Few Pages on this Essay

Harry Potter

Professor Ott

English 1A / Essay 1

12 January 2018

Creative Title Centered Here

Indent your first paragraph one-half inch. Notice the entire essay is double spaced. Use Times New Roman (or Arial) font sized 12. Do not add extra spaces between the heading and the title or between the title and the first sentence. Introduce your subject in a general way, but in a way that gets the readers’ attention. It is usually best to avoid quotations in the introduction. Save quotations for your body paragraphs. It is sometime acceptable to cite statistics in an introduction to demonstrate the depth of a problem (such as the percentage of people in the United States who are obese or how many people live in poverty), but most facts and statistics should be cited in your body paragraphs. Write your essay using formal language. Avoid contractions and slang or casual words. For example, write significant instead of big. Write acceptable instead of okay. The final sentence or two of your introduction will be your thesis statement (sometimes called a claim). Your thesis must make a claim that is debatable and worthy of discussion. A poor thesis would be Dogs make great pets. A worthwhile thesis would be Stereotyping and racial profiling are ongoing problems in America that must be addressed through specific actions steps and strategies. Write your thesis carefully because the remainder of your essay will need to support, as best as possible, the claim you make. Each topic sentence (which is the first sentence or two of each body paragraph) will need to relate directly back to your thesis.

The first sentence of your first body paragraph typically does not require a transition. This is where you will make your first statement that supports the thesis. We call this first sentence of each body paragraph a point or topic sentence. For example, because the thesis above states that racism is an ongoing problem, the essay needs to show how this is true. We might write as our topic sentence: Racial profiling can be found everywhere: at school, in the workplace, even in the supermarket where the male cashier treats the white female doing her weekly grocery shopping better than he treats the Hispanic female. Now that we have written this topic sentence, we need to back it up with evidence or information. This is where we will quote or paraphrase a trustworthy source: In the article “Justice Sotomayor’s Beautiful Schuette Dissent: Race Matters,” Sonia Sotomayor is quoted as saying, “And race matters for reasons that really are skin deep, that cannot be discussed any other way, and that cannot be wished away” (Hing). For our final sentence in our body paragraph, we want to explain or expand how the quotation or information connects to the topic sentence. We might write: Sotomayor demonstrates through her dissent of the April 2014 Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action that racism continues to oppress many citizens of the United States. The way a person looks does contribute to the way that person is going to be treated. [Note: This template offers a simple PIE structure. To ensure more robust body paragraphs, refer to the 7-Step process that is included in this module.]

Now we write a transition to guide our reader from the first paragraph’s idea to the next idea or point. We could write: This fact of appearance certainly has been a factor during the past 13 years since there has been an increase in racism against Muslims, counting them as terrorists or extremists. Notice how the prior sentence has both the transition (This fact of appearance) and a topic sentence / point about the increase in racism against Muslims. Using the point-information-explanation structure in the first body paragraph, we repeat the structure in this and any subsequent body paragraphs. Most basic essays require at least three body paragraphs, but well-written essays offer a greater depth of research, information, and thought to support your thesis.

The first sentence of the essay’s conclusion also does not usually require a transition. The conclusion is where you will briefly summarize your body paragraphs and underscore any action steps you are recommending to your readers. This is NOT the time to introduce new sources or quotations (although sometimes writers will end with an inspirational quotation, which is acceptable if done well). In this essay example about racism, we might write: Stereotyping and racial profiling are unacceptable practices used to disparage the value of other races. This phenomenon will likely never come to an end, but we as individuals we must make the effort to treat people as the human beings they are no matter their race, skin color, and social economic status. Teaching our society, including children, to respect others may not fully end racism, but it will contribute to improve the world we currently live in.

The last page of the essay is Works Cited. To ensure proper formatting of Works Cited, use Noodletools through the library website. It is free for students. (Some essays require a post-essay reflection, which is truly the last page.)

Works Cited

Doherty, Carroll. "For African Americans, Discrimination is not Dead." Pew      Research Center. The Pew Charitable Trusts., 28 June 2013. Web. 19 June      2014.

Hing, Julianne. "Justice Sotomayor’s Beautiful Schuette Dissent: Race Matters."      Color Lines News For Action. Race Forward, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 June      2014.

Naqvi-Mohamed, Fariha. "I Took My Family to the Movies and Got Called a 'F***      Terrorist.'" Huffpost Living. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 19      June 2014.