Essay #1 – Global Warming

Description

DIVISION 1 – CONTENT

STAGE 1: Pre-Writing to Narrow the Topic

The objective of this stage is to explore a topic in order to isolate possible aspects of that topic that could be used for your paper. More than likely you will be moving from a general topic to a more specific (or limited) one about that subject. Your professor will probably provide a list to choose from as I will (See attachment FREEWRITING.doc
FREEWRITING.doc – Alternative Formats

). There are three methods that I prescribe to my students: freewriting, brainstorming, and asking questions.

Freewriting:

Freewriting is nothing more than writing down in sentences whatever comes to your mind about that topic. Choose a topic. Set a time period in which to write—for instance, 15 to 20 minutes. Write for that time without stopping. Don’t worry about grammar or spelling. Write down what you know about that topic. Let your ideas flow. The following is a suggestion from me: Since you will be going back over what you have written and utilizing this list later, don’t write in paragraph form; write in bullet form. It will be easier to organize your thoughts later.

**Assignment: Choose one of the topics from the list under “Freewriting.” Allow at least 15 -30 minutes and write, write, and write in sentences what comes to your mind.

Brainstorming:

Brainstorming is nothing more than writing down in words or phrases whatever comes to your mind about that topic. Again, choose your topic, set a time period in which to write, and start writing down facts, ideas, and/or details about that topic. Since you are not writing sentences, the brainstorming will be in the form of a list. Fill up the page. One idea can lead to another.

** Assignment: Choose one of the topics from the list under “Brainstorming.” Allow at least

15 to 30 minutes and write, write, and write what comes to your mind.

Asking Questions:

The last recommended form of pre-writing is nothing more than asking questions. You can use the well-known reporter questions: who, what, when, where, why, and to what extent. Each of these can be expanded to incorporate as many possibilities as possible. On the other hand, you can use this list of probing questions from Patterns:

What happened? What does it look like?

When did it happen? What are its characteristics? Where did it happen? What impressions does it make? How did it happen? Who did it? Why did it happen? What are some typical cases or examples of it? What makes it work? How can its parts or types be separated or grouped? How is it made? Do its parts or types fit into a logical order? What caused it? Into what categories can its parts or types be arranged? What are its effects? What are its parts or types? How is it like other things? On what basis can it be categorized? How is it different from other things? How can it be defined? How does it resemble other members of its class? How does it differ from other members of its class?

** Assignment: Choose one of the topics from the list under “Asking Questions.” Allow at least 15 to 30 minutes and answer as many questions as you can.

Once these three exercises have been performed, save them. You will be using them for the next two stages. The objective of doing these exercises is to let you experience what each of these pre-writing methods is like so that you can make an educated decision as to which method you like best. That is the method that you will probably choose to use for your subsequent essays. (You do not have to use all three methods for other essays.) I say probably because you can might choose a different method depending on the topic and the assignment.

STAGE 2: Create a Working Thesis (Narrow the Topic); Identify the Pattern of Writing

Once you have done the pre-writing, the next stage is to narrow the topic. How do you do that? Read back over carefully what you have written down in Stage 1. Choose one of the ideas that you put down in that particular pre-writing exercise. Or you might find a group of those ideas work together to create a narrowed topic. Choose a topic that you feel at ease with—something that you have some knowledge of. Write down your choice for a narrowed topic. Does it have to be in sentence form? No It can be a group of words that identify what your purpose in writing that essay will be. This will be your working thesis. Later on, in Stage 6 you will put it into a final sentence form.

