Houses, boxes, court cases and fruit bars. What do these four things have in common? I have used each of them to help students understand how to write an essay. The other night, though, because I felt my college students were ready for the mind-blowing revelation, I used all four at once.
What do students often complain about in the essay writing process (other than the process itself): the organization. Finally, here is a set of object lessons that clearly communicate the professional expectations of an essay’s format.
Essays are houses
Perhaps you have seen a housing property show popular on reality channels where potential buyers follow a realtor through a home. Room by room, viewers explore features and consider the merits of what they see. Do not we, as writers, create the same experience for readers? Each body paragraph is a room! The introductory paragraph is the author and reader on the front sidewalk taking it all in. Throughout the essay, the author discusses a topic paying close attention to address only what is within that paragraph’s topic. Why talk about the bathroom when you are in the dining room? When you are done with one room, you use a transition to guide the reader across the threshold to the next topic. Your conclusion, then, is the author and reader back outside on the sidewalk taking in the experience with a renewed perspective of what has been learned on the tour. Essays are houses and paragraphs are rooms.
Outlines are like nesting boxes
Picture Russian nesting dolls. You open the largest one and inside there is another very similar to the first, just a little smaller. Keep going and you see the uniqueness of each one yet see the consistency of their design. Within each body paragraph that we compose in an essay, our sentences move from the general to the specific – developing and deepening the argument while remaining relatively fluid in design. Four nesting boxes, purchased from a local container store, best illustrate this concept visually for students. When it comes time to outline ideas for an essay’s construction, I share with students a two-page template of nesting boxes to fill out with four levels of thought: a topic sentence, a transition sentence clarifying the context, a blended quote, and then several sentences of deeper analysis.
Paragraphs are like court cases
Ask your students who love courtroom drama what the order of the court is. Answers will yield this structure: 1) opening argument, 2) background information, 3) body of evidence, 4) closing argument. Body paragraphs do the same thing! Every paragraph is a court case and your reader is the jury….
Fruit bar format
The idea for how to best illustrate the flow of reading a good essay occurred to me one day while eating a fruit bar. (I find that the Nutri-Grain brand works best). Distribute a fruit bar to each student – being mindful of any allergies, of course. Start with the outside wrapper and read the title. “The author claims this essay will be about nutri-grain strawberry (for example) and soft-baked. I should certainly expect to encounter this while I am reading. Now I am going to unwrap the fruit bar. I see a five-paragraph essay here, and I was intrigued by the title, but I cannot tell its quality from the outside. I will have to bite into the introduction.” Take the first of five bites and digest it as if mulling over its claim.
“Okay, so now I have an idea of what the essay will address. Let’s get into the three body paragraphs and see if the author develops this flavor further.” Divide the body of the fruit bar into three paragraphs and leave the conclusion, the last bite, in your hand. As you chew, mention that the author’s content is consistent. You should not encounter any chocolate in an essay about strawberries. There are transitions linking the information ahead with what has just passed. Do not eat the conclusion yet!
Hold the last paragraph bite in your hand for all to see. “Do you notice how the conclusion of the essay is not open-ended? I am getting a definite sense of closure here. But I see something else: the conclusion looks a lot like the introduction! Perhaps the author wants to remind me of how the essay started and bring the content’s meaning full-circle. If the author has intrigued you enough, the essay should leave you hungry for more.”
Then, as a clincher, I flip the wrapper over and point out that because this was a research paper, the ingredients is the works cited. “See? The author even told me where the information came from.”
What object will work for you?
Students at any level love learning and implementing abstract concepts with a visual aid. Explore how your class will best grasp the structure of an essay. The results will be totally worth it.