1. Essay Structure and Organization

2. The Writing Process Planning Shaping/Organizing Drafting Revising
Editing
Proofreading

3. The Major Parts of Any Essay
Title
Introduction
Thesis statement
Body paragraph
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Body paragraph…
Conclusion

4. Your Title
This can be catchy, creative, complex, or just to the point.
A Day at Disney World
Spaced Out in Space Mountain
How to Wait in Line All Day and Not Lose Your Mind
Captured by Pirates
I Met My Maker on Toad’s Wild Ride
The Most Expensive Junk Food in the World
Postmodernism Meets Late Capitalism

5. But notice…
The title indicates, at least in some fashion, what the essay is about.
Sometimes, after you’ve done some freewriting, clustering, and general research and thinking about your topic, writing the title first helps you focus.
You can always change the title later.

6. Introduction
Your first or introductory paragraph should both explain your topic and stimulate your audience’s interest.
We’ll have an entire lesson on this later, but your introductory paragraph (or paragraphs) somewhere contains a thesis statement that helps your reader focus on what exactly you are going to talk about in the upcoming body paragraphs.

7. Introduction and Thesis
Grabs audience’s attention
Contains the thesis
Thesis
States essay’s topic, purpose, point of view
Specific, powerful words ~> not general or vague
May change during revision process
Probable that it will

8. Allow Your Thesis to Guide Your Paper
Pass out thesis handout.
If you missed class on Wednesday, you need to go download power point on Thesis!

9. Visual Representation of Your Introduction Paragraph
1. Broad sentence that sets the stage
2., 3. narrower sentences that provide some details or a greater degree of specificity
4. Very specific sentence that focuses on exactly what you are going to say in the following essay
Thesis statement

10. Body Paragraphs
Body paragraphs support and explain the essay’s thesis.
The more the merrier, for several reasons:
They are reader friendly
They help make the essay look organized.
And, of course, they help you meet your paper’s page-length requirement. 

11. Some Guidelines Each paragraph is a complete thought.
As soon as you start to change thoughts, or go a new direction, start a new paragraph.
Don’t be afraid of having “too many paragraphs.”
I like to see at least three indents on a page

12. Generally a paragraph starts with a topic sentence, that tells what the paragraph is about,
and the other sentences provide details and support.
You can have as many or as few sentences to a paragraph as you want,
In fact, it makes your paper more readable, creates a better rhythm, if you vary the paragraph length.

13. The Golden Rule
Don’t let a paragraph wander – keep it to one central thought.
When you feel your mind changing gears, it’s time to change paragraphs!

14. Conclusions
A concluding paragraph is the final paragraph in your essay
It presents a philosophical summary of the essay, linking directly back to the intro
And (sorry) it does NOT start with “In conclusion…”

16. Prewriting, Writing, Rewriting
General tips
REVISION TAKES TIME!
Plan to write at least three drafts
1st draft… Focus on the BIG stuff
Overall organization of essay
May revisit this step several times
2nd draft… Concentrate your efforts
Edit
3rd draft… Get nitpicky
Proofread

17. Proofreading: Punctuation, Grammar, Spelling, Mechanics
Check:
Spelling
Grammar
Subject/verb agreement
Search for PERFECT word
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Search for strong verbs
Cut extraneous material

18. Proofreading: Final Check
Take a break before proofing.
Do not rush it.
Read your essay aloud.
Read your essay slowly.
Print your essay at least once make notes on hard copy.
Have an unbiased pair of eyes look your essay over.
Perhaps the tutors at the Learning Center?

19. Come back in 10 minutes and we will talk about creating an outline for your Research Paper!
Break time

20. Making an Outline
Writing an outline in addition to the paper may seem like a lot of extra work, especially if your teacher doesn't require one.
If you take the time to think about what you want to say and to put your ideas into an outline, writing the actual paper will be easier.
An outline is a listing of brief ideas that will be in the paper.

21. Why create an outline? Aids in the process of writing
Helps you organize your ideas
Presents your material in a logical form
Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing
Constructs an ordered overview of your writing
Defines boundaries and groups

22. How do I create an outline?
First:
Determine the purpose of your paper.
It’s a persuasive research paper critiquing an aspect of pop culture.
Determine the audience you are writing for.
Other college students and academics.
Develop the thesis of your paper.
You (hopefully) worked on this yesterday.

23. Then:
Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper.
Organize: Group related ideas together.
Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to concrete.
Label: Create main and sub headings.

24. Outlines provide a summary showing the logical flow of a paper.
They are useful because:
help the writer organize their thoughts before getting bogged down in word choice and sentence structure;
show which ideas need illustration or elaboration; and
help the writer decide on an organizational technique for the report, whether it be logical, chronological, or categorical in nature.

25. Preparing and Using Outlines
Using an outline can help you organize your material and can also help you discover connections between pieces of information that you weren't aware of when you first conceived the plan of your paper.
It can also make you aware of material that is not really relevant to the purposes of your paper or material that you have covered before and should therefore be removed.

26. The Working Outline
A Working Outline might be only an informal list of topics and subtopics which you are thinking of covering in your paper.
Start by creating one on paper, then type it up to reinforce and expand your thoughts.
The working outline can be revised as you discover new material and get new ideas that ought to go into your paper.

27. The Final Outline
A Final Outline should enhance the organization and coherence of your research paper.
Most word processing programs have outlining features with automatic formatting that make it easy to create and revise outlines.
Material that is not relevant to the purpose of your paper as revealed in your outline should be excised from the paper; if portions of your outline seem weak in comparison to others, more research may be required to create a sense of balance in your argument and presentation.

28. Topic Outlines vs. Sentence Outlines
A final outline can be written as a topic outline, in which you use only short phrases to suggest ideas, or as a sentence outline, in which you use full sentences (even very brief paragraphs) to show the development of ideas more fully.

29. Class Activity: Create an Outline
Brainstorm and create a Working Outline for your Research Paper
It doesn’t need to be perfect, just let your ideas out and create a rough plan.

30. Monday is Peer Review! DON’T FORGET.
Bring 3 copies of your first rough draft of the Research Paper.