Prewriting – Profile
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Due Sunday by 11:59pm
Points 25
Submitting a text entry box or a file upload
Prewriting Assignment
For each essay you will write in this class, you will first create an outline. Crafting this outline will force you to plan ahead, organize, and think about what you will write about. You don’t have to include the thesis (the main idea) if you don’t have one yet. In fact, writing the outline might help you determine what your thesis should be. Once you have your ideas down on paper, you might be able to see a pattern in your response that you can use to write your thesis statement.
What I am looking for is a hint at how you will organize the introduction, summary paragraphs, response paragraphs, and conclusion.
It is okay if you aren’t 100% committed to your ideas at this stage.
Carefully read the essay prompt and make sure you are fulfilling the assignment criteria.
Make sure your idea is original and you are submitting your own work. I want to hear your own authentic voice.
Can you summarize your essay in one sentence? If so, that’s your thesis.
What are you going to talk about in each paragraph?
How are you going to start and end the essay? How are you going to start and end each paragraph?
Use the following format:
Original Title of Essay (this can change)
Introduction – Include at least one sentence that you plan to use in your introduction as well as your thesis statement (if you have it). This is where you tell the reader what they are going to read.
Body Paragraph(s) – You can have one or more (three is standard) body paragraphs. Include at least one sentence that you might use in the body paragraphs of your essay. This is where you say what you have to say.
Conclusion. Include at least one sentence you might use to conclude your essay. This is where you summarize what you said in the essay.
Remember this outline can be very basic and almost all of this can change before you submit your essay.
Consider the following for every essay:
Introduction: How will you begin your essay?
To get a paper off to a great start, writers should try to have a first sentence that engages their reader. This first sentence should be broadly related to the topic of the essay.
Ways writers can begin:
Paradoxical or Intriguing Statement
Shocking Statement or Statistic
Rhetorical Question
Anecdote
Statement of the Problem
Proverb, Maxim, or Strong Statement
After the attention getter or lead-in, writers need to gradually narrow the broad subject towards the thesis. This is also where you provide context for the essay: what it will be about and why it is being written.
Gradually narrowing can:
provide background information
explain underlying information
describe the complexity of the issue
introduce various layers of the subject
help transition from these more broad ideas to the narrow thesis
This information is usually provided in two to three sentences between the opening sentence and the thesis. Consider what your readers need to know to make sense of the thesis between the opening line and the thesis.
This last sentence is your thesis statement. A thesis statement manages to encapsulate an essay’s main argument in a succinct, one-sentence comment. Beginner writers oftentimes find it useful to create an essay map thesis, where the thesis briefly lists the areas that will be discussed in the essay.
A Thesis Statement:
has a clearly stated opinion
but does not bluntly announce the opinion (“In this essay I will…”)
is narrow enough to write a focused essay
but is also broad enough to write at least 3-4 body paragraphs
is clearly stated in specific terms
is easily recognized as the main idea
is forceful and direct
is not softened with token phrases (“in my opinion” or “I think”)
can list the main points that will be made
Conclusion: How will you finish your essay?
Your final sentence should clearly reiterate your essay’s key point or argument without repeating other sentences in the essay or conclusion. It can also be helpful to identify why the essay’s point or argument has a broader significance. For example, if you were writing an essay about a particular text and its themes, you might point out how those themes could help readers understand other texts or situations.
After the topic sentence, you want to summarize your strongest points. You have likely included many details, examples, and a variety of information throughout the essay. Focus on your most compelling, interesting, and convincing points. Consider which pieces of information are most important to your essay or would be most likely to convince your reader that you have made a valid argument in the essay.
You might also consider appealing to the reader’s emotions to create a lasting impact.
A conclusion is an important part of your essay because it provides you with one last chance to impress the importance of your essay’s central idea. You have spent an entire essay reinforcing your thesis. You have added detail to support your thesis, so there is no reason to copy and paste the thesis anywhere in your conclusion. Instead, you want to clearly reflect on the thesis statement’s ideas.
A conclusion, like all paragraphs, must start with a topic sentence. You can outline the overall point of your essay by restating the argument in new words. You can rephrase the thesis to remind your reader of the paper’s overall purpose or you can come up with a new topic sentence that touches on the thesis ideas.
Write some sentences you think you’ll include in your essay, including at least one summarizing sentence and the last sentence of your essay.
Essay 3 – The Profile Essay.
For this essay, you will write a profile on a person, place, or thing that matters to you. This is the only essay for which you will need to consult and cite at least 3 credible sources using MLA format (details on this will be on Canvas) and include a Works Cited page.
This should be a person, place, or thing that is well known enough that you can find sources (sorry, you can’t write about a friend or family member). This essay should also vary from a standard encyclopedia entry (although you can and should give some background info on your subject), you will focus on why the subject matters to you and the larger public. Again, why does it matter? Why did you pick this subject? Obviously it’s important to you (say why with vivid detail), but why is the subject important to other people (or why should it be if it isn’t already?).
You must include why this person, place, or thing is significant to you and others. This is the only essay that requires a Works Cited page with in-text citation (3 outside sources in MLA format).
