WELCOME TO LANGUAGE ARTS!!!!

Second Nine Weeks--A new beginning.

We will be concentrating on Expository Writing during this time.  We will have several preliminary assignments to help us write the five paragraph essay.

An expository writing is one that informs.  It is full of facts. 

Students should begin their expository assignment by determining what they want to "inform" their audience about.  They need to begin doing some informal research about the subject.  This will help them on acquiring information and making their assignment more interesting.  This pre-planning stage will consist of a graphic organizer of their choice.  This is their writing construction plan to guide them throughout the essay.

The introduction paragraph should have a "hook" to grab the attention of the reader.  This may be in the form of a question, a statistic, an interesting fact, a quote, or some type of emotional appeal.  In this first paragraph a thesis statement should formalize.  A thesis statement is telling the audience what you will be talking about in your paper in one sentence.

Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 are supporting your thesis statement with details.  The students have examined several examples and disected them paragraph by paragraph in class.  Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and 3--5 sentences to support it.  The final paragraph is the conclusion which "wraps up the essay" by summarizing and re-stating the thesis statement.

These essays will be evaluated using the six points ruberic used by the state.