______Unit 9. Outlining an essay_____ what is an outline?
An outline is a list of the information you will put in your essay.
An outline….
Begins with the essay’s thesis statement.
Shows the organization of the essay.
Tells what ideas you will discuss and shows which ideas will come first, second and so on.
Ends with an essay’s conclusion.
Writing an outline before you write an essay will
Show you what to write before you actually begin writing.
Help make your essay well organized and clearly focused
Keep you from forgetting any important points.
Making an outline is even more important when you are planning an essay because you have many more ideas and details to organize. An outline for an essay with two body paragraphs might look like this.
I. Introduction
Thesis statement
II. Body
A. Topic Sentence
1. Main Supporting Point
a. Supporting Detail
b. Supporting Detail
2. Main Supporting Point
a. Supporting Detail
b. Supporting Detail
3. Main Supporting Point
a. Supporting Detail
b. Supporting Detail
B. Topic Sentence
1. Main Supporting Point
a. Supporting Detail
b. Supporting Detail
2. Main Supporting Point
a. Supporting Detail
b. Supporting Detail
III. Conclusion
Notice these points:
1. The introduction, body, and conclusion are numbered with Roman numerals: I, II, III.
2. The topic sentence of each body paragraph is given a capital letter (A, B, C, and so on).
3. Each main supporting point is numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on.
4. Each supporting detail is given a small letter (a, b, c, and so on).
5. Each time the outline moves from a Roman numeral to a capital letter to an Arabic numeral, the text is indented. Indenting makes it easy to see the movement from big to small, from main points to specific details.
For the Sample Outline see the Appendix 1.
Activity 1. Label each statement T for thesis statement, M for main idea, S for supporting point, or C for conclusion.
Title: The benefits of yoga
Develops clear thinking
Physical benefits
Improves concentration
Reduces fear, anger, and worry
Mental benefits
Improves digestion n
Helps you feel calm and peaceful
Develops self-confidence
Doing yoga regularly can be good for your mind, your body and emotions
Makes you strong and flexible
Therefore, to build mental, physical, and emotional health, consider doing yoga
Emotional benefits
Arrange the ideas into an outline, then write an essay using this outline.
______________
_______________
__________
__________
_______________
__________
__________
__________
_____________
__________
__________
__________
_______________
_____Unit 10 introduction and conclusion____
What is the introduction?
The first paragraph of an essay is called the introduction.
A well-written introductory paragraph performs four important roles:
1. It attracts the reader’s interest, encouraging him or her to continue reading the essay.
2. It supplies any background information that the reader may need to understand the essay.
3. It presents a thesis statement. This clear, direct statement of the main idea of the paper usually appears near the end of the introductory paragraph.
4. It indicates a plan of development. In this preview, the major supporting points for the thesis are listed in the order in which they will be presented. In some cases, the thesis and plan of development appear in the same sentence. However, writers sometimes choose not to describe the plan of development.
The introduction is often organized by giving the most general ideas and then leading to the most specific idea, which is the thesis statement.
GENERAL IDEAS
SPECIFIC IDEA
(Thesis statement)
Common Methods of Introduction
Here are some common methods of introduction. Use any one method, or a combination of methods, to introduce your subject to the reader in an interesting way.
Begin with a broad, general statement of your topic and narrow it down to your thesis statement.
Bookstore shelves today are crammed with dozens of different diet books. The American public seems willing to try any sort of diet, especially the ones that promise instant, miraculous results. And authors are more than willing to invent new fad diets to cash in on this craze. Unfortunately, some of these fad diets are ineffective or even unsafe. One of the worst fad diets is the Palm Beach plan. It is impractical, doesn’t achieve the results it claims, and is a sure route to poor nutrition.
Start with an idea or a situation that is the opposite of the one you will develop.
When I decided to return to school at age thirty-five, I wasn’t at all worried about my ability to do the work. After all, I was a grown woman who had raised a family, not a confused teenager fresh out of high school. But when I started classes, I realized that those “confused teenagers” sitting around me were in much better shape for college than I was. They still had all their classroom skills in bright, shiny condition, while mine had grown rusty from disuse. I had to learn how to locate information in a library, how to write a report, and even how to speak up in class discussions.
