LESSON 3 WRITING ESSAY COMPOSITION Part 1

Discussion

Reminder for the aspiring writer, always remember the four (4) criteria through which your
composition would be graded. These are the following:

1. Task completion (25%) How well you could write within the time allotted? You must be able
to finish the writing task in 40 minutes for the Essay with not less than 250 words or 20 minutes
for the Report or letter with not less than 150 words.

2. Grammar and Accuracy (25%). Bear in mind your grammar skills that you have learned in
the previous module. Review your verb tenses, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.

3. Cohesion and Coherence (25%). Your sentences should be well- knitted and supportive of
each other. This is evident by the way you compose your paragraphs. Ideally, a normal paragraph
has four to five sentences that refer to one single thought or idea or topic.

4. Lexical Range (25%). Review your vocabulary words so as to avoid the common mistakes of
redundancies. Use synonyms and collocations in sentence structure.

When writing, it is important to keep track of your time since there are writing tests that are
under time pressure like the Writing test in the International English Language test System
( IELTS). For a 250-word Essay, the time allotted is 40 minutes while for the other writing task,
such as in Report writing, it is 20 minutes and composed of not less than 150 words

The Kinds of Essay

1. Argumentative Essay. This kind of essay usually has controversies that are found in its
thesis statements. You are made to choose what side to defend.
Questions such as “do you agree/disagree?” are commonly found in this essay. Once you
decided to either Agree or otherwise Disagree, you are going to make a good defense of your
position or choice.
Below are some samples of Argumentative essay:

Agree or Disagree. For an IELTS agree disagree essay you can either agree
with the statement, disagree with the statement or give your opinion which contains a balanced
approach to the issues in the statement. ... Another name for an agree- disagree essay is an
opinion essay or argumentative essay.
 To what extent do you agree. Unlike the classic agree/disagree essay, to what
extent you agree or disagree questions do NOT ask you to clearly determine whether you agree
or disagree with the given statement. After you've decided your opinion, generate 2-3 supporting
points for it. For this opinion, just combine ideas from the previous points.
Example topic question for this essay:
1.Environmental issues have always been an international problem because governments are not
imposing harsh punishments against offenders. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Support your answer with specific reasons and examples.

2. Many people think technological devices such as smart phones, tablets, and mobile phones
bring more disadvantages than advantages. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Discuss both views. You may also be asked to 'Discuss both views and give
your opinion' or 'Discuss both sides of the argument and give your opinion'. Each of these
questions is asking us to do different things and we, therefore, need a different structure for each
question. Here is a sample topic for this type of essay:
The free movement of goods across national borders has long been a controversial issue. Some
people argue that it is necessary for economic growth, while others claim that it damages local
industries.
Discuss both views and give your own opinion. You should write at least 250 words.

2. Informative Essay. This is a neutral kind of essay. As the name connotes, you as the writer
is not prompted to make a choice but only to educate your readers about the topic. There is no
issue, problem, or controversy raised in this essay.
Here is an example of an Informative essay

Open – ended questions essays. are ones that require more than one word
answers. The answers could come in the form of a list, a few sentences or something longer such
as a speech, paragraph or essay. A simple example of this essay type is something like this:
What was the most important chance encounter you've had? Narrate.

How to plan your Essay composition?

First, it is best for a writer to assume an authority to represent in a writing endeavor. If you are
writing about a topic on culinary, your frame of mind should be related to any position or
occupation that is allied to cooking. If your topic is about protection of marine resources, you
will write as if you are a marine scientist or researcher and so on. You can portray many roles as
you write but the quantity and quality of your role playing would largely depend on the vast
knowledge about the topics that you are bound to write.
The Spider Diagram
One effective tool to use in making a writing plan is the spider chart or diagram. This diagram
takes the form of a spider, having many items surrounding the topic that look like “legs”.

source: https://www.google.com/search?q=a+spider+diagram+in+essay+planning

To be able to accomplish the spider diagram, a writer could explore many possible sources of
self- expressions based on experiences, observation, opinion, beliefs, values, tradition, and ideas.
These are the dwelling place where a writer could fetch some relevant inputs that would serve as
crucial discussion points inside the paragraphs. Since the writing task is under time pressure, this
stage of planning should consume only a couple of minutes.
Hence, when you are filling up the Spider diagram, use shortcuts such as abbreviations,
acronyms, codes, signs, symbols and phrases but not sentences or else your time would be
wasted and you will not be able to fill up your spider diagram correctly.

