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The basics of the essay are the same as the basics of fiction writing:
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The sharper the point of an essay, the further it will penetrate. I don't mean you all have to dip your pens in acid. I mean it is easier to write an effective essay on one central idea you want to communicate to a specific audience than on everything you want to tell everybody. If you choose to write about encyclopedias, set a theme like "what an encyclopedia is meant to do" or "what an encyclopedia can't do" or "my first experience with an encyclopedia" -- don't describe everything contained in the Britannica and how each presentation has affected Western culture and history since its publication.
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The traditional structure of an essay or a speech (which is so similar I am lumping my speeches in here with my essays) has been described as:
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- Tell them what you're going to tell them;
- Tell them;
- Tell them what you told them.
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Another traditional structure has been described as:
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- Thesis
- Antithesis
- Synthesis
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Or, in other words:
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- Tell them what you think;
- Tell them what the other guy thinks;
- Tell them why you're right.
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Another structural method is Threes:
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- Choose three points you want to make.
- For each of those points, create three strong sentences ("sound bites").
- Structure the rest of your essay (or speech) around that backbone.
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I like to write essays working backward and forward:
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- Where to I want to end? What point do I want to make, what action do I want the reader to take?
- Where am I starting from? Who am I addressing and where am I meeting them?
- Now how do I get from here to there?
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