Mini-lessons
#1: Thesis Statements with a "Road Map"
The thesis "roadmap," (also called "blueprint" or "plan of development (POD)") This is the second half of the thesis statement that outlines the specific supporting topics you plan on including in your essay. The road map lists supporting topics in the same order you plan on including them in your essay, and helps the reader understand where your argument is going.
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Simple thesis:
- Skateboarding should be limited to special parks.
- Skateboarding should be limited to special parks because it poses a nuisance to pedestrians, leads to serious injuries, and causes thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to public and private property.
In this example, the author lists the three topics of his body paragraphs as the thesis "roadmap."
#2: "Hooks" Review
Even informational essays need to have a catchy hook that makes readers interested in the topic. However, not every type of hook works for an informational essay; you can't use something funny or start with something mysterious or misleading like you might with a narrative essay. Here are some ideas for a persuasive essay hook:
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#3: Citations Review
Your persuasive essay involves research, so you must use MLA format citations. This means you need:
Use the Purdue OWL citations guide to find out how to write full-length citations for books, videos, and websites. Remember, if the source does not give you one or more pieces of required information, you should skip over them in your citation. See the following example:
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