“Brainstorming with oneself” is how I term this process with my students in writing. As you are
supplying the vital information in each leg, there occurs a dynamic splurge of expressions that
are yet to be organized. You do not have the luxury of time to tarry and linger. Cluttered around
the main topic but divided into two important categories such as the positive and the negative
sides, in case of planning for an argumentative type of an essay.
After a deluge of entries around the main topic in the spider diagram illustration has been
written, the writer would :
1. Start organizing the entries by grouping those that are closely related to each other, thereby
decreasing the number of entries around.
2. After qualifying the entries through organizing, the final step in this planning moment is the
ranking or assignment of priority number for each topic. This is important in a way that the most
relevant idea or element would be bring an interesting punch line in the paragraph.
In case of argumentative essay, you could decide whether you would start with the positive side
first or from the negative side. Good news first? or Bad news first?

Second and final step: Start writing

Before you write, let me give you the three parts of a composition. These are the following:

1. Writing the Introductory Paragraph. Consists of two to three sentences, the Lead
Sentence is the first statement in the introduction, followed by the second sentence which is the
Thesis Statement and last sentence is the Position Statement that contains the writer’s stand on
the issue. This is particular in the case of argumentative essay.
However, In informative or open-ended essays, the third sentence would simply plan the map of
organization of the ideas or key points.
Nevertheless, the introductory paragraph tries to answer the four basic questions also known as
the 4Ws:
What? the topic is all about?
Who? are the involved in this topic?
When? is the time this topic takes place or existed?
Where? is the location this topic took place?
Example of an introductory paragraph, let us use the sample topics of the essay that goes like
this:
The free movement of goods across national borders has long been a controversial issue.
Some people argue that it is necessary for economic growth, while others claim that it
damages local industries.

Discuss both views and give your own opinion. You should write at least 250 words.
The main topic here is the free movement of goods across national borders. The supporting
statement which is also the thesis statement is the argument among people that it is necessary
for economic growth, while others claim that it damages local industries.
Begin by constructing the lead sentence. Try to create a descriptive and generalizing statement
that answers the four W’s – what, who, where and when?.
Also remember that you are NOT ALLOWED to copy words taken from the title of the writing
topic but come up with other words having the same meaning as those written in the title. These
are the synonyms. Learn to write it in your words. This is called Paraphrasing. Otherwise, it is
obvious you are only copying words. You will be dealt with points deduction as your lexical
range would appear to be short and limited.
Are you ready now? Okay. Let me show you how I made the Lead sentence.
The liberal transport of commodities by traders from one country to the next has
What? Who? Where? been
riddled with issues and criticisms since the time it began to flourish.
When?
You must notice how I tried to alter the original words from the title by using synonyms.
You will follow this example in the Assessment part of this lesson.
Now, let me write for you the supporting statement also known as the thesis statement:
There is an ongoing debate among different sectors of the society that this trade practice is
necessary to propel the nation’s economy while some groups believe that it is injurious to the
domestic industries.
The third and last sentence of the introduction is the position statement. You must announce to
your reader how you treat both opposing sides. Say that you are going to tackle each issue.
Remember, this is where you are going to declare your opinion whether positive or negative,
whether you agree or disagree, say it clear in your third sentence. Let me show you how I do it.
There are advantages and drawbacks of both scenarios that I will discuss in this essay. However,
In my own personal point of view, I am convinced that this practice could contribute to the
treasury coffer of one’s country.
2. Writing the Body of the Essay. Begin your discussion by creating the first paragraph.
The body of an essay is the most difficult and laborious to form but you can make it. It is loaded
with many tasks such as explaining, comparing and contrasting, enumerating, discussing,
exploring, and giving at least one example for the topic being discussed in the paragraph. Again,
the number of sentences in your paragraph must not exceed to five. You are going to write
three to four paragraphs for the body.
The first sentence of the paragraph is the topic sentence also known as the lead sentence. Go
back to your Spider diagram and pick the number one listed. You will use this now to become
the subject of your first sentence.
Suppose you wrote the word “ free trade” in your spider diagram as the number one entry
favoring the positive side, you can write your topic sentence or lead sentence in this way:
The first sentence or Lead Sentence of this sample paragraph:
The cross- country flow of free trade allows the citizenry to have access to imported goods.
Now create the supporting sentences. This will be your second sentence of your paragraph. In
order to do it effectively, elaborate by answering the two questions: How? and Why?
Let me show you how to expound: Let us answer the question: How? or In what way?
The Second sentence of the paragraph
By the availability and affordability of foreign products, the people have the opportunity to select
from a wide variety of choices.
Another useful tip, insert some connectives or linking words to connect the sentences in the
paragraph. These could add to the word count and could improve the readability of your
discussion. Examples of these words are,
Furthermore, Moreover, or In addition to.. when you would like to say more
However or On the other hand.. when you would like to point out the reverse or opposite side.
As a result or Consequently… when you like to reveal the results or outcome of something
Now we will proceed to the third sentence of your paragraph. This time, you may want to
answer the question: Why it happens ?
The Third sentence of the paragraph
Because the influx of imported especially of those items which are not produced abundantly in
the country would lower the prices, as a result, competition would improve and monopoly could
be avoided.

