درس (-2-) Writing Essay

---Getting Started---

(((--"--Narrowing Your Essay Topic --"--)))
The first step in writing an essay is finding something to write about. Whether you are working from a list of assigned topics or selecting your own, try to find something which sparks your interest: not only will working on the assignment be more stimulating, but your commitment will also help you write a more convincing essay. Some preliminary reading may help determine how deep your interest goes, as well as letting you know what kind of material will be available as you write your essay.

A common problem of beginning writers is wallowing around in a topic too wide for their purposes. General words such as "media,""war," "life,"or "nature"are often incorrectly used as if they were topics (even "dragons"is too broad). However, students often begin to write essays with nothing more in mind than a general concept, and the result is a vague and generalized essay, of little interest to the student and less to the instructor. If you start with a broad area, concentrate on narrowing your subject„it will also help you deal with your topic within the length of the paper assigned and the time you have been given to complete it



(((--"--The Thesis --"--)))
All essays that involve the development of an argument require a thesis: the point you are arguing. While the topic is your subject, the thesis defines your position on that subject. Your essay will take a position and will provide convincing evidence to support that view. It is important to develop a working thesis early because it will help direct your thoughts and research; of course your thesis may change as your reading and writing progresses and you begin to incorporate new information.

Once you have chosen your topic, you can begin to formulate your thesis by thinking closely about it, doing some exploratory reading, or drawing from lectures or conversations with classmates and friends. One way to develop a thesis is to ask yourself questions about the topic and to focus on a central issue or problem which the topic raises. Your answer to this question will be your thesis.



(((--"--Brainstorming--"--)))
If you are having trouble developing a thesis, try brainstorming. You can brainstorm verbally with other people, or work alone, writing all your ideas on paper. The important thing about brainstorming is not to edit your thoughts. Write down everything which occurs to you about the topic, no matter how irrelevant or bizarre.

The next stage is to make connections between your ideas, and to group them into sub-topics, expanding those that you can explore in more detail. Then see if you can put the groups into some kind of logical order, discarding those that do turn out to be irrelevant or bizarre. In most cases you will find that you have the beginning of an essay--something that implies a basic point of view you can explore further and refine into a fully developed argument.

There are several good books on using the brainstorming process to generate ideas for writing, including Tony Buzan's Use Both Sides of Your Brain and Gabrielle Lusser Rico's Writing the Natural Way. If you are still unsure about the topic, you should consult your instructor after you have done some thinking about the topic on your own.



(((--"--The Statement Of Your Thesis --"--)))
Once you have discovered a thesis, sharpen it into a concise statement. The thesis statement usually appears in the introduction of your essay, and is best expressed in one sentence as a definition of your position, or the point you intend to prove in your essay. A good thesis statement will help organize your essay and give it direction; it is the central idea around which the rest of the essay is built.

The ideal thesis (like the topic itself) will be neither too broad nor too narrow for the compass of your essay. Clearly a 3000-word essay will have a more complex argument, and correspondingly a more complex thesis, than an essay of 600 words. One of the most common problems with essays is that they are based on a thesis that is too obvious to be worth arguing--a truism. Here are some examples of possible theses:

Specific topic:
How commercials manipulate their audience
A thesis that is a truism:
"Television Commercials attempt to sell their products to the largest possible audience."
A thesis that is too broad:
"Several tactics are used to entice consumers to buy the advertised product."(This thesis is likely to produce an essay that is simply a shopping list of examples, dull both
for the writer and reader.)
A sharper thesis:
"Commercials sell their products by suggesting that those who buy them will instantly enter an ideal world where they are irresistably attractive."
Too limited:
"Molson Canadian commercials are offensive."
Specific topic:
Problems in fighting the medieval fire-breathing dragon.
A thesis that is a truism:
"Fighting fire-breathing dragons was hell."
A thesis that is too broad:
"The flames of passion in courtly love claimed more knights' lives than all the fire-breathing dragons in medieval Europe." (The topic is unwieldy because it involves two areas of research, courtly love and fire-breathing dragons.)
A sharper thesis:
"Fewer knights would have been broiled in their armour if the medieval world had known of fire-extinguishers."
Too limited:
" 'Puff the Magic Dragon' is a sweet song."



(((--"--When You Don't Know Enough About A Subject
To Form A Thesis--"--)))
It is possible, particularly when you are tackling an expository essay on a subject you know little about, that you will not be able to formulate a thesis, no matter how hard you storm your brains. In this case, the best strategy is to narrow the topic as best you can and to move straight to the process of writing an outline. Then you should begin your research and gather evidence As you learn more about the subject and begin to form clearer opinions, you can pause to restructure the outline, and then to draft a thesis.

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