Student Question
Which statement about writing academic essays is false?
- The content should be general and focus on summary
- Topic sentences should support the thesis statement
- The essay should demonstrate sentence variety
- The essay should contain academic, universally understood language
Quick answer:
The false statement about writing academic essays is that the content should be general and focus on summary. Essays are specific, have a clear purpose, and do not merely summarize works. They aim to inform, persuade, explain, or entertain. Essays follow a structured format, beginning with an introduction that includes a thesis statement, followed by body paragraphs with topic sentences supporting the thesis, and conclude with a summary of main points and a clincher sentence.
A is, indeed, the correct answer.
Because an essay is a rather short work, it will not be general. It also does not summarize works; instead, it has a specific purpose. Here are main purposes of an essay:
- to inform about various topics
- to persuade readers to certain viewpoints or actions
- to explain a process or situation
- to entertain readers
Essays also conform to a specific, not general, structure. They do not summarize.
- Essays have an introductory paragraph that contains a motivator or hook
relevant to the main purpose of the essay.
This introduction contains a thesis statement. This is the main idea of the essay, and this thesis statement is a single idea, and is a precise opinion. This thesis statement contains a "blueprint" of the rest of the essay. The blueprint is the pattern that the essay will follow. Blueprints can answer "Why?" "How?"and "When?"
- Topic sentences are formed from the blueprint of the essay. These begin the main body paragraphs of the essay.
- A conclusion restates the main points introduced in the
blueprint and developed in the body. It also has a "clincher" sentence that
invites thought about the content of the essay as it concludes ideas.
Therefore, a conclusion reminds the reader of the main point (thesis) of the essay, and it provides the reader a sense of finality.
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