#essays tips

Hi, guys, I talked about this on my main blog ( @queen-baelin ) and I said I’d post a google drive archive with tips about how to write a dissertation/argumentative essay. But I had some trouble with the archive and I also decided that it’d be better if I posted this on tumblr as a series - like, multiple posts and each one with a different tip. I thought this format was better because it resembles most what I’m doing with my students. I give them one new tip after each essay, so they don’t get overwhelmed by the tips and can take them and apply them slowly. 

I’m bringing the same idea to Tumblr. Each part/post is one tip, so you can focus better on each of them and go on in your own pace. 

At the moment I have 3 parts ready to post. I’ll post them all by the end of the next week (today is July 30th so, the first week of August will be the week I’ll finish posting the 1st 3 tips). 

One more important thing, I’ll give tips on how to write dissertations based on what ENEM demands. The ENEM stands for Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (High School National Exam), done in Brazil. The test is has a duration of 2 days and requires the students to write a dissertation, an argumentative essay about a theme - which is only revealed for the students on the day of the test when it begins. The ENEM is applied across the country every year and is used by most Brazilian universities as an entry - Brazilian universities require the students to pass a test called “vestibular”, you can use your ENEM score to replace the university’s vestibular. The tips were made specifically for ENEM. The dissertation demanded has a maximum of 30 lines and has to have a thesis, arguments, a conclusion, and propose a solution.

So, yeah, I hope the tips help you guys! 

TEXT STRUCTURE

FIRST PARAGRAPH

The first paragraph needs only 2 things in it: introduction and your thesis. 

1. Introduction to the subject matter

You have to let your reader know what the dissertation is about, the theme. Don’t waste too much time on this, though, and avoid over-explaining. Just go straight to the point. 

IMPORTANT: a dissertation has to be impersonal, meaning that you can’t use 1st or 2nd person singular pronouns. You can use “we”. 

Example, if your theme is prison population, you could start the dissertation stating something like “the USA has the highest prison population in the world”. Just say what it’s about and move on.

2. Thesis

Your thesis is your opinion about the theme and/or what you think it’s the cause of the problem present in the theme. So, for example, if the theme is “the prison population”, your thesis could be that the lack of investments in poor neighbourhoods is an incentive for crimes, hence why the prison population is so high.

SECOND AND THIRD PARAGRAPHS

Their purpose is to prove that your thesis is right. These are development and arguments paragraphs. You prove your point using news - from newspapers, television, websites -, researches, scientific articles.

Attention: you must always cite the source of where you got the information (the name of the newspaper, the university responsible for the research, etc).

I’d advise you to leave your strongest argument in the third paragraph.

Still using the same theme as the examples I gave previously, your arguments in that case could be that according to Vox, people from poor neighbourhoods or part of minorities are at a higher risk of going to jail. And that website Capita found out “ 42% of prisoners have a history of being permanently excluded from school and one in five children in custody have learning difficulties”. Both these sources confirm the thesis that lack of investments - which include education - increases crime and, therefore, prison population. 

FOURTH PARAGRAPH

This is the conclusion and solution paragraph. 

For the conclusion, make a small summary of your arguments and thesis - doesn’t need to be long or detailed, a simple “taking those factors into account...” will do it. You don’t have to repeat anything, it’s just pointing at what you’ve done already. 

The solution should be your main concern in this paragraph. It has to be a solution to your thesis/what you pointed as the cause of the problem and it has to be very specific, because it must include: what has to be done, how that has to be done, who has to/will do it, and the purpose of the action.

On the example we’ve been using, your solution could be:

 Proposing a partnersip between community colleges and public schools, in which college students studying to become teachers could be tutors in schools of poor districts. The students would get an extra help with their work and the college students could get credits to replace missed classes or bad grades.

This is just an idea that I literally just thought of but that’s kind of the angle you can use to provide a solution. If you want, you can give two solutions - each adressing one of the development paragraphs - but you don’t need much more than that. 

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And that’s it for Part 1. Check out the other parts of How To Write A Dissertation: 

Part 0 - Explanation

Part 1 - Text Structure