Skip to main content

Big Hair and a Book

 This post is an essay that I wrote for my junior year of high school/freshman year of college English class. It’s a personal literacy essay where I discuss my experience with books. I hope you like it.  Throughout my entire life, including now, people always recognize me by my hair. Curly, brown,  and perpetually frizzy hair. My trademark. Although hair is important to who I am, I think books will  forever be the biggest part of me.            According to my mother, I started reading when I was 3, I can’t corroborate that since I don’t  remember being 3. In fact, I don’t remember much of my childhood. But I remember the books I read.  There were 3 extremely important books that have shaped my entire life, or at least my life until now,  but I can almost guarantee that they will always be important to me. These books represent different  types of reading, or different reasons you might read.   The first type is reading for knowledge, represented by the Egyptology book. As a child I wa
Post a Comment

My *personal* Essay Writing Formula

 

According to my Freshman year English teacher, there are people out there who are in High School and don't know how to write an essay, so I took the initiative of sharing the essay writing formula that I've used since I first started writing essays. That was in Elementary School, by the way. 

Disclaimer: I am not guaranteeing anything with this post. I am simply sharing my personal essay writing formula with the world. 


Essay Outline 

Title: self-explanatory

Intro paragraph 

Thesis statement: 1 sentence, the response to the prompt. This is the first supporting statement, a supporting statement is essentially the reason why your thesis statement is right, for every supporting paragraph, you need a new supporting statement. This is the second supporting statement, supporting statements are used as thesis statements or topic sentences for your supporting paragraphs. This is the third supporting statement, all of the supporting statements must be on the topic and make sense. This is the closing statement, which is a restatement of your thesis statement, when I say restatement, I mean a different sentence that gets the same point across, don't say your thesis statement word for word again. 

Supporting Paragraphs 

This is a more refined and detailed version of your topic sentence/thesis statement for this paragraph. This is supporting evidence for this specific supporting paragraph. There can be as much supporting evidence as you want, but 2-5 sentences is my go-to. There's no closing sentence necessary for these kinds of paragraphs, but if you have one that doesn't feel unnecessary, go ahead and use it. 

Closing Paragraph 

This is a response to the prompt. This is a supporting statement, this is another supporting statement, this is the last supporting statement. This is a restatement of your thesis statement. This is a call to action which is only used in argumentative essays. 

Bibliography/Works Cited 

This is where you give credits to the sources you used to get evidence for your essay. You should always cite your sources in the way your assignment/teacher tells you to. The most common citing format is MLA. This section does not count as part of your total paragraphs unless you are told that it does. 



Essay Evidence 

Every essay requires supporting evidence to back up your thesis statement/claim. You should only use evidence from reliable sources, like scientific journals. Sites with .org, .gov, or .edu at the end are usually reliable. When you begin researching, always save your sources in some type of document. I usually put the links in a word document. Jot down any information from reliable sources that can help support your cause. You should also have rebuttals if you're writing an argumentative essay. That would be where you take evidence that supports the rival cause, and prove it wrong. 


Introductory Paragraph 

  1. Take your prompt, and write a response to it. 
  2. Take that response and beef it up. This is how you get your thesis statement. 
  3. The reasons why your thesis is right will be your supporting statements. Each supporting paragraph will be represented here using 1 sentence that briefly showcases the main point of that paragraph. You should not be using any supporting evidence in these sentences. 
Supporting Paragraphs 
  1. There will be 1 parapgrah per "reason". 
  2. To find out how many supporting paragraphs you need, take the assigned paragraph amount and subtract 2. The 2 paragraphs you subtract will be your introductory and closing paragraphs. For example, if your teacher says you need to have 8 paragraphs in your essay, 8-2=6. You will need 6 separate supporting paragraphs. 
  3. The topic sentence for these paragraphs are a more detailed version of the supporting statements that were used in the introductory paragraph. 
  4. Use the evidnece that supports this specific "reason" and make them into sentences. These will be the supporting evidence. 
Closing Paragraph 
  1. This is essentially a restatement of your entire introductory paragraph. 
  2. Restate your thesis, again. 
  3. Restate your supporting statements, again. 
  4. Restate your thesis, AGAIN!!! Add a call to action or some type of closing statment so that it doesn't seem like you're restating your theisi for the umpteenth time. 
Bibliogrpahy/Works Cited 
  1. These are ALL the sources you used. Every single one. Cite them the way you're asked to. If there isn't a specific way your teacher wants you to cite your sources, ask them how to cite them. If all else fails, use MLA. 


