English 1201

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English 1201

• Essay Unit

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Types of Essays (6)

• (1) Expository writing that explains
• ex Comparative Essay
• (2) Narrative has a purpose for telling a true
  event a single incident
• (3) Memoir a persons story about his or her
  life
• (4) Descriptive writing that creates images of
  people, places, objects
• (5) Argumentative a rational argument which
  uses evidence
• (6) Persuasive- writing that attempts to convince
  the audience to adopt a certain point of view or
  to act in a certain way
• - Often closes with a call to action

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Purpose for Writing

• The three Es
• To explain
• To educate
• To entertain
• You also want to
• Inform
• Analyze
• Tell a story
• Describe

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Thesis Statement

• A sentence or two which gives the main idea of
  the essay.
• To his closest associates, he was a brilliant
  planner, public speaker, strategist and
  motivator. To many of his countrymen, he was the
  symbol of hope, a man who would reinstate his
  country as a world power. But to the rest of the
  world, Adolph Hitler was a madman, a fiendish,
  brutal megalomaniac whose regime caused untold
  suffering and unspeakable horror for millions and
  nearly wiped out an entire race.

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Answer

• To his closest associates, he was a brilliant
  planner, public speaker, strategist and
  motivator. To many of his countrymen, he was the
  symbol of hope, a man who would reinstate his
  country as a world power. But to the rest of the
  world, Adolph Hitler was a madman, a fiendish,
  brutal megalomaniac whose regime caused untold
  suffering and unspeakable horror for millions and
  nearly wiped out an entire race.

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Topic Sentence

• A topic sentence is to a paragraph what a thesis
  statement is to an entire essay
• The topic sentence tells what is in the
  paragraph.
• It can be positioned at either the beginning or
  end of a paragraph, but is often at the
  beginning.

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Example

• Teachers are human. I know, Ive made a few
  laughs Ive made a few cry. Ive seen them
  register the whole spectrum of human emotions.

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Answer

• Teachers are human. I know, Ive made a few
  laughs Ive made a few cry. Ive seen them
  register the whole spectrum of human emotions.

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Coherence

• Arranging ones ideas in some logical order
• Showing the relationship between the ideas
  through the use of
• Transitional words
• Pronouns
• Synonyms
• Parallel Structure

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Transitional Words

• Contrast Comparison Explanation
• But - Similarly - For example
• However - Likewise - Incidentally
• Although

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Transition

• Words or phrases which help to achieve a smooth,
  carry-over within sentences, between sentences,
  and between paragraphs.
• To say that you cant fairy base a grade for a
  whole course on the exam is ridiculous. In the
  first place, colleges regularly offer credit by
  special examination. In the second place, youre
  probably thinking of a normal one-hour exam, but
  I am talking about a special exam it can last
  five or six hours, if you like. And dont give me
  that old excuse that some things taught in a
  course cant be measured by an examination.

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Pronoun Reference

• Use of pronoun in one sentence to refer to a noun
  in a preceding sentence.

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Parallel Structure

• Requires that all ideas presented in a series or
  list have the same grammatical form.
• For example
• Going to school, listening to teachers, and
  homework are not my idea of a good time (NO)
• Going to school, listening to teachers, and doing
  homework are not my idea of a good time. (YES)