English 99

Introduction to Paper Structure and the Writing Process

What Must all

Papers Have?

What Must all Papers Have?• What is the subject of your paper?

• Make sure your topic matches what is being asked of you in your assignment.

Topic

• Who are you writing for?

• Different audiences can change the way you need to convey your information to your readers.

Audience

• Why are you writing? To inform your readers? Persuade them? Call them to action? A combination of these things? Purpose

• What is the main idea of your paper, and how will you convey that clearly and concisely to your specific audience? Thesis Statement

• What will you use to support or prove your thesis statement is logical and correct? Support

What Must all Papers Have?

•What is the subject of your paper?

•Make sure your topic matches what is being asked of you in your assignment.

Topic

What Must all Papers Have?

• Who are you writing for?

• Different audiences can change the way you need to convey your information to your readers.

• You would explain the death of a dog differently to a young child than you would to a veterinarian.

• For academic papers, always assume, if not told otherwise, that your audience is a general audience of educated readers.

Audience

What Must all Papers Have?

• To inform to propose

• To persuade to express feelings

• To entertain to summarize

• To call readers to action

• To change attitudes

• To analyze

• To argue

• To evaluate

• To provoke

• To recommend

• To request

Purpose

What Must all Papers Have?

• The answer to the question you have posed

• The resolution of a problem you have identified

• A statement that takes a position on a debatable topic

Thesis Statement

What Must all Papers Have?

• Reasons, Examples, Names, Numbers or Sensory Details that prove your thesis is correct.

• Analysis that shows connections between the ideas you present

Support

Planning

Your

Paper

Planning• In order to start planning, you must have a

firm grasp on the five elements of your paper.

• Spend time analyzing your topic, audience, purpose, thesis statement and support ideas – this time spent will save you much blood, sweat and tears when you write your paper!

The Writing Process

Planning

Shaping

DraftingRevising

Editing

•Who, What, Where, Why & When?

Journalistic Questions

•Visual organization of your ideas. Looks like a web!

Cluster Maps, Mind Map, Web

•Dumping all of your scattered thoughts onto a page, just to get them out there.

Freewriting

•A numbered or bulleted list of all the points or ideas you have knocking around in your head.

List

•Visual representation of the similarities and differences between two or more ideas or concepts.

Venn Diagram

• Who did this topic impact, happen to? Who are the authorities on this topic?

• What happened? What is the sequence of events? What is the author trying to say?

• Where did this occur?

• Why does this matter? Why did the author write this? Why do these events have a broader impact?

• When did this occur?

Journalistic Questions

• Who objected to the film?

• What were the objections?

• When were the protests first voiced?

• Where were the protests most strongly expressed?

• Why did protesters object to the film?

• How did the protesters make their views known?

Journalistic Questions

Topic: Negative Reaction to the book Birth of a Nation

Cluster Map, Mind Map or Web

• Dogs are funny and awesome and kind of gross. Need lots of care depending on breed. What are current fav. breeds? Figure out what kind of specific nutritional care specific breeds need or focus on one breed maybe?

Freewriting

Topic: Dogs

• Volunteered in high school.

• Teaching adults to read motivated me to study education.

• “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” – Ghandi

• Volunteering helps students find interests and career paths.

• Volunteering as a requirement? Paradox?

• Many students need to work to pay college tuition.

• Enough time to study, work and volunteer?

List

Topic: How does serving the community make college students better people?

Dogs

•Nice

•Loyal

Squirrels

•Evil

•Taking over the world

•Have fur•Mammals•Have eyes•Slightly crazy

Yay!

Go Plan your Paper!