The essay should effectively and insightfully develop its point of view through a clearly appropriate extended example drawing on the writers own experience or some classical ones. The essay exhibits outstanding critical thinking by presenting a well-organized and clearly focused narrative that aptly illustrates the authors idea. The essay should also use language skillfully, demonstrating meaningful variety in sentence structure Despite minor errors, the essay demonstrates clear and consistent mastery and is scored a 6. What kind of Essay Should You Write? Although the teachers reading your essay wont expect it to be perfect, they will expect a standard academic essay. In other words, they will expect an introductory paragraph that states a thesis, organized body paragraphs that support your thesis with reasons and examples, and a conclusion that sums up your argument. Many college composition instructors use the PIE formula to help students write coherent, organized paragraph. P State the point of your paragraph in a topic sentence. I illustrate your point with specific examples. E Explain your position-both what it means and how your examples help to support your point. Here is an example of a PIE paragraph: Many important scientists encountered failure after failure finally making the historic scientific discoveries for which they are famous. Thomas Edison, for instance, failed time and time again to find the right substance to serve as filament in his great invention, the light bulb. He tried over 1,500 materials before he found on that worked. But rather than give up,Edisonkept trying. Each failure taught him something new and helped him eventually figure out what kind if material would work.Edisons experience teaches us that no failure should be viewed as a final result. Instead, failure is simply part of the process that leads to success. |