IE3 Writing: Lesson 3

4/23/2015

Hi everyone,

Ican't believe we're already starting our essay outlines! Time sure does fly!

Body Paragraphs:
We learned about the structure of the body paragraphs. Similar to the introduction, you need to use funnel introduction: organizing your ideas from general to specific.

There are four types of details you can use in your essay: (1) facts; (2) descriptions; (3) statistics; and (4) expert opinions.

Introductions: First drafts
I returned the first drafts of your introductions in class. We went through the different types of comments on your drafts: purple comments for structure/content and orange comments for grammar. You also received Correction Symbols. I will use correction symbols to give you hints about the errors you make in your writing.

Sending your Documents to my Email:
When you send a file to me, please use the following pattern in your subject line:

IE3W: given name + task name
(e.g. IE3W: Natsumi Outline)

Please also include your name and task in the name of your MS Word file (e.g. Natsumi-outline).

Homework:
1. Outline: email by Monday, April 27 before 12 noon

I will returned your outline by email with my comments before Tuesday, April 28 by 6pm. Print it out and bring it to our lesson on Wednesday.

2. Blog Comment #3

For your outline, remember to download the Classification outline Template. The file is below.

Blog Question #3:

Review the comments from your introduction. What are the three most important points you need to remember before you write your body paragraphs?

Write 8-10 sentences.
Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
Submit by Tuesday, April 28 by 6:00pm.

Classification Essay Outline Template
File Size:	38 kb
File Type:	doc

Download File

17 Comments

IE3W-Shusei link

4/26/2015 12:20:55 am

The three important points to keep in mind when writing an essay are, stick to the subject, give an example, and not to use first person perspective.

When writing, it is easy to digress. It is tempting to go off topic and discuss something about irrelevant. Casual talk is full of digression but an essay is not a chat.

Giving an example or a source is important to reinforce an argument. Without it, the effectiveness of argument will be much weaker, even rejected.

It is tempting to use first person perspective, because it is very easy to write in that way. When an essay is requested to written in subjective, it is allowed to use first person perspective, but usually it has to be written in objective manner.

IE3W-Midori

4/26/2015 12:35:22 pm

I think the first point we need to remember before we write our body paragraphs is not to use first person such as I, me and my. By doing so, sentences become more general. I made this kind of mistake in my introduction, so I will keep this in mind when I write my body paragraphs. The second point is that they must be coherent to our topics. We must write sentences general to specific almost in the same way as the introduction. The third point is to think about our own opinions and express the factual grounding clearly. It is important to think what is the essence of the topic and write it in our own word. As for expressing the factual grounding clearly, we can make a more convincing argument by using examples.

IE3W-WilliamHaruki

4/26/2015 03:08:09 pm

The most important points to remember when writing the body paragraphs of an essay are: staying on topic; use effective examples (that actually back up your points); and avoiding writing in the first person.

It can be quite easy to drift off topic when writing an essay. This can lead to you writing a considerable amount about something completely irrelevant to what your topic is supposed to cover. It is important to read over what you have written and check whether everything you've written is actually needed.

When you use examples to back up your points, it is important to back them up using effective examples. You can't just make up fake statistics or facts and use them to support your statements. If something you wrote is possibly not explanatory enough to get across your point (ex. the reader may get an idea that is completely different from what you want to get across).

It is important not to use first person perspective in your essay. Simply, using such a perspective turns your essay into something more along the lines of a speech script.

IE3W-Fumio

4/26/2015 05:04:40 pm

The three important points we should remember before starting to write our body paragraphs are: avoiding straying from the subject; organising your topic with good supporting ideas; and avoiding using first person perspective.

It could be quite difficult for beginners of academic writing to stay on the track while they write their body paragraphs. This could be because we are used to having a normal daily conversation drifting here and there all the time. However, an academic essay has to have a well organized structure. Thus, it is important to remember to stay on the track before starting to write an essay.

Moreover, good examples could be very effective to support your theory that you will write. You should think about the examples before you actually start to write so that it could also help you avoid forgetting what you are writing about.

Last but not least, you should always avoid using first person perspective unless you are writing your opinion. Writing in the first person could be less convincing in an academic essay.

In short, it is important to remember to have a perspective at a high level of abstraction before you write an academic essay.

