able to use in-store coupons without ever printing them out, which saves a lot of money, paper, and ink. Last week, I used a 40% off coupon scanned off of my room mate’s iPhone at Borders, and last month, I used a coupon that had been ed to me at a candle store. In these ways, cell phones are making it easier for customers to find the best deals and make informed decisions.

10. Parallel: Structure of a Paragraph/Structure of an Essay
Introduction: Main Thesis of the Essay
Paragraph 1:
Topic Sentence—supporting main thesis
Support/Evidence/Examples
Paragraph 2:
Paragraph 3:
Paragraph 4 and more:
Conclusion: Reemphasize thesis and summarize contribution to the greater conversation on the topic/call to action or further thought.

11. Using Specific Details
Wherever possible in your essay, use specific details instead of general ones.
Refer to people who are important to the narrative by their names whenever possible.
Refer to specific numbers, times, and places.
Add facts and explanation to statements that might mean different things to different readers.
Use examples to explain.
Remember, you are drawing from your experience. Make it unique to you.

12. Examples of Specific Details
Not specific at all: “I eat some things some people I know consider weird.”
“Things” is a very vague word. The same thing goes for “stuff” and “some.”
How could this sentence be improved?

13. Improved Sentence:
Original Sentence: “I eat some things some people I know consider weird.”
Improved: “I eat Sushi, Indian food, or Thai food at least once or twice a month, and some of my older relatives find this strange. My dad’s parents are both from the Midwest where the staples of a good dinner are steak and corn on the cob, and they are confused by the fact that their granddaughter loves raw fish, spicy curry, and odd looking clear noodles.

14. Importance of Transitions
Many narratives are organized chronologically.
You do not have to organize chronologically. Some narratives are organized from most to least significant event, or in some other way.
However you choose to arrange the details and events in your essay, you will need transitions to guide your reader from one idea to the next.
Transitions tell your reader how each new section or detail connects with what came before.
Transitions help your readers to understand the order of events.
UCSB’s website has some good advice on paragraph transitions

15. Essays: Before You Write, Think!
Step back and look at the reading and writing you have done so far, and think about how you might expand and develop these ideas into an essay.
Analyze the ideas you are working with in connection with these questions: What are the larger implications of the idea? How do these ideas connect to society—our beliefs, our behaviors, our problems?
How might another text (written or visual) that you have read or viewed in this course or elsewhere shape the way you think about the idea? How does your own experience influence your thinking?

16. Thinking about your Essay
Brainstorm for 10 minutes about your essay, and what you plan to write about
What is your topic?
What outside sources are you thinking about including as a connection/outside example?
Write a Tentative Thesis: What is your focusing idea/main point?
In other words: what are you trying to say about how your identity was impacted by education, by reading, and writing, etc---or--- how education and identity are related?

17. Think, Pair, Share
Now that you have done some brainstorming, find a partner.
“Interview” each other about your essays
Ask your partner what their focusing idea/main point is
Ask your partner what narrative elements (personal experience) they might include
Help each other brainstorm even more ideas.
Write down the ideas you have for your essay so you can remember them later!

18. Peer Review next Tuesday, September 27! Rough Draft Due
Required: Bring 3 printed copies of your rough draft to class for peer review. 
Optional: me a copy of your Rough Draft by 11:59pm on September 27 for my comments. This is not for points, but rather only if you would like feedback from me on your rough draft. I will try my best to get you some feedback by the end of the day on Saturday October 1st.