The second part of Stage 2 is to decide what pattern of writing your essay will take. Your thesis should indicate which pattern should be used. For instance, if you say in your working thesis that you will discuss the causes of global warming, then you know that the pattern is “cause”. If you say “marriage demands compromise,” you know you are going to give examples of compromise; therefore, you know the pattern is exemplification. So let’s identify the nine (9) patterns of writing to choose from:

Narration – This is telling a story or telling what happened. We will not be working with this pattern. It belongs in a creative writing class, not expository writing.
Description – This is describing what something looks like or what impression it makes. This also belongs to the creative writing class. We will not be working with this one.
Exemplification – This is giving examples of the subject matter.
Process – This is telling how something happens or how something is made or how something is done. You probably used this in your Biology lab experiments. You had to record your step-by-step process in doing the experiment.
Cause Or Effect – The words speak for themselves. Cause means to give the causes for something to have come about. Effects means to give the results of those causes. In an essay of 750 words, don’t try to do both causes and effects. There is usually not enough space. You don’t want to write a book.
Comparison and contrast – This is doing exactly what it says—comparing and contrasting two subjects showing what their likenesses are and their differences.
Classification or Division – Classification is identifying parts of types and showing how they can be grouped to fit into a category or logical order. For example, if you found a flower out in the Everglades and did not know what kind it was, you would explore its parts and characteristics to know what kind it is. Division is taking an entity and categorizing some of its parts into a group. For instance, a hospital can be divided into various groups: types of employees, departments that earn the most money, future expansions that are being planned, etc.
Definition – Obviously this is simply explaining a term in more detail so that a reader can have a more thorough understanding of it.
Argument and/or Persuasion – In this kind of essay, you choose an issue that has two opposing sides to it. You choose your side and try to defend it.

These are the patterns. They speak for themselves. Your working thesis should be an indicator as to the pattern. Once the pattern is determined, you will know what kind of information should go into the essay and what you need to look for. The pattern will also tell you how the body of the essay should be developed—the groups that you need to develop. When you learn the ways to develop these patterns, writing an essay is easy, no matter what course it is for.

Assignment: For each of your pre-writing exercises, read back over one at a time. Narrow your topic for each one and write each down. This should take no more than one or two lines for each. Then write down what pattern you believe will be used in developing each topic.

STAGE 3: Gathering the information

This is the last stage for the content division of the Writing Process. This is the most extensive part of the content division. In order to write about a topic, you need as much information as you can possibly can get. Remember you have to fill up three main body paragraphs and have about 750 words. Where do you get this information or content? One place is from your mind and the second is from outside sources.

So let’s deal with your mind first. The part dealing with your mind has two phases to it. The first step is (1) to go back to Stage 1. Remember in Stage 1 you were writing down whatever you could think about the subject. That is information coming from your mind from what you have learned about the subject beforehand. If you did a good job on Stage 1, you have plenty of information to choose from. If you only wrote down 3 or 4 lines, you did yourself a disservice. However, if you filled a page, you have plenty to go over. Also, remember my suggestion to do the freewriting in bullet form. Now is the time that that method will come in handy. Go back over each of your pre-writing exercises and see what information you have in each that could support each of your working theses. Let your pattern of development guide you as to what information would be relevant. Bring that information down and list it under Stage 3. All of your information should be gathered in one place; that is the reason for repeating it in Stage 3. The next step is to go back and pre-write your narrowed theses. Using only one of the pre-writing methods, explore your mind to see what further information it can come up with in relation to each topic. You will be surprised that there is more in your mind that you had not written down before. By narrowing the topic your mind will focus on that aspect of a topic. Write down the new information.

Now let’s deal with the outside sources—Google or the library. You are so lucky to have access to such valuable tools. Put your narrowed topic into the search square of Google. An abundance of information should begin to appear. Remembering your pattern of writing, choose the information that would support your working thesis. Write all of this information down under Stage 3. You should be able to fill up the remaining page (or maybe two). This information does not have to be written in sentence form. In fact, I would not recommend it. List the information. At this point you should not be worrying about how to write something; you should be concentrating on gathering information.

Assignment: Do the three steps listed under Stage 3 for each of your working theses. See how well you can gather information for each one. This will complete the content phase of the writing process.

