YEAR SEVEN ENGLISH ESSAY GUIDELINES

Página 1

Introduction

Grab the reader’s attention. You might want to use:

An interesting fact

An important piece of information

A quotation

A summary of the text you are studying

A rhetorical question

A definition or explanation of words in the question.

Get to the point and be specific. Let the reader know what the essay is about by repeating some of the key words from the essay title.

Do not write: “I am going to write about……” or “In this essay I am going to discuss…… "

P.E.E paragraphs

Each paragraph must include at least one of each of these:

Point - Make a brief point which answers one of your questions from step 2. This could be described as a topic sentence, what you want to say about the character/theme you are discussing. This will tell the reader what the topic of the paragraph is. Evidence - Select one or more quotations that back up your point. This is where you prove that your point is fact and not opinion. Explanation - Now explain what your quotation means and how it backs up your point, it is not just a translation of the quote.

Each new paragraph will start with a topic sentence or point. Make a clear transition between each paragraph, using connectives: "Not only…also..." "Besides..." "In addition to..." "However..." "Although..." etc.

YEAR SEVEN ENGLISH ESSAY GUIDELINES

Writing your conclusion

Recap your main ideas as a summary of what you have written.

Give your opinion and the brief answer to the question.

Leave a memorable impression in the reader's mind.

Do not introduce new ideas to the essay.

You might want to end with:

an interesting thought

an explanation of why the topic is an important one

a comment on consequences

a powerful image

a thought provoking quotation

Then all you have to do is proofread!

Planning

Break the question down into smaller questions that need to be answered before the main question can be answered. Decide how many paragraphs/points you will need to make. Find evidence and quotations from the text to support your answers and make a note of these.

How to include the quotes

All quotes should be written exactly as they are in the text. All the words you select from the text should be contained within inverted commas. These can be single ‘text’ if the quote is embedded within your own sentence. Example: Slim showed no malice towards Lennie as he refers to him as a ‘nice fella.’ They can also be double inverted commas “text” if it is a longer quotation. This should be introduced by a colon (:) followed by the extract on a new line. For example: Slim seems to admire the fact that George and Lennie are companions: “Ain’t many guys travel around together……I don’t know why.”

Proofreading

Read through your essay several times.Reading through your work backwards as well as forwards often makes it easier to pick up on spelling mistakes, because you are reading the words out of context. Get someone else to read it through, but don't allow them to rewrite anything for you. If you have written it on the computer, check the spelling, punctuation and grammar yourself, as spellcheckers often get it wrong!

Polish your language — make it more interesting and intelligent, even making use of a thesaurus.

New Page