Guidelines
Guidelines
Transcript
Let's talk about some general guidelines for good writing in the college classroom. To begin with, always answer the question you've been asked in the essay prompt. This might seem almost too basic to talk about but my experience as a teacher of writing in a college classroom has taught me that many students lose points on essay assignments even if they're writing pretty well simply because they don't answer the question that was asked in the prompt. They see the question in the prompt and they understand it but they think to themselves, this is a little bit interesting but it would be more interesting to write about something a little bit different.
The problem with that is that it's very hard to get full credit if you don't answer the specific question that you were asked. A little bit more about guidelines, what nearly every single college essay is going to need. There are a few basic parts that you're gonna need to cover starting with an introduction. As you probably know, an introduction should introduce your reader to the basic ideas of the essay but in addition to that, an introduction should contain important background information. You probably wanna ask yourself something like what information does my reader need that they might not already have in order to understand the rest of my essay? What background or context do I need to provide right at the start? That should all go in the introduction.
Right after the introduction or soon thereafter, you wanna present your thesis or your academic claim. This is your big idea. You wanna ask yourself, what am I trying to convince the reader of? What do I wanna persuade them of? It's important to remember that a thesis or a claim should have three very, very key facets. A good thesis or claim is debatable, supportable with evidence and impersonal meaning it's not tied to your specific personality. It would be equally true or valid if somebody else said it. Once you've stated your claim, you're gonna wanna support it with some kind of arguments or evidence. Ask yourself something like why should the reader believe me, what evidence can I offer? Here, it's important to make a distinction between an argument and a disagreement. In an academic setting, when I say making an argument, I don't actually mean that you disagree with someone. I just mean that you're presenting a series of points that add up to something.
Let me give you an example. I can offer an argument about Freud's theories of dreams without disagreeing with Freud. I'm just gonna say something about what he had to say. After you've offered your support or your arguments in the body of the essay, you're gonna come to the end and you're gonna need a conclusion.
Now, your conclusion should have a little bit of a summary of the big ideas of what you said but you should also remember to add a little bit about why it matters. Ask yourself something like what have I convinced my reader of here in this essay and why does it matter to them?
The problem with that is that it's very hard to get full credit if you don't answer the specific question that you were asked. A little bit more about guidelines, what nearly every single college essay is going to need. There are a few basic parts that you're gonna need to cover starting with an introduction. As you probably know, an introduction should introduce your reader to the basic ideas of the essay but in addition to that, an introduction should contain important background information. You probably wanna ask yourself something like what information does my reader need that they might not already have in order to understand the rest of my essay? What background or context do I need to provide right at the start? That should all go in the introduction.
Right after the introduction or soon thereafter, you wanna present your thesis or your academic claim. This is your big idea. You wanna ask yourself, what am I trying to convince the reader of? What do I wanna persuade them of? It's important to remember that a thesis or a claim should have three very, very key facets. A good thesis or claim is debatable, supportable with evidence and impersonal meaning it's not tied to your specific personality. It would be equally true or valid if somebody else said it. Once you've stated your claim, you're gonna wanna support it with some kind of arguments or evidence. Ask yourself something like why should the reader believe me, what evidence can I offer? Here, it's important to make a distinction between an argument and a disagreement. In an academic setting, when I say making an argument, I don't actually mean that you disagree with someone. I just mean that you're presenting a series of points that add up to something.
Let me give you an example. I can offer an argument about Freud's theories of dreams without disagreeing with Freud. I'm just gonna say something about what he had to say. After you've offered your support or your arguments in the body of the essay, you're gonna come to the end and you're gonna need a conclusion.
Now, your conclusion should have a little bit of a summary of the big ideas of what you said but you should also remember to add a little bit about why it matters. Ask yourself something like what have I convinced my reader of here in this essay and why does it matter to them?