Example Essay 
For this essay I w.ill only be doing 3 paragraphs not including the bibliography. The prompt is: "Your favorite bird and why." 

Why Crows are the Best Birds 
My favorite birds are crows. Crows are my favorite birds becuase they're very smart and are similar to humans. 

Crows are some of the smartest birds on earth. They can recognize faces, and make and use tools. There's also evidnece that shows that tool use can boost the crow's mood. Tool use isn't something necessary for the crow's survival, but it could be used as something that keeps the mind sharp. Like humans solving puzzles. 

Crows are genius birds. They're so smart that they can use tools. I hope that this essay made you like crows too! 

Works cited 
Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191211-crows-could-be-the-smartest-animal-other-than-primates. BBC Future. September 3, 2022. 

Well I hope you enjoyed that very long read. If you did enjoy it make sure to follow me on Pinterest and subscribe to my newsletter. Come back next week for more words from Willow! 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I DID AN INTERNSHIP AT FRED HUTCH!!!!!!!!

 Ok, I have a word limit for this so I'll just give you guys a bit of background info on what this is then I'll get into the post because this post is actually an assignment for the internship.  1.  This  is Fred Hutch  2.  This  is the internship I did  So I  have a few favorite things from this internship, ranging from the scenery to the labs. (Mostly the labs) But the thing I loved the most, were the tours. Seeing the labs and meeting people who work there and what they do is fantastic.  This is from the first tour, a picture of the view from the sky bridge. Yes, a skybridge!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of labs when we did tours, but I did get pictures from the labs that we did.  This is from a PCR lab. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction. It essentially makes a bunch of copies for a specific gene. Copies are made by putting DNA into a thermocycler. Changes in temperature can change the bonds of the DNA, for example, heat breaks the hydrogen bonds, col
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello there! I'm Willow V., the author of A Word From Willow, and this is my first post!  Before you continue reading, please read my  Privacy Policy  and my  Disclosure Policy  .  Who is Willow V.?  Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. I'm still in school and trying to figure that out, but I can tell you that I'm interested in a LOT of things. Forensic psychology, music, history, crocheting, and classic literature, to name a few. I also enjoy researching things and writing about my finds, that's probably one of the reasons I do so well in science and English classes. I play the violin, sew, crochet, and write, and I used to do ballet for a considerable part of my life.  What is A Word From Willow about?  A Word From Willow is a blog I will use to express my interests and improve my writing skills. There will be a variety of topics including food, crocheting, frogs, books, and shopping.  Who is A Word From Willow for?  My target audiences are teenagers, crafters, and an
Post a Comment
Read more

New Years Resolution Inspo

Hello! Happy New Year (if you celebrate)!  Today I'll be sharing some New Years' resolution ideas. Maybe you're out of ideas, think you're doing alright (good for you!), or perhaps you're like me and did not think about resolutions at all and now people are asking you about them and you need to come up with something.  1. Doing more of what you love!  This one's pretty obvious, but I think that you can never spend too much time doing the things you love. Everyone needs things that make them happy, whether it's baking, writing, or dancing.  2. Moving more often  When I say "moving" I mean exercising, but not to change how you look. You should work out for health, better joints, and to be strong in my opinion.  3. Reading more  This has been one of my eternal goals since I knew what goals were. But it's even more important now since we live in such a tech-savvy world. We need to disconnect from the wires, and what better way to do that than to st
Post a Comment
Read more

Cookies Consent

This website uses cookies to offer you a better Browsing Experience. By using our website, You agree to the use of Cookies

Learn More