Mini-Lesson
Parts of the Essay
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Key Concept

Students in senior level English Language Arts are expected to be able to create a concise, well-developed formal essay.

Teaching-Learning Strategies

Task One: Structure of the Essay

Using the handout on essay structure (.doc) or (.rtf), you can review the major parts of the essay with your students.

Formal essay structure is something with which students often struggle. By providing the students with a basic handout, you are providing students with a reference they can use throughout the semester.

The essay example provided on this website may also help you to outline the different aspects of a basic essay including the thesis statement, the topic sentences, and the main points or arguments a solid essay.

Once the students have reviewed the terms of the essay, and looked at an example, you may want to test them on their understanding of the essay terms.

Have your students complete this timed, online quiz to see if there are any areas where re-teaching is necessary.

Task Two: The Writing Process

An important aspect of writing is using the writing process. The following essay outline (.doc) or (.rtf) provides students with a worksheet to use during the pre-writing stage of the process.

By having students do their pre-writing and drafting in class, you limit their opportunities to plagiarize essays from the internet or from former classmates.

It is also important that students edit and polish their rough copy before handing in their good copy. Peer editing can be a helpful skill for students to practice before they finish their final copy.

Students often mistake editing for simply reading through a partner's essay and looking for spelling mistakes. In order to help students understand all the important steps in peer-editing, you may want to provide them with specific editing instructions(.doc) or (.rtf) and an editing comment sheet(.doc) or (.rtf) to guide the process.

Task Three: Using Quotations

Incorporating quotations into an essay to help prove a point can be very difficult for students. This website will help students to introduce quotations, as well as provide a variety of transition words to aid in the process.