Explain the importance of your topic to the reader. If you can convince your readers that the subject in some way applies to them, or is something they should know more about, they will want to keep reading.
Diseases like scarlet fever and whooping cough used to kill more young children than any other cause. Today, however, child mortality due to disease has been almost completely eliminated by medical science. Instead, car accidents are the number-one killer of our children. And most of the children fatally injured in car accidents were not protected by car seats, belts, or restraints of any kind. Several steps must be taken to reduce the serious dangers car accidents pose to children.
Use an incident or a brief story.
Early Sunday morning, the young mother dressed her little girl warmly and gave her a candy bar, a picture book, and a well-worn stuffed rabbit. Together, they drove downtown to a Methodist church. There the mother told the little girl to wait on the stone steps until children began arriving for Sunday school. Then the young mother drove off, abandoning her five-year-old because she couldn’t cope with being a parent anymore. This incident is one of thousands of cases of child neglect and abuse that occur annually. Perhaps the automatic right to become a parent should no longer exist. Would-be parents should be forced to apply for parental licenses for which they would have to meet three important conditions.
Ask one or more questions. You may simply want the reader to think about possible answers, or you may plan to answer the questions yourself later in the paper.
What is love? How do we know that we are really in love? When we meet that special person, how can we tell that our feelings are genuine and not merely infatuation? And, if they are genuine, will these feelings last? Love, as we all know, is difficult to define. But most people agree that true and lasting love involves far more than mere physical attraction. Love involves mutual respect, the desire to give rather than take, and the feeling of being wholly at ease.
Use a quotation. A quotation can be something you have read in a book or an article. It can also be something that you have heard: a popular saying or proverb (“Never give advice to a friend”), a current or recent advertising slogan (“Can you hear me now?”), or a favorite expression used by friends or family (“My father always says …”). Using a quotation in your introductory paragraph lets you add someone else’s voice to your own.
“Fish and visitors,” wrote Benjamin Franklin, “begin to smell after three days.” Last summer, when my sister and her family came to spend their two-week vacation with us, I became convinced that Franklin was right. After only three days of my family’s visit, I was thoroughly sick of my brother-in-law’s lame jokes, my sister’s endless complaints about her boss, and their children’s constant invasions of our privacy.
Activity 2. The box that follows summarizes the six kinds of introductions. Read the introductions that come after it and, in the space provided, write the letter of the kind of introduction used in each case.
a. General to narrow
b. Starting with an opposite
c. Stating importance of topic
d. Incident or story
e. Questions
f. Quotation
_____ 1. The ad, in full color on a glossy magazine page, shows a beautiful kitchen with gleaming counters. In the foreground, on one of the counters, stands a shiny new food processor. Usually, a feminine hand is touching it lovingly. Around the main picture are other, smaller shots. They show mounds of perfectly sliced onion rings, thin rounds of juicy tomatoes, heaps of match stick-sized potatoes, and piles of golden, evenly grated cheese. The ad copy tells you how wonderful, how easy, food preparation will be with a processor. Don’t believe it. My processor turned out to be expensive, difficult to operate, and very limited in its use.
_____ 2. My father stubbornly says, “You can often tell a book by its cover,” and when it comes to certain paperbacks, he’s right. When you’re browsing in the drugstore or supermarket and you see a paperback featuring an attractive young woman in a low-cut dress fleeing from a handsome dark figure in a shadowy castle, you know exactly what you’re getting. Every romance novel has the same elements: an innocent heroine, an exotic setting, and a cruel but fascinating hero.
_____ 3. We Americans are incredibly lazy. Instead of cooking a simple, nourishing meal, we pop a frozen dinner into the oven. Instead of studying a daily newspaper, we are contented with the capsule summaries on the network news. Worst of all, instead of walking even a few blocks to the local convenience store, we jump into our cars. This dependence on the automobile, even for short trips, has robbed us of a valuable experience— walking. If we drove less and walked more, we would save money, become healthier, and discover fascinating things about our surroundings.
