1. Senior ESSAY ORGANIZATION
How do I put the whole thing together????

2. Color Coding used in this presentation
In what follows, you will use the use of three colors: GREEN, YELLOW AND RED.
These three colors each represent a type of sentence or section in your essay.
It is IMPORTANT to use them ALL in the right order! IF you do, then your essay will be clear and organized.
Before we get to the PEARLS essay specifically, learn what these three colors symbolize.

3. Easy to Remember Symbols!
Each of the colors means the same thing that they do on a stoplight.
Green: Go
Yellow: slow down (Yeah, right)
Red: Stop

4. Color #1: GREEN
Green: A sentence or section that tells where you are GOING with the passages that follow: topic sentence or thesis and conclusion sentences.

5. Color #2: Yellow
Yellow means “slow down”. These sentences give organization to your paragraphs and sections. They tell the reader reasons, details and facts. They don’t give off lots of details, though.
They use transition words to keep organized.
In this essay, they will correspond to the class, year, activity, etc. you are going to tell stories about to show what you learned.

6. Color #3: RED
RED means STOP! In red sections, you will stop and tell a SPECIFIC story or point to a SPECIFIC example to prove that the YELLOW sentence that precedes the RED is true.
Slow way down and give specific mental pictures here. Talk about projects, grades, tests, games—but don’t just gloss over them. Make sure you give us the full story.

7. Now that you understand that…
Let's get to the essay...

8. Essay Parts
Introduction to the entire essay: It answers these two questions after it captures the reader’s attention:
Thesis: What have I learned in the last four years?
In what areas of my life have I learned this?
Classes
A focus area I have chosen
Activities

9. Body Section: Your Focus Area
This section focuses on an activity, project, or process that you have gone through that shows..
How you have changed in the last years
What you have learned in the last years
PICK SOMETHING YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AND THAT SHOWS HOW YOU HAVE CHANGED!

10. Body Section #3: Focus Area
Begin with a topic sentence: Organize by activity:
Activity: In addition to my classes and my school activities, I learned responsibility by going on a mission trip to Mexico.

11. Organize by process
Process: Being a foster child has also taught me a great deal about myself as I have had to go through a lot of conflicts to make it this far.

12. Organize by Project
Project: In addition to my classes and activities, I learned a lot about myself by restoring my car.

13. Body Section #3: Focus Area
Tell the story of your involvement in this project, activity or process, from beginning to end.
This section is really a narrative essay stuck into the PEARLS ESSAY.
Conclude with a statement summing up what you have learned because of this involvement.

14. Conclusion to the Whole Thing!
Restate your thesis: What have you learned in the last four years?
Expand idea: Where will the things that you learned take you in the FUTURE?
Could you use some
Long Term goals
stuff here?

15. Once you have it written…
REVISE it. You won’t pass with your first draft.
Most people make these mistakes:
They forget a section
They don’t have clear yellows with transitions.
THE BIGGIE: They don’t use RED examples that make specific mental pictures for the reader…thus, they really say NOTHING! =BORING!!!!!!
They DON’T EDIT OUT MISTAKES. This makes you look stupid---you don’t want that if you want to pass! Your advisor won’t let you anyway, but don’t let your panel think you are less than your wonderful self because you didn’t put out the effort!