ps写作教程lesson3.pdfVIP

Lesson Three: Essay Structures Now that you have seen the complex themes with which you must engage the reader and have begun thinking about the personal details you will use, its time to begin the daunting task of structuring your essay. Your first concern should be clarity. If your essay is haphazardly structured, the reader simply will not be able to follow your ideas, and your whole purpose will be lost. Your second concern is focus. An essay could be clear on the sentence or paragraph level, but still lack overall coherence. Perhaps you have written three paragraphs each clearly devoted to one topic, but you havent shown how each topic contributes to some larger point. The basic focus of every essay is why you should be admitted to the school, but a more specific theme can be helpful. You want your reader to take a clear point away as he or she puts your essay down. Your third concern is impact. Even a clear and coherent essay can fail to achieve the optimal structure that would maximize the essays overall impact. For example, the overarching theme of an essay might be your desire to help people. After outlining this clear focus in your first paragraph, you go on to write three clear paragraphs each independently offering evidence of your desire to help people. Whats lacking is a sense of progression: the reader sees not growth but repetition. To maximize impact, your structure must allow each point to build upon previous points, thereby improving not only your essays flow, but also the overall force of your argument. Its important to remember that these three areas overlap. You dont achieve the optimal structure by treating each one as an isolated step, but must keep each one in mind as you plan out your essay. The first subtopic, Overarching Themes, explains how to identify and incorporate the underlying principles or fundamental ideas that will give your essay focus. The second subtopic, Organization, details specific