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Assignment Information
Essay Assignments
Other Information
Syllabus
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- The introduction should be begin by discussing your
main topic in a more general manner than your thesis (something that
the 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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