Writing Your  Concept Explanation Draft

After all the prewriting exercises you did, you probably have more, even much more, material than  you need. Good papers have a specific focus, and that focus is usually an attempt to answer a question. For this paper the question is along the lines of "How do I want a reader to understand the concept of ______?"  and you should be able to answer that question pretty much in one sentence by now.  Look through your prewriting and decide what's most compelling--your answer to the question may have changed in the past week, and the narrower the interpretation (focus) the more you will have to demonstrate why  you are explaining the concept in that way, and so, the better your paper will be.  Your answer to that question, by the way, is the thesis, the backbone to which every single part of your paper must connect..

Beginning: try a narrative.  Tell a story, personal or otherwise, which illustrates a connection, interest, or problem with your topic.  Or, create a series of several scenes/situations, like a photo album, that highlight or illustrate aspects of your concept.  Stories are most interesting to the reader--but they have to relate to what follows.

Think of the body of the essay  as the place where you answer any questions readers may have about your thesis (explaining your idea) and where you illustrate and support your answers (providing evidence.) NOTE: It's usually best NOT to include the imagined or rhetorical questions in your essay. You should be  providing answers, and your examination of the issues will usually indicate the questions without stating them.

Here's the most likely questions  you need to address, not necessarily in this order, and not necessarily separately:

1. What's the background a reader needs to understand the way I'm explaining my concept? That is usually history of the concept, or a review of ways that others have interpreted the concept.

2. Why should a reader be interested in the question--or the famous "so what." What observations, current events, misconceptions, myths, or evidence of woeful ignorance suggest that the concept deserves clarification?

3. Why are you focusing on the particular area of the concept you chose, and how did you come to your conclusions? You may explain some of your rationale and methods in arriving at your conclusions. This essay is not about you, but a  problem/connection to the issue and how  you got enlightened can really help focus the essay. 

4. Comparison/contrast; definition; categories, examples, statistics, process narratives (how something works/takes place) If you make a statement (Ex.: Motorcycle riders aren't all scary outlaws.") you need to explain your assumption that they  ARE scary outlaws, and then provide various kinds of evidence to show that motorcyclists are lawyers, dentists, kindergarten teachers, etc.   EVERY STATEMENT  YOU MAKE MUST BE SUPPORTED IN SOME WAY.

5. Any information gotten outside of your head has to be cited, as discussed.