Essay structure and topic sentences

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

Aim

You know how an essay is divided into paragraphs

You know what a topic sentence is

You can recognise the topic sentence in a paragraph

You can write your own topic sentences

Essay structure

Title: Catchy and inviting. Not your statement

Introduction: Introduces the idea of your essay and includes your thesis statement.

Body paragraph: one paragraph each for every argument you use. We will be writing 3 body paragraphs but you could have any number depending on the number of arguments

Conclusion: Sums up the information and comes to a conclusion about the thesis statement.

Topic sentence

In Dutch: kernzin

Contains the most important information of the paragraph.

Is usually the first or second sentence of the paragraph

What is the first word of the topic sentence of the first body paragraph (so not the intro)?

1. Education
2. Most
3. One
4. They

Which of these is the most correct topic sentence to fill the gap for A?

1. Creativity is important.
2. Einstein makes a good point here about knowledge.
3. All the knowledge in the world is useless unless you are able to use information in creative ways

Which of these is the most correct topic sentence to fill the gap for B?

1. Last but not least, skills.
2. In the modern world skills are more important than knowledge.
3. Back in the day education used to focus too much on knowledge.

Finish the words about essay structure.. Write them out seperated only by a space, leave out the numbers and periods.
1. T.... 2. I........... 3. B... p........s 4. C.........

arguments

statement

summary of arguments

topic sentences

info about the topic of your essay

introduction

body paragraphs

conclusion

Your thesis statement is "Schools should stay open during the rest of the pandemic." Think of a good first argument and write a topic sentence for that first body paragraph that starts with "First of all, ..."

Aim

You know how an essay is divided into paragraphs

You know what a topic sentence is

You can recognise the topic sentence in a paragraph

You can write your own topic sentences

Do you understand topic sentences?

YES

NO

Do you understand general essay structure?

YES

NO

How do you feel currently about your own ability to write an essay?

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