Essay Building
From Brainstorming to Developing Support
Concepts guiding this activity
Most college writing requires students to present their ideas as “essays”
These essays are “arguments” that develop an idea or interpretation logically
These essays also develop that idea with sufficient support to convince the reader or at least defend their idea as reasonable and plausible
How can we help students both structure their essay logically and develop sufficient support?
The “Critical Essay”
What are the characteristics of the “critical essay?”
What are the general characteristics of the academic essay?
Guide on Critical Essay
Development How much support? What kind? How do you structure
it?
Guide on Development
Strategies for helping students move from ideas to a developed
essay
Essay Building Activity: using a THEA
prompt Murray’s Writing
Process--sequence Planning for design Collecting Develop
Writing Guides Orienting Yourself To
ward and Essay Topic
Brainstorming for Reasons
Strategies for Developing Support Development Outlin
e Example Critical Ess
ay Detail of Secondary
Support
The Importance of Coherence
Transition sentences that signal the main logical flow of an essay
Transitions that keep the writer on track developing support
Guide on Coherence
Assignment examples from a Developmental English
classroom Read the novel The Education of Little Tree
Write an essay claiming whether you liked the novel or not and supporting that claim.
Write a follow up research essay. Research the author and book. Write an presentation for a fictional school board meeting arguing whether the book should be banned or not.
Analyze an ad and argue whether it is propaganda or not—Essay Assignment
Click icon to add picture
DiscussionHow could you use this in your teaching context?