Download Honors English 9 On Demand Essay Tips On Demand Writing

Honors English 9
On Demand
Essay Tips
On Demand Writing
On Demand Writing asks that you complete the entire writing
process in one class period.
You will have a 108 minute block to complete the entire essay
Using the following tips can help you to write an effective on
demand essay...
Informative/Explanatory Writing
Before we review the steps to writing any On Demand Essay,
let’s take a look at the specific components of an Informative
type essay.
Informative/explanatory writing explains, compares and
contrasts, describes, and informs.
One purpose of informative writing is to convey accurate information to readers. In
addition, informative writing can serve to increase readers’ knowledge of a subject,
help readers better understand the steps involved in a process, and enhance their
comprehension of a specific concept.
Examples of an Informative
Works
scientific studies,
analytical essays and reports
research papers
newspaper articles
nonfiction texts
What Does a Strong Informative
Essay Include?
main idea, often in the form of a thesis statement
develops the main idea with well-chosen and relevant facts, details,
quotations, or other examples.
The writing stays focused on the main idea by using transition words to help
create flow and make connections among complex ideas and supporting
details.
Though informative writing draws a conclusion based on the facts and
information presented, the writing is unbiased, meaning that the
writer does not state his or her own opinion.
Your Essay should include...
a clear and logical organizational structure
an introduction with a clear thesis statement
supporting details, including facts, definitions, quotations, and examples drawn from
reliable sources (From StudySync - OMAM plus at least two others)
clear and varied transitions to connect ideas
precise language and domain-specific (specialized) vocabulary
a formal and objective tone (no first person pronouns)
citations of sources(parenthetic citations after paraphrases or quotes - author’s
last name)
a concluding statement that supports the thesis
Your Prompt
How can dreams and aspirations positively or negatively affect people’s lives
and relationships? What qualities make a dream worth pursuing? How do
people decide when a dream is unrealistic, out of reach, or even harmful?
Think about the selections in this unit. In addition to Of Mice and Men,
choose two other selections from the unit and write an informative
essay that analyzes the impact of dreams and aspirations on the lives and
relationships of the people and characters in these texts.
Your Essay Should Include...
an introduction that features a clear thesis statement.
body paragraphs that contain a thorough analysis as well as
relevant evidence in support of your thesis.
cited evidence from all three sources that support your
ideas.
a concluding paragraph that effectively wraps up the essay
and summarizes support for your thesis statement
Step One: Read and Understand the
Prompt
•Your first step is to read and understand
what the prompt is asking you to do.
•Circle or highlight key words, and seek out
the words that tell you what to do.
Step Two: Guiding Questions
•After reading the prompt, create two or
three guiding questions that you will need to
answer in order to write an effective essay.
•You will seek to answer these questions by
reading the article that is associated with the
prompt.
Step Three: Thesis Statement
•Once you have fully broken down the
prompt, look over your notes to answer your
original guiding questions.
•The goal is to combine the answer into one
or two sentences that becomes your thesis
statement.
Step Four: Claims
•Just like you did with your other essays, once
you have drafted a thesis statement, you will
go back and make a series of claims as to
support your thesis.
Step Five: Evidence
•It’s not enough to just state your opinions.
•This is where your notes come into the essay,
as you use them to back up your arguments.
•You do not need to cite specific quotes from
the stories and articles you read, but you need
to paraphrase these in your essay.
Step Six: Commentary
•After you have made a solid claim, and backed it up with
evidence from a reliable source, you need to expand on the
idea by offering commentary.
•This is where your opinion and ability to argue the point
comes into play. You may focus on using logic to convince the
reader (logos) or appeal to the emotions of the audience
(pathos) or convince the audience through word choice and
tone that you are making reliable arguments (ethos).
Step Seven: Introduction
•Once you have completed writing body
paragraphs for every claim (If you listed three
claims, you will have three body paragraphs.
Four claims? Four body paragraphs, etc) you
can write your Introduction.
•Begin by giving a good overview of the issue
of Dreams and Aspirations and your thesis
statement.
Step Eight: Conclusion
•Find a way to leave your reader with a good
idea on your position on the topic.
•Avoid bringing up new arguments or new
evidence.