Steps for Effective Essay Writing:

1.) Know your audience.

2.) Match the tone of the writing to the audience.
3.) Establish a purpose.
4.) Establish a main idea/thesis.
5.) Write unified sentences/paragraphs. This begins with the
Introductory Paragraph and its thesis sentence.
6.) Write Body Paragraphs based on the elements introduced in
the Introductory Paragraph. These Body Paragraphs should
be constructed around a topic sentence.
7.) Write a Concluding Paragraph which brings all of the facts
introduced into focus; reminds the reader of the central
idea/thesis; and makes the reader feel the time spent has
been worthwhile.
8.) Be honest.
9.) Use conventionally accepted spelling, punctuation and
grammar.
10.) Follow the particular style assigned by the instructor: MLA
at WTC.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING THESIS SENTENCES:

To reach your thesis sentence, you need to think in terms of the
following steps: 1.) the purpose 2.) the central idea/thesis.
The first step is to determine the "purpose." Basically, you are
determining the approach your essay will follow. Ask yourself:
--am
--am
--am
--am

I
I
I
I

going
going
going
going

to
to
to
to

inform the reader?

convince the reader?
describe something to the reader?
tell a story?

Informing the reader is called "exposition."

Convincing the reader is called "argument."
Describing something is called "description."
Telling a story is called "narrative."
In an ENGL 1301 class, the decision regarding purpose is often
made for you by the instructor. In other words, the assignment itself
will determine your essays purpose, and this purpose will be to write
either an expositive essay, an argumentative essay, a descriptive
essay, or a narrative.
To determine your central idea or thesis, ask the what
question.
This question works for each of the four types of essay purposes. For
example:
--what am I going to inform them of;
--what am I going to convince them of;
--what am I going to describe;
--what story am I going to tell.
The answer to this question determines your main idea. The main
idea then becomes the basis for your thesis sentence which often (but
not always) opens your introductory paragraph.
There is a third step. Based on both your purpose and your main
idea/thesis, create an appropriate title.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHS:

The first paragraph in your essay is its Introductory Paragraph. It
has several purposes. In general, it should introduce the essays main
idea/thesis and prepare the reader for the facts to follow. Here are
elements common to an Introductory Paragraph:
--a clear thesis or main idea, which relates to all of the paragraphs
in the essay.
--identification of source material. Information about your sources
might include such things as the authors name, the title, and the
general subject matter. For example, here is an Introductory
Paragraph for an essay about Puritan America.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in the so-called New World
in 1620, was a venture of the Puritans, for the Puritans, by the
Puritans--a kind of members only organization that, if you did not
hold to the Puritan beliefs, was not afraid to actively point out the
error of your way. If you got on the wrong side of the Puritan
leadership, the consequences could be dire. No individual found this
out more intensely that Thomas Morton, who was placed in chains and
exiled/imprisoned to a nearby island for going against the Puritan
leadership and its beliefs. Mortons so-called crime, among others,
consisted of erecting a Maypole for dancing and consorting with the
areas indigenous Indians. Mortons confrontation with the Christian
thinking Puritans, his punishment, and his subsequent attempt at
reprisal are chronicled by the man himself in a work first published in
1637 entitled A New English Canaan, and reprinted in 1898 in the
book American History Told by Contemporaries. As told by Morton, it is
a story initially filled with hope, then frustration, then finally fed by
anger and a desire for revenge.

Never begin your Introductory Paragraph with In this paper I will

show . . . or My essay will explain . . . Such a sentence draws
attention to itself by stating the obvious. It does not engage the
reader. Instead, a writer should relate facts that illustrate or
emphasize the main idea.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING BODY PARAGRAPHS:

Body Paragraphs follow the Introductory Paragraph. This portion of
your essay offers an expanded version of the Introduction. In other
words, more facts profiled in greater detail. Keep in mind, these facts
relate to the main idea/thesis sentence. Each Body Paragraph relates
to some aspect of the thesis, adding of amplifying details omitted from
the opening.
A Body Paragraph is similar to an Introductory Paragraph in one
important way: both state a main idea. Usually, but not always, this
main idea is stated in the opening or first sentence. For Body
Paragraphs, we call this main idea the Topic Sentence.
Here are some random elements of Body Paragraphs:
--The main idea of the paragraph is summarized with its Topic
Sentence.
--Each paragraph offers greater detail related to one separate point
or idea that relates back to the thesis sentence.
--Each paragraph usually contains five to seven sentences.
--Any identifying details left out of the Introductory Paragraph
such as more specific detail regarding the author or the publication
information for your source materialshould be included in the Body
Paragraphs.
Based on the Introduction Paragraph example related to the
Puritans, the reader should likely expect individual Body Paragraphs
about the following topics:
--history of and leaders associated with the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
--a brief history of Puritan beliefs.
--a brief biography of Thomas Morton.
--a description of Thomas Morton and his adventures in the New
World before he had problems with the Puritan leadership.
--Details regarding the Maypole of Merrimount incident.
--Information regarding Mortons life after Merrimount, specifically
regarding his writing and publishing his story, A New English Canaan.
--A summary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony after the Merrimount
incident.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS:

1.) A good Concluding Paragraph brings together the main points of
your essay without simply repeating everything youve already said.
VERY BAD EXAMPLES of ways to open a Concluding Paragraph include:
In this paper I have tried to show . . .
and/or
In conclusion, . . .
2.) A good Concluding Paragraph stays on track. Do no introduce odd
ball or completely new facts at the end. If there is another aspect of
the essay to consider, and if it relates to the central thesis outlined in
the Introduction, add it as a Body Paragraph.
3.) A good Concluding Paragraph does not make absolute claims. VERY
BAD EXAMPLES of ways to conclude a Concluding Paragraph include:
These facts prove that . . .
and/or
It seems there can be no doubt . . .
4.) A good Concluding Paragraph brings the essay--all facts presented
up until that point--into better focus for the reader.
5.) A good Concluding Paragraph offers one last surprise or one last
insight for the reader to consider. A good writer once said save
something for the last, and this is especially true for a Concluding
Paragraph. Such an ending gives the reader a sense of satisfied
completion.

To end where we started, here is a Concluding Paragraph based on

the thesis/main idea of our sample essay related to the Puritans, the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, and its feud with Thomas Morton.
Thomas Morton ended his relationship with the leaders of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony with a civil lawsuit and unkind words,
published in his 1637 piece, A New English Canaan. In one sense, he
emerged from the altercation the ultimate winner, since his legal
actions against the colony led, in part, to the revocation of its charter
in the New World. This victory was not final, however, since the colony
would soon be independent of its British landlords. Perhaps it can be
viewed as a moral victory, but this interpretation of the story is
offset by the fact that Morton would choose to voluntarily return to the
New England colonies a few years later. History knows the story best
from a version of it written as a short story some 200 years after the
fact, The Maypole of Merrimount, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this
version, neither Morton nor his accusers, the Puritans, are portrayed
as clear heroes or clear villains. This interpretation may be as close
as we ever get to the real truth of the story.