English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer

BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

Essay Writing
An essay is generally a short piece of writing outlining the writer’s perspective or story. It is
often considered synonymous with a story or a paper or an article. Essays can be formal as well
as informal. Formal essays are generally academic in nature and tackle serious topics.
1. Types of Essays
The type of essay will depend on what the writer wants to convey to his reader. There are
broadly four types of essays:
a. Narrative Essays: This is when the writer is narrating an incident or story through the essay.
So these are in the first person. The aim when writing narrative essays is to involve the reader
in them as if they were right there when it was happening. So make them as vivid and real as
possible. One way to make this possible is to follow the principle of ‘show, don’t tell’. So you
must involve the reader in the story.
b. Descriptive Essays: Here the writer will describe a place, an object, an event or maybe even
a memory. But it is not just plainly describing things. The writer must paint a picture through
his words. One clever way to do that is to evoke the senses of the reader. Do not only rely on
sight but also involve the other senses of smell, touch, sound etc. A descriptive essay when
done well will make the reader feel the emotions the writer was feeling at the moment.
c. Expository Essays: In such an essay a writer presents a balanced study of a topic. To write
such an essay, the writer must have real and extensive knowledge about the subject. There is
no scope for the writer’s feelings or emotions in an expository essay. It is completely based on
facts, statistics, examples etc. There are sub-types here like contrast essays, cause and effect
essays etc.
d. Persuasive Essays: Here the purpose of the essay is to get the reader to your side of the
argument. A persuasive essay is not just a presentation of facts but an attempt to convince the
reader of the writer’s point of view. Both sides of the argument have to presented in these
essays. But the ultimate aim is to persuade the readers that the writer’s argument carries more
weight.
2. Format of an Essay
Now there is no rigid format of an essay. It is a creative process so it should not be confined
within boundaries. However, there is a basic structure that is generally followed while writing
essays. So let us take a look at the general structure of an essay.
a. Introduction
This is the first paragraph of your essay. This is where the writer introduces his topic for the
very first time. You can give a very brief synopsis of your essay in the introductory paragraph.
Some paragraph writing skills can be a help here. Generally, it is not very long, about 4-6 lines.

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

There is plenty of scopes to get creative in the introduction of essays. This will ensure that you
hook the reader, i.e. draw and keep his attention. So to do so you can start with a quote or a
proverb. Sometimes you can even start with a definition. Another interesting strategy to engage
with your reader is to start with a question.
b. Body
This is the main crux of your essays. The body is the meat of your essay sandwiched between
the introduction and the conclusion. So the most vital and important content of the essay will
be here. This need not be confined to one paragraph. It can extend to two or more paragraphs
according to the content.
Usually, we have a lot of information to provide in the body. And the mistakes writers generally
make is to go about it in a haphazard manner which leaves the reader confused. So it is
important to organize your thoughts and content. Write the information in a systematic flow so
that the reader can comprehend. So, for example, you were narrating an incident. The best
manner to do this would be to go in a chronological order.
c. Conclusion
This is the last paragraph of the essay. Sometimes a conclusion will just mirror the introductory
paragraph but make sure the words and syntax are different. A conclusion is also a great place
to sum up a story or an argument. You can round up your essay by providing some moral or
wrapping up a story. Make sure you complete your essays with the conclusion, leave no
hanging threads.
3. Parts of an Essay in Detail
i. Introductory Paragraph of an Essay
Students are told from the first time they receive instruction in English composition that their
introductory paragraphs should accomplish two tasks:
a) They should get the reader's interest so that he or she will want to read more (a hook
or a grabber).
b) They should let the reader know what the writing is going to be about (Thesis
statement).
The second task can be accomplished by a carefully crafted thesis statement. Writing thesis
statements can be learned rather quickly. The first task — securing the reader's interest —
is more difficult. It is this task that this discussion addresses.
First, admit that it is impossible to say or do or write anything that will interest everybody.
With that out of the way, the question then becomes: "What can a writer do that will secure the
interest of a fair sized audience?"
Professional writers who write for magazines and receive pay for their work use five basic
patterns to grab a reader's interest:
1. historical review
2. anecdotal
3. surprising statement

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

4. famous person
5. declarative
What follows is an explanation of each of these patterns with examples from real magazine
articles to illustrate the explanations.
a. Historical review: Some topics are better understood if a brief historical review of the topic
is presented to lead into the discussion of the moment. Such topics might include "a
biographical sketch of a war hero," "an upcoming execution of a convicted criminal," or "drugs
and the younger generation." Obviously there are many, many more topics that could be
introduced by reviewing the history of the topic before the writer gets down to the nitty gritty
of his paper. It is important that the historical review be brief so that it does not take over the
paper.
Example: (from "Integration Turns 40" by Juan Williams in Modern Maturity, April/May,
1994.)
The victory brought pure elation and joy. It was May 1954, just days after the Supreme
Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. At NAACP
headquarters in New York the mood was euphoric. Telegrams of congratulations poured
in from around the world; reporters and well-wishers crowded the halls.