IE3W-Chinatsu

4/26/2015 10:01:29 pm

I think that the three most important points we need to remember and be careful when we write the essay is: not to forget what we want to write about our topic, not to use first person, and to give some examples.

It is important for us to write an essay without forgetting what we want to write or how we classified our topic.If we don't think about our classification or what we want to write, I think that our essay can't be logical and clear to understand. So, we should keep in mind such things when writing an essay.

I think that using first person makes the essay difficult to understand for readers. Except for the sentence which includes our opinion, we should avoid using first person, because the essay is not just an argument,but the passage for readers who we may not know.

But for examples, our opinion or explanations may not have reliability and be too general to understand. If we include some more specific examples in our body paragraph, our essay will be stronger.

If we remember such points, our essay will be the best and be easy to understand and more logical.

IE3 Writing Soichiro

4/27/2015 12:02:07 am

The three important things about writing body paragraphs are, to give specific information about the topic,to keep to the topic, and to explain the topic to the reader in
a detailed way.

This essay is not a compare and present to other people sort of activity, so it is important to stick to the topic and explain to the reader what you actually want to tell them.

I think this essay is ment to be a practice of informing the reader on new information, so we musn't take it for granted that the reader has basic knowledge about the topic.

Not forgetting the main goal of what you are writing is important, too.
I tend to get sidetracked by writing long sentences and forget about what I was going to write（especially because I'm so slow at typing）.By concentrating on what I would like to write before starting on a sentence,I think I can avoid this problem, so I would like to be careful.

By making procedure little by little and looking back at the sentences I have written, I think the essay would look and be much better.
I would like to keep these things in mind and do my essay.

IE3W-Aira

4/27/2015 12:11:44 am

I think the three most important points I need to write before writing a paragraph is , avoid using first person perspective, make sure not using overgeneralization or stereotype,put sentences in order.

When you are writing academic essay, it is not proper to write in first person perspective. It will be less reliable andcan not convince the readers.

We soetimes overgeneralize in the essay, such as "everyone think that ...".However, it is dangerous if you don't have reliable source. It is a kind of stereotype so we have to avoid doing that.

I think it is really important to put sentences into order(topic sentence, supporting sentence, concluding sentence) especially in the academic essay. If you organize sentences clearly and logically, it'll be much easier to understand for readers.

In other words, we need to write in a way that readers can understand easily.

IE3W-Takahide

4/27/2015 12:20:22 pm

I think the three most important points to remember before writing a paragraph are, don't write in the first person, stay on topic, and give specific detail to support your ideas.
Making sure not to write in your own point of view is the first point. Essays should not be written on your own opinions, they should be based on facts and truths.
The second point is to stick onto your topic and don't go off track from the topic. The reader might get mixed up by adding facts not related to the main point.
The last is giving specific details. This will make the essay a real essay. It may make it easier to understand and actually provide new knowledge to the reader.

IE3-W Azusa

4/27/2015 12:21:44 pm

I thought that the most important thing for me before wrting the body paragraph is to make sure all sentences are connected to my topic. When writing an essay, it should be very clear for everyone to understand. To make it clear all the sentences must be connected. However, it was one one thing that I could not do when writing the introduction.

The next thing that I thought is important was not to make everything too general. An essay with new informations is very interesting, but without new informations, the essay would be boring.

The last thing I have to be careful is to try not to make grammatical mistakes. It is because grammatical mistakes would make it very difficult to understand the essay in the right way.

IE3W Nodoka

4/27/2015 12:30:51 pm

One thing that I think it is important to write the body paragraph is to give good examples. If the example is difficult to understand or something that it is not general, it will become harder for the reader to understand.

The next thing I think it is important is to stay on track. You may somtime get off the track when you are writing the body paragraphs using many examples. Therefore, it is necessary to remember what you're writing about all the time.

The third thing that I think is really important to write the body paragraphs is not to write in first person. Essays, especially comparison essay has to be written from many point of views and to compare from many points. If you write them in a first point of view, the content will be very shallow.

