WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ESSAY FORMAT 1. Your ...

identity in thestory"On theSidewalkBleeding".identity and was only seenas a gang member.boy loses his identity and is onlyrecognized as a gang member.ACTIVITY 2: Review your 5 writings and make sure each has a thesis statement.4. The Parts of an Essay (writing the body)An essay is composed of three parts:1. The opening paragraph or introduction2. The body3. The conclusionDeveloping your topic and beginning your essaySince the body of the essay is the biggest part it is often the best place to start. That way,the bulk of your essay is completed first.In order to begin writing the body of your essay, you need to develop your topic. Thisinvolves closely examining your thesis statement. The first question you need to ask yourself is:how do I plan to support the opinion in my thesis?Well, you begin by making a list of reasons or examples that support your opinion. You needa list of, at least, three strong reasons. For example, if we look back at the thesis statement inExercise four, we can easily create a list to support the opinion stated in the thesis:Thesis – When it comes to animals, dogs make better pets than cats.Reasons/Examples to support opinion – 1) Dogs are fun2) Dogs help you exercise3) Dogs are loyal4) Can you add any other reasons?Once you have your reasons/examples, putting the body of the essay together becomes verysimple by following these steps:Step 1 – Examine your first reason/example. I.e. “dogs are fun”Step 2 – Explain what you mean (why are dogs fun?) and use examples to back up your ideas.In this instance you mightexplain that it’s fun to teach dogs games and tricks, or that dogs like to play.Step 3 – Put your ideas together in step two to create a paragraph. Keep in mind that thereshould be only one main topic in aparagraph. If you find yourself wanting to branch off of a topic onto another relatedone, begin a new paragraph todiscuss that idea.Step 4 – Repeat steps 1 – 3 for the second and third reasons/examples. Once you have theminimum three paragraphs writtento support your thesis, the body of your essay is complete.Remember, the body of your essay must have at least three paragraphs. Additionalparagraphs, however, can help strengthen your essay if they help reinforce your ideas.Activity 3: Choose one of your 5 writings to focus on and review it to make sure it has a properessay body.5. Writing the Introduction and Conclusion of an EssaySo you know how to write the body of your essay, but do you know how to begin your essay?As explained in exercise five, there are three parts of an essay: the introduction, body, andconclusion. You CANNOT begin an essay by simply stating the thesis of your essay. You mustbegin an essay with an introductory paragraph, or introduction. This introductory paragraph isthe first paragraph of your essay. It should announce your topic to the reader, include the thesisstatement, and, hopefully, get your reader’s attention.Writing the introductory paragraph of an essay is quite easy. There are a variety of ways towrite an introductory paragraph, but, for the purpose of simplicity, we are going to look at thethesis-statement-last introduction.Writing your introduction1. Write the thesis of your essay ¼ of the way down your page (leavingseveral empty lines above it).2. Using the empty lines before your thesis lead your readers to your thesis.This means you need to discuss things related to the topic in your thesis.How do I lead my reader to the Thesis statement?There are several ways to begin your essay, and more specifically, your2