Drafting a Paper

1
Drafting a Paper

• Chapter 3

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The Short Essay

• Essays have three parts
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

3

• Thesis Statement
• What the essay is about
• Look at example on page 44

4
Paragraph Length

• No set amount of sentences per paragraph
• Use short paragraphs to isolate a point
  therefore, stressing it
• Type written page with four or more paragraphs
  need rewritten
• Vary paragraph length

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Paragraphs as miniature essays

• Topic Sentence gt thesis statement
• Developing Details gt body
• Closing comment or sentence gt conclusion

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Paragraph Development

• Developmental Paragraph (Important Term)
• Paragraph with a topic sentence and developing
  details

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5 kinds of Paragraph Development

• Examples (47)
• support a generalization with concrete
  information

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Illustrations (47-48)

• little story, narrative, or anecdote that
  embodies an idea

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Details (48-49)

• component parts that make up the whole
• ex individual steps in a procedure

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Reasons

• answer the question why
• reasons are acceptable and respectable if the
  writer basis them on established fact, close
  observation and experience, or logical analysis

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Mixed Material

• Mix of details, reasons, examples, and
  illustrations

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Paragraph Unity (51)

• Unified Paragraph (Important Term)
• Every sentence is about the topic sentence
• Reread first two paragraphs under paragraph unity

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Paragraph Coherence (51 52)

• Coherent Paragraph (Important Term)
• Paragraph in which a clear pattern of thought
  emerges
•  Achieve Paragraph coherence in three ways
• Appropriate ordering principle
• Providing transitions from one idea to another
• Maintaining a consistent tone

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Ordering Principles

• Way to achieve coherence

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Time

• You can arrange material according to when it
  happens
• past to present
• early to late
• old to new

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Space (Physical Space) 53

• Narrator stands in place and proceeds from a
  natural or logical order of progression
• left to right
• bottom to top

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Importance (54)

• Ideas arranged in ascending order of importance
  or value (least to most)
• It is human nature to build towards a climax

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Using Transitions (55)

• Passing from one subject to another
• Symbols, words, phrases can make a smooth passage
• Some transitional words First, next, then,
  finally

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Consistency of Tone

• Tone (Key Rhetorical Analysis Tool)
• Tone Defined
• The authors attitude towards his or her subject
  and audience

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A Few Examples

• Formal
• Personal
• Emotional
• Joking

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To Maintain a Consistent Tone

• Decide who is speaking gt Point of View (116)
• Omniscient- outside narrator (3rd Person)
  knowing everything that is happening
• Limited- one character is used. Only know what
  that character knows, hears, and sees

22

• First Person- narrator is a character in the
  writing
• Objective or Dramatic- moving like a movie
  camera recording only what you can see or hear,
  never delving into anyones mind or heart

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• Consider whether the statement should be made in
  the present tense or past, the active or passive
  voice

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Know what diction to use

• Diction (A Very, Very Important Rhetorical Tool)
• Word choice and language used
• (conflagration vs- fire)
• Reread Example on page 56

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Getting Started

• Introduction
• Have a thesis statement
• Do not have to write the introduction first

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Ways to start a paper

• Allusion reference to a person, work of art,
  event, or literature
• Only effective if the audience knows it
• short narration
• startling question, observation, or line of
  dialogue

27

• definition of a key term
• striking contrast
• direct statement