Lecture Summary – Brainstorming

Understanding Essay Questions

The first thing you need to do when preparing to write an essay is to read and understand the topic question. If you don’t understand the question properly you cannot possibly answer it properly. Generally, these questions are asking you to argue for or against a specific idea. For example, the question on page 46 of your textbook asks if you agree or disagree with the following statement:

Attending a live performance is more enjoyable (is better) than watching the same event on television.

This sentence is a Thesis Statement. It says one thing is better than another. Now the question is asking us if we think this thesis is true or if we think the opposite is true.

If you say that you think the question’s thesis is true, then the thesis of your essay will be the same – however, remember to write your thesis a little differently (paraphrase the thesis statement in the prompt question). If you say that this thesis is wrong, then your thesis statement will be the opposite. Still, you need to write it differently from the prompt. Use synonyms or restructure the sentence if possible.

Another kind of question can be found on page 49 of your textbook.

Some people choose friends who are different from themselves, while others choose friends who are similar to themselves. Do you usually choose friends similar to yourself or different from yourself? Which type have you made the closest friendships with?

This topic question does not make a thesis statement. It does not state that one is better than the other. Rather, it asks which, in your opinion, is better based on your experience. Therefore, in your essay, you must restate the topic question as a thesis statement. Two possible examples are:

I believe that it is better to have friends who are similar to myself rather than friends who are different.

And the argument opposing that is:

I believe that it is better to have friends who are different from myself rather than friends who are similar.

Now we have two thesis statements, both of which answer the topic question. If we can answer the topic question, by writing a thesis statement, we clearly understand the question.

Brainstorming

Now, once we choose our thesis, we need to determine what are the pros and cons of this statement. This is where we brainstorm – try to think of any and all possible reasons for or against our thesis. We do this to find good arguments to support our thesis statement.

So, if our thesis statement is, “Attending a live performance is more enjoyable than watching the same event on television,” we must think of some general reasons to support this idea. These general ideas will become Topic Sentences in the Body of our essay. But after we think of our topic sentence we need Specific Examples to support those ideas. Again, we brainstorm – think of any concrete facts or experiences that can support the topic sentence’s claim to be true.

Structuring the Essay

Next we need to structure our essay. There is a specific formula to structuring an essay. The structure of an essay looks like this:

Paragraph 1: Introduction
· Restate the Topic Question.
· Suggests or summarize the Main Ideas in the body of your essay supporting your Thesis Statement.
· State your Thesis Statement.Paragraph 2: Body
· Write the Topic Sentence (Supporting Idea) for this Paragraph
· Write Specific Examples to Support this Idea.

Paragraph 3/4/5/etc.: Body
· Same as Paragraph 2 (but with Different Supporting Idea and Examples)

Conclusion
· Restate the Thesis
· Summarize the Supporting Ideas that support this Thesis.

So we restate (paraphrase) the Topic Sentence. We state our thesis statement. Now we need to decide which ideas we are going to use to support our thesis. Now, naturally we want to use the strongest, most convincing ideas first. It is always best to hit the reader with the best, strongest argument first, so that they will be more willing to agree with us later in the essay if our arguments get weaker. Also, if we use up our word count and have to throw out some supporting ideas we will have included the best ones in our essay. So we choose the best ideas and put them in the body of our essay with their supporting examples.

How many supporting ideas we include in our essay will depend on the required word count. For an essay of 250-300 words we only have space for one or two supporting arguments. For a 1,000 word essay, we will need maybe four supporting ideas.

Remember, each supporting idea is written in a separate paragraph with its examples. Each argument is a new topic, and each paragraph should have only one topic.

Conclusion

Now to write the conclusion: our concluding paragraph should restate our thesis (in different language to our original thesis statement – we paraphrase it), and summarize our supporting ideas as briefly as possible (in as few words as we can possibly make it). Make sure that when you summarize your arguments you paraphrase them: do not write the same sentences or passages you wrote in the body of your essay.