Resources for Writing Essays

I have essay writing posts sprinkled haphazardly throughout the blog, so I thought I'd compile a few resources here.

I have a 7th grade student right now working on his first five paragraph essay; it is about Homer's Odyssey. We used The Odyssey for Boys and Girls, the version retold by Alfred J. Church in 1906 (link is to a free PDF).

Our essay prompt is a traditional one, and I got it at TpT. He chose option #3 from The Odyssey Essay Assignment (FREE).

This is what we have done so far...

Step 1: read the text

Step 2: choose your essay prompt

Step 3: write your thesis statement

Step 4: revisit the text and make notecards
we color-coded the notecards and used five colors, one for each paragraph

Step 5: learn about outlines
Outlines: A Blueprint for Success

Roman Numerals
I.
Uppercase Letters
A.
Arabic Numerals
1.
Lowercase Letters
a.
Small Roman Numerals
i.

Step 6: practice using outlines
again, I turned to TpT for some traditional Study Skills resources

Outlines #1 - $1.98
writing an outline from a paragraph
Captain Jack Sparrow

Outlines #2 - $1.98
writing a paragraph from an outline
ice ages

Outlines #3 - $1.98
writing an outline from a paragraph
taste buds

writing a paragraph from an outline
body senses as warning devices

Outlines #4 - $1.98
writing an outline from a paragraph
REM sleep

writing an outline from a paragraph
*not* scaffolded
"Select a paragraph from any classroom textbook. Use outlining to take notes on the information."

Step 7: organize your notecards and convert them into an outline

Step 8: learn about in-text citations
learning how to cite direct quotations is the 7th grade skill in my blog post Breaking Down the Skills Needed to Write a Research Paper

Writing in the Content Areas
by Amy Benjamin

Step 9: learn about "Throwaway Writing"
I have a blog post full of hilarious examples provided by my students

Reviving The Essay: How To Teach Structure Without Formula
by Gretchen Bernabei

Step 10: convert your outline into a rough draft

Step 11: choose quotes from the text to add to your rough draft

Step 12: look at mentor texts to find examples of concluding paragraphs

Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays: Your Favorite Authors Take A Stab at the Dreaded Essay Assignment
edited by Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe

this is a FANTASTIC resource!
here's my blog post with the entire list of essay prompts & essays

knowing to take away "Throwaway Writing" is not the same as knowing what to replace it with!

for example, this child's first try at a concluding paragraph was

"So in conclusion: Just read my essay again if you don't understand my point."

Step 13: look at example of a research paper with footnotes & bibliography, compare a bibliography to a works cited page, note formatting of the paper

How to Format an MLA Style Document (PDF)

Step 14: type rough draft of essay in MLA style

Step 15: explain what a rubric is, choose a rubric that suits the assignment

I like this blog post Middle School Writing Rubrics by Dr. Catlin Tucker because she includes three different rubrics (they are free)

- Middle School Argumentative Writing Rubric

- Middle School Informative Writing Rubric

- Middle School Narrative Writing Rubric

for a more general essay rubric, try this one: Essay Rubric (PDF)

Step 16: print essay rough draft, revise essay using rubric for guidance

Step 17: create works cited page
how to do a "hanging indent" in Pages
Purdue OWL

Step 18: print essay first revision, give to someone for feedback

Step 19: print essay second revision, edit essay carefully

Step 20: print final essay, use the chosen rubric to score your essay

We hand-wrote the index cards, the outline, and the rough draft. We then typed the rough draft, the two revised drafts, and the final essay.

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