Chapter 5: The Essay
Learning Objectives
- Combine your knowledge of paragraphs and summary in a longer format.
- Write the parts of an essay: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.
- Practise writing either a descriptive, narrative, expository, or persuasive essay.
- Practise five ways to hook the reader with your first sentence.
- Back up your claim with relevant evidence.
- Differentiate evidence from experience and evidence from a source.
- Signal your point of view in your first sentence so it is clear to the reader.
Now that you have practised writing different types of paragraphs—including descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive—as well as learning how to summarize, you’re ready to put your skills to work in a longer piece of writing: the essay.
Essays require you to use many of the skills you learned, such as argument, exposition, summary, “hooking” the reader, and so forth, in a more extended format. Ideally, they capture the reader’s attention and keep it throughout by expressing what you want to say in a lively and forthright manner, as well as including evidence for your claim. You also explain the relevance of your evidence and clearly indicate where it comes from.