DIVISION 2 – ORGANIZATION

Stage 4 – Clustering

Once the information for the essay has been gathered, now the organizational phase begins. If you don’t present your information in an organized manner to your reader, you will be producing a lot of gibberish. Your reader will not be able to make sense of what you are saying. Organization is crucial to an essay. So what is meant by organization? Basically, organization means to present your information in a logical order. How do you know what order? The pattern of writing will tell you what order is demanded. It will tell you how the paragraphs should be grouped. If you know your pattern is causes, then every major body paragraph should be a different cause. If you know your pattern is effect, every major body paragraph should be a different effect. If you know your pattern is exemplification, then every major body paragraph should be a different example. Each of these different causes or examples forms a cluster (another word for a group). Stage 3 and Stage 4 work together. Go back to Stage 3 to look for the clusters that will make up Stage 4 groups. The following is an example of what this might look like (all of the succeeding ideas were found in Stage 3):

Bad Driving Habits (working thesis) (Examples needed)

__________________________________I_____________________________________________ I I I

___Infractions_______ ___ Distractions_________ ____Cell Phone_______

Speeding Eating Talking

Turn signals Children Dialing

Stop signs Radio Texting

There might have been more categories for my subject matter. Could I include them? Yes. Could I have less? No. You must have at least three main body paragraphs for a well-developed essay. Could I have more examples under each of these categories? Yes. No problem. Could I have less than the three supporting examples for each category? No. You need to have sufficient support for your paragraphs. Three supporting points should be utilized for each paragraph.

Assignment: Choose only one of your working theses. That one will be developed into an essay. Therefore, after Stage 3 you must do the clustering for that topic.

STAGE 5: Outline

Most students tell me that they don’t like doing an outline. The reason for this dislike is that they find it hard to develop them. However, I hope you change your mind when I show you how easy it is to develop one. Did you find the previous stage (3) difficult. Somewhat? The clustering is probably the hardest. However, if you followed what I was teaching you about letting the pattern be your guide, then the clustering is not too difficult. The transition from the clustering to the outline is very simple.

Herewith, I am including the outline format that I expect you to follow for all of your essays: Essay formula.doc
Essay formula.doc – Alternative Formats

You will notice that there are 5 paragraphs in the outline. The first paragraph is the introduction and the last is the conclusion. The three in the middle are called the main body paragraphs. How do you develop these. Look above at the clustering. All you have to do is transfer the three categories developed in Stage 4 (Clustering) and transfer them over to Stage 5 (Outline). Now was that difficult? Easy, easy, easy. The only decision that you have to make in transferring the clusters is to decide what order you want them to appear in your essay or what would be the best order of presentation—for instance, most important to least important, or vice versa; or chronologically. It is your choice. Next you will note in each main body paragraph on the outline that there are three main points. Those are the three examples for each one. Again, you can decide the order of presentation.

Before going further, I must take time to explain what I expect in each of those main body paragraphs. As you have already seen, there are three main body paragraphs and each one had three main points, plus a concluding sentence. However, you are now in college, not high school. To develop a paragraph well, a sufficient amount of explanation must be given for each of these three main points. Each main point should have at least two sentences written about it. That makes six sentences. Can you have more? Yes. Then you have the topic sentence at the beginning. Where do those topic sentences come from? From the main categories: infractions, distractions, and cell phone from the example above. The concluding sentence is the last sentence. It should be a culmination of that paragraph. How many sentences does this make? Eight (8) sentences. Every main body paragraph should have at least eight sentences. This is what a college essay demands: thorough development. I expect every main body paragraph to adhere to this. If you don’t count, I will.

