Lectur Week # 13

In the beginning we read the process essay “ Bath Time”, which talks about how to bath a dog.

The student was asked to find what was missing in the essay.

It was interesting exercise and almost all of the students had observed that the introduction and conclusion are missing in the paragraph.

To do the group work, the class was divided into three groups. Every group was supposed to write the introduction and conclusion of this paragraph independently.

Then all the introductions and conclusions were discussed in the class.

In the lecture part

Major components of essay writing were explained.

Any essay writing comprise of ;

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

We always start our essay from the body and then we write introduction and conclusion.

Explained in detailed with examples, why it is better to write introduction and conclusion of the essay after finishing the body of the essay.

In the academic writing thesis statement is very important, so it should be stated clearly.

Thesis statement is a
TOPIC + CONTROLLING IDEA

Following points are important for the introduction of the essay ;

 Thesis statement
 Attention getter
 Establish tone
 Establish position
 Anecdote
 Background/set-up/context

Attention getter can be achieved by quote of some person, rhetorical question, giving some statistics, talk about facts. We establish a tone in the introduction, which has a link with controlling idea present in the body of essay. Therefore, tone in the introduction should be very closely related to the purpose of the essay.

Writer’s position should be defined at the beginning of the essay and that is in the introduction of essay. If the writer is comparing two things that one thing is better than other, then he/she should be clear in the beginning that in which side he/she is; So that the reader will know the position of the writer before starting the body of the paragraph.

Anecdote : it means to tell the reader a story or inform them about an event. Important point is that the story should be related to the topic. Any irrelevant anecdote will not only confuse the reader, but the entire tempo achieved in the start will be lost, and eventually the reader will be disoriented.

Background/set-up/context : If writer is talking about the location, then he/she should be clear in the beginning of essay from where he is going to take the reader further into the event, as writer go forward the reader will be with him. If position is not defined clearly, then the reader may mislead himself into his own thoughts. It can be time related issue, about which time essay is talking about or if situation then explain its set-up.

The most important rule for the essay writing is to avoid repetition.

Repetition can make the audience to lose the interest and they will stop reading the essay. The interest which was developed in the introduction, try to maintain if not increase it with the help of language, by choosing the correct words.

INTRODUCTION is general. It is usually half the size of average body paragraph.
Sometimes we use more than one paragraph for the introduction.

CONCLUSION is specific. It is usually the quarter or less of the size of the average body paragraph. Most of the times it is two sentences rarely three sentences.

Conclusion means expressing your views what you said in the essay; transforming it into other words retaining the central idea. It is basically a writer’s decision just to close up the discussion.

Some revision from other lectures was discussed - like the writing process which was taught in lecture # 3.

WRITING PROCESS

1. Pre-writing
2. Writing
3. Revision

Then one by one the students went to the Prof. Derek Brown with their first draft of essay to get useful advice.