English 101

Lecture Notes 15

Spring 2022

25 April

Lecture 15

-Strong essays are usually the result of a writing process.

Writing processes will vary from writer to writer and essay

to essay, but there are some helpful patterns to keep in

mind. For example:

1. Idea generation (e.g. brainstorm, web, or freewrite)

2. Idea organization (e.g. outline)

3. First draft

4. Revised draft(s)

5. Proofread

6. Final draft

-Strong essays begin with an introduction paragraph that

includes a thesis statement that encapsulates the main idea

of the whole essay.

-Each body paragraph of your essay should be focused on one

main idea. Any time you start discussing a new person,

place, time, author, or idea you should consider starting a

new paragraph. There is some authorial discretion here,

though. My personal preference is to write in many short

paragraphs. Other authors prefer longer paragraphs. In

general, I think it’s a good idea to start off as a writer

by writing shorter focused paragraphs and build up to longer

paragraphs as you gain writing experience. There’s also an

argument to be made that the more complex your topic is the

shorter your paragraphs should be to avoid losing your

reader. As with a lot of things in writing: It depends, and

you’ll have to make your own authorial decisions up to a

point.

-A strong essay for the final will be grounded in several of

the texts we’ve read for this semester and will put those

texts into conversation with one another (So be sure you are

up to date on the reading!). Review the relevant chapters of

They Say I Say to review how to put multiple authors into

conversation with one another and to interweave your own

views as well.
For our purposes, “grounded in the text” means each of your

body paragraphs should contain either paraphrase, summary,

or direct quotation of one of the texts you are writing in

response to. These should all be cited appropriately with

in-text citation and a works cited page.

-Strong essays are almost always the result of a process of

multiple revisions. I recommend at least three revisions of

this essay. Ideally, these revisions will be spread out over

time. Keep in mind that revision is different from

proofreading, and that you should proofread your work in

addition to revising it at least three times.