My sons are readers, voracious readers, each going through two hundred novels in a year for most of their childhood. Not only are all their parents and stepparents writers who host circles and have things printed in magazines or even have real books out, who argue and debate wording all the time, but also, all the best authors of children's literature have helped me raise these boys, Roald Dahl and JK Rowling and CS Lewis and Eleanor Estes informing their sense of right and wrong as much as I have. This means they've become good with language, in the creative sense; they're often succinct and humorous, full of well-put points. Yup, bragging.
My sons are also children of their era. The notion of physically organizing ideas in text on a page -- introducing them, repeating them, stringing them out in certain order, breaking them down -- has been tricky for them. They feel that a thesis is all you ought to have to say, and if someone needs the points broken down, they can go Google that. They feel that the responsibility for learning rests with the learner, and that there are many better tools out there than their own essays for folks to learn from. They are at their very core co-learners with the world, young millenials. By that I mean, they're terrible at writing essays. They're lazy and only manage a whole paragraph with serious pestering on my part. Yup, complaining.
To save myself from grumpy nagging, to get my boys' good ideas down in a logical order, I made up a template. They must replace each sentence with a similar sort of sentence on their own topic. For now, at least this ensures they get all the sorts of points in, in the right order. I'm hoping it will also help them internalize that order so they can pop an essay out fast when the day comes for them to take tests. I want them to learn the art of organizing ideas not just for tests, though, but also so they can meaningfully structure their own ideas if ever they find in their humble souls a desire to communicate with the rest of us.
In case you find this template useful for your own children, please, feel free to copy and paste it into a Word doc and set your own lazy pre-teen upon it. But don't publish it elsewhere and keep the title and credit in there when you copy and paste. Your student should replace it with his or her title and credit anyway, when they rewrite.
An Essay Template
by Rose Tell-Drake
This first sentence is an attention-grabber designed to get your reader feeling invested in reading all the way to the end of your essay. The second sentence in this first paragraph should continue your "hook" or support it in some way. With the third sentence, you may either complete your hook or begin transitioning to a thesis, and check to make sure all three first sentences in the first paragraph do add up to your thesis. Your thesis, which goes right here as the last sentence in the first paragraph, should be a central statement with hints your three supporting points, point one, point two and point three.
Your second paragraph will address the first or weakest supporting point you made in your thesis, and the first sentence in that second paragraph should introduce your reader to that point. The second sentence can rephrase the point or explain it further. The third sentence adds additional clarification or just oomph to the point. This last sentence in the second paragraph is a concluding sentence that sums up what the rest of your paragraph says.
The third paragraph is almost exactly the same as your second paragraph, except each sentence, including this first introduction sentence, should be about your second-strongest point in your thesis. The second sentence in a third paragraph continues the point you are making. The third sentence might be a great place to add a very interesting supportive sentence because you are about halfway through your essay and need your reader to stay with you. The last sentence in a third paragraph should string together all your supports for this point.
The fourth paragraph opening sentence should be an introduction to your support of the final and most powerful sub-point in your thesis. The second sentence will add detail or clarity. The third sentence also will pack some punch in getting this point across to the reader. The final sentence in the third paragraph nails these details together and delivers them in one neat package.
The fifth paragraph in a simple academic essay should be all about coming to a conclusion (a conclusion that is the same idea of your thesis), and in this first sentence you introduce the conclusion, hopefully referencing your three points. Somewhere in the fifth paragraph, and this second sentence is a fine place, you probably should refer back to your hook or opening interesting thing in that first paragraph's first sentence. Use this third sentence to transition between that reference and your final re-statement of your main point. In this last sentence of your essay, state in a very powerful, funny, or memorable way, the thesis you told us in that first paragraph.
My sons are also children of their era. The notion of physically organizing ideas in text on a page -- introducing them, repeating them, stringing them out in certain order, breaking them down -- has been tricky for them. They feel that a thesis is all you ought to have to say, and if someone needs the points broken down, they can go Google that. They feel that the responsibility for learning rests with the learner, and that there are many better tools out there than their own essays for folks to learn from. They are at their very core co-learners with the world, young millenials. By that I mean, they're terrible at writing essays. They're lazy and only manage a whole paragraph with serious pestering on my part. Yup, complaining.
To save myself from grumpy nagging, to get my boys' good ideas down in a logical order, I made up a template. They must replace each sentence with a similar sort of sentence on their own topic. For now, at least this ensures they get all the sorts of points in, in the right order. I'm hoping it will also help them internalize that order so they can pop an essay out fast when the day comes for them to take tests. I want them to learn the art of organizing ideas not just for tests, though, but also so they can meaningfully structure their own ideas if ever they find in their humble souls a desire to communicate with the rest of us.
In case you find this template useful for your own children, please, feel free to copy and paste it into a Word doc and set your own lazy pre-teen upon it. But don't publish it elsewhere and keep the title and credit in there when you copy and paste. Your student should replace it with his or her title and credit anyway, when they rewrite.
An Essay Template
by Rose Tell-Drake
This first sentence is an attention-grabber designed to get your reader feeling invested in reading all the way to the end of your essay. The second sentence in this first paragraph should continue your "hook" or support it in some way. With the third sentence, you may either complete your hook or begin transitioning to a thesis, and check to make sure all three first sentences in the first paragraph do add up to your thesis. Your thesis, which goes right here as the last sentence in the first paragraph, should be a central statement with hints your three supporting points, point one, point two and point three.
Your second paragraph will address the first or weakest supporting point you made in your thesis, and the first sentence in that second paragraph should introduce your reader to that point. The second sentence can rephrase the point or explain it further. The third sentence adds additional clarification or just oomph to the point. This last sentence in the second paragraph is a concluding sentence that sums up what the rest of your paragraph says.
The third paragraph is almost exactly the same as your second paragraph, except each sentence, including this first introduction sentence, should be about your second-strongest point in your thesis. The second sentence in a third paragraph continues the point you are making. The third sentence might be a great place to add a very interesting supportive sentence because you are about halfway through your essay and need your reader to stay with you. The last sentence in a third paragraph should string together all your supports for this point.
The fourth paragraph opening sentence should be an introduction to your support of the final and most powerful sub-point in your thesis. The second sentence will add detail or clarity. The third sentence also will pack some punch in getting this point across to the reader. The final sentence in the third paragraph nails these details together and delivers them in one neat package.
The fifth paragraph in a simple academic essay should be all about coming to a conclusion (a conclusion that is the same idea of your thesis), and in this first sentence you introduce the conclusion, hopefully referencing your three points. Somewhere in the fifth paragraph, and this second sentence is a fine place, you probably should refer back to your hook or opening interesting thing in that first paragraph's first sentence. Use this third sentence to transition between that reference and your final re-statement of your main point. In this last sentence of your essay, state in a very powerful, funny, or memorable way, the thesis you told us in that first paragraph.