The lead is something interesting that draws leads readers into the essay, that hooks readers. We might start with a quotation or a question, or we might explain why we are interested in a topic. We might create a contrast: this is what most people believe but here is what i think. But good leads can be hard to write, so i sometimes start with the thesis statement and come back to the lead.

How to Create An Outline for An Expository Essay

By the way, a lead can be as short as a single sentence or as long as a paragraph or more. In the thesis statement we reveal to our readers exactly what we intend to prove. Sometimes a thesis statement indicates to the reader what the body of the essay includes. For example, in a characterization the thesis statement usually lists several traits: taylor greer is determined, courageous, and giving. However, some thesis statements do not indicate what the paragraphs of the body contain: taylor greer is a hero.

In other words, by the end of the introductory paragraph, readers should know the topic of each paragraph in the essay. Among the items that each body paragraph should contain are these: something linking the paragraph to the ones that came before it for example: taylor’s third important trait. The body of an essay should include at least two paragraphs three or four is the norm. In the conclusion we need to answer the question so what? in other words, once we have proven our thesis statement, what larger point about a work of literature or life can we make? note that to make this larger point, we almost always need to mention the author of any literary work that we are discussing. kingsolver should appear in the conclusion to an essay on the bean trees. There are four conventions that we follow when we write about works of literature.

Assuming a literate audience. when we write about literature, we assume that our audience has read the work in question recently enough to be able to identify major characters and events. Given this literate audience, we realize that there is no reason to summarize the plot. we need to do more than tell what happens in a work of literature we need to respond to it, to make a point about it. The only time that we ignore this convention comes when we write a book review, for the function of a review is to help readers decide if they want to read a given work of literature. In a review we tell what a work is about, discuss its merits, and give our judgement on it, but clearly we assume no knowledge of the work on the part of our audience. Including author and title. in the first few sentences of our work, we include the title of the work we are discussing and the name of its author.

Even if a teacher asks us to write about the most dangerous game, we don’t begin: this story. Notice that when a title comes after a possessive noun or pronoun, we drop an initial a. As these examples illustrate, it is conventional to write an author’s name unaccompanied by any title we don’t talk about mr. Usually we give the author’s first and last name when we first mention him or her, the last name only thereafter. In introducing a work of fiction, it is easy to use imprecise language or to be repetitive. More specifically, the book is a novel, as the reader knows, and we need to keep the synonym novel in reserve to avoid repetition.

Thus: george orwell’s animal farm is a bitter attack against communism, an attack that seems even more telling because the novel was written by an ardent socialist. We can divide the pronouns that refer to people into three categories: first person singular: i. when we write about literature, we generally write in third person, although there are some situations when we can write in first person instead. we usually avoid writing in the first person singular i for two reasons. In the first place, it is repetitive and unnecessary: why keep saying i think when the reader knows he is reading my opinion? second, it tends to make what we write sound more like a personal response than a reasoned argument. When a lawyer presents his case to the jury, he doesn’t say, i think that my client is innocent, because there is a shade of doubt in that i think.

When we are writing about literature, we too are presenting a case to the reader, and our case may sound less certain, less convincing, if it is peppered with i believe and i think. We can, however, write in the first person singular if we are telling the reader our personal experiences with a work of literature how and why it moved us instead of arguing a point about it. In particular, in the lead when we are trying to catch the reader’s attention or in the conclusion when we are trying to tell how a work affected us , we might gracefully use first person. Many people write about literature in the first person plural, with we a shorthand for attentive readers. Certainly we is preferable to such clumsy alternatives as one or the reader. Writing in second person about literature is so tricky that it is best not to attempt it. The logic here is that the work exists in the present it lives every time someone reads or rereads it.

Expected Essays for Ib Acio 2013

When we turn to the beginning of the most dangerous game, zaroff is alive once more. Actually, when we analyze any work, we should write in present tense: plato states in the republic , freud points out in interpretation of dreams , l’engle writes in a circle of quiet , and so on. Of course when we are writing from an historical point of view, we use past tense: connell first copyrighted his story in 1924. The stumbling block for most inexperienced writers when they write in present tense is telling about an event that precedes another. Employing the helping verb have removes the obstacle: surely zaroff is surprised to find rainsford in his bedroom for he believes that his prey has drowned.

There are a couple of exceptions to the convention of writing about literature in present tense: a. we use past tense in referring to events that occurred before the work of fiction begins: zaroff mentions that he fled russia during the revolution. b. we use past tense in writing an indirect quotation if, in direct form, the verb would be in past tense: at the end of the most dangerous game, rainsford tells zaroff that he swam to the chateau: i found it quicker than walking through the jungle 26. Rainsford tells zaroff that he found swimming to the chateau quicker than walking.