Activity 3. In the following introductory paragraphs, the sentences are in scrambled order. On a separate piece of paper, rewrite them in the correct order. Begin with the most general statement. Then add each sentence in correct order, from the next most general to the least general Write the thesis statement last.
(1) Therefore, workaholics' lifestyles can affect their families, social lives, and health. (2) Because they work so many hours, workaholics may not spend enough time in leisure activities. (3) Nowadays, many men and women work in law, accounting, real estate, and business. (4) These people are serious about becoming successful, so they work long hours during the week and even on weekends. (5) People who work long hours are called "workaholics."
(1) Therefore, anyone who wants to drive must carry a driver's license. (2) It is divided into four steps: studying the traffic laws, taking the written test, learning to drive, and taking the driving test. (3) Getting a driver's license is a complicated process. (4) Driving a car is a necessity in today's busy society, and it is also a special privilege.
(1) During this period, children separate themselves from their parents and become independent. (2) Teenagers express their separateness most vividly in their choice of clothes, hairstyles, music, and vocabulary. (3) The teenage years between childhood and adulthood are a period of growth and separation.
The importance of conclusion
The concluding paragraph of an essay, or conclusion, is your last say on your essay topic. This is where you wrap your ideas up and close the essay. Essentially, the conclusion of your essay need only be one paragraph; it is not limited to that, however. In your conclusion you may
- Restate your thesis
- Summarize the main points of your essay
- Draw a final conclusion about your topic
- Leave your reader with a memorable statement or quote
Most importantly you want to leave your reader feeling something and offer them closure. You may use any one of the methods below, or a combination of methods, to round off your paper.
End with a summary and final thought. When army instructors train new recruits, each of their lessons follows a three-step formula:
1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you’ve told them.
An essay that ends with a summary is not very different. After you have stated your thesis (“Tell them what you’re going to tell them”) and supported it (“Tell them”), you restate the thesis and supporting points (“Tell them what you’ve told them”). However, don’t use the exact wording you used before. Here is a summary conclusion:
Online shopping at home, then, has several advantages. Such shopping is convenient, saves you money, and saves you time. It is not surprising that growing numbers of people are doing the majority of their shopping on the Internet, for everything from turnip seeds to televisions.
Note that the summary is accompanied by a final comment that rounds off the paper and brings the discussion to a close. This combination of a summary and a final thought is the most common method of concluding an essay.
Include a thought-provoking question or short series of questions. A question grabs the reader’s attention. It is a direct appeal to your reader to think further about what you have written. A question should follow logically from the points you have already made in the paper. A question must deal with one of these areas:
1. Why the subject of your paper is important
2. What might happen in the future
3. What should be done about this subject
4. Which choice should be made
In your conclusion, you may provide an answer to your question. Be sure, though, that the question is closely related to your thesis. Here is an example:
What, then, will happen when most of the population will be over sixty years old?
Retirement policies could change dramatically, with the age-sixty-five testimonial dinner and gold watch postponed for five or ten years. Even television would change as the Red Bull generation replaces the Pepsi generation. Glamorous gray-haired models would sell everything from toilet paper to televisions. New soap operas and situation comedies would reveal the secrets of the “sunset years.” It will be a different world indeed when the young find themselves outnumbered.
End with a prediction or recommendation. Like questions, predictions and recommendations also involve your readers. A prediction states what may happen in the future:
If people stopped to think before acquiring pets, there would be fewer instances of cruelty to animals. Many times, it is the people who adopt pets without considering the expense and responsibility involved who mistreat and neglect their animals. Pets are living creatures. They do not deserve to be treated as carelessly as one would treat a stuffed toy.
A recommendation suggests what should be done about a situation or problem:
Stereotypes such as the ditzy blonde, harried executive, and annoying in-law are insulting enough to begin with. In magazine ads or television commercials, they become even more insulting. Now these unfortunate characters are not just being laughed at; they are being turned into hucksters to sell products to an unsuspecting public. Consumers should boycott companies whose advertising continues to use such stereotypes.
Activity 5. Study the following essay outlines. Only the introductory paragraph and topic sentences for body paragraphs are given. Then choose the most appropriate concluding paragraph.
1.