Tips for writing an essay

Teachers, here is an easy way to teach your students how to write an introduction paragraph. Previously, many of us were instructed to teach our students how to write a hook.

However, instead of starting the essay with a hook, have them start by giving background information about the topic they are writing about. Then have your students write their thesis statements followed by the three reasons they will address in their essays.

Remind students that those three reasons need to be the topic sentences for each body paragraph. Also, prompt them to provide logical and well-organized reasons and evidence to support their claim. Additionally, teach your students to connect all of their points and textual evidence back to the thesis statement. They should also use words from the texts in their essays.

Finally, have your students restate their thesis statement in the conclusion along with a summary of their body paragraphs. Be sure to encourage them to end with a thought provoking statement.

Checklist for your students

• Correctly answered prompt
• Clear thesis
• Three specific reasons to support thesis
• Ideas in logical order throughout essay
• Introduction and conclusion included
• Transitions used to connect ideas
• Maintain a formal style
• Cite relevant evidence from text
• Explain and connect evidence to thesis
• Use words from the text (domain-specific vocabulary)
• Include different sentence structure
• Show skill in punctuation, capitalization, sentence development, and spelling

Checklist for thesis statement

• Specific
• Debatable
• Includes "how" and "why"
• States your position
• Located in the introduction