I hope you can follow as we now going to write the fourth sentence. Try to elaborate by
constructing a variety of sentence structures.
Write short and long sentences alternately in the paragraph. Short sentences, though most often
than not, are straightforward but lacks enough substance to encourage interest in the readers.
Meanwhile, long sentences offer more information and more entertaining but sometimes could
lead to becoming out of context when the writer fail to provide strong and valid supports to the
preceding sentences. Compound sentences are linked with correct use of another important
grammar tools – the conjunctions.
Try to look for the word or phrase in the third sentence that you could use as key word or link to
connect to the fourth sentence. You may use the phrase “ lower the prices” as your link . You
could rephrase it though. The fourth sentence of your sample paragraph can be like this:
The fourth sentence of the sample paragraph:
Undeniably, lower prices of goods are the result of having high supply of products in the market.
Now the last sentence is reserved for an example. By the way, you will note that I am talking in
third person pronouns. When you venture to write your own paragraph, try to speak in third
person singular or plural. Review your pronouns. However, because in this last sentence where
you are citing an example that might be taken from your own personal experience, you could use
first person pronouns. This is the exception to the rule on the use of pronoun in the second
person.
The fifth and last sentence of the paragraph:
Use a transition word such as For example, To cite a good example, For an instance .
Here is how to do it correctly:
For example, during Christmas season, my family was able to buy lots of imported roasted
chestnuts in Divisoria for there were so many vendors selling this favorite snack.

Now let us put together all those five sentences that I wrote for you: Here is the complete
paragraph that we form out of those five sentences:

1)The liberal transport of commodities by traders from one country to the

next has been riddled with issues and criticisms since the time it began to
flourish. 2)By the availability and affordability of foreign products, the people
have the opportunity to select from a wide variety of choices. 3) Because the
influx of imported especially of those items which are not produced abundantly
in the country would lower the prices, and as a result, competition would
improve and monopoly could be avoided. 4)Undeniably, lower prices of goods
are the results of having high supply of products in the market . 5)For
example, during Christmas season, my family was able to buy lots of imported
roasted chestnuts in Divisoria for there were so many vendors selling this
favorite snacks.

1. Writing the Concluding Paragraph of the Essay

In two to three sentences only, concluding paragraph is a summary of the important
highlights that includes:
a. a transitional word such as “ to conclude”, in summary or to sum up”
b. a description of the overall situation or assessment of the discussion from the
body
c. in case of argumentative essay, a reiteration of the position about the controversy
or issue
d. a given recommendation or suggestion about the topic
Example of a Concluding Paragraph ( Informative )
To sum up, from the discussion, it appears that the transport of commodities from one country to
another countries has its both benefits and drawbacks. Therefore, it is advisable that the
downsides of this activity must be minimized while the advantages must be made to be more
enhanced.
Example of a Concluding Paragraph ( Argumentative )
To sum up, from the discussion, it appears that the transport of commodities from one country to
another countries has benefits. Therefore, I am convinced that this practice could contribute to
the treasury coffer of one’s country.