“…prose writing has been
of great use to me in the course of my life,
and was a principal means
of my advancement…”
-- Benjamin Franklin
Before the exam is handed out on Friday:
à
Without doing these things, it is almost guaranteed that you will not get
more than a ‘C’ on your papers – and for your quarterly grade.
After the exam is passed out:
2. Collect
3. Compose
After
you come up with a good 1-2 sentence lead-in for your introduction, in the same
first paragraph you need to preview what’s to come in your paper. That’s
where the key ideas you found come in. Once you begin your paper, you need to
tell me in your introductory paragraph about the key ideas that will support
that statement. Here you would briefly, in a few sentences, give an overview of
your supporting evidence. (This comes right after the 1-2 sentences that start
your paper.) You might write something like, “Beginning after World War Two, as
an Iron Curtain descended over Europe, a battle between the United States and
the Soviet Union heated up. From 1945 until 1989, when the Cold War ended,
China became Communist, wars were fought in Korea and Vietnam, and Western
Europe lived under the threat of attack. In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was
elected president, he increased military spending and began to push back the
Communists. Finally, under Soviet leader Gorbachev, Communism in the Soviet
Union collapsed. As we will see below, these events marked the momentous
decades during which we in the United States were very much at war with a determined
and aggressive enemy.”
Putting
everything together, the opening paragraph of your essay reads like this (the
six key ideas are underlined):
The
Cold War wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t always a war, but it still had enormous
significance for the last half of the Twentieth Century. Beginning after World
War Two, as an Iron Curtain descended over Europe, a battle between the United
States and the Soviet Union heated up. From 1945 until 1989, when the Cold War
ended, China became Communist, wars were fought in Korea and Vietnam,
and Western Europe lived under the threat of attack. In 1980, when Ronald
Reagan was elected president, he increased military spending and began to
push back the Communists. Finally, under Soviet leader Gorbachev,
Communism in the Soviet Union collapsed. As we will see below, these events
marked the momentous decades during which we in the United States were very
much at war with a determined and aggressive enemy.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
AVOIDING MISTAKES IN
YOUR INTRODUCTION
·
Avoid a purpose
statement, such as “The purpose of this,” “Now I shall prove,” "in this
paragraph I will tell you" – SHOW, DON’T TELL.
·
Avoid repetition of the
title or text.
·
Avoid complex or
difficult questions that may puzzle your reader.
·
Avoid simple definitions
– EXPLAIN.
· Avoid artwork, humungous fonts, or cute lettering.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
To
review, here’s the introduction we wrote:
The Cold War wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t always a
war, but it still had enormous significance for the last half of the Twentieth
Century. Beginning after World War Two, as an Iron Curtain descended over
Europe, a battle between the United States and the Soviet Union heated up. From
1945 until 1989, when the Cold War ended, China became Communist, wars were
fought in Korea and Vietnam, and Western Europe lived under the threat of
attack. In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected president, he increased
military spending and began to push back the Communists. Finally, under Soviet
leader Gorbachev, Communism in the Soviet Union collapsed. As we will see
below, these events marked the momentous decades during which we in the United
States were very much at war with a determined and aggressive enemy.
[What
follows here is 6+ paragraphs, the body of the paper.]
Now, for the conclusion, you just summarize what you’ve said in your paper (3-5 sentences) and end with a bang.
We’ve seen that the Cold War had enormous significance for the last half of the Twentieth Century. The Cold War began as China became Communist, followed quickly by the Korean and Vietnam wars. At the ends of the 1970s, the West looked like they’d lose to the Soviets, but then Ronald Reagan turned the tide. Under Soviet leader Gorbachev, Communism in the Soviet Union collapsed. Although new challenges have arisen since then, Americans can be proud that the frontiers of freedom now extend all across the globe.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
AVOIDING MISTAKES IN
YOUR CONCLUSION
·
Avoid presenting new ideas.
·
Avoid stopping at an
awkward spot or trailing off into meaningless or irrelevant information.
·
Avoid questions that
raise new issues.
·
Avoid fancy artwork or
cute lettering.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
4. Correct
Some material adapted from http://serv1.ncte.org/teach//Schenker9941.html)
[1] A key idea is a main idea from the readings
and/or lectures. For example, when we talk about the Cold War, the key ideas
might be: The Korean War, Fidel Castro, The Vietnam War,
Ronald Reagan, etc. A fact from the lectures such as, “The Communist
guerillas in South Vietnam were called the Vietcong” is not a main idea, but
this idea could support a main idea such as The Vietnam War.
[2] Details to support the key idea Ronald Reagan, for example, might be: wanted a stronger military, developed missile defense program, invaded Grenada and defeats Communists for the first time, etc.
[3] A transition is a sentence or phrase that
connects one key idea paragraph with the next key idea paragraph. For example,
if the first paragraph is about ice cream, and the next paragraph is about
obesity, then the last sentence in your ice cream paragraph will say something
like, “In addition to just tasting good, some experts claim that eating too
much ice cream can lead to health problems, such as obesity.” The idea is to
keep the flow of the paper, and not make each new paragraph a jarring
experience for the reader.