Becoming Essayists

In Writing Workshop, we have been living the life of an essayist. So far, we have learned about how the genre of non-narratives differs from our narratives. We know that when a writer writes a narrative, they are telling us a story. When we write in the non-narrative genre, our purpose is to explain something to the reader. In a non-narrative, our writing is held together by our ideas instead of a plot.

Essay writers observe the world with care, then think about their observations, recording them in their writing. We have become thoughtful about what we see around us, being sure to collect our ideas in our notebooks as seed ideas. This week, we used conversational prompts to spur elaboration on our essay ideas. We used the prompts on the chart below to grow our ideas. Some writers in our class took a simple idea, like: I learn new things at lunch time. Then, using these prompts, their ideas grew to be wonderful thesis statements for an essay. Read the entry below for a student example!

 I learn new things at lunch time. For example, the girls never sit with the boys at the class table. Another example of this is at recess when the girls play separate from the boys. This makes me realize that we act like a class in our classroom, but when we leave our classroom we always go our separate ways. This is important because the more we work together as a class, the more we get to know each other and build our team.

Next, we moved on to writing a thesis statement. We learned that a thesis is a seed idea. It is what you will be talking about in your essay. Even though the thesis is only one or two sentences, it is fundamental to the whole essay! Everything else must relate back to your thesis. One way we make sure our essay is on topic is by planning. The best method of planning an essay is using boxes and bullets. We have been practicing this in our reading of nonfiction as well.

After writing a thesis statement, we do what all writers do: revise! Not one thesis is ever perfect the first time. We learn to outgrow our thesis and ask questions in an effort to change our first thesis.

Writers, what have you learned about the non-narrative genre in this unit? How do you feel about becoming an essayist? What is the hardest part about writing a non-narrative? Which genre do you prefer, and why?