November 14, 2013

Lobb’s Patented Essay Structure Guide

• this may or may not be the greatest thing to help you write an essay
• it may or may not be the most original essay planning tool you can find
• it IS guaranteed to work in this class, however

Intro

Body

Conclusion 

All obvious, everyone knows, no worries. 

Intro - 

-basically, you are stating a thesis and then briefly summarizing the way(s) in which you will prove it to be true

• however, some people have learned that you want to start with a sentence that is a grabber, that isn’t your thesis statement
• some call it a hook. 
• I would call it a “way in” to the subject matter
• eg - if the essay is about Macbeth, and the thesis is a specific aspect of that character’s journey as a tragic hero, the hook statement could be about Macbeth the play, the character, the idea of a tragic hero, or the idea of a hero, etc. 
• what might be a good hook for the “Lobb is a bad teacher” essay? 
• The hook is probably something about teaching in general, or maybe about GOOD teaching, and then you’re going to go ahead and contrast the info about Lobb.
• The hook could also be about the student experience and the needs of young people and then we show how those needs aren’t being met. Another contrast!

Intro then has:

1. hook (some people put at definition in here) *don’t always do that*
2. thesis statement 
3. directional statements (how you will prove thesis as true

Conclusion:

• summarizes the thesis as proven - 
• may sometimes start with a “By looking at...” “After examining...” in terms of logic - you may not actually use those terms, but that’s what you’re doing
• RESTATEMENT is the key - you’re going “See? I did it. Now give me my cookie. Or marks. Or love me, as I have no internal sense of accomplishment.”
• sometimes, the last thing in a conclusion is a capper or a spin into a new area related to the subject matter - this is not easy to explain
• What about the Lobb is a bad teacher example? 
• why wouldn’t we talk about what could happen to a student with a bad teacher? kind of looking at the consequences of the bad teaching? 
• It’s kind of a think about, take away, oh, yeah...

Body:

• we’re at the most challenging part of writing an essay
• this is the whole raison d’etre of doing this
• the body IS the essay
• the body IS the thinking
• the body IS the application of the structure and the implementation of the knowledge

Some body sections have THREE Areas of Discussion 

This is the essay you learned in other grades

Put your best AoD at the end, your second best first and the middle one is weakest

This is okay, but it’s simplistic. It’s a good way to think about an essay, but not the best way to write one.

Better is to think about the structure of writing that goes into each AoD

This is the Pattern:

Make your point. 

Define your point. 

Make the reference from the work - novel, play, story, poem - that shows your point in “action”

THEN - MONEY TIME 

• you need to explain your point, 
• show how it fits into your thesis, 
• make the connection of your logic and reasoning (make your thinking obvious) 
• show how it is important. 

Example - thesis - Mr. Lobb is a bad teacher who harms his youthful students. 

Big AoD - Mr. Lobb creates a negative environment for student learning and achievement. 

NOW WE NEED TO:

POINT - Lobb sometimes leaves the room, which results in chaos when students behave inappropriately and become distracted 

PROOF - November 14, Lobb left the room to get the attendance sheet and Kieran Melady began rubbing everyone, Ally Hulley was tweeting about how much she missed Field Hockey, and, in general, students were unable to focus. 

EXPLAIN, LINK BACK, SHOW LOGIC - show how that situation proves that Lobb is a bad teacher - you say because he left, he wasn’t there to decide how people show act, and they are too immature to decide for themselves

the point inside this stuff might be that he doesn’t know what his students need and what he should be doing to fulfill that need. 

Reasoning? 

Logic? 

Link back? 

Macbeth is crazy. 

AoD - Hallucinations, visions and delusions. 

References. 

Then, show how are those things crazy.  

That’s where the essay is. 

What you’re always looking to do is this:

A + B = C

Soliloquies in Macbeth

1. Translate into YOUR OWN WORDS.
2. Decipher any particularly tricky bits. 
3. Show (briefly) the importance of this soliloquy.