Focus In Essays

1
Focus In Essays

• Using as Example Mr. JonesWhy The Essay?

2
Focus Question

• This essay attempts to explain why the essay is
  the assignment of choice for university
  courses, and upper level high school courses.
• The key question then
• Why is the essay the assignment of choice for so
  many English teachers?

3
How Is It Organized?

• This Essay
• Starts with the essay as a product
• Works backward through the process used to arrive
  at the essay. Shows how the product is generated
  as a result of a thought process.
• In working backward through the process used to
  arrive at the product, shows ultimately that it
  is not the product (and associated understanding
  of a topic) that is important, but the process
  that is most important.

4
Providing Context

• The discussion begins by providing background
  information
• Essay derives from the French verb essayer to
  try
• First used by Montaigne to describe a series of
  pieces of writing about mankind and himself.

5
How Essays Have Developed

• Main Point Made
• Has branched out into a variety of different
  forms, the number and breakdown of which are
  dependent on whos doing the defining.
• Examples
• One Web Site Four Typesclassification, compare
  and contrast etc.
• Another Extreme 52 types

6
Common Elements

• Essays are about something they are focused.
• Can have multiple parts
• Still one topic though, that is then broken down

7
What Topics Are addressed?

• Main Point Made
• Topics are as diverse as humanity itself
• Range from the profound to the banal
• Examples
• No profound examples
• Ice Cream essay

8
FocusedAnd Organized

• Main Idea
• Essays provide an organized way of thinking about
  a topic.
• Human beings can (and often do) think about more
  than one thing at a time
• Writing is linear we can only write about one
  thing at a time, and must find a way of
  organizing/clarifying the information we are
  presenting.

9
Essays As Exploration

• The Writer Must
• Consider a topic
• Find a way to make sense of this topic
• Present this understanding--explain

10
The Beginning of the Process

• The writer must first consider the topic
• Select facts
• Turn this information into an ordered discussion
• Present these findings

11
A Core Process

• The core process used when writing essays
• Examine and identify information
• Select the information needed to address this a
  question
• Present an understanding so that someone can act
• is at the center of all good thinking.
• Pinky and the Brain example.

12
Our Understanding of Anything

• is only as good as our ability to organize,
  consider, communicate, and act on that
  understanding.
• Learning to write an essay is learning to develop
  fundamental thinking skills used everywhere

13
Essay As Practical?

• Main Point
• Essays can be morphed into some other practical
  form.
• Example
• Easily turned into reports, memos, plans of
  action.

14
Most Important Thing To Take Away

• Course is not about ice cream or Shakespeare.
• Its about learning how to think.
• The verb think here has be filled in with a
  very specific set of skills
• Examining a text/texts, examining a
  situation/situations
• Collecting data and deciding what information is
  important
• Organizing that information
• Presenting that information in a coherent,
  structured manner

15
What Does This Essay Show

1. Essays are not just essays
2. They require and provide evidence of a clear
   thought process
3. It is this thought process that is important.
   This process develops an important set of generic
   thinking skills that will help the learner in the
   long run.

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Mimics the process it describes

• Takes essay as a fact
• Explores what goes on in creating the essay
• Points out a significant fact as a consequence of
  this exploration its the process that is most
  important.
• Concludes with some very specific
  recommendations Focus on the processShakespeare
  isnt nearly as important as learning how to
  think.