Introduction
WebQuest created by Fayza Abdel-Aal, Islamic University of Gaza.
The purpose of this webquest is to encourage students to use their life experiences and their creative skills to write essay.
Introduction:
In this section of the class, we will be using the experiences that you all have to create essay. This can be a descriptive essay, narrative essay, argumentative essay, or process essay.
We all have different ideas that could be used as a "kernel of truth," a tiny little part that can be the basis of the essay.
Task
By the end of this section, you will have created and completed a piece of essay that shows you know how to write and put ideas together, but also shows that you are able to take something that happened in your life and connect with your writing.
Process
The form of essay
We know that the shape is important as the content. If we look at the form, we will find that the title followed by five paragraph. The essay can be have more or less paragraph but this is form that required by most of university students all the world and this is form also that is required in the tofel exam. We can know that there are five paragraphs through the indentation before each paragraph. The indentation is the space at beginning of each paragraph. Also we shouldn't leave any space between each two paragraphs, the space between them should be exactly the same as the space between the lines. Also each paragraph should be consist of many sentences, and we can know how many sentences by look at the period and full stop. Another thing about the form, as we realize the lines ending are not equal, we leave mouse as they are natural ending, and we don't try to make them equal. Then we move to the size, the size of the first paragraph is not as big as the second one. The first and the last paragraph is shorter than the three body paragraphs in the middle.
The content of essay
The first part is the introduction, there are two main things in it. The first thing is a few sentences not one and not more than four, these sentences are called the opining sentences. As a writer you should make the opining sentences attractive and exciting to the reader by many techniques such as writing about general ideas about the topic, beginning with a short story, mention quotation and the comment on the quotation, write about the opposite of the topic, using questions, or write the importance of the topic. Now we move to the second thing in the introduction which is called the thesis statement. It is the last sentence of the paragraph and it have one topic and one controlling idea. It should be clear to the reader, it should not be ambiguous. Also it is similar to the topic sentence of the paragraph because it is the sentence that will be explained in the next three body paragraphs. Thesis statement is general but it shouldn't be very general, and it is opinion not fact. We call it thesis statement not thesis sentence because the sentence can be a question, a statement, or can be exclamation. The thesis statement is not a question because the question doesn't have a controlling idea to be explained. And it is not announcement because the announcement is generally and it doesn't have a controlling idea. Also the thesis statement is not a fragment or phrase because the fragment or the phrase can be a title not a sentence. One most important thing about thesis statement that it can be in different forms. For example:
1. My mother is generous.
2. My mother is generous because of many reasons.
3. My mother is generous because of three reasons.
4. My mother is generous because she helps the poor, she feeds the hungry, and she helps her neighbors.
The four sentence are correct however the last one is the best. Sentence one is acceptable but it isn't recommended because the reader who doesn't want to read the essay will look at the thesis statement only and he will ask why and who. Then in sentences two the reader will know that the topic is about "My mother" and the controlling idea about the reasons but the reader will not know these reasons until he reads the body paragraphs. Then in sentence three the reader will know the topic and the controlling idea, and he will know that there are three reasons, but still don't know these reasons until he reads the body paragraphs. Finally in four, it tells the reader what the topic is, what the controlling idea is, and it tells him what the reasons are.
Evaluation
Advanced
Insightfully adapt writing to grade- appropriate formats for a variety of purposes and audiences
Proficient
Adapt writing to grade-appropriate formats for a variety of purposes and audiences
Partially Proficient
Write with some adaptation to grade-appropriate formats for a variety of purposes and audiences
Novice
Write with little adaptation to grade-appropriate formats for a variety of purposes and audiences
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed learning about essay writing, and please continue to write any ideas you have in your spare time, I would love to read them!!