This outline is a guide for the overall structure and organization of Essay 1. The top formatting below is the required format. Vital information about Essay 1, including the goal, can be found on the Essay 1 page.
Note: This outline will lead to essays that are usually 5-10 paragraphs.
Name
Title
Introduction paragraph (paragraph 1)
• Opening sentences that grab reader's attention in a personal voice using ideas specific to your essay.
• Thesis statement: 3-5 sentences that address the assignment goal
Note: The thesis statement is made up of individual claims, or arguments. These claims combine to form your entire thesis statement. These claims should match the claims in the topic sentences of your supporting body paragraphs.
Goal: To create an argumentative, thesis-driven essay that uses textual evidence from Up From Slavery to create an argument about what you believe to be the most significant of Washington's experiences, and to explain what those experiences help us understand about our present moment today, and/or your life, and/or how those experiences don't apply now to our present moment today, and/or your life.
Thesis template (or example claims): I believe the most significant experiences of Booker T. Washington in Up From Slavery are________________. [claim 1] These experiences are important to us today because________. [claim 2] They're also important because they relate to my experiences in my life, such as _____________. [claim 3]
Up From Slavery Summary (paragraph(s) 2 or 3)
This paragraph, or these two paragraphs, should be between 1 and 1.5 pages long.
Using your notes on Up From Slavery, summarize the entire text for a reader who hasn't read it. You will need to identify and describe the following elements, which are keys to understanding most narratives in literature, in 2-4 sentences each for the entire text:
• The title and author of the text (if you haven't conveyed it yet), the year of publication (if it hasn't been conveyed);
• The chapters and their main points;
• The key events of the text, and key ideas; what you believe to be the author's intention for the moral of the book (i.e., what lesson or lessons were they trying to convey?).
• Any problems you note overall with the text, or the ideas within it, and a brief explanation of your criticism.
You will write 1-2 supporting body paragraphs for the summary. If you find yourself going beyond 1.5 pages, stop, and revise. The summary shouldn't take over the essay.
The summary should convey the most important information of the text to an audience that hasn't read it, while accounting for all the most important characters and actions. It's a balance trying to convey the most important information while also giving readers a good idea of the text as a whole.
It's possible that some of the material you'd put into the summary paragraph can be placed in the introduction paragraph. The intro paragraph, before or after the thesis, could be a reasonable place for such information, as well as the basic information about Washington -- including information on when the text was published, etc.
If you find yourself needing the 1.5 pages, please consider breaking up the paragraph into two paragraphs where appropriate.
Supporting Body Paragraph(s) for Claim 1
Topic sentence claim echoes or repeats thesis claim
Follow the College Argumentative Sequence.
Supporting Body Paragraph(s) Claim 2 (see thesis template above)
Topic sentence claim echoes or repeats thesis claim
Follow the College Argumentative Sequence.
Supporting Paragraph(s) for Claim 3 (see thesis template above)
Topic sentence claim echoes or repeats thesis claim
Follow the College Argumentative Sequence.
Note: Sometimes students break up the sequence of paragraphs around Step 4 or after Step 7. You might end up with two paragraphs per sequence, depending on how much you're writing.
Conclusion paragraph(s)
See assignment direction on Essay 1 assignment page.
Continue to follow Steps 1-8 of the College Argumentative Sequence.
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