English Composition 1
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Transcribed Audio File: The Diagnostic Essay Assignment
This page presents a transcription of The Diagnostic Essay audio file (Real Player | Windows Media Player).
Hello everyone!
I would like to give you some information that should help you as you are working on the Diagnostic Essay assignment.
I’m going to keep this somewhat brief, mainly because most of the information here is the same information we are going to be discussing throughout the entire semester. I’ll try to focus on the main things you might think about as you are writing and revising your essay.
First, one thing to remember is that this essay is not going to be graded. I will collect the essays and evaluate them in the same way that I will evaluate your graded essays, but I will not assign a grade to the Diagnostic Essay. I will write many comments on your essay in the hope that my comments will help you as your write your graded papers. The Diagnostic Essay is a way for you to get feedback on your writing at the beginning of the semester without having to worry about grades. Do your best on the essay, though. If you take this assignment seriously, you should have a good idea of ways to strengthen your writing before you even begin working on your first graded paper.
Also, while the Diagnostic Essay is similar to the other essays that you will be writing in this course, you will have more time to work on the graded essays. For each graded essay, we will have a WebBoard discussion of the subject of the essay, and you will then have a week or so to submit a draft of your essay for peer critique. You will receive constructive comments from other students to help you strengthen your essay, and then you will have a few more days before you submit the version of your essay that will be graded.
One important thing to remember as you are working on the Diagnostic Essay is that you are writing an interpretation, not a summary. This is not a kind of book report telling readers what happens in the essay you have read. In fact, you should assume that your readers have already read the essay that is the subject of your paper. Your job is to help readers understand the meaning of the essay by offering an analysis and interpretation of it. You will need to present some facts from the essay to support your interpretation, but explain the significance and meaning of all facts that you present.
I think an excellent approach to writing any short persuasive or analytical essay is to come up with three or four claims (or interpretations) that you would like to prove about your subject. You can then make each body paragraph the focus of one of these claims, and you can formulate your thesis statement by combining all of the different claims into one sentence.
Now, I would like to say just a few words about each of the things I will be looking at when I evaluate the Diagnostic Essay, as listed on the Diagnostic Essay assignment page. Please note that this information is important and will apply to all of the papers you write in the course.
First is "an introduction and conclusion." The Diagnostic Essay is a full essay, not just a series of paragraphs, so you need to include an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction and the conclusion should not be long.
You might begin the introduction with an appeal to your readers, a few sentences that make a connection between the specific topic of your paper and your readers’ lives. The introduction should end with a one-sentence thesis statement. A conclusion usually begins with a restatement of the thesis, followed by another statement of the connections between your specific topic and your readers’ lives or a statement of what readers might learn from your essay.
Second, your paper will need "a thesis statement." As I emphasize in a few places on the course web pages, a thesis statement should be a one-sentence statement that identifies all of the main points of your essay and that indicates how the points are logically related.
Be careful to avoid the pattern of presenting a general statement of your thesis at the beginning of the introduction followed by individual sentences identifying the main points of each body paragraph. I know of no other place except in high schools where this formula is recommended. It’s a good way to emphasize organization, but it may weaken the unity of your paper, is weak in terms of style, and will make your paper look like it was written for a high school class.
Third, we have "relevant topic sentences." You should start each body paragraph with a topic sentence that presents a clear interpretation, a claim that you will prove about the essay you are analyzing. Avoid beginning the paragraph with a fact. If you begin with a fact, you have nowhere to go, nothing to prove. Begin with a claim, with the interpretation you want to prove in the rest of the paragraph.
Of course, the claim that begins each body paragraph should be one of the major ideas of your paper as presented in the thesis statement.
Fourth, your essay will need "body paragraphs focused on one main idea each." When I evaluate essays, I look carefully at the sentence that begins each body paragraph. This sentence is supposed to tell me what the body paragraph is about, so do your best to stay focused on supporting and developing just one main claim in each body paragraph, as presented in the topic sentence for that paragraph.
Fifth is "a logical progression of ideas." In other words, one idea should logically lead to the next idea throughout your essay. Pay special attention to the way you end body paragraphs. Do you end each body paragraph with a sentence that takes readers smoothly and logically to the main idea of the next body paragraph?
Look carefully at the order of ideas within each body paragraph as well. Is there some logic behind the order? Would the paragraph be stronger if the material was presented in a different order?
Sixth, we have "ideas developed and supported with specific details." Try to use at least three specific details from your subject to support your interpretation in each body paragraph, and make sure to explain how each detail supports your claim in the topic sentence. You are trying to convince readers to agree with you, so you need to show readers how the facts of your subject logically support your interpretation.
Some of the web pages linked on the Web Handouts page should help you understand the roles of claims and facts in a paragraph and how to develop a paragraph well.
Seventh is "a clear presentation of your ideas." Read your essay aloud and listen for any parts that might benefit from more or different explanation. Often, problems with clarity are caused by the lack of a clear connection between the facts and the interpretation that the writer says that the facts support, so try to explain clearly how each fact supports your claim in the topic sentences.
And look for sentences that might be better worded. As you read your essay aloud, you will probably notice a few sentences that do not flow quite as well as the other sentences. This is a good indication of a place where some rewording is needed.
Eighth, we have "sentences free or almost free from errors" This will probably be tricky at the beginning of the course, but do your best to avoid errors. We have the "Identifying and Correcting Common Errors" web page that might help you here.
Ninth, and last, we have "at least 600 words." It’s important that you reach the minimum required length for all assignments. If you have trouble reaching this length, look carefully at the amount of supporting evidence you use in each body paragraph to prove your claims. I often make the comment on essays that more supporting evidence is needed in paragraphs.
If you feel that your ideas are well supported but you are still having trouble reaching the required minimum length, you might consider that your stated thesis may not give you enough to discuss in your paper. If this is the case, it would be best to change your thesis.
I would like to add a few more things that you should think about as you are working on the Diagnostic Essay.
Your essay needs to have a total of at least five paragraphs, including the introduction and the conclusion. Your essay might have more than five, but five paragraphs have come to be the expected minimum for a formal essay.
You will need to use some quotations to support and develop your interpretation. All quotations should be copied accurately, and all quotations should be integrated logically and grammatically into your own sentences. One of the resources listed on the "Web Handouts" page explains the proper ways to integrate quotations into your own sentences.
Your essay should be written in a formal writing voice. There is a link on the Diagnostic Essay assignment page that explains what is meant by a formal writing voice.
Make sure to look over the requirements for this essay in terms of the format. The essay should be double-spaced, and you need to ensure that you save your essay as a Rich Text Format file. Your essay should include a centered title that is not the same as the title of the work you are analyzing.
That’s all for now! But I think that’s enough for now. There is a lot of information to think about as you work on your essay. Again, though, remember that this essay will not be graded and is mainly a way for me to evaluate your writing skills at the beginning of the semester so that I can offer you some early feedback. You will have plenty of practice to help you strengthen your writing throughout the semester.
Good luck on this assignment, and please let me know how I can help as you are working on your essay!