Lecture 4.1.2 - The Body of Your Essay
Lecture Overview
In the next activity you will draft the three body paragraphs for your essay, based on feedback on your Introductory Paragraph from your peer partner and teacher.
Think of your head as the INTRODUCTION – it’s what we use to greet people. It’s what they look at first and what we use to introduce ourselves
Then there is the rest of us – arms, legs, torso. Think of that as the three body paragraphs of an essay. In thinking about using the human body as an analogy for essay structure. The hands and arms do one thing. The legs and feet do something different. The torso – sits and bends.
THE BODY PARAGRAPHS
- Topic Sentence - purpose (first person or third person) – set out context for your first idea/point
- The body paragraph: #1 - weakest idea first; #2 - best idea next; #3 - 2nd best last. Avoiding cliches (Firstly, Secondly, etc.)
- Evidence: quotes, facts with citations, etc.
- The final sentence: paragraph conclusion to summarize the idea/point/argument - links back to the thesis
Citation MLA [the US based Modern Language Association] in text citation style: (1) from an article (2) from a website. This method involves providing reliable source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period).
Examples:
Who said that?
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Where did he say that?
The English poet William Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was characterized by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).