Essay Skeleton - Rough Outline
Intro - thesis statement - general welcome - wider observation or statement about the topic area, reference to the work and the author, and often, a brief overview of the main Areas of Discussion
eg - thesis is that Macbeth exhibits all the common traits of a classical tragic hero.
Intro opening: (this is the most stereotypical and cliched opening)
“Webster’s dictionary defines...”
“Great tragic heroes have been on display in literature since...
“If it was about the witches/supernatural - you would come up with some general observation about witchcraft in that era, or the superstitions of that era
Order in the Intro:
General Observation/Welcome/Background Info
Refer to the work and the author
State your thesis and briefly how you will prove it. (brief AoD reference)
(some teachers demand the thesis statement goes at the end)
Body (in a five-paragraph essay, there are 3 AoD, your paper may have 2 or 4 or whatever)
What exactly are these Areas of Discussion?
They are ways to prove your thesis as true.
Subjects/topics/structures that (can) follow a certain pattern
Randall Lobb is a poor teacher because of many factors. (also not great)
The AoD are the factors that prove the above.
AoD 1 - Clearly has an attention problem - ADD
Now, we need to collect evidence that supports this AoD and feeds back to the thesis
Find references from primary or secondary sources.
Primary source - the literature about which you are talking
Secondary source - books or web sites about the literature about which you are talking - this step often gets forgotten - people find it a P.I.T.A.
eg - Macbeth is crazy! You write this essay and Lobb writes this comment - Ref? - you probably just made a statement about a mental problem that you pulled out of your hat - you need to back up ALL big statements with proof - secondary source!
insanity - look up different disorders and find symptoms - does Mac have any of those?
witchcraft and the supernatural - look up old documents about witchcraft and religion and the church and the response - read about the ways witches “worked”
role of women at that time period - don’t just tell me that women weren’t treated equally, find references from other works that give examples and PROVE it
what is a tragic hero? - don’t just go by Lobb’s notes, find a source - follow the steps that make a tragic hero, according to the secondary source, then APPLY that pattern to the play
Structure of a Body Paragraph
Statement that gets into the subject (topic sentence, intro, transition, etc)
Make our initial point or assertion - what is the “thing” that you have as your AoD?
Show your reference that backs up your assertion - why do you think that “thing”?
Elaborate on how that reference shows the assertion to be true. Why is that quotation there? What does it say? What does it mean? How is it relevant?
Synthesis - show how this stuff that you just said proves your original thesis.
(Bring it back - link back - prove your thesis - show how it fits into the essay as a whole)
This sequence above is the difference between 68% and 88%
AoD 2 -
AoD 3 -
Conclusion-
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