Final Essay

Assignment: Access your graded essays (narrative, exemplification, and classification) and review the TurnItIn/Grademark feedback as well as PAWS comments for each essay.  Pay close attention to the types of errors you have made as well as the progress you have made this semester. Then choose one of the topics below to write a five-paragraph, 500+ word essay, demonstrating your best work and showing your understanding of essay organization (introductory paragraph, thesis statements, body paragraphs, concluding paragraph) and development. Make sure to proofread for grammatical and punctuation errors.

Guidelines: Keep the following in mind when writing this last essay.

• Check Grademark comments and/or your professor’s comments on your papers.
• The essay must be 500+ words in length.
• The essay must be typed and double-spaced. This is to allow the instructor space to type comments on your paper. If the essay is not double-spaced, the instructor will not put comments on your paper.
• The following file formats are the only formats accepted. If you submit a file in a format not listed below, your paper will not be graded and will result in a zero for that paper.
  • .doc
  • .docx
  • .rtf
  • .pdf
• Your paper should have an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.

Steps: The following steps will help steer you through the writing process for the final essay.

1. Print or access your graded essays (narrative, exemplification, and classification).
2. Review the essays paying close attention to the types of errors you have made as well as the progress you have made this semester. Make sure that you look at the Grademark comments and/or your professor’s comments on your papers.
3. You may look in Patterns and LaunchPad for help, if needed.
4. Choose a topic from below. (Papers submitted on other topics will not be accepted.)
5. Prewrite and plan your essay. 
6. Write your essay. 
7. Submit a sentence outline and final paper only through PAWS Assignments (Final Essay). 

Submit through PAWS Assignment (Final): Your files must be labeled with the name below.

• Outline
• Final Essay

Topics: Choose one of the topics below for your Final Essay. (Essays not written on one of the below topics will receive a zero.)

1. After reviewing your essays, narrate your writing journey from the beginning of the semester to now in terms of what you have learned and how you have improved. This should be told in chronological order and include specific examples from your assignments and other class activities. Make sure that you pay close attention to your introduction, which should include a clear thesis statement that guides the reader through the essay.

2. After reviewing your essays, write an exemplification essay that discusses how your essays show the progress you have made this semester. Each body paragraph should focus on one extended example showing how your writing has improved. Include your specific improvements and what steps you took to make those improvements. 

3. After reviewing your essays, classify the types of errors you made this semester. Since you are writing a five-paragraph essay, choose three categories. Examples of categories may include sentence structure errors (comma splices, fragment, fused sentences, parallel structure), verb usage errors (subject/verb agreement, tense, etc.), punctuation errors (commas, semicolons, etc.), essay organization, essay development, or paragraph unity. You choose your categories. In each body paragraph, discuss the category. Define the category and discuss the types of errors that fall into that category. Develop the paragraph by explaining what you have done to correct those errors and how your writing has improved from what you have learned.