How to Write one Good Looking Essay The Introduction All good essays start with an introductory paragraph.

Failure to introduce your reader in an appropriate fashion is like hitting them over the head with a shovel. For your one pagers I am your reader, and I do not appreciate being hit with shovels. Great writers start off with a quote or a statistic or a fact. The purpose of this is to both grab your readers attention and ease them into what you are to talk about. We call this an exposition or a hook. From the quote or statistic or fact you cannot go directly to your thesis. It will look jumbled and not be a pleasant reading experience for me or whoever looks at your writing. This second sentence is known as a transition sentence because it helps the reader connect the quote to your thesis. Finally, the real meat of both your introduction and the essay as a whole: your thesis. For our purposes the thesis goes at the end of your introductory paragraph. We do this for a few reasons. First, it is a compelling effect to have the true intent of the paper at the end of this paragraph. Second, it helps our reader to easily find our purpose. The thesis must be a debatable statement. For example, the position statement cats make good pets is debatable because someone else could say cats make horrible pets. If, however, someone tried to argue cats are not mammals they would not have a thesis because it is a well established fact that they are mammals and anyone that would argue otherwise is a crazy person. You can not stop there, however. You must also provide me with the proof that cats make good pets. An almost sure-fire way to ensure that you are providing me with proof is to use the word because. For example: Cats make good pets because they are easy to take care of and make good companions. We now know why cats make good pets and we know what form the rest of the paper will take. Again, the thesis is the true meat of your paper. It provides the reader with a blueprint for what you will be talking about. If you dont introduce a concept or topic in your thesis, it probably shouldnt be in your paper. When starting out, your thesis should take one of three forms: ___________ is true because of ______1_____ and _____2______ ___________ is not true because of _____1______ and ______2_______ On one hand ____________ is true because of _____1______, while on the other hand __________ is true because of _______2_________. Wherever you see a 1 or a 2 in the above outline there should be a reason why your position is true. These are then built on with examples in your topic sentences in your body paragraphs.

So, to recap the introductory paragraph has: Quote or statistic or fact or anecdote (some form of exposition to grab the readers attention and allow them to ease into the subject matter). News stories make great places to find any of these. Transition sentence to help us connect the two. It will take practice to get good at writing these. Thesis that is debatable - - your thesis must also refer to the topics that will appear later in your body paragraphs and must be in the order that they will appear. Body Paragraphs The purpose of the body paragraph is to answer why your thesis statement is true and build upon what you brought up in your thesis. So, for example, your thesis is Cats make good pets because they are easy to take care of and make good companions. Your first body paragraph talks about how they are easy to take care of and is opened with a good topic sentence that addresses what the rest of your paragraph will talk about. Your second body paragraph talks about how cats make good companions. Yes, it is just that simple. Do not make this more complicated. A special note: do not simply restate the reason you listed in your thesis verbatim. It does not look good and does not further your argument. Dont re-word what youve already said, either. Build upon it and offer up proof in your topic sentence; give me an example of why what you said in your thesis is true. Remember that your topic sentence is a blueprint for your body paragraph just the same as your thesis is a blueprint for your paper as a whole. Your body paragraph should end with a transition sentence that eases the reader into the next paragraph. For example, cats are not only easy to maintain, they also have many other traits that make them ideal pets. From here you have set yourself up to start off in the next paragraph with yet another reason why cats make good pets. To recap the body paragraph: first sentence is your topic sentence that guides the rest of your paragraph the rest of the sentences in the paragraph offers proof as to why what you explain in your topic sentence is true you should close with a transition sentence that makes your thoughts flow from one paragraph to the next in a logical fashion Concluding Paragraph Finally, your conclusion should recap the main ideas presented throughout your paper. In

reality, I cant give you a concrete guide as to how your final paragraph should look. It will take practice and time to be able to figure out how to gracefully end a piece of academic writing. My suggestion is you read as much and as often as you can so that you understand and appreciate sentence structure and command a much wider vocabulary. Sources All papers written for the Humanities department at MCI need to be in MLA format. The most comprehensive resource for MLA style formatting and citation is Purdue OWL. In particular, please take a look at the sample undergraduate paper on the left hand margin. It is important to properly cite all material used in your papers. Failure to do so is plagiarism and is considered a major offense. You must cite your sources in two places: in text and bibliography or works cited. Your in text citations for MLA format should be parenthetical in nature. That is, the authors last name (or in lieu of an author the title of the article) should be in parenthesis at the end of the sentence but before the final punctuation (either a period or question mark). One final note: Unless you are the Jedi Master of the one pager you must go back and reread your writing after you are done. I recommend you write it, sleep on it or give it a few hours, then revisit it and take a look to make sure everything makes sense. You can also get someone else to look it over and have them give you a thumbs up or a thumbs down, but under no circumstances are they to edit your work. Writing is a process, this is just a very basic start to help you with that process.

Scogins Outlawed Words and Phrases A lot Huge Sort of Sorta Kind of Kinda Big Small Bad Good Stuff Things

You We Nowadays In this day and age Tons (unless it is being used in the proper sense as a unit of weight) In my opinion I think In this paper I will discuss This quote is talking about This quote means If you use any of these, I will immediately and without question or discussion deduct five points (!) each time I see them. Quirky American Writing Standards that I Abide By There are a few American writing standards that I want you to use, but are not necessarily taught by most other teachers. The first is that there should be two spaces at the end of each sentence. This is to differentiate between the end of a word and the end of a thought. In some instances you may use a period to mark a shortening of a word; putting two spaces between sentences makes it so I know that you have indeed ended the sentence. The second deals with punctuation and the end of sentences. British English allows for quotation marks to appear within the end punctuation of sentences; American English does not. For example: The young man exclaimed My writing ability has improved markedly this year! -- This is super wrong and British. The young man exclaimed My writing ability has improved markedly this year! -- So right, and patriotic.

Font, Size, and Spacing All papers written for my class will be typed in Times New Roman size 12 font and will use 1.5 spacing or the default 1.15 spacing on Google Drive. These are basic expectations for all academic writing and getting in the habit of using them now will serve you in the future.