Guide to Writing an Effective Essay
For this example we will be using an essay written responding to:
"Did life in the colonies to1750 reflect the values of freedom, justice, equality and republican government as were claimed by 1776? Consider social, economic, and political experiences of the colonists"
Introduction Paragraph:
This is the most important part of every essay. A strong introduction will set the reader'smood and attitude towards the essay in a positive direction while a weak opening paragraph can causelack of interest. First and foremost we need a hook or a sentence or two used to real the reader in.
“O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” (US National Anthem) is a phrase that mostAmericans are familiar with. According to America's founders, freedom, liberty, equality and republicangovernment were all words that reflected American values since the start of the colonies in Jamestown in1607.
Most peopleare in fact familiar with this phrase and can relate to the essay. After we create a hook (forour purposes) we will write a thesis. This is the main idea of the essay, stated in a single sentence,called the thesis statement. You must limit your entire essay to the topic you have introduced in yourthesis statement.
Your Thesis can be put anywhere within your essay but it is recommended to put it in yourintroduction for the sake of flow.
The colonies up to the year 1750 failed to demonstrate the values they proclaimed due to inequality forall people (especially blacks and women), limited freedom of religion, injustice to the innocent, and the colonies being under the control of England.
The thesis clearlystates my opinion on the matter and includes all of the arguments I present within myessay. This thesis literally took about 30 seconds to come up with. If you are writing a thesis for a take-home essay, it should include more advanced vocabulary. (Athesaurus is your best friend here!) After your thesis you should include a sentence or two as transitioninto your essay.Compared to parts of Europe the colonies were actually farther behind in reflecting these values thanmost other countries.
Body Paragraphs:
Note that thissection is entitled "Body Paragraphs meaning there should be more than one. Theseparagraphs convey your main ideas, points, or analysis on the topic/question you are writing about. Thisessay has four body paragraphs (one for each argument provided in the thesis). Each paragraph shouldinclude facts supporting your argument. These facts should be clear and concise and may be taken fromyour personal knowledge or from history. Due to the exam being an AP US History exam... You probablywant your facts to come from history. As long as you provide good historical insight and information inyour essays you should do well. Most teachers grading the exams will not take points off if you missed adate by a year or so. Here is my first body paragraph for reference:
Inequality was a major injustice of the colonies not only since their start but chiefly since 1619 when the first slave market arrived in Virginia. Slaves were by no means equal to any other group in society. They were the bottom of the food chain metaphorically. Slaves were under the complete authority of theirowner which in its own shows inequality but besides that they were made to pick the rice, tobacco, andsugar in many plantations. Women were also victims of inequality since even before the start of the colonies. Especially in religion women were regarded as inferior to men. Puritan and Quaker religion especially reflected that. Women were expected to stay home and raise the family while the men made the money. Neither women nor slaves could hold town offices or vote in the elections.
Rebuttal Paragraph(s):
This is the mostcommonly left out part of an essay and happens to be a very important part of them.Rebuttal Paragraphs are paragraphs that basically take what someone trying to disprove your essay wouldsay and disproving them. The form of this paragraph(s) is dependent on how strong your argument is. Arule of thumb is to make your rebuttal a separate paragraph after the body if you have a strong argumentbut if your argument as a whole is weak you should probably imbed your rebuttal within the bodyparagraphs of your essay. Here is an example of a short (due to limited time) rebuttal I came up with:
Many countries had already attained these values that the colonies were still trying to generate. Slavery had been altogether abolished or never started in many countries because of the heinousness ofit. Equality also fell victim to class which became to a great extent defined during the emergence of the colonies.
Conclusion:
The conclusionis the part of an essay with which people commonly have the most trouble. Within yourconclusion you should restate your strongest points and restate your opinion in different words. However, this is the only part of a good essay that is not necessarily required. During a timed essay like the APexam, teachers would rather you have the time to write the strongest essay possible with no conclusionthan you rush to finish your essay just so you can include one. However, the exception to this rule is take-home essays. In these you should always have a conclusion because you should have more time to writethe essay. I didn't write a conclusion for my essay but I’m sure most of you are familiar at least with whatone is. Two things never to include here are the words "In conclusion" and a happy ending sentence like"and that is why America is what it is today! "They are not needed and only show lack of experience inwriting essays.