Help! Writing an essay.....?

Question

I'm studying to get my GED and I'm having to practice writing an essay in order to get prepared for the writing part of the test. I have to write an essay on why or why not spectator sports are over emphasized in this country. I have several details but I have no idea how to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

What's the main point you want to make? Start there. Here's the classic structure of an essay:

Opening paragraph: Five sentences. Sentence one: State the main point of your essay (Spectator sports are over/underemphasized in this country for reasons that have to do with reason A, reason B, and reason C.) Sentence two: State the main premise of reason A. Sentence three: State the main premise of reason B. Sentence four: State the main premise (I'll bet you know what's coming...) of reason C. Sentence five: That's why I think spectator sports are over/underemphasized in this country.

Paragraph two: Also five sentences. Sentence 1: state the main premise of reason A. Sentence 2: A detail or example that supports reason A. Sentence 3 and 4: Additional details or examples. Sentence 5: A recap of reason A, this time tying in all the details or examples you brought up.

Paragraphs three and four: Just like paragraph two, but for reasons B and C. That is, you want to state your reason (this, BTW, is called the topic sentence), then give three details or examples that support it, then wrap it up. One of my English professors in college used to say that if you can't think of at least three supporting reasons or details for each topic sentence, it probably doesn't deserve its own paragraph; if you can think of more than six, it should probably be two paragraphs.

Paragraph five: Wrap the whole essay up with five more sentences; sentence one should be something like, "The emphasis on spectator sports in this country is over/underemphasized for the reasons shown here." Then summarize each of the reasons (in a slightly different way, of course), and your final sentence completes the entire thought.

This structure, by the way, will work for virtually any expository essay you have to write. For complex subjects, you will need more paragraphs, of course, but the basic premise is:

1 - Tell them what you're going to tell them
2 - Tell it to them
3 - Tell them what you've told them

There are sound psychological reasons for this, but in the end, following this structure for any future essays will let you focus on including good details, making a convincing argument, and writing clear sentences that convey your meaning.

Best of luck!

Answer 2

An essay is a short work of writing that treats a topic from an author's personal point of view. Essays are non-fictional but often subjective; while expository, they can also include narrative. Essays can be learned arguments, literary criticism, political manifestos, observations of daily life, recollections and reflections of the author.
The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). While today an essay is partly defined by its brevity, voluminous works like John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population refer to themselves using the term.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay

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Answer 3

i find the key to writing a good essay is all in organization. you have to lay out what it is you want to say first. then you fill in details and sentences. so...start with what you want to say about it, you're going to write a paragraph about this. do you want to write about why they are over emphasized or do you want to write about why they aren't? then, pick, like, three or more examples supporting the point you are making in your essay. you're going to write a separate paragraph about each of these. lastly, sum everything up in a closing paragraph making sure you restate your point.

Answer 4

Start with what a spectator sport is, and then go into your 'details' and your opinion.

Answer 5

The Roman Empire held games where the masses were entertained......

Answer 6

http://www.mytermpapers.com
You got to submitt a term paper of your own to Join, great resource for ideas.

Answer 7

www.steck-vaughn.com

this link will help you pass