The purpose of this essay is informative, to enlarge or expand your readers’ knowledge of a specific aspect of popular culture.
Audience – Your classmates and instructors who may (or may not) know something about your topic but definitely do not know as much as you (“the expert”) do.
Major Essay Two Paper Outline
I. Introduction
A. Attention-Getter—the purpose is to draw your readers into the essay. Included below are five possible options you could use to grab their attention; however, you will only use oneof them.
1. Quote—from an expert on the topic, a famous person, etc.
2. Fact or Statistic—this approach works well for logical thinkers
3. Question—readers will then have to read the paper to find the answer (make sure the question is phrased open-endedly)
4. Visual—cut and paste a small picture, meme, graph and then the first few lines of the Intro. would tie that visual into the written text
5. Anecdote—a brief story of about 3-5 sentences that deals with the topic of the essay
B. Provide some Background Information—this portion of the Intro. will be the longest. Depending on your topic, you may need to give more background information than you can fit in one paragraph. If that is the case, it is possible to write a two-paragraph intro. (and this section of the Intro. will determine that).
1. Give some background about the topic
a. History of the topic
b. When/why it became popular on a global scale
2. Define any terms related to the topic that may not be common in speech (if necessary)
C. Preview the Main Points (after the essay is completed, go back and look at the topic sentences to see what the main points are)
D. Surprising Reversal Thesis = create tension between the common view and the new, surprising of your paper
II. Common View Paragraph—establishing using evidence how most/a majority of people view our topic
A. Topic Sentence = establish what the common view on this pop culture phenomenon is
1. Provide a transition—a signpost
2. Summarize the Main Point of the Paragraph
3. Tie it back to the Thesis—remember, a topic sentence should NEVER be a question, nor should it be a quote/paraphrase/citation. It should be a STATEMENT of what the writer’s main idea is.
B. Briefly explain the prevalence of this common view in global society—in 2-to-3 sentences
C. Evidence to show that the common view actually is the common view among a majority of people on a global scale—evidence can come from research, personal experience, etc.
D. Explain this evidence and why it is important and what it means
III. Body Paragraphs (need three to four of them)
A. Topic Sentence
B. Briefly explain the significance of this main point
C. Evidence—a good rule of thumb is for every line of quote/paraphrase, you should have two or more lines of explanation. Research should SUPPORT, not make your points.
D. Explanation of evidence
1. WHAT does the evidence mean/show?
2. WHY is the evidence significant/important?
3. HOW does the evidence support/back up the thesis?
IV. Simple Summary Conclusion
A. Summarize all the main points of the paper
B. Reiterate the thesis (not word-for-word)
C. In five-to-ten years, what will the effects of this popular culture phenomenon continue to be on the global society, or if it won’t be around, why not?—answer this question in 2-to-3 sentences
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