How to Write an Essay!Mr. D. Silliker

ENGLISH AND HISTORYNorth & South Esk

Regional

Why learn how to write an essay?

Essay writing is a challenge. The following information will help you to learn how to properly write an essay here at NSER.

* MLA (Modern Language Association) style citation will be used therefore this applies to English/Lang. Arts, History/Social Studies, Humanities elective courses only)

Do I really need to learn this?

There is a lot more to essay writing than stringing together some words. Don't expect to sit down and dash off an essay in a single session.

The first thing you must realize is that an academic essay has a very specific structure. YOUR ESSAY MUST ADHERE TO THE PROPER FORM IF YOU WISH TO POSSIBLY ACHIEVE A GOOD MARK !!

The Main Parts of an Essay

1. Title Page 2. Outline (a.k.a. Abstract) 3. Body –Introduction -Body -Conclusion 4. Footnotes 5. Works Cited

Title Page A cover page (it is the first

page of your essay but IS NOT NUMBERED) which contains the title of the paper, along with the student's name, The teacher of the class, the class for which the paper was written, and the due date.

NOTE: according to the MLA handbook, a title page is not essential for a paper unless specifically requested by your teacher. AT NSER, WE WILL USE THE FOLLOWING FORMAT FOR A TITLE PAGE ON ALL PAPERS.

*Make your title interesting to catch the reader’s attention!!!

Title Page

Outline The Outline is the

second page of your essay and is also not numbered. It can also be referred to as an abstract or a table of contents.

The purpose of the outline is to break down the DIFFERENT SECTIONS of the essay for the reader and tell them what PAGE (s) each section is on.

Body of the Essay This consists of an introduction, supporting

paragraphs logically arranged to develop your main ideas, and a conclusion. List the points you wish to develop, place each point in its own paragraph, and expand on each point with supporting facts, details and examples.

Each paragraph should: clearly present the relevant information, discuss and evaluate information and opinions, and develop an argument based on the information and a review

of opinions. This is 80-90 percent of the essay and must satisfy

the reader's appetite. To do this, the body of the essay must reflect solid research, show a clear understanding of the subject, and develop your points logically.

The Introduction Whatever you are writing—an essay, a report, an article, a thesis, a journal, a

literature review, or any other piece of academic writing—the introduction will be the first thing the reader sees. If an introduction is poorly written or constructed, if it is boring, if it does not tell readers what they need to know, if it does not help readers to orient themselves to your paper—then you have lost your readers' interest right from the beginning, and you can be sure of losing marks, no matter how well the rest of the assignment is constructed.

An introduction should do the following: alert a reader’s interest (interesting quotation, scenario, or fact about the

subject) indicate the scope and direction of the paper, and act as a navigation guide

to its reading. show the reader how you are interpreting and approaching the question indicate the focus of the paper Contain the thesis statement - A proposition advanced and supported by

research….(This essay shall…..)

The Conclusion The purpose of a conclusion is to tie together, or integrate the

various issues, research, etc., covered in the body of the paper, and to make comments upon the meaning of all of it.

This includes noting any implications resulting from your discussion of the topic, as well as recommendations, forecasting future trends, and the need for further research.

The conclusion should: be a logical ending to what has been previously been discussed.

It must pull together all of the parts of your argument and refer the reader back to the focus you have outlined in your introduction and to the central topic. This gives your essay a sense of unity. 

never contain any new information.  usually be only a paragraph in length, but in an extended essay

(3000+ words) it may be better to have two or three paragraphs to pull together the different parts of the essay. 

add to the overall quality and impact of the essay. This is your final statement about this topic; thus it can make a great impact on the reader.

The conclusion should not: just ‘sum up’ end with a long quotation focus merely on a minor point in your argument introduce new material

The conclusion may include: a summary of the arguments presented in the body and

how these relate to the essay question a restatement of the main point of view presented in the

introduction in response to the topic the implications of this view or what might happen as a

result.

Footnotes For our essays

in Mr. Silliker’s class, we will use footnotes. Some teachers may prefer endnotes and as such be sure to check with your teacher.

Why do we need to use footnotes????

You should always use footnotes (or endnotes) in order to give the source of facts or opinions which you have obtained from outside sources.

Basically, you must give credit to the sources you have used in your essay or else you are guilty of stealing it from that person.

When to use Footnotes. 1. If you take a quote directly from a source

word for word then you must put it in quotation marks “……” and put a footnote directly after the second set of quote marks.

2. If you use information from a source and put it into your own words (paraphrase), you must also footnote it because it is someone else’s work. Place footnote after paraphrased material

* You need not footnote information that is considered common knowledge in the academic world. (see you teacher if you need help deciding)

How many footnotes should I have?

There is no set number of footnotes to be utilized in each and every essay you may be called upon to write. The number of footnotes will ultimately depend on the nature of your subject.

If you begin your essay with four or five footnotes per page and then only have one footnote for the next six pages, then something is wrong. You are probably not documenting something that does need to be documented. Of course, if you insert a footnote every other sentence, then you may be overdoing it.

Footnote Structure (Book)

Author’s last name, First name. Title of book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Pg #

Example:Gilbaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003. Pg 29-32

Website Author’s last name, First name. “Title of article”

Website name. Date. website address.

Example:Stein, Mark. “Poborsky Leaves Manchester United.” Official Manchester United HomePage. 26 June 1998 http://www.sky.co.uk/sports/manu.

Works Cited The works cited page is the

LAST page of your essay. The purpose is to list all of

the sources you have used in your essay.

*List them alphabetically according to the author’s last name.

Works Cited Structure The structure is basically the same as a footnote

however you do not put pages numbers at the end.

Author’s last name, First name. Title of book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Questions? Ask any

questions now to clear things up because being able to properly write an essay is an essential skill for survival in high school!