Writing Homework Help

In Essay 1, you will be offering your perspective on education and success. Your goal in Essay 1 is to offer your perspective on the following question:

What factor would you argue could most help students succeed in college and why?

Your essay should be an argumentative essay that uses and analyzes textual evidence as support for your thesis; it should not be a personal narrative. You should include at least two pieces of textual evidence from the readings in this unit. Texts to consider include: Graff, Dweck, Hilton, Peters, or Smith (TED talk or article). Since you need 3 pieces of textual evidence total, you may also find one reliable outside source on your own. You may also use first-person experience as relevant support in addition to textual evidence. But make sure to have one piece of textual evidence per body paragraph.

INTRODUCTION AND THESIS

Your essay should have a compelling introduction that includes background information that is relevant to your essay and leads to your thesis. You should engage the reader by referring to a particular piece of evidence that helps you to introduce the issue that you will be focusing on in the essay. You might include a piece of evidence come from your personal experience, from a book, from a TED Talk, or from the culture (such as a statistic or current event).

Your introduction should also, of course, include your thesis as the last sentence of the paragraph. Your thesis should be a direct answer to the essay question and include the one particular factor you are focusing on and the one main reason why that factor is important. Avoid listing three different factors or three different reasons.

BODY

In the body of your essay, you should support your thesis by turning to at least two texts from the unit. Help us to see how your perspective on your topic is supported based upon what other thinkers help you to realize.

The body of your essay should contain paragraphs that are connected through transitional sentences. Remember that each piece of evidence in your body needs to be introduced in your words in a way that connects back to the previous paragraph and connects to your thesis. Once you introduce and present your evidence, you also need to interpret it for us and extract an idea from it that connects to your thesis.

CONCLUSION

Your conclusion should not simply repeat what you have already said in your essay. It should tie together what you have written in the body and leave the reader with something new to think about. It should make a move beyond what you have written thus far to consider the larger implications of the issue you are interested in.

Another way to approach the conclusion is to consider the opposite of what you have argued in the body. You could use a sentence beginning with “Even though,” “While,” “Whereas,” or “And yet” to signal that you are providing an opposing perspective and thus crafting a more balanced, well thought-out essay.

WORKS CITED

Your essay will need to have a Works Cited list in MLA style, as well as parenthetical documentation in MLA style. Please consult the Handbook for proper MLA style. We are using MLA style 8th edition. See Note on MLA Style.

TITLE

Don’t forget to create a title for your essay.

FORMAT

3 pages, typed and double-spaced

one-inch margins

12-pt font

parenthetical documentation and works cited in MLA style

DUE DATES

Essay plan due 5/3

Submit an essay plan that includes the following:

1) Your hook

2) Your working thesis

3) The purpose of each body paragraph (three body paragraphs), including:

–the main idea of each paragraph stated as a topic sentence

–the evidence you will use to support that idea (specific quotation from the readings or from one outside source)

Since you have 3 body paragraphs, you should have 3 idea statements, with a specific quotation under each idea statement.

4) The main point you will make in your conclusion

FINAL ESSAY WILL BE DUE BY 5/10