Tài liệu Write better essays in just 20 minutes a day part 6 pdf

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Practice 1
For the following assignment, identify a broad topic, narrow it, and turn it into a question and tentative thesis.
Assignment: Identify a factor that you believe figures strongly in a child’s personality
development. Explain how that factor may influence the child.
Broad topic:
Narrowed topic:
Further narrowed topic:
Sufficiently narrowed topic:
Topic turned into a question:
Tentative thesis:
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Practice 2
Return to one of your brainstorming sheets from Lesson 3 or 4. Use the steps outlined in the four rules for choos-
ing a topic, and write a tentative thesis.
–CHOOSING A TOPIC AND DEVELOPING A THESIS–
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In Short
To write an effective essay, you need a topic that interests you and fulfills the assignment. It must be sufficiently
focused so the amount of material you will cover can be adequately explored within the confines of an essay. Nar-
row down your topic until you can turn it into a specific question. The answer to this question should serve as
your tentative thesis—the main idea that you will address and develop in your essay.
–CHOOSING A TOPIC AND DEVELOPING A THESIS–
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Choose topics and develop tentative thesis statements for the other three brainstorming exercises you
completed in Lessons 3 and 4.
Skill Building until Next Time
N
ow that you have a tentative thesis, you may be tempted to jump right in and start drafting. Some-
times, this approach works, especially if you’ve done a lot of brainstorming, have thought care-

fully about your assignment, and your writing skills are strong. More often, however, a great essay
is the product not only of brainstorming, but of organization as well.
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The Assertion
➞
Support Structure
Before discussing common organizational strategies, it’s important to consider the underlying structure of essays.
Whether an essay is organized by chronology, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, or some other strategy,
every essay has the same underlying structure: assertion
➞
support. That is, the essay asserts an idea (its thesis)
and then supports the thesis with specific examples, evidence, and details.
This assertion
➞
support structure is then repeated throughout the essay on many levels. The ideas that pro-
vide support for the thesis (major support) are assertions themselves, and therefore need support. The structure
then looks something like this:
LESSON
Outlining and
Organizational
Strategies
LESSON SUMMARY
In this lesson, you’ll learn about the underlying structure of an essay and
how to create an outline. We’ll also examine some of the common orga-
nizational strategies used by essay writers.
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Main idea (thesis)
Major supporting idea
Minor supporting idea

Support
Minor supporting idea
Support
Major supporting idea
Minor supporting idea
Support
The exact underlying structure will vary depending upon the number and type of supporting ideas, but in all its
variations, it is the foundation for most essays.
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The Benefits of an Outline
Generating an outline before you draft an essay will help you in several ways. First, it will give structure to your
ideas. By mapping out the order in which those ideas will flow, you create a roadmap for the drafting process. The
roadmap assures that you won’t veer off topic, helps prevent writer’s block, and speeds up drafting.
Second, an outline will help you determine where you need more support for your thesis. When you create
an outline, you’ll be able to see any gaps in the development of your ideas. Strongly supported assertions stand
out in contrast to weaker ones.
Third, an outline will help judge the plausibility of your thesis. If you jump into drafting without organiz-
ing first, you may find during the writing process that your thesis doesn’t hold up. A good outline can help you
revise, modify, and/or strengthen your thesis before you begin writing. Specifically, a good outline will tell you if
your thesis is:
■
too broad. If you have trouble including everything in your outline, you probably have too much to say.
Your thesis needs to be more focused.
■
too narrow. If you can’t seem to find enough to say, your thesis might be too focused. You need to broaden it
to create a viable essay.
■
unreasonable. If there isn’t sufficient evidence to support your thesis, you should reconsider its viability.
You may need to take a different stance.
■

underdeveloped. If you have many gaps in our outline, you may need to do more thinking or research to
find sufficient support.
–OUTLINING AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES–
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Kinds of Outlines
If you have to drive somewhere you’ve never been before, you could just get in the car and start driving, hoping
your sense of direction will be enough to land you at your destination. More likely, though, you will consult a map
and write down some directions. But how carefully should you plan your trip? Do you want to map out each gas
station where you’ll need to fill up, and each rest stop where you’ll get coffee? Or do you simply need a list of route
numbers and turns you’ll need to take?
How thoroughly you map out your trip depends on many different factors, such as your familiarity with the
terrain and the distance you’ll be traveling. The same is true in writing. Do you need a detailed, formal outline
that lists every major and minor supporting idea, or just a rough “scratch” outline? Again, the answer depends upon
several factors, including how comfortable you are with your thesis, how well you follow a structured outline, and
how many ideas you’ve developed through you brainstorming sessions. It also depends upon the writing situa-
tion. During a timed essay exam, you’ll only have time to make a list of paragraphs and, very generally, what you’ll
write about in each one.
Informal Outlines
An informal, rough,or scratch outline is one that lists only the major supporting ideas in the order in which you
think you should develop them. Here’s an example on an informal outline.
Assignment: Evaluate the proposal to replace the current graded income tax system with a flat tax. Should we insti-
tute a flat tax system? Why or why not?
1. Introduction—thesis: A flat tax would be good for the government and for citizens.
2. Problems with current system
3. How flat tax works
4. Benefits of flat tax system
a. for government
b. for citizens
5. Conclusion

This outline provides a general structure for a draft. It’s not very detailed—it doesn’t include the minor sup-
porting ideas or specific examples the essay needs to be fully developed, but it can function well as a roadmap to
guide the writer through a first draft.
–OUTLINING AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES–
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