Essay Writing

Last time we dealt with the thesis of the paper and I said it was the backbone that held the paper together. The thesis should be idealy a one sentence a summary of the essay. "The American Revolution was a struggle for nationalism, economics, political power and ultimately liberty." You may not fully understand from that thesis but it does tell you why there was a revolution. More importantly for out purposes here this thesis also tells you how to write the rest of the essay. Since this class is one on American history, our readings covered a lot of information other than the subject of the revolution. So you want to begin with a good introduction which does two - no three things.
First the introduction moves the reader and the grader into the subject of the paper. It takes my interest from what I was doing and shifts it to what you want me to get. Some subjects are so fascinating they don't need an introduction but not many. The American Revolution may be one of them but I am not convinced so the introduction should tell me why I want to read another paper on this subject. It take my focus from the broad universe down to limited scope of your paper. All introductions do that.
Second because this is an academic essay, the essay has an additional purpose of show the grader, me, that you understand that the subject is much broader than your paper and that you understand all that other information too. So a good academic essay will briefly summarize the material that is not going to be deal with more completely in the essay. Our reading talked about the French and Indian War and the continued movement of English to America. It also talked about the continued conflict, between Europeans and Native Americans. So you might want to summarize those issues in a sentence to two and add one about the importance of the America revolution.
Third a good academic introduction presents the thesis. I always tell my student not to write mysteries. I don't want to wait until the end to find our who done it. I want to know from the very beginning. So the introduction should take my interest and move it forward from the settlement of America, to the long stuggles to push the Native Americans off the land and the long struggles betweeen in England and France to the important struggle that is the American Revolution and then spring the thesis on me.

Thesis

So to write an essay you must have a plan and the backbone of that plan is the thesis. Think of the thesis is a one sentence version of the essay or answer to the question. When you are writing academic essays in general and for me in particular you should also remember that the essay makes and defends a number of point. There is nothing really magic about the number four, but for the essays I assign, you should be able to make four key points. Ideally again these should be summarized in the thesis.

Why was there an American Revolution in 1776?

There was a revolution is 1776 as a result of a simple struggle for power, an economic transformation, nationalism and because the Americans had come to a new understanding of liberty.

or

The American Revolution was about nationalism, economics, political power and liberty.

See how that creates a backbone for your writing. You have four key ideas presented. Now you just need to develop each of them in a paragraph or two. How much depends on the length of the assignment. Each of these ideas can be developed at great length believe me. I have a book on my shelf about each of them.

What did the Greeks contribute to Western Civilization?

The Greek gave us philosophy, natural philosophy, drama and democracy.

This is a case where there are many other choices but you want to restrict your choices to four so that you have time and space to develop or defend them. I think of it as defending because your development shows the grader (me) that you understand the points fully. If you pick more than four points either you will not be able to develop them fully or you will write a very long essay. Four is a good number. That is why I use it.

So when you get a writing assignment think about the four point you want to develop in your answer and put them into a clear precise thesis. This tells me that you understand the material and have thought about it enough to organize your thoughts. After you have the thesis it is time to think about the introduction.

Grading

Think how much would be here if I had written an entry each week. I am tempted to start over but will strive to continue instead with a brief entry on grading. I just want to brief explain what I do when grading a paper. Knowing that should help you when you are writing a paper for me.

First thing I do is read quickly through the paper and highlight. In yellow I highlight what appears to be the thesis of the paper. In a well written paper this is is easy and set me in a good mood was I continue to grade. Sometimes what appears to be a thesis is not and I have to change the highlights. Sometimes student hide the thesis until the end of the essay. I call these mysteries because they are hard to grade. Sometimes there is no thesis. Instead the essay reads "This is a paper about how to smoke a pipe first I will tell you . . . " That is not a thesis that is a statement of the subject. Second thing I highlight in green all the errors in the text. I usually don't say anything about them. I just highlight them. I am not an English teacher but I do want students to see the mistakes and think about how to fix them.

What I do next depends upon the grading standards or the rubric. All my assignments have a standard which lists the elements I will look for when grading. I tend to mark and comment on these elements as I read through the paper again. I make two kinds of comments. One relates to the grading standard like "Point one well made and defended." The other relates to the content. I may say for example "I disagree with you assessment that Wilson was a great president, but you have done a good job of defending you point." or "I don't quite understand what you mean here." Since writing is part of the learning process as well as part of the evaluation process I try to make more of these kinds of comment. They are as much to encourage thinking as they are to point out mistakes.

Then I complete the grading standard. Behind each of the elements I record the score. Sometimes that is on a five point scale, sometimes only two, but I score each of the elements and total the score for the grade on this paper. I adjust the standards on an ongoing basis so I am not sure how much time I will spend going over them, but future entries will have more say about them.