Writing Essays

Personal Narrative

A personal narrative is a type of expressive essay. The purpose of a personal narrative is to share an experience with others.

Picking a topic

1. Choose an experience you remember very well.
2. Choose an experience that is important to you.
3. Choose an experience you feel comfortable writing about.

Beginning writing

How you go about writing is up to you. You could:

1. Make a list of the things that happened relating to your experience.
2. Use a webbing or mapping exercise.
3. Write a very rough draft where you only write the outline of what happened.

What should your essay contain?

1. It should have an introductory paragraph. This is the beginning, where you introduce your topic. You tell what your essay is going be about. Don't say, though, "My essay is about," or "I'm going to tell you about..." Just begin.

2. Each part of the rest of the essay should be in different paragraphs. In other words, each paragraph should contain a separate idea, or be about different thing.

Other tips and hints

1. When describing the experience, use details from all five senses. But don't do all five in one paragraph, or your writing will sound fake.

2. Use lots of details about people, places, and actions in your essay.

3. Tell about your thoughts and feelings during the event, and also tell how you felt after the event. You should tell the meaning of the experience.

The Descriptive Essay

Any time you use description, it is to plant an image in the reader’s mind. You want your reader to see, hear, feel, taste, or smell what you are describing. Here are some purposes you might have for the descriptive essay:
to express yourself; to persuade; to inform; to be creative.

To begin:

Observe what you are describing. If it is a pair of old shoes, pick them up, feel them, look at them carefully, smell them (!).

If your subject is not close by, take time to recall it. Close your eyes and picture your subject. Bring it to the attention of each of your senses. How does it look, sound, feel, taste, or smell?

If your subject is made up, imagine it. Let your ideas float freely. Then, sharpen the focus until more and more details become clear.

Don’t forget your sensory details. Does your subject make noise? Does it have a smell? How does it feel when you touch it? Is there a taste? You can’t use all of your senses to describe every subject, but you should be able to use two or three.

Sometimes, when describing, it is good to compare your subject to something else. If you say that your dog’s fur is like a teddy bear’s fur, you are using a simile. If you say your dad is a bear in the morning, you’re using a metaphor. Be careful: sometimes using too many or strange similes and metaphors make your writing sound funny. Used correctly, they are an excellent way to describe something to people.

Adjectives! Don’t forget adjectives. It really matters which ones you choose. Again, you don’t want your writing to sound forced, but think if you want to describe something as merely dirty, or grimy; broken, or ripped apart; damp or musty; hot or sultry.

The Persuasive Essay  Due:  May 10

A persuasive essay is an essay where you try to convince someone to your way of thinking.  People persuade all the time.  A candidate must persuade voters.  Students persuade teachers for less homework or deadline extensions.  Kids persuade their parents to stay up late, to have a friend over, or to buy a certain product.

Your persuasive essay should be about a relevant topic that you care about.  What would you like changed?  What do you think you need?  It must be a topic about which other people will disagree, otherwise there’s no point in writing the essay. 

Your introduction should speak generally about the topic and should build interest for your topic.  If your essay is to persuade more people to ride their bicycles to work, then you might start out with a description of how much air pollution there is and what it is doing to the environment.  It is crucial that your introduction contain one concise sentence that states your opinion.

Please do not say:  “I think I should get a new dog and here is why.”  Remember, sixth graders do not write “I am going to tell you about…” or “This is what my essay is about.”  Some of you are still doing this.

Your audience is going to ask, “Why should we believe you?”  Think ahead about your audience.  Ask yourself, what do my readers think about my topic?  What reasons will appeal to them?  If you’re writing an essay to persuade teachers for less homework, you will want an essay that addresses teachers, not other students.  Your purpose is always to persuade your audience to agree with you.  If your topic is to convince your parents to buy you a puppy, you need to think of all their arguments and address them in your essay.  Not only must you state the reasons for what you want, you must also counteract the other person’s argument.

Find support for your opinion.  If you want people to ride their bicycles to work, you can’t say, “Ride your bikes to work because it’s better.”  You have to come up with reasons and facts that can be supported.

The ending:  close with power.  Restate your opinion or call your readers to action.  Save your best reason for last.  Tell your readers what you want them to do.

Expository Essay

Expository writing is a type of nonfiction that explains how things are, how they work, what they mean, and/or why they are important. The purpose of this essay is to inform your audience about something. Here are examples of the types of expository essays I listed above:

How things are could be an essay explaining how your room became so messy or you got your name.

How they work could be an essay explaining how a bicycle works or how you get your way with your parents.

What they mean could be an essay explicating the meaning of a poem or the symbolism of the American Flag.

Why they are important could be an essay explaining why school safety is important or why we have laws.

Another type of expository essay is a "how to" essay where you explain how to do something…anything! Remember to make sure your directions are step-by-step, and that each direction is a separate paragraph. This can be a difficult essay to write because you have to explain something so well that someone unfamiliar with what you are explaining could do it. You can not leave out any details.

Essay Proofreading Checklist (This form needs to be completed and stapled to your essay. Feel free to print this version out if you lost the one I gave you.)

Proofreading Checklist Link

This is the form I will use to grade your essays. You will get points based on whether or not you follow the criteria. Each section is worth five points. This is not the form you turn in with your essay.

_________ Essay contains no spelling, punctuation, grammar, or other mechanical errors. Broken rules are done with knowledge and intent.

_________ Introduction is interesting and hooks the reader; is separate; starts off generally before a nice, focused sentenced; is of substantial length. Essay ends satisfactorily. Title is appropriate and interesting.

_________ Each paragraph is indented, and contains only one idea. Each paragraph has a topic sentence, and each sentence in the paragraph develops the topic sentence. Each paragraph contributes to the essay.

_________ Essay is focused, and follows the Mr. Black format flawlessly. Essay is the appropriate length, and leaves the reader satisfied with no unanswered questions. Essay is printed on clean, unlined, 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.

_________ Essay contains no awkward sentences. Word choice (diction) is appropriate. No gratuitous content. No stealing from copyrighted sources, nor stealing of style.