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WEEK 2 WRITING NOTEBOOK
ESSAY STRUCTURE ACTIVITY
Each week, you will have an opportunity to practice different aspects of the writing process in a
writing notebook. It consists of a template you will fill out and submit in Canvas. In addition to
introducing and practicing targeted components of the writing process, these notebooks are
meant to help you to determine your own strengths and to identify opportunities for growth.
This week, the writing notebook focuses on essay structure.
STEP ONE: College Writing Tips
Essays are built out of paragraphs, and as writers, you can make decisions about how you
develop paragraphs.
1. What is one step mentioned in the Body Paragraphs webpage that you think would help
you most? Additionally, is there a tip not mentioned that you have already discovered
that has helped you? One step mentioned in the body paragraphs webpage that I
think would help me most is the one that says “revise and proofread” I think it’s a
great idea before submitting an assignment because you might have made several
mistakes with a chance to fix it.
Enter your response in the space provided.
STEP TWO: Your Working Thesis
Review your work in the Week 1 Writing Notebook or consider any steps you may have
completed on your Week 2 Written Assignment Personal-Professional Narrative.
1. Share a sample thesis statement.
Argumentative Thesis Statement: Making a Claim
“Technology has decreased our level of connectedness to other because it allows
us to disconnect from the people in our physical environment and it does not
foster the social skills needed in order to help us connect to those around us”
https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/writing-a-thesis
Enter your response in the space provided.
ENG121 Week 2 Writing Notebook
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Remember, this could be the thesis statement you developed in your first Writing Notebook, or it
could be the one you are considering for your Week 2 Written Assignment Personal-
Professional Narrative. If you’re stuck, use the Thesis Generator from the Writing Center.
STEP THREE: Traditional Structure Activity
Now, you can combine the work you have done so far to create a plan for the essay's structure.
Activity 1: Review the Essay Structure resource. Using your thesis as a guide, develop three
topic sentences that would develop your ideas and serve as the roadmap for creating the
essay.
Example:
Thesis Sentence (assertion):
The 21st century workforce requires a unique set of skills.
Topic Sentence (reason) #1:
Workers need to learn how to deal with change.
Topic Sentence (reason) #2:
Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environments, 21st century workers need
to learn how to learn.
Topic Sentence (reason) #3:
Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need
good communication skills.
Thesis: Technology has decreased our level of connectedness
1. We need to learn to make time in the real world and not just through technology
2. people starts lacking social skills and don’t want to be around anyone or talk to
anyone physically but just be antisocial then on the internet
3 in order to keep our social skills we need to decrease the level of use of technology
and enjoy our time physically and gain the skills and motor we need..
STEP FOUR: Review and Reflect
ENG121 Week 2 Writing Notebook
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Review your work in this Writing Notebook and consider what challenges you encountered.
Which aspects of essay structure were new to you, or which aspects might have you already
been familiar with? In no more than 150 words, please reflect on your work in this activity.
Enter your response in the space provided.
The aspects I’ve been familiar with is having a thesis sentence to catch the
readers attention. Having a thesis sentence makes a reader more engaged and
look forward to what they are going to be reading about, I feel like this is one of
the most important parts of writing an essay because if I was reading a regular
book we look at the summary first and I feel this is almost like a thesis and it will
tell me if I am going to be entertained by this novel or if I am gonna pick a
different book to read.
ENG121 Week 2 Writing Notebook
