Research EssayPrécis Assignment

Mrs. Simpson

English 2

Argumentative Essay

• You have researched your topic

• You have a strong point of view (your opinion)

• You have reasons for your point of view

• You have evidence to back up each of those reasons

• You have thought about what all of this means for your topic (analysis!) in the grand scheme of things

Sections of Your Essay

• Introductory paragraph

• Body paragraph (précis paragraph 1)

• Body paragraph (précis paragraph 2)

• Conclusion paragraph

* We are focusing today on the body paragraphs. The intro. and conclusion will come later.

What do you need in your précis paragraph?

• Topic sentence

• Evidence set-up

• Evidence Do this twice.

• Analysis

• Conclusion/transition

Topic Sentence: Introduce your claim/position including the reason you are discussing.

• You are telling your reader what your paragraph is about in this sentence, so make sure it refers back to your thesis statement and the argument as a whole.

• Must include a strong reason that elaborates on your position.

Evidence set up: must include background information, tell reader the perspective

with which s/he should the view the evidence , and proper punctuation.

• Background information should help reader understand the context of the evidence, who said it, and/or what it was related to/in reference to.

• Perspective: How do want the reader to interpret the evidence. What should s/he think?

Evidence set up continued:

• The set-up and evidence will end up being one sentence even though it is separated in the outline

• You only have two choices for proper punctuation (:/,)

• You should use the language from your claim in setup and always stick to your reason

Evidence: must include proper use of quotation marks and proper citation.

• Be sure you use double quotation marks “x” if you are including a direct quote (word for word from your source) There is no punctuation before or after closing quotation marks, except ? Or !

• Parenthetical citation is needed even if you paraphrase the evidence from your source.

• Period comes AFTER parenthesis – ex: (247).

Analysis: Argue your claim/point. What does your evidence mean? HOW does the evidence back up

your point?

• Show the significance of the evidence to your position

•Make sure you talk specifically about your evidence. If it’s not in your evidence, don’t talk about it in you analysis!

•Use strong diction. No 1st or 2nd person!

Analysis continued: Your analysis is several sentences!

• You can acknowledge the counterargument here and overcome it with your argument’s logic!

Transition Sentence: moving on to the next piece of evidence

• You may need this sentence if there is a big difference between your 1st and 2nd piece of evidence.

• If they are closely related, this may not be needed.

SECONDEvidence Set-up, Evidence, Analysis

• Same as above; different piece of textual evidence

Concluding Sentences: Conclude your paragraph by summarizing

your points.• BRIEFLY recap the points you made.

• Is there a call to action or thought you want to leave the reader with?

• Is this the 1st body paragraph/ then, you need to include a transition to the next topic.