Essay Writing Terminology

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Essay Writing Terminology
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Essay

• A piece of writing that expresses your thoughts
  (commentary) about a topic.
• Your essay should have and introductory
  paragraph, three body paragraphs and a concluding
  paragraph.

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THESIS

• A sentence with a subject and an argumentative
  opinion.
• This sentence states the purpose of your essay
  and appears at the end of the introductory
  paragraph.
• The thesis answers the prompt.

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PRE-WRITING

• The process of getting your ideas and concrete
  details down on paper before writing the actual
  essay.
• You can use one or all of the following
• Bubble clusters
• Spider diagrams
• Outlines
• Clustering
• Columns

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SHAPING THE ESSAY

• The step that is done after prewriting but before
  the first draft of the essay.
• It is an outline of
• the thesis
• Topic sentences
• Concrete details
• Commentary

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INTRODUCTION

• The first paragraph in an essay.
• It includes the thesis at the end of the
  paragraph.

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BODY PARAGRAPH

• A middle paragraph in an essay.
• It develops a point you want to make that
  supports your thesis by using concrete details,
  and commentary.

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TOPIC SENTENCE (TS)

• The topic sentence is the first sentence of a
  body paragraph.
• It gives the reader an idea of what the paragraph
  is going to be about.
• It has a subject and opinion for the paragraph
  and does the same thing for a body paragraph that
  the thesis foes for the whole essay.

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CONCRETE DETAILS (CD)

• Specific details that form the backbone or core
  of your body paragraphs.
• Things that serve as concrete details
• Facts
• Examples
• Descriptions
• Illustrations
• Support
• Proof
• Evidence
• Quotations
• Paraphrasing
• Plot references

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COMMENTARY (COMM.)

• Your opinion or comment relating to the concrete
  detail.
• Things that serve as commentary
• Opinion
• Insight
• Analysis
• Interpretation
• Inference
• Personal response
• Feelings
• Evaluation
• Explication
• Reflection

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CHUNK

• One sentence of concrete detail and two sentences
  of commentary.
• It is the smallest unified group of thoughts that
  you can write.

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CONCLUDING SENTENCE

• The last sentence of the body paragraph.
• It is all commentary.
• It does not repeat key words.
• It gives a finished feeling to the paragraph,
  tying it all together.

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CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

• The LAST paragraph in your essay.
• It sums up your ideas, reflects what you said in
  your essay, provide more commentary, and gives a
  personal statement about your subject.
• In other words, it synthesizes your essay.

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FIRST DRAFT

• The first version of your essay.
• A.k.a. the rough draft!

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PROOFREADING

• The process of identifying and correcting errors
  of spelling, grammar, and mechanics in a piece of
  writing.

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PEER RESPONSE

• Written responses and reactions to a partners
  paper.

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EDITING

• The process of employing a critical eye and
  objective viewpoint regarding content,
  organization and tone.
• Objective without bias or opinion
• Subjective based on bias or opinion.

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REVISION

• The process of making significant and meaningful
  changes to an essay.
• Some changes include reorganizing the order of an
  essay, redesigning the thesis statement, adding
  more evidence, developing stronger commentary, or
  sentence combination.
• Did somebody say DICTION?

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FINAL DRAFT

• The final version of your essay.