IE3W-Mio

4/27/2015 01:34:25 pm

The three most important points to remember before writing body paragraphs are not to use 1st person, make hook interesting and make your thesis clear.
I didn't know that academic writing discourages the use of 1st or 2nd person. But this is because it doesn't sound objective and you have only a very limited personal view of the issue. That is why we have to use 3rd person. Every one has to keep in mind about this.
Making hook statement attractive is important too because if it's not, the reader will think it's waste of time reading your essay because hook isn't interesting equals the whole essay is boring. I've searched how many people visit Disney parks and resorts annually and wrote it for my hook so I guess it will make my reader want to read on.
Making thesis clear is also important. Because making clear will make the reader stay organized and will know what the writer is going to talk about in the body paragraphs.

IE3W Kana

4/27/2015 01:53:58 pm

The first important point I think is needed to remember before I write my body paragraph is to use the funnel organization. Just like the introduction, having the sentences go from general to specific is needed to make the paragraph more organized so that the reader can understand what you are trying to say. Using details that aren't off topic is needed in this part.
The second point is to write a transition at the beginning of each paragraph. I think transitions are needed so that the reader can read the essay more smoothly and easily. It is more helpful to understand the essay if there are transitions because it will help you remember what order you are in.
Finally, the third point is to remember to write a concluding sentence at the end of each paragraph. In class, we checked the sample classification essay, and all of the body paragraphs didn't have a concluding sentence. I think that it's the most forgettable part when writing the body paragraph, so I will try to remember it when I am writing.

IE3W-Aoi

4/27/2015 03:01:16 pm

The first point to remember before you write body paragraph is to organize your information by using funnel organization. We learned that we need to have sentences from general to specific and write them in order. If the order get mixed up, it would be hard to understand for the readers.
The second point is to use good example for each body paragraph. If you don't have example, your paragraph would be too general and again, it would be hard to get for the readers to get what you want to say. And also, good example will support your topic sentence and it will make your essay better one.
The last point is to stay on your topic. It was a little hard for me to stay on my topic because my topic is really general and there was a lot of information. I will try to use funnel organization and stay on my topic when I actually write body paragraphs.

IE3W Tomomi

4/27/2015 03:12:24 pm

The three important things that we must keep in mind when writing an essay are, to avoid being too general, stick to the topic and not to use first person perspective.

Being too general makes your essay less persuasive. With a good specific examples and explanations, it will be more strong and reliable.

It is a very basic thing but to stick to the topic is important too. After writing long paragraphs it is easy to get loss track and end up writing something totally irrelevant.

Lastly, the essay shouldn't be written in first person perspective. Writing in first person makes it less effective and conversational.

IE3W Yuto

4/27/2015 05:34:42 pm

The three important things we must think about while writing our essay are to stick to the topic, to avoid using first person perspectives, and most importantly, to express your opinion under the two ideas above.

Sticking to the topic is simple. However, I learned that depending on the topic, it is also wise to add examples based on real life ideas. However, the example cannot be too far away from the topic. Not using first person perspective seems hard, since I was used to writing in this form. It is also hard to not direct the readers as you. The last part, I believe, is the most important point. Opinion helps the reader understand the topic or at least grasp an idea of how the topic written works.

IE3W Kanta

4/27/2015 06:19:28 pm

I think the the most important thing you need to remember when writing an essay is to not write in first person. It's a nice thing to have your own opinion, but when it comes to writing an essay, what the reader wants to know the most isn't your opinion. It's important to precisely write about your topic.
Another important thing is to give specific details. Even if you give out your topic, it'll be hard for the readers to understand if you don't explain about it.
There's also one more thing that I think is important: to stay on topic. Sometimes you may get off track and start talking about something that has nothing to do with the topic, but that's something you don't want to do when writing an essay. Once you get off topic, it'll be difficult for the reader to understand your main point.

IE3W-Luke Andrew Worley

4/27/2015 06:23:05 pm

The three important things we must remember before writing essays are to stay on tack sticking to the topic, and to not use first person prospectives, and to state your opinion clearly following the two ideas.

To stay on track, we must be careful with what we write for our examples because our points could be a little off. Constantly remembering to keep on track will help us to not write examples that are far from our topic.
Using first person prospectives could make our point week and not so convincing to the readers.
Stating our opinion clearly is important for essays to give more impact to the readers but we must also base the essays on true facts. So must be careful not to overly write our own opinions.

IE3 Writing: Lesson 3

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