The last two parts of the outline are the introduction and conclusion. Attached herewith is a guide as to how to develop each of these Writing an Introduction or a Conclusion.docx
Writing an Introduction or a Conclusion.docx – Alternative Formats

. Most likely you will only use one of the suggestions at a time in your essay either in the introduction or the conclusion. However, you could possibly mix in one other, but only one will dominate. We will discuss each of these suggestions in class. Write down the points that you will make for the introduction up in the top right hand corner. If you need more space, use that which is below the conclusion. For the conclusion, there is one other point I want to make: use your introduction as a guide to come full circle in your conclusion. Make sure to put your points of development on the outline. Your outline is your guide to the writing of your paper. Once you have filled out the outline, you basically have the paper. Everything on it will be developed into your final paper. At this point, you have concluded the second division of the writing process—the organization.

*** MAJOR POINT: DO NOT WRITE THE OUTLINE IN SENTENCE FORM. At this point you must concentrate on the organization, not on writing sentences. To do so would be a distraction from your objective.

Assignment: After having completed the clustering, now transfer that information to your outline formula. Fill out the outline completely. Develop the points for both the introduction and the conclusion as well. Make sure that you have the outline filled out completely. Then you will only have to sit down in front of your computer and write the essay.

DIVISION 3 – WRITING THE PAPER

STAGE 6: The Final Thesis Statement

This is not a difficult stage. It is only turning your working thesis into a powerful statement. But what makes a powerful statement? The following are some guides that you should consider when constructing that thesis:

A thesis statement is never a statement of fact.
A thesis statement should never contain the words “always” or “never”.
A thesis statement should never be a biased opinion.
A thesis statement should never be a compound sentence.
A thesis statement should never be too broad.
A thesis statement should never be too narrow.
Never use “there are”, “there is”, or “it is” in a thesis statement.

The following attachment is an exercise that we will do together during class. However, try to make your judgments before class to see how well you can do. ENC 1102 – Act. 1.9, THE THESIS SENTENCE.doc
ENC 1102 – Act. 1.9, THE THESIS SENTENCE.doc – Alternative Formats

Assignment: Write your thesis statement.

STAGE 7: Rough Draft

This is the objective you have been working toward during the process: your essay. Now will be the time to concentrate on your sentence construction. Sit down in front of your computer. Have your outline in front of you. Turn every point into a complete sentence. Make your essay come alive. If you have done all of the preparation, this part should be much easier to handle. This is not your final copy; this is only a rough draft. It is a draft because after writing it you must go back over to edit and improve and finalize it.

Assignment: Write your rough draft. Make a hard copy of it.

STAGE 8: Editing and Revising

Most young people dislike this part immensely. Why? Because it takes time. However, it doesn’t really take as much time as you think. Most of the editing can be done within an hour or two. Remember I had you make a hard copy. Why? Because I want you to do your editing and revising on the hard copy so that I can see that you have done it. In that way, I can guide you better along the way. At the beginning of this Lesson Plan I pointed out to you that all great writers go back over their work. They know that the first copy is not the last one. You have to look for your grammatical errors, your sentence construction, the relevance of your main body paragraphs to your thesis, etc.

Two parts are involved in the editing and revising: the content and the grammatical part. Stages 3, 4, and 5 were meant to take care of the content. Stage 3 gave you the information; and Stages 4 and 5 gave you the organization. During that time your focus should have been on that content and that all of the clusters and points supported the thesis that you had developed. If you did a good job then, you won’t have to do anything at this point. If you want, you might read back over your paper once more to listen to the logic of your thoughts. However, do not spend too much time. The second part requires more time. How do you check for grammatical errors. No, you don’t have mom or dad or girlfriend or boyfriend read your paper. How do you know that they know more than you? Unless your reader is an English teacher. Remember those correction symbols we went over in class; that is the way to edit and revise your paper. Go down the list and check for the errors. In class, I will be identifying which ones you can look for and which ones you will leave for me. Checking for those errors can make a difference in your grade.

Assignment: Edit and revise your rough draft on the hard copy.

STAGE 9: Final Copy

You have finally arrived!!!! This is the end—your final copy!!!

Assignment: Using the hard copy on which you have made the correction marks, sit down at your computer and fix the errors on your computer copy.