After watching the documentary of your choice, you are going to write an essay. An essay is a text in which you inform the reader of your statement related to a specific subject. Follow the steps below.
For Dutch, click here.
Step 1 – topic
Decide on the topic of your essay. Your topic should relate strongly to the subject of the documentary of your choice. It is helpful to form a question (for example; Do school uniforms affect equality of chances in education for students?) or a statement (for example; Introducing school uniforms would be a good way to offer less fortunate teens equal chances in education. )
Mind you, it depends on the kind of essay you’re going to write whether you need to form a question or a statement; a question is a great start for writing an opinion essay, whereas a statement is a good way to start a for and against essay.
Step 2 – outline
Form an opinion on your question or statement, use some paper or some digital place to make some notes and draw up an outline for your essay. Write down your opinion and the arguments you want to use to explain your opinion. You will need about four to six arguments.
Divide your arguments into two groups, these groups will form the base of your core paragraphs.
Step 3 – the introduction
Once you have finished your outline, you’re going to do the actual writing.
Start by writing an introduction; your first paragraph is all about the reason for writing your essay. Introduce your subject in a (few) sentence(s) and let your reader know what you think about it; wat is your opinion? Do not explain your opinion yet.
Step 4 – the core
The core of your essay (the 2nd and 3rd paragraph) are the paragraphs you are going to use to explain your opinion; in these paragraphs you are going to use the arguments you’ve written down in step 2.
In my example; in what ways do you think school uniforms will affect equality of chances in education for teens? Why do you think school uniforms will (or will not) offer more equal chances in education for teens of less fortunate backgrounds?
Step 5 – the conclusion
The last paragraph is used to conclude; repeat your opinion in a confident way and summarize your (most important) arguments from the core of your essay in a few sentences.
Sources
These sources are illustrative for the steps above. Please have a look at them and use the tips.
For an opinion essay: click here
For a for and against essay: click here
Requirements
Your essay:
- consists of at least 300 words
- consists of at least 4 paragraphs (1; introduction, 2 & 3; body, 4; conclusion)
- is strongly related to the documentary of your choice
- is written in correct English, please consider the right tone of voice
- is handed in printed on paper in a binder, along with a front page, table of contents and the rubric (please refer to downloads)