b. Anecdotal: An anecdote is a little story. Everyone loves to listen to stories. Begin a paper
by relating a small story that leads into the topic of your paper. Your story should be a small
episode, not a full blown story with characters and plot and setting If you do it right, your story
will capture the reader's interest so that he or she will continue to read your paper. One caution:
be sure that your story does not take over the paper. Remember, it is an introduction, not the
paper.
Example: (from "Going, Going, GONE to the Auction!" by Laurie Goering in Chicago
Tribune Magazine, July 4, 1994. This is an anecdote, a little story about one man and his first
auction, that is the lead to an article about auctions.)
Mike Cantlon remembers coming across his first auction ten years ago while cruising
the back roads of Wisconsin. He parked his car and wandered into the crowd, toward
the auctioneer's singsong chant and wafting smell of barbecued sandwiches. Hours
later, Cantlon emerged lugging a $22 beam drill-for constructing post-and-beam
barns—and a passion for auctions that has clung like a cocklebur on an old saddle
blanket. "It's an addiction," says Cantlon, a financial planner and one of the growing
number of auction fanatics for whom Saturdays will never be the same.
c. Surprising statement: A surprising statement is a favorite introductory technique of
professional writers. There are many ways a statement can surprise a reader. Sometimes the
statement is surprising because it is disgusting. Sometimes it is joyful. Sometimes it is
shocking. Sometimes it is surprising because of who said it. Sometimes it is surprising because
it includes profanity. Professional writers have honed this technique to a fine edge. It is not
used as much as the first two patterns, but it is used.
Example: (from "60 Seconds That Could Save Your Child" by Cathy Perlmutter with Maureen
Sangiorgio in Prevention, September, 1993.)

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

Have a minute? Good. Because that may be all it takes to save the life of a child—your
child. Accidents kill nearly 8000 children under age 15 each year. And for every fatality,
42 more children are admitted to hospitals for treatment. Yet such deaths and injuries
can be avoided through these easy steps parents can take right now. You don't have a
minute to lose.
d. Famous person: People like to know what celebrities say and do. Dropping the name of a
famous person at the beginning of a paper usually gets the reader's attention. It may be
something that person said or something he or she did that can be presented as an interest
grabber. You may just mention the famous person's name to get the reader's interest. The
famous person may be dead or alive. Of course, bringing up this person's name must be relevant
to the topic. Even though the statement or action may not be readily relevant, a clever writer
can convince the reader that it is relevant.
Example: (from "Dear Taxpayer" by Will Manley in Booklist, May 1, 1993.)
The most widely read writer in America today is not Stephen King, Michael Chrichton
or John Grisham. It's Margaret Milner Richardson, the Commissioner of the Internal
Revenue Service, whose name appears on the "1040 Forms and Instructions" booklet. I
doubt that Margaret wrote the entire 1040 pamphlet, but the annual introductory letter,
"A Note from the Commissioner," bears her signature.
e. Declarative: This technique is quite commonly used, but it must be carefully used or the
writer defeats his whole purpose of using one of these patterns, to get the reader's interest. In
this pattern, the writer simply states straight out what the topic of his paper is going to be about.
It is the technique that most student writers use with only modest success most of the time, but
good professional writers use it too.
Example: (from "The Tuition Tap" by Tim Lindemuth in K-Stater, February, 1994.)
In the College of Veterinary Medicine and Engineering, for example, nearly one-third of
the teaching faculty may retire by the year 2004. In the College of Education, more than
a third of the professors are 55 years old and older. The largest turnover for a single
department is projected to be in geology. More than half of its faculty this year are in
the age group that will retire at the millennium, says Ron Downey of K-State's Office of
Institutional Research and Analysis. The graying of K-State's faculty is not unique. A
Regents' report shows approximately 27 percent of the faculty at the six state
universities will retire by the end of this decade, creating a shortage of senior faculty.

These patterns can give a "lift" to your writing. Practice them. Try using two or three different
patterns for your introductory paragraph and see which introductory paragraph is best; it's often
a delicate matter of tone and of knowing who your audience is. Do not forget, though, that your
introductory paragraph should also include a thesis statement to let your reader know what
your topic is and what you are going to say about that topic.

