Brooklyn College Literature Educational Experience Essay

Consider your thesis as the message you want to convey. Sometimes it can be explained as: Topic + your angle (belief, position, attitude) on that topic.

In this first essay, you are going to be reflecting on your experiences and using descriptive, narrative and anecdotal details to show that experience and how it affected you.

Thinking through the discussions from Weeks 2 – 4, what stands out about your own educational experience and your beliefs about education. By education, that could mean grades, higher education, the value of effort, the importance of kindness or encouragement, parental intervention — the topic you choose and angle you take should be inspired by your own experiences.

Think about that experience.

• What specifically do you recall?
• Is there an event, experience, or individual who comes to mind?
• What was gained/learned from that experience?

Now, you are ready to craft a thesis.

Here are some examples,

• The pressure to do well on the SAT plagued my junior year of high school.
• My third grade teacher set me up for success.
• Failing my first test taught me a valuable lesson.

** Notice that these examples are personal and not broad.Planning is an important step of the writing process that often gets skipped under the guise of saving time.

However, truth be told, working from a plan can expedite your writing and will help you quickly assess if you have enough relevant material to sustain the required paper length. It is easier to scrap a plan than to rework a whole paper that has gotten off topic.

Additionally, a good plan also means you don’t have to do this kind of complex thinking while also trying to think about how to word your next sentence.

The kind of planning you do is a matter of preference.

Some like to work from a linear plan; while others prefer a graphic organizer such as a web.

Regardless of what you choose, you should have these elements.

1- clear thesis

2- clear topic sentences or sub topics to help frame each paragraph and develop thesis (see next module)

3- supporting details

4- logical structure

Your first draft is just that – a first draft.

* Get your ideas on the paper, and don’t worry about getting them out perfectly.

* Work from your plan – putting the plan into clearly articulated sentences. Once you have a draft, you can revise indefinitely until you have to submit the essay for grading. We will work through revision after the first draft is completed.

After your opening paragraph frames the thesis statement and draws your reader into your topic, you are ready to begin “arguing” the validity of your thesis. This argument is presented in the body paragraphs.

Think about the argument in the same way you would think about an attorney walking into a courtroom and arguing a case before a jury. The attorney not only presents evidence but also manipulates the jury’s understanding of that evidence. The attorney will explain to the jury how the evidence supports the attorney’s position. Your body paragraphs will function in a similar manner.

Introductions should always have a hook and a thesis.

In a narrative essay the hook is perhaps more important because you need to engage and connect with your audience to make them care about your experience.

There are lots of creative ways to begin your essay.

It is fun to experiment with different kinds, but the truth is if you force a format that doesn’t work, your reader will feel it.

Using the Bartlett book of quotations might have worked in high school, but those quotes often feel disjointed and trite.

Instead, does a song lyric come to mind?

Could you ask an open ended question to get the reader to think about your topic? Know any shocking facts or statements that might engage the reader?

Could you try to engage the reader with a brief anecdote; maybe some dialog?

If a quote comes to mind naturally that connects, go for it!

Every body paragraph should strive to achieve three things:

1. Topic sentence: Each topic sentence should be in your essay plan. This is the statement of the main idea for this paragraph and directly supports your thesis statement. Every sentence in the paragraph is related to this main idea.

2. Supporting details: This is the evidence that proves to the reader the validity of your topic sentence. The evidence must be specific. Give concrete examples.

3. Explain: It is the writer’s job to “connect the dots” for the reader. Show the reader how the evidence supports the topic sentence. Sometimes this is called commentary; in other words, comment on the connection between you evidence and your topic sentence. However, you are not yet finished. You need to make one more connection – loop back to your thesis. Remind your reader – and yourself that you are ultimately writing an essay that proves the validity of your thesis statement.

The topic sentence supports the thesis; the evidence supports the topic sentence.

A Few Important Tips

* Success is in the details; failure is in vagueness.

* It takes a lot of words to explain something.

* Nothing is ever obvious. Something may seem obvious to the writer because the writer brings to her essay previous life experiences and prior knowledge. However the reader brings different life experiences and prior knowledge to the same essay. It is the writer’s responsibility to “connect the dots” for the reader.

* Keep your eye on the ball; that is, keep your eye on your thesis statement – that is the sole purpose of your essay.