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Syllabus
Exam Essay Questions
Other Information
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- The introduction should be begin by discussing your main topic in
a more general manner than your thesis (something that reader can relate
to) and then moving toward your specific argument about the topic in
the thesis. This paragraph should be significantly shorter than your
body paragraphs.
- The thesis should include your topic, argument, and subtopics (which
do NOT have to be three in number or correspond to only one paragraph).
The thesis sets up the overall structure of the essay and, as such,
is extremely important. When you begin writing, don't worry about getting
the thesis precisely right. Instead, think about your first thesis as
a working thesis that will change as you write the essay and develop
your ideas.
- The body paragraphs should develop a subtopic or part of a subtopic
and can be any number. However, you must consider the length of your
essay when deciding how to organize your subtopics into paragraphs.
For example, having nine paragraphs in two pages is NOT a good idea
because each paragraph will be too small to explore any idea in depth.
Since your thesis is always some sort of an argument, each body paragraph
should begin with a topic sentence that makes an argument about the
subtopic or part of a subtopic that it is dealing with. This topic sentence
works the same way for the paragraph that the thesis works for the overall
essay -- it provides structure. The paragraph should end with a concluding
sentence that both draws to a close its paragraph and transitions to
the next.
- The conclusion should begin by stating the thesis with a difference.
This difference comes from the argument that you have developed in your
body paragraphs. Then the conclusion applies the specific argument of
the thesis to a larger context. However, be careful not the end with
a "save the world" sentence. The conclusion should be short and sweet
and only about three sentences in the case of two to three page papers.
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