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

The thesis statement is a clear, one-sentence explanation of your position that leaves no doubt
in the readers’ mind about which side you are on from the beginning of your essay.
The thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your essay
and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. Although it is certainly possible to
write a good essay without a thesis statement (many narrative essays, for example, contain
only an implied thesis statement), the lack of a thesis statement may well be a symptom of an
essay beset by a lack of focus. Many writers think of a thesis statement as an umbrella:
everything that you carry along in your essay has to fit under this umbrella, and if you try to
take on packages that don't fit, you will either have to get a bigger umbrella or something's
going to get wet.
The thesis statement is also a good test for the scope of your intent. The principle to remember
is that when you try to do too much, you end up doing less or nothing at all.
The thesis statement should remain flexible until the paper is actually finished. It ought to be
one of the last things that we fuss with in the rewriting process. If we discover new information
in the process of writing our paper that ought to be included in the thesis statement, then we'll
have to rewrite our thesis statement. On the other hand, if we discover that our paper has done
adequate work but the thesis statement appears to include things that we haven't actually
addressed, then we need to limit that thesis statement. If the thesis statement is something that
we needed prior approval for, changing it might require the permission of the instructor or
thesis committee, but it is better to seek such permission than to write a paper that tries to do
too much or that claims to do less than it actually accomplishes.
The thesis statement usually appears near the beginning of a paper/essay. It can be the
first sentence of an essay, but that often feels like a simplistic, unexciting beginning. It more
frequently appears at or near the end of the first paragraph or two. Here is the first paragraph
of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s essay The Crisis of American Masculinity. Notice how everything
drives the reader toward the last sentence and how that last sentence clearly signals what the
rest of this essay is going to do.

What has happened to the American male? For a long time, he seemed
utterly confident in his manhood, sure of his masculine role in society, easy
and definite in his sense of sexual identity. The frontiersmen of James
Fenimore Cooper, for example, never had any concern about masculinity;
they were men, and it did not occur to them to think twice about it. Even
well into the twentieth century, the heroes of Dreiser, of Fitzgerald, of
Hemingway remain men. But one begins to detect a new theme emerging in
some of these authors, especially in Hemingway: the theme of the male hero
increasingly preoccupied with proving his virility to himself. And by mid-
century, the male role had plainly lost its rugged clarity of outline. Today
men are more and more conscious of maleness not as a fact but as a problem.
The ways by which American men affirm their masculinity are uncertain
and obscure. There are multiplying signs, indeed, that something has
gone badly wrong with the American male's conception of himself.

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

The first paragraph serves as kind of a funnel opening to the essay which draws and invites
readers into the discussion, which is then focused by the thesis statement before the work of
the essay actually begins.
ii. Body — First paragraph:
The first paragraph of the body should contain the strongest argument, most significant
example, cleverest illustration, or an obvious beginning point. The first sentence of this
paragraph should include the "reverse hook" which ties in with the transitional hook at the end
of the introductory paragraph. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or second
sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. The last
sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the second paragraph
of the body.
Body — Second paragraph:
The second paragraph of the body should contain the second strongest argument, second most
significant example, second cleverest illustration, or an obvious follow up the first paragraph
in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in
with the transitional hook at the end of the first paragraph of the body. The topic for this
paragraph should be in the first or second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis
statement in the introductory paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a
transitional hook to tie into the third paragraph of the body.
Body — Third paragraph:
The third paragraph of the body should contain the weakest argument, weakest example,
weakest illustration, or an obvious follow up to the second paragraph in the body. The first
sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional
hook at the end of the second paragraph. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or
second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph.
The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional concluding hook that signals
the reader that this is the final major point being made in this paper. This hook also leads into
the last, or concluding, paragraph.
iii. Concluding paragraph:
This paragraph should include the following:
1. an allusion to the pattern used in the introductory paragraph,
2. a restatement of the thesis statement, using some of the original language or language
that "echoes" the original language. (The restatement, however, must not be a duplicate
thesis statement.)
3. a summary of the three main points from the body of the paper.
4. a final statement that gives the reader signals that the discussion has come to an end.
(This final statement may be a "call to action" in an persuasive paper.)

