Last Thursday, students were again working hard. It's the final stretch, and many students are going to end this class with grades as high as 100. I am so impressed with how much work some of my students have done - it's kind of confusing about why they are in summer school at all when I'm watching them work so well and produce such amazing work.
Today we are going to work on editing our paragraphs and adding introductions and conclusions. I think a lot of students get stuck on introductions because they are nervous about writing something bad, or they just don't know how to start. And conclusions are also tough because it's like, "I already finished my paper, what's the point of a conclusion?" Also, a lot of my students learn in middle school that a conclusion is basically just restating the introduction, but summarizing the essay. Well, it's more than that.
First, introductions. When you meet someone for the first time, you get to make a first impression. You say something or do something and it makes that person feel a certain type of way about you. Is it respect? Is it curiosity? It is confusion? And if you are a shy person, it's hard to just introduce yourself to people. But that's the point of an introduction - to introduce yourself to whoever is reading your essay. Luckily, your essays are all about a specific topic, so you have something to start talking about. And how do you start talking about it? What do you say? Here are some ways that I start introduction to hook my reader in and make them interested:
A shocking fact about my topic.
A question about my topic that relates to my claim.
Something humorous about my topic.
Then you need to give a little background information that a reader needs to know about your topic before reading. Like, if I'm writing about marijuana laws, the person needs to know what marijuana is, or what a law is, or what the laws about marijuana are right now. So usually giving definitions of your main idea or topic is a good idea. Finally, you end with your claim and all the reasons, stated in 1-2 sentences.
As you do this over and over again in high school, you will get better at it, but to start off, you just need to give those 3 things: a hook, background information/definitions of your topic, and your claim and reasons. If you are worried about it sounding boring, that's ok. A lot of people sound boring when they first try introducing an essay. But you'll get better at it. I'm sure you are much more interesting now than you were when you were 4 years old, because you've had over ten years of practice being more interesting.
The conclusion is different. When I get through reading a whole essay, I'm thinking a lot of things. You just taught me so much in your essay, and now you need to send me back into my life. How will you say goodbye? What thoughts will you leave me with? That's the conclusion - what are your closing thoughts about this topic? What have you learned? What do you hope I learned from this? Why is this important? What can this information be used for now or in the future? These are some of the options in your conclusion, but here's the simplest way I can think of how to write a conclusion:
What? - summarize/restate your claim and your reasons
So what? - explain why this is important
Now what? - explain how we can use this information in the future
And that's how I think of every conclusion I write. Trust me, it gets easier the more you do it. But if you keep writing essays in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, by the time you get to college, you'll be faster and better at it.
What do you think?
Today we are going to work on editing our paragraphs and adding introductions and conclusions. I think a lot of students get stuck on introductions because they are nervous about writing something bad, or they just don't know how to start. And conclusions are also tough because it's like, "I already finished my paper, what's the point of a conclusion?" Also, a lot of my students learn in middle school that a conclusion is basically just restating the introduction, but summarizing the essay. Well, it's more than that.
First, introductions. When you meet someone for the first time, you get to make a first impression. You say something or do something and it makes that person feel a certain type of way about you. Is it respect? Is it curiosity? It is confusion? And if you are a shy person, it's hard to just introduce yourself to people. But that's the point of an introduction - to introduce yourself to whoever is reading your essay. Luckily, your essays are all about a specific topic, so you have something to start talking about. And how do you start talking about it? What do you say? Here are some ways that I start introduction to hook my reader in and make them interested:
A shocking fact about my topic.
A question about my topic that relates to my claim.
Something humorous about my topic.
Then you need to give a little background information that a reader needs to know about your topic before reading. Like, if I'm writing about marijuana laws, the person needs to know what marijuana is, or what a law is, or what the laws about marijuana are right now. So usually giving definitions of your main idea or topic is a good idea. Finally, you end with your claim and all the reasons, stated in 1-2 sentences.
As you do this over and over again in high school, you will get better at it, but to start off, you just need to give those 3 things: a hook, background information/definitions of your topic, and your claim and reasons. If you are worried about it sounding boring, that's ok. A lot of people sound boring when they first try introducing an essay. But you'll get better at it. I'm sure you are much more interesting now than you were when you were 4 years old, because you've had over ten years of practice being more interesting.
The conclusion is different. When I get through reading a whole essay, I'm thinking a lot of things. You just taught me so much in your essay, and now you need to send me back into my life. How will you say goodbye? What thoughts will you leave me with? That's the conclusion - what are your closing thoughts about this topic? What have you learned? What do you hope I learned from this? Why is this important? What can this information be used for now or in the future? These are some of the options in your conclusion, but here's the simplest way I can think of how to write a conclusion:
What? - summarize/restate your claim and your reasons
So what? - explain why this is important
Now what? - explain how we can use this information in the future
And that's how I think of every conclusion I write. Trust me, it gets easier the more you do it. But if you keep writing essays in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, by the time you get to college, you'll be faster and better at it.
What do you think?