EF5/6 Introduction to essays

sentences - paragraphs - essays - papers (10-120pp) - book

essays - multi-paragraph writing, several paragraphs,
basic model for essays - five-paragraph essay
very useful, very practical, usually always useful

5-paragraph, 3*5 essay, academic (school) writing

"bare bones" skeleton, fundamental structure without details

Essay - always three parts

1. Introductory paragraph
2-4. Body paragraphs 1,2,3,4,5
5. Concluding paragraph

5 shorter paragraphs - short is good
We're not writing a book.

English 12 - essay on the provincial exam (250w)


700w too long

TOO LONG!

short, concise - lots of information in fewer words
dense sentences, compact sentences

How can we write better, compact, dense sentences?
Best way? Sentence combining!

250w - tight, compact, dense, well-organized essay

How is it laid out on the page?
indented
five paragraphs
balanced in length of the body paragraphs
intro and conc - short
length - words 


Introductory paragraph
- grabber - attention-getting device, gets the reader interested
-thesis statement (thesis - idea), main idea of the essay, controlling idea (the opinion to be presented) main idea - cycling; controlling idea -benefits
- preview the 3 points 1.$ cheaper, 2.health, 3. environment

BODY
Body para #1
Topic sentence
- supporting sentences
Body para #2
Topic sentence
- supporting sentences
Body para #3
Topic sentence
- supporting sentences

Concluding paragraph - restating the introduction
saying again but using different words
Restate the thesis statement, restate the 3 points
End with a clincher (attention-getting device to make your reader remember your thesis)

synonyms - thesaurus, thesaurus.com
A thesaurus is a goldmine for writers.

She is a nice girl.
nice -boring word
Vancouver is a beautiful city. boring, overused, trite

How was your day? Good. Fabulous. Bad. It was a trying day.