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

A Sample Essay/ Research Paper

The introductory paragraph includes a

paraphrase of something said by a famous
person in order to get the reader's attention. The
second sentence leads up to the thesis statement
which is the third sentence. The thesis statement
(sentence 3) presents topic of the paper to the
reader and provides a mini- outline. The topic is
1 Poe's use of visual imagery. The mini- outline
Stephen King, creator of such stories
as Carrie and Pet Sematary, stated that the tells the reader that this paper will present Poe's
Edgar Allan Poe stories he read as a child gave use of imagery in three places in his writing: (1)
him the inspiration and instruction he needed to description of static setting; (2) description of
become the writer that he is. 2Poe, as does dynamic setting; and (3) description of a person.
Stephen King, fills the reader's imagination The last sentence of the paragraph uses the
with the images that he wishes the reader to see, words "manipulation" and "senses" as
hear, and feel. 3His use of vivid, concrete visual transitional hooks.
imagery to present both static and dynamic
settings and to describe people is part of his
technique. 4Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale
Heart" is a story about a young man who kills
an old man who cares for him, dismembers the
corpse, then goes mad when he thinks he hears
the old man's heart beating beneath the floor
boards under his feet as he sits and discusses the
old man's absence with the police. 5In "The
Tell-Tale Heart," a careful reader can observe
Poe's skillful manipulation of the senses.

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

1
The sense of sight, the primary sense, is In the first sentence of the second
particularly susceptible to manipulation. 2In paragraph (first paragraph of the body) the
"The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe uses the following words "sense" and "manipulation" are used to
image to describe a static scene: "His room was hook into the end of the introductory paragraph.
as black as pitch with the thick darkness . . ." The first part of the second sentence provides
Poe used the words "black," "pitch," and "thick the topic for this paragraph--imagery in a static
darkness" not only to show the reader the scene. Then a quotation from "The Tell-Tale
condition of the old man's room, but also to Heart" is presented and briefly discussed. The
make the reader feel the darkness." 3"Thick" is last sentence of this paragraph uses the
a word that is not usually associated with color expressions "sense of feeling" and "sense of
(darkness), yet in using it, Poe stimulates the sight" as hooks for leading into the third
reader's sense of feeling as well as his sense of paragraph.
sight.

1
Further on in the story, Poe uses a couple of The first sentence of the third
words that cross not only the sense of sight but paragraph (second paragraph of the
also the sense of feeling to describe a dynamic body) uses the words "sense of sight" and
scene. 2The youth in the story has been standing "sense of feeling" to hook back into the previous
in the open doorway of the old man's room for paragraph. Note that in the second paragraph
a long time, waiting for just the right moment to "feeling" came first, and in this paragraph
reveal himself to the old man in order to frighten "sight" comes first. The first sentence also
him. 3Poe writes: "So I opened it [the lantern includes the topic for this paragraph--imagery in
opening]--you cannot imagine how stealthily, a dynamic scene. Again, a quotation is taken
stealthily--until, at length, a single dim ray, like from the story, and it is briefly discussed. The
the thread of the spider, shot from out the last sentence uses the words "one blind eye"
crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye." 4By which was in the quotation. This expression
using the metaphor of the thread of the spider provides the transitional hook for the last
(which we all know is a creepy creature) and the paragraph in the body of the paper.
word "shot," Poe almost makes the reader gasp,
as surely did the old man whose one blind eye
the young man describes as "the vulture eye."

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English II – Communication Skills – I Shagufta Aamer
BS Zoology 2nd Semester @GGDC Mandian

1
The reader does not know much about what the In the first sentence of the fourth
old man in this story looks like except that he paragraph (third paragraph in the body), "one
has one blind eye. 2In the second paragraph of blind eye" is used that hooks into the previous
"The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe establishes the paragraph. This first sentence also lets the
young man's obsession with that blind eye when reader know that this paragraph will deal with
he writes: "He had the eye of the vulture--a pale descriptions of people: ". . . what the old man
blue eye, with a film over it." 3This "vulture looks like . . .." Once again Poe is quoted and
eye" is evoked over and over again in the story discussed. The last sentence uses the word
until the reader becomes as obsessed with it as "image" which hooks into the last paragraph. (It
does the young man. 4His use of the vivid, is less important that this paragraph has a hook
concrete word "vulture" establishes a specific since the last paragraph is going to include a
image in the mind of the reader that is summary of the body of the paper.)
inescapable.

1
"Thick darkness," "thread of the spider," and The first sentence of the concluding
"vulture eye" are three images that Poe used in paragraph uses the principal words from the
"The Tell-Tale Heart" to stimulate a reader's quotations from each paragraph of the body of
senses. 2Poe wanted the reader to see and feel the paper. This summarizes those three
real life. 3He used concrete imagery rather than paragraph. The second and third sentences
vague abstract words to describe settings and provide observations which can also be
people. 4If Edgar Allan Poe was one of Stephen considered a summary, not only of the content
King's teachers, then readers of King owe a debt of the paper, but also offers personal opinion
of gratitude to that nineteenth-century creator of which was logically drawn as the result of this
horror stories. study. The last sentence returns to the Edgar
Allan Poe-Stephen King relationship which
began this paper. This sentence also provides a
"wrap-up" and gives